Is Instant Book right for you?

[Airbnb]

Instant Book basics

Instant Book is a powerful tool that allows guests to instantly book your home for available dates—alleviating the need for hosts to review and accept each booking request individually. Many hosts report that they earn more money by making the booking process easier for guests, and that they appreciate the convenience this provides. Listings with Instant Book also tend to show up higher in Airbnb search results. “The Instant Book feature has worked very well for us,” says host Antonio of Goa, India. “I keep the calendar updated and many guests book without my intervention.”

Keeping your calendar up-to-date is key to using Instant Book successfully. If you’re not able to do this, you could be surprised by unexpected bookings or end up canceling a reservation due to a scheduling error—an Airbnb no-no that could result in a cancellation fee. To ensure that your Airbnb calendar is always current, it’s a good idea to sync it with whatever calendar you primarily use (iCal, Google, etc). Here’s a tutorial on how to do that.

Tools for extra peace of mind

Some hosts may initially feel hesitant to use Instant Book because they worry that they won’t have much information about potential guests before booking. You can set your preferences to offer Instant Book only to guests who have received positive reviews from other hosts, and/or guests who have government-issued IDs. You can also create a custom greeting and include important questions (for instance, “Who else will be staying with you? What’s the purpose of your trip? Can you confirm you’ve read the House Rules?) that Instant Book guests will see during their booking process. After the booking is confirmed, you can follow up to ask additional questions if needed. “I used to require reservation requests,” says host Kristine from San Francisco, “but once I realized that what I was looking for in guests (positive ratings) could be handled automatically by Airbnb, it actually made more sense for me to use Instant Book to get the benefits of more views and bookings, while maintaining the same level of guest quality I enjoyed by reviewing requests myself.”

Why you might still get booking requests

Even with Instant Book turned on, there are cases where you might receive booking requests from guests. This could happen if you haven’t updated your calendar in a while, or if you’ve recently needed to cancel a reservation. Guests who don’t meet your criteria to book instantly might also send reservation requests. For any requests that do come through, you’ll need to respond by accepting or declining the reservation, or messaging your prospective guests within 24 hours.

Why some hosts don’t use Instant Book

Despite the many benefits of Instant Book, some hosts find that reservation requests work better for them. Annie, a host in Sonoma, California, uses reservation requests because she only offers long-term stays of 30 days or more, to comply with hosting regulations in her area. “I would love to use Instant Book, but there are a lot more logistics to figure out when you’re hosting someone for that long,” she says. “It’s more like having a tenant.”

Nichola, a host in Guelph, Canada, has an environmental sensitivity that requires her to keep her space scent free, so she uses reservation requests to ensure that guests are willing to agree to her very specific house rules. “I get migraines from scented products so I need to make sure my guests are folks who understand scent allergies,” she says.

Another reason to choose booking requests rather than Instant Book might be that your space has specific qualities that you need to make sure guests understand before their stay. Examples might include a private room in a home that includes pets or children, or an extremely rustic space that might be challenging for certain guests. Booking requests can be a good choice for assuring that guests are aware of all the unique aspects of your home before they visit.

Reliability is key for using Instant Book

Whatever decision you make, remember that Airbnb has strict policies around hosts canceling reservations, because reliability is a critical part of being a great host. That said, if you allow guests to instantly book and are uncomfortable with a reservation once it’s made (for instance, because your prospective guests are asking if they can break your house rules), you can cancel a booking without penalty using the online cancellation tool up to three times per calendar year. Just know that canceling a reservation signals that Instant Book may not be a good fit for you right now, so if you do this, Airbnb may send booking requests instead for your next few reservations.

Want to update your settings to turn Instant Book on or off? Here’s how to do it.

[Robert1817]

Some hosts here are not sure whether instant book or taking an inquiry to book is better.  I have done both.  I started with inquiries only and it did take up a fair amount of my time responding to inquiries.  A couple months ago, I tried instant book.  My concern with that was;  How do I protect my property from guests who want to do a one night booking and have a raging party?

By the way, I had a guest do a booking when I took inquiries only.  I asked very specific questions about his stay and who would there.   The guest LIED and had a Cinco de Mayo party and Happy Birthday Party for millennial somethings that were not quite old enough to drink alcohol but still brought plenty with them.  Fortunately, my neighbors have my phone number and I got a call at midnight indicating a raging party at my place.  I contacted Airbnb instantly, and that was almost useless.  I messaged the guest to cease having a party and that the police have been called to break it up.  I arrived about an hour later as I live 30 miles away.  The police were not there and the party was in full swing.  All my furniture had been rearranged and some brought outdoors to the yard.  There was a beer pong table in the middle of my living room and one outside while loud music was raging.  I walked in the open front door asked for the guest who did not identify himself.  I told everyone to this is a violation of my house rules and they needed to leave now.  In about fifteen minutes everyone cleared out.  I would say it was about forty people there.  The house was trashed and littered with spilled booze, my white living room rug was wine stained, and I discovered numerous furnishings broken.   When I notified Airbnb of the damage, they said they needed invoiced costs for repair.   I found out that when your next guest arrives, your window to make a damage claim closes.   Therefore, I speedily got estimates for everything damaged before the next guest booking started in two days.  It took me that long to put the house back to together.  In all, the guest was billed over $1,800 for about four hours of partying in my house and because I provided all the invoices, photos, security camera surveillance video, my claim got paid.  However, I do not want that to ever happen again.   I now do instant booking and make it known in my house rules that if a guest has a party at my property, there will be an instant penalty fee of $5,000.   Always be suspicious of one night stays from guests that live in the local area.  That's what happened with the party guest.  Remember, people can lie and you have to detect true intentions with fees and questions.  Most likely, you will not get someone intending to party if they think they will get caught by a camera or host and pay a penalty.  I still get one night booking request inquiries from guests who now read my rules.  They ask to have a birthday BBQ in my yard, a baby shower, etc.   I'm not interested in being the venue for apartment dwellers who have no outdoor space and big extended family and friends.  I always respond to these guests with:

"I'm sorry, but I don't allow events, or parties, at the property. This includes BBQ's with invited people numbering more than the original booked guests.   I wish you well in finding another appropriate venue for your event".

They never bother to try again after that.    I have updated my house rules after reading about another host who had a nightmare booking with lots of damage.   I read a review by a host of a potential guest who wanted to book my house.  Apparently, he damaged the host's house quite extensively.  Therefore, she wrote a bad review for him.  I followed the thread and couldn't believe what I was reading.   She actually had a lawsuit with prior guests filming movies in her house.  As a result, she updated her rules with more specific fees for noncomplying with the rules.  That is how I came across her $5,000 penalty fee for a party and $1,000 per day fee for filming.  The penalty fees make potential guests ask you questions even if you have instant book available for them.  Honest folks will read and ask first.  However, if a bad apple slips by you by telling believable lies, expect them to pay.  

I believe instant booking is good in combination with applying good rules and having security cameras on the exterior public areas of your home.   I believe, this has deterred unwanted guests from booking my home.    It's all about doing and learning.  I hope my bad experiences with parties are over.  I'm just wanting travelers who need a place to stay.   Potential guests have been asking about events, and I always kindly decline that it's against my policy.  

[Tim409]

 I hope some Airbnb people with six-figure salary’s read these comments. I just had too many negative experiences with this company. Sending me instant booking guess that don’t meet my requirements. I had a guest a couple of weeks ago staying here for nine days before I was paid. Errors errors errors 

[Peggy2]

I did use instant book once. although I said my place was an adult home and not appropriate for children, it was booked by a family with 2 children under 5. I asked repeatedly about the kids ages and never got a response. I Didn’t know until they arrived that one child was in diapers.  Thankfully it all worked out, but haven’t used instant book since.  Also it happens too often that 1 person books for their family, friends and sometimes  its an agent booking for someone they don’t know. Online conversations help to sort these situations, although not always.  I’ve been surprised more than once when the guest arrives and it’s not the person that did the booking.  We need control over our places and instant book is irresponsible.  In fact as a guest, I would not use instant book. I want to be sure about where I’m staying and that personal contact means a lot to me.

[Lucia-and-Sonia0]

It would be great to add more options for who can instant book, like limit guests who come from a specific geographic place.

For example, our listing in Antigua Guatemala is 1 hour drive from big Guatemala city and Antigua gets a lot of "local" tourism on the weekends. However, we dont like hosting people from Guatemala City because for the most part they come for one of 2 reasons: 
1) they have a wedding/event in Antigua and don't want to drive back to the City so we know these guests will be coming back very late and most likely drunk
2) they live with their parents and want to have a weekend getaway with their "special someone" which means they will use our listing as a motel where they can come to have sex (and a few of them have not been discreet at all about this). 

This is all fine for them, but this is not the type of guest we are looking for. Additionally, there are other safety concerns that are not a real concern for host in, say, the U.S. Guatemala city is not necessarily the safest of cities and when we take in a guest we give them a key to our house where we keep all our valuables and where WE live. Here anyone can make copies of any keys at any time (no need to show you own the property that key opens or anything), so any of our guests could potentially make copies of our keys to come back any other time. I know this could happen with guests from further away Guatemalan cities or international guests, BUT people who live 1 hour away from our house would have an easier time using an extra key for the wrong reasons. 

I also know another female host who is not comfortable hosting men who come alone so maybe even having a filter where for example the group has to have at least one female for them to be able to instant book??

Do you think something like this could be possible??

[Joshua408]

I don't use instant book because people often input incorrect amount of people that will be staying at a maximum of 8 people the overage past 6 adds up fast. People taking advantage of this has quickly become a nuisance. In addition, when confronted that the wrong information has been input and I have to decline I get penilized for doing so. This is something that needs to be fixed.  

[Valerie709]

I recently had a guest arrive late, after 10pm. They left the doors open while carrying their luggage and ice chest in. In leaving both back doors open, a bat flew in. I got an email telling me of this. The 30min. later I got another email wanting me to come over at 11:15pm to try and get the bat out. This couple had booked for 10days. I explained that  I would have my handyman come over in the morning and attend to the bat. My sister and the handy man both went over at 8:30am. The guest was not happy that they were there so early. Both looked for and didn't find the bat. The guest said that they were still too worried about there being a bat in the house that they were leaving. 

They were afraid of being bitten or of bat poop getting into their food. The guests had booked for 10days. They wanted a full refund. I was advised by AB&B that I would have to refund even though NO bat or droppings were found. I had bookings that came in that covered 8 of the 10days but, at a lower rate. As so often happens with instant book. 

There were no sightings of a bat by any guests that have stayed there since that incident. I myself have spent the last wek there and NO sighting of a bat. I ran into a friend who lives near my vacation home. When I told him what happened he said the same had happened to him and gave me the person's name. It was the same person. He said that he saw her a couple of days after she left his rental. She had found a cheaper rental in town. AB&B sided with the guest. 

[Robert1817]

Wow.  Thanks for that info.  Something to think about.  

[Cindy482]

I too had a similar problem… Someone was able to instant book the property even though they had three out of five negative reviews. I am still trying to get Airbnb to tell me what happened and to get that person off of the instant book list

[Besinfe0]

When airbnb first started, it was a more balanced and fair system. Now, it's honestly geared towards catering to just the guests and not the host. A little off topic, but I have a huge issue with letting guests that cancel on same day bookings write a review. While I understand the logic about it,  there is a fundamental flaw surrounding that policy.  I have had instances where guests cancel before they even check in , without ever meeting me or seeing the space. After they ask for a full refund and in refuse, they resort to writing a very negative review and grading a space they never stepped foot into. Airbnb seriously needs to fix this.

[Kerry-And-Paul0]

I realize this is off the topic of instant booking, but when we lose control of who stays in our homes we’re the ones who pay.

We bought a vacation home a year ago with the plan to rent it part time. We worked hard to make it nice and provide great amenities. We quickly became “Superhosts” with a 5 star rating. We had a limit of 10 guests. This summer we had a group of 16 people in 6 vehicles storm into our 4 bedroom home with 2 parking spaces. We saw all this on our Ring doorbell. They parked in our neighbors spots. They immediately began running a locked lift elevator up and down. It is off limits and they had stated they would abide by house rules I immediately called Airbnb and reported them. I called the guests and she denied it all. I told her I could SEE them on the Ring!  

Our neighbors came home to discover garbage strewn all over their property and their wood piles shoved down an embankment. We live 10 hours away and couldn’t physically get there to evict this group. They trashed our house and caused tons of damage which I documented with photos. Then we had to spend endless hours over several days on the phone filing complaints and escalating complaints with Airbnb. Plus all of he time and money it to to restore our home. In the end we were told by Airbnb that the guest denied having 6 extra guests and denied causing any damage and they “believed her”.  Despite all my pictures of them, their cars, the damages throughout the house and our neighbors statements. 

At  that point we learned that Airbnb will not be of any help at all if problems arise. We have to find a way to screen guests as best as possible and be prepared for occasional horror shows. It’s not comforting at all and our vacation home is for sale because of this. I can’t relax when it’s rented, and financially we depend on the house paying part of its own way. 

If only Airbnb had our backs like we are led to believe when we provide our homes to their guests. I wish we could all pull our listings for one month in unison to force them to honor their word. It’s a big let down. 

[Sarah977]

@Kerry-And-Paul0  I'm so sorry that happened to you. It's just jaw-dropping when airbnb states that they believe the guest when all evidence points to the contrary.

It sounds like you really need someone who lives near your rental to co-host for you. Someone who can meet and greet the guests and keep an eye on things and evict them if necessary. To live 10 hours away and let guests self-check-in with no one around to oversee seems like madness. The ring doorbell is obviously useless if Airbnb is going to take a guest's denial over the video evidence.

[Joanne408]

I'm so sorry this happened to you.  Unfortunately I had a similar experience, my initial contact with Airbnb was very reassuring, but in the end it was decided that I only had the right to my damage deposit.  I have now doubled the damage deposit in the hope to deter any 'bad' guests.

[Neil-and-Ellen0]

You should have been using a local, professional property management company living so far away. 

[Joanne408]

I love instant booking, but had to take one of my properties off it because I only rent Saturday to Saturday and WITH INSTANT BOOKING YOU CANNOT CHOOSE A FIXED DAY DEPARTURE DAY.  This is possible on all other holiday rental websites, so it is hard to understand why it isn't available on Airbnb.

[Loretta55]

I use IB and by and large it has been great, but as hosts we have to then accept guests who do not read the house rules, who have only joined Airbnb with either one or no reviews. Guests who have caused thousands of rands worth of damage to a property that Airbnb had to pay for, slip through the net without red flags  against the guests. I would like to start a blog or a form of teaching guests to be good guests in order for people to understand that our establishments are not 5 star hotels and that most of us are not hoteliers. I work on the 80-20 rule, 80% of our guests are fantastic and 20% you never want to see again.