Bug with Instant Book?

[Lori205]

Something odd is going on. I only allow Instant Book when all my criteria, including positive reviews from other hosts, are met.

Today I awoke to an email subject "New booking confirmed! Hannah arrives Oct 30."

There are no prior inquiry emails for Hannah. No pending reservation emails or notifications. Nothing. Just untested Hannah, sitting in my reservations, taking up space. I have no co-host. I did not accept this booking and if I had, there would be an email trail.

If I cancel Miss Hannah, I will get dinged and I quite like my Superhost status. I reached out to support on Twitter this morning and was assured a specialist would get back to me. It has now been 6 hours. Anyone know what is going on? Is there a bug?

[Emilia42]

@Lori205 Sounds like a glitch. I've had something like this slip through a couple of times.

Why not start a conversation with Hannah? Maybe you would have accepted her reservation anyway?

[Anna9170]

@Lori205  I can't understand at all why you are so afraid of guests without feedback. Recall from the hosts means almost nothing in most cases. Most hosts are afraid to write the truth about a bad guest, and sometimes those who have a few good reviews are the most terrible dream and nightmare. There are so many great guests among the new users, why do you cut off this great chance at once?

[Robin4]

@Lori205 

Over the years Lori, I have experimented with turning that function "Recommendation from other hosts" off or on at times and from my experience accessing that requirement has absolutely no effect on who can book. 

I prefer to use IB Lori, and would use it exclusively given the option because, guests who simply want to pay and stay use IB, guests who have questions to ask (want you to give some ground) use a Reservation Request. For that reason I have not set any requirements for IB booking these days and most of my bookings come via that IB path.

When I first started using IB I set all the host requirements Lori.

I dumped the profile photo requirement at the point where Airbnb deemed a guest did not have to have an identifiable facial image to use the platform any more. Airbnb deemed a grey facial silhouette was sufficient for an account holder to use Airbnb. The net result of that from my experience was, guests who had nothing to hide, had a great past history and wanted to get the best out of the platform had no problem supplying a good identifiable profile image (and almost all of those have been IB). Problematic guests who were not comfortable showing their hosts who they were or any details about them, for one reason or another, would choose to hide theirs, but Airbnb deemed that to be fine, they had supplied a photo, just didn't want it public!

I dumped the second item Gov issued ID when I found out Airbnb ask for it but are quite happy to let account holders use the platform without it......sometimes for years....or until something goes wrong! 

So Lori, I found these guests requirements mean very little to the host, and the fact that 'Hannah' arrives on Oct 30th as a cleanskin with no past history despite your guest requirements does not strike me as the slightest bit strange. It simply confirms my observations in the past.

It also does not mean Hannah will be a bad guest. I have hosted a number of new profile holders and they have turned out to be excellent guests who I have been able to give a great review to start their Airbnb career. To me Lori, it not a matter of that email subject....

"New booking confirmed! Hannah arrives Oct 30.".......it's the message that Hannah sent with it that is important! Does she just want to stay or, are their strings attached....is she passive or aggressive?

Cheers.......Rob

[Anna9170]

@Lori205  @Robin4 @Emilia42  
My friend, a very responsible and adequate person, was looking for an apartment for her family on vacation. But she couldn't make a photo where she liked herself. 🙈😂 She did not pass the Airbnb test, and booked another place through Booking Com, where there were no requirements about photos. Funny, but it is true. 😆
So I don't have any requirements about photos or reviews when the instant book is on.
Please relax, not every person without a review or without a photo is a criminal).

[Kelly149]

I wouldn't count on ABB CS to help... reach out to the guest yourself and see what you think... you'll know more what you want out of CS if you've been able to determine if she's a fit or not by then

**btw, a fairly intelligent-sounding CS agent once told me that all guests are considered 'recommended by other hosts' so long as "most" of their review marks are above 1*, so I don't put a lot of stock in that one as a general rule

[Lori205]

I appreciate everyone's thoughts. I will give some more thought to Hannah. It's sweet how you are all rooting for her. One of the reasons I decline newbies and those with no positive reviews via InstantBook is because it gives me a policy to lean on. I have seen people cancel their profile after bad reviews and just start up with a new one. So I use this policy with new inquiries, too, where I don't like their story and smell a party rat. Today I declined a woman with no rental history but suggested someone else in her party who has favorable history do the booking instead. She sent me her daughter who had exactly 1 review: a 3.5 star with low marks for cleanliness and following rules. So I don't care that her daughter is a 5 star communicator. She was declined. My property is high-end, private and sleeps ten and it is outside LA near the Coachella music festival. It attracts a never-ending string of partiers, who think Airbnb is the Uber or hotels where they hop in and hop out with no regard for what they left in their wake. This summer has been particularly difficult. I prefer a high bar, even if the profile photo means nothing. So I do expect the tools to work as promised and I don't expect to have to host a guest my policies exclude. And this isn't the first time. The last time I thought I was crazy or had accepted the booking in my sleep. But now I realize this is a bug and Airbnb needs to address it. I have now been waiting almost 9 hours for a response from them.  

[Keith550]

Hi Lori,  I can totally relate to the problem you are experiencing.   Have you tried adding a small refundable damage deposit and have documented house rules that the guest has to confirm prior to booking?  My deposit is small to not discourage bookings, only $75 and my house rules prohibit disruptive parties.  In my house rules I inform the potential guest that neighbors have been informed to contact me should they observe disruptive parties. Its possible the damage deposit may be actually hurting my bookings to some extent but I feel its worth it to get higher quality guests and peace of mind.  

[Emilia42]

HI @Keith550 Unfortunately, there is not actually a damage deposit taken on Airbnb. It's smoke and mirrors. But nonetheless, I imagine whole-house listings would charge hundreds of dollars if they had the option to hold an actual deposit (not something as low as $75.)

P.S. The greatest Airbnb advice longtime hosts here can give you is to never mention a guest's private feedback in a public response to a review.

[Keith550]

Hello @Emilia42 Emilia,   Not sure what you mean by smoke and mirrors.  I have the damage deposit in Pricing/Standard Fees set and it seems to be working for me. Can you clarify, are they not collecting it, and what the thing about a public post of a private message too?

[Emilia42]

@Keith550 No, Airbnb does not collect a security/damage deposit. Airbnb does not hold $75 from your guests and you cannot keep any "damage deposit" if damage occurs. You can read a bunch more about it if you keeping searching within this community.

If you look at your profile you have a lovely review from Jessica but you have commented on that review mentioning pests. You have now alerted all future guests that Jessica had some sort of a problem with pests in your home (mice, bugs, snakes?!) when Jessica mentioned nothing publicly. It's best to keep those conversations private.

[Keith550]

Ill check with airbnb about the security deposit  issue but that message was never supposed to be made public. I thought that was a private response.  There is no pest problem. Thanks for letting me know.  

[Sarah977]

There's nothing to check with Airbnb about regarding the security deposit. As Emilia told you, Airbnb doesn't collect it from the guest when they book, nor do they put a hold on their credit card for it. It only serves as a "you could be charged this" but if the guest refuses, which the kind of guests who do wanton destruction are wont to do,  then you have to try to get Airbnb to pay up, which is apparently like pulling teeth and only sometimes successful. 

@Keith550

[Sarah977]

I have never used IB, but I can understand why this would be really upsetting for an IB host. After all, those settings you can choose (which non-IB hosts can't) are specifically because you can't communicate with a guest before their booking is confirmed. And Airbnb shouldn't be having "glitches" on that as long as they pressure hosts to use IB because they give IB listings higher search ranking.

But I do agree with others who say that those settings really aren't any assurance of a good guest. I communicate with every guest before accepting their booking, and several of those guests have had no reviews. But they all turned out to be fine guests. It's how they communicate that's the best way to judge, at least for me, and if they do have reviews, of course that factors in.

@Lori205

[Celia-And-KJ0]

It's weird. I think I may have also experienced this "glitch" I turned off Instant booking earlier this year, as I wanted more of an opportunity to communicate with each guest prior to booking. I don't remember turning it back on. Yet lo, and behold, a couple months ago I get the IB alert. OK fine, that guest seems genuine. I checked that my IB standards are checked (I choose all of them, though I understand their shortcommings). Today I received another alert that I received an IB, from someone who would have not met my typical requirements. Either I'm going crazy, and changing my settings and then forgetting about it, or ABB's "bug" is allowing these bookings.