Changes to Instant Book

[Steven1713]

Hello Community, 

Has anyone else ran into this? Apparently Airbnb's new update to instant book allows guests to book your property whether or not you have implemented a number of days for advance notice. They can book at anytime and will be confirmed whether you approve or not. Here is the response from Airbnb when I asked about this issue:

So as I have checked there is an update if you are going to select instant book even if you will select that you get the request for approval so still if you will click on calendar one day Advance for approval thing still in instant book it will get automatically booked so if you want that you should get the option off Accepting or declining then you can go Ahead and change instant book to request to book as it is updated and as you said that you was not knowing and without you approved this reservation *, and it got automatically booked so as one time courtesy we can cancel the reservation and wave off all the consequences, but if in the future there is the same situation we will not be able to cancel and waved off all the consequences.

*[Sensitive information removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

[Joan2709]

@Steven1713 

First time I have heard of this? This is not the way Advance Notice is supposed to work. 

I would check to see if this Slider is turned ON under min stay settings and it also appears under calendar availability. The one on min stays seems to have appeared recently and not sure if that is what is causing the issue or not. 

We DO NOT use Instant Book and I recommend other Hosts don't either. This is due to Airbnb's turning over review disputes to AI and not following their own written policies regarding removing retaliatory reviews.

[Joan2709]

***Update

I noticed the slider is now removed from the maximum stay area of the calendar? I believe it was only there a short time as I had never seen it before. This could be the cause of the issue with your Advanced Notice settings. Probably a bug and Airbnb seems to have removed the slider there. The slider under Calendar Availability is still there.

I still don't advise using Instant Book until Airbnb fixes the retaliatory review dispute issues and closes the 2 big loopholes with the optional settings.

[Alex]

Hi @Steven1713, 

Thank you for sharing this with the Community. Your thread reached Joan and she is giving you some advice on what to do. Did you have time to check her answer? Let us know if you could fix the issue. 

[Steven1713]

Hello Alex, thank you for your response. Although I appreciate Joan's advice, I use a PMS, so those settings she mentioned are not controlled by Airbnb. The main concern is the statement from Airbnb support that due to recent updates, regardless of the settings you implement, if you have instant book turned on, guests will be able to book at anytime. 

I understand that I have the option to turn instant book off, but also understand that will limit the amount of reservations I receive. It is very disconcerting that Airbnb continues to make decisions that benefit guests instead of hosts who are the ones that generate Airbnb's revenue by letting people stay in our homes. Furthermore, they are not even making us aware of the changes. 

I have always been an Airbnb fan compared to Booking.com because of the policies that were fair to both sides, it seems Airbnb is trying to become more like Booking.com, which is upsetting and disappointing. 

[Joan2709]

@Steven1713 

Tell me which listing you are referring to that had the problem (you have multiple listings) and confirm you have 2day Advance Notice set on that listing and Instant Book on. I can then check to see if I am able to instant book as a guest. It would have to be a listing that has an open night to book for tomorrow or the next day.  

It should ask me to send a request to book instead of instant book if the 2day advance notice is working as it should.

[Steven1713]

Hello Joan, thank you so much for the help and suggestion! 

So, according to the person I talked to at Airbnb support. The guest will still have to send a request, which is what happened in my instance, but will automatically get confirmed now. 

In my case it was exactly 17 minutes from the time the request was received and it was confirmed. It was late at night so I didn't see it until the morning. 

[Joan2709]

@Steven1713 

What CS is staying is incorrect. 

Otherwise, what is the purpose of Advanced  Notice? If you set 2 days Advance Notice, and have Instant Book turned on, and a guest tries to book within the 2 day Advance Notice window, they CANNOT Instant Book; there is no such thing as "automatically confirmed". You should receive a Request to Book and you can decide if you want to accept or not. You need to make sure the Slider is turned on though:

Managing Availability

https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/updating-your-availability-708

You need to make sure the Slider is turned ON under Advance Notice in your Calendar Settings:

We don't use Instant Book. I'm tagging @Shelley159 who does use Instant Book and ask what she thinks? 

[Shelley159]

Yes @Joan2709 @Steven1713 

The guest books the dates, but instead of the host seeing the instant booking come through, the host sees a request to book. You then have to accept or decline, the same way it would've been if your setting was Request to Book.

The advance notice setting just turns Instant Book into Request to Book if the booking is inside the advance notice period.

[Steven1713]

Hello Shelley, sorry if I was not clear with the issue. The request came through and the reservation was confirmed without my approving it. Airbnb support says this is a new update, all Requests to Book will automatically be accepted no matter what settings the host has for advance notice. 

Hope this clears it up

[Shelley159]

I just had a guest book last-minute this afternoon @Steven1713 

It came through as always, as a request to book because it was inside my advance notice period. I had to approve.

I have many of these, there has been no change in the system for me and it works the way it always has. I don't know why yours could be different 😱

I assume your settings are as @Joan2709 has shown in the screenshot?

[Steven1713]

Hello Joan, 

Please see the explanation from Airbnb Support to the new policy they have implemented:

"So as I have checked there is an update if you are going to select instant book even if you will select that you get the request for approval so still if you will click on calendar one day Advance for approval thing still in instant book it will get automatically booked so if you want that you should get the option off Accepting or declining then you can go Ahead and change instant book to request to book as it is updated and as you said that you was not knowing and without you approved this reservation HMNZQNKXM3, and it got automatically booked so as one time courtesy we can cancel the reservation and wave off all the consequences, but if in the future there is the same situation we will not be able to cancel and waved off all the consequences."

[Shelley159]

I don't quite follow this message from Support @Steven1713 , it doesn't seem to have been written by a language professional 😃

Part of the 1st sentence sounds like a confirmation of how it works, namely that you receive a request inside the advance notice period, which you have to approve.

Do you perhaps have a co-host or someone with access to your account who could've approved the request? Perhaps add-on software?

[Steven1713]

Hello Shelley,

Yes, the response from Airbnb support was not very clear but they also called me and explained clearly that due to a new update, all reservations made under instant book will be accepted no matter what advance notice rules you have implemented. 

But after you and Joan's comments, I am thinking the information they provided was incorrect. It seemed very strange to me that they would still have guests send a request and then have the reservation automatically confirmed. 

Also, this reservation in particular was a request from someone that had to move from a previous Airbnb to ours because of an issue at that place. I am not sure what the issue was, but I have a suspicion that Airbnb confirmed the reservation for me without my knowledge to accommodate the guest. 

All I can do for now is wait to see what happens when the next last minute request comes through. 

Thank you both very much for the help, truly appreciate having such a supportive community!

[Shelley159]

Ah yes @Steven1713, that sounds like the most plausible explanation here!

Fortunately, highly unusual and not a situation that's likely to recur. Hopefully your next bookings are back to normal.