Instant booking

[John-and-Jana0]

We have been on Airbnb for 2.5 years, have had no problems with the instant book option until now. Our listing availability is that the guest must book with at least one day notice or send us a request, and that we have one day before and after bookings to clean. We had a guest surprise instant book a couple of days ago. She somehow was able to book late in the evening less than a day before she was to arrive, and arrive the very next day after a guest had left. When I looked at my phone that morning and saw that someone was already booked and on their way, I was really surprised and very glad I had done most of the cleaning right after the previous guest left.

How did this happen, and how can I make sure that something like this doesn't happen again? I reset the availability parameters but don't know if that is enough.

Also this guest has a couple of symbols next to her name in the Inbox - an A in a white box, and a star but not a star in a black box. Another future guest has them also. They only show up on the big screen of my computer and not on the app on my phone.

[Shelley159]

Hi @John-and-Jana0 

If you set your calendar to block a day before and after each booking, those days must physically show as blocked on your calendar (grey days). If they are white they are bookable. To give you comfort that it won't happen again, check your future bookings for these grey blocks. This should be enough, but if you still worry you can go in as a guest and zoom on your property on the map to make sure it doesn't show up when you enter a blocked date.

[Bettye6]

I am following this closely as it happened to me several times. 
One should not be able to get same day bookings & blocking does not prevent the week I have no bookings so how would one block. 
I have 24 notice but @ 7:00 pm (my check is @4:00) I still getting requests to book. One time it was 10:30 @ night! 

I declined the booking but their response back to me was extremely rude. 
I did call support & asked how this can happen? Of course Support agreed with me and  mainly to state my shock of the rude response of taking their money & not allowing a booking. 
I would think AirBnB should not request any payment on just inquiries of this type. 

Bettye6

[Joan2709]

@Bettye6 

I think if you set the optional setting under Availability that guests will have to send a request to book instead of instant book that might work?

[Bettye6]

Hi @Joan2709 ,

I do not have that toggled which would make me think that no one should be able to check in or even to request to check in before 24hours. Mine last was to check in the same day at 10:30pm when my check in day is open though I think should close at 4:00 check in time?

Am I not looking at this correctly?

I do allow instant book but  not at 10:30 at night. How would I circumvent that? I have mine checked same as you at least 1 day notice. What is consider a day?

Just do not want to upset customers though my husband feels to be wary of people who check in so late for the same day or is this just a AirBnB glitch?

Bettye6 

[Joan2709]

Hi @Bettye6 

I would set it to 2days advance notice and turn the toggle switch "ON." This means if the guest wants to book and arrive sooner, they can send you a request to book instead of instant booking. This way you can decide if you are willing/able to accept the booking.

If you want to check to see if this works, just go to your listing as a guest and try it. You'll be able to see when you click reserve whether it shows an instant book reservation (confirm & pay), or if it is a request to book.

[Bettye6]

Thanks Joan, All I can do is give it a try!

[Mike-And-Jane0 · Accepted solution]

@John-and-Jana0 the 'one day notice' setting doesn't mean one days notice (that would be too simple). Basically it means guests cannot just book on the day of check in. As such they can book anytime up to midnight the day before. No idea why the one day before/after didn't work though.

[Bettye6]

I have to disagree. As I said multiple times  have had less than 24 hour notice. AirBnB pushed their request through late @ night on the same day plus charged the guests each time before I was given the chance to accept or decline! I was told they did refund them when I had to wake up to respond. One time it was 2 hours before my 4:00 pm check in. Way far in timing from 24 hours. 

I just don’t understand with their technology they don’t respect the 24 hour notice rule.

Any suggestions highly appreciated as this again happened to me 2 days ago. 
Best regards,

Bettye6

[Emilia42]

@Bettye6 Double check your settings. Did this box get checked? 

[Bettye6]

Hi Emily @Emilia42,

That is not checked off though thank you for the suggestion.

Just frustrating.

Thanks,

Bettye6

[Jana1737]

We were under the impression that one day means 24 hours too. It says one day, not 24 hours, which apparently means before midnight the day prior  in Airbnbspeak.

[John-and-Jana0]

Thank you!  This helps a lot.

We were assuming that for instant booking, one day notice meant 24 hours notice, instead of sometime before midnight the day before. We are changing our notice time frame  to two days. Now that means that guests can only instant book before midnight 2 nights before they plan to arrive or make a request to come earlier.

Also, we are just noticing on the calendar that a person can book to leave on the day before the next person is scheduled to arrive. That must be what they mean by one day before/after.

[Bettye6]

Hi @John-and-Jana0 

Yes, when I talked to support they said that is exactly what it means. A full 24 hour notice form your check in time, mine is 4:00pm. 

To be texted 3 hours after check in time is way less than 24 hours. 

I do a lot of back to back bookings which I don't mind as I can clean my place in less that 3 hours and I have been lucky to have the best of guests to not check out late (though I must keep my fingers crossed on that one it seems too)

For 2 day, from what I am understanding what your are saying might be the way to go to circumvent this bug. I just hope that action does not decrease my bookings,

I just want my due process of giving me a full day.

Thank you all for the brilliant comments.

Bettye6 

[Debra300]

@John-and-Jana0,

To ensure that you don't get unwanted short-notice bookings, in addition to selecting an advance notice of at least one day, also select a preparation time of at least one day between bookings.  Guests will still be able to send