My listing cannot be reserved because of experienced guests, but that feature is turned off for me

[Alton79]

Does anyone know why this is the case or what I may be doing wrong?

I'm a new Airbnb host and finally created my first listing yesterday. I had the "Experienced guests" option selected for the first guest setting all yesterday, but I turned it off about two hours ago because I had received interest in people in my community booking it. However, the "reserve" button is disabled and the "Learn more" link brings up a pop-up that states the following:

Right now, only experienced guests can book this place

 

This Host is only accepting guests with 3 or more trips on Airbnb for their first reservation. It’ll be open to all guests soon.

I've verified that it's set to "anyone" in my account, but this isn't going away for some reason. What do I need to do to start accepting bookings from the community?

[Alton79 · Accepted solution]

Weird. I just turned off instant book, and then turned it back on, and now it's working. That's absolutely got to be a bug or I just happened to coincidentally check the page at the same time it was updated, assuming there was a waiting period.

[Dawie3]

This option has not worked for me, with a new listing. I.e. we get "Only Right now, only experienced guests can book this place", despite having selected  the "all guests" option. Tried to by-pass by switching Instant Booking on. But guests are still blocked.

Please help!

AirBnB: Please fix this glitch!

[Kia272]

@Alton79  Just be careful with Instant Book. Scammers target new hosts, and that's why those safeguards are available (the option to only have well-reviewed guests book.)

I'd say it's better to limit those who can book when you're just starting out, but you have to do what you think best. Good luck. 

[Alton79]

Thanks so much, @Kia272. I completely agree with you and found that recommendation as well doing some research around instant book. I turned it off since I'd rather just vet the guests out until I get situated, haha. Much appreciated!

[Joan2709]

Hi @Alton79 

Did you turn off this feature by going to:

Account > Your first guest > Any Airbnb guest

Experienced Guests

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/3320#section-heading-1-0

[Alton79]

Hi @Joan2709 yeah unfortunately I tried this and two hours later, the Reserve button was greyed out still.

[Joan2709]

Rats! @Alton79 

I would first try logging out of your account on both the App and a computer. Then try logging back in and see if it's still not working. If not working, then you'll have to contact Customer Service. 

[Alton79]

Thanks @Joan2709 I tried that as well but no luck. Fortunately, I was able to get this resolved by somehow triggering the instant booking feature on/off. Not sure why or how that fixed it, but I wish I recorded it for their development team.

[Joan2709]

Aha! I think you are right @Alton79 ! Airbnb probably created this feature to encourage New Hosts to keep instant book on when publishing their listing. You mentioned you had turned instant book off, yet the Reserve button remained grayed out? 

I would definitely send feedback to Airbnb on this as a bug. Good job for figuring that out!

[Sabelle-G-0]

Solved my issue.