Should I switch off instant booking?

[Naz275]

Hi All,

Just sharing my experience with instant bookings and why I am hesitant to keep it on.  Still unsure. 

Upon my listing going live in Dec'19  I got an instant booking without any knowledge about the instant booking feature. The booking 1 night only,  a man with a NAKED profile picture which made me very uncomfortable (he had positive reviews).  I instantly called up airbnb and reported him. They cancelled the booking penalty free and I updated my listing accordingly so that all requirements for IB as ticked. I was told I get to keep my 3 cancellations. 

Since then I have had some great guests with 5 star reviews. So far I have 5. 

First penalty free cancellation - Guest visiting under someone else's airbnb account.  

My most recent IB guests that have checked out two days ago have left me a review (which I cannot see yet) and I plan to leave them a review at the 11th hour simply because I have a feeling they will give me a bad review for telling them to follow house rules. (They were very messy/dirty and kept going out and leaving lights and heaters on with windows wide open).   I plan to leave a review that says " suited to hotel environment" and not recommend them,  then respond to their review depending what the outcome is. 

I have no idea what I'm going to write..  Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

Second penalty free cancellation -  I explained my reasons to Airbnb and it was accepted. 

My reasons are

1 - A very bad review from host. So I did some digging and messaged the host. Apparently he changed his name. 

2 - Another alarm bell for me is that on his profile it says he is from US however when I asked him what time his flight arrival is, he said he isn't flying in from anywhere.  I think I have a right to know what the purpose of his stay is.  

3 - I specifically asked him to confirm if he has read and understood the house rules but he ignored that part

4 - I have asked what time he plans to check in, not answered. 

So far that is  2 out of 3 penalty free cancellation strikes.  I don't think it's fair that the first one was counted since the guest broke Airbnb policy i.e allowing 3rd party to use someones account.  Should I contest this? 

With only 1 penalty free cancellation I'm now thinking if I should just switch off IB, probably have less bookings but at least I can be more selective with who comes to my home.  

Have any hosts experienced a decline in bookings with IB switched off? 

Thank you

Naz

[Suzanne302]

@Naz275  I've been a host going on almost 3 years now and I echo everything @Linda108  has said! I also set my maximum nights to one week. (I'm actually hosting a long-term guest through the off-season, but that's a different story!)

As for getting a guest to cancel, I would NEVER lie, but there's nothing wrong with creative wording. I've only had to do it twice (one was for an actual plumbing leak where I literally couldn't host, another was for a sketchy same day reservation I was getting a bad vibe) so I word it this way:

"Dear Guest, I'm so sorry but I am not going to be able to host you for the dates you've selected. If you cancel now, you will NOT be charged and will receive a full refund. I'm so sorry for the inconvenience!"

In both instances the guests immediately canceled and didn't even reply back to my message. The message implies if they don't cancel they will be charged and still not be able to stay, even though you don't actually say that, because technically, saying that wouldn't be true.

[Naz275]

@Linda108  I'm glad it's working well for you. Can I ask of examples of how you got the guests to cancel from their end?  If you had a gut feeling the guest might be a bad one what reason did you give them?   

I agree with the 2 day minimum stays and a week max, I've done the same. 

The two girls I had for a long stay asked about using the washing machine and I said its available to use for a small fee since the reservation was really cheap.  Instead they hand washed clothes and used the plug heaters to dry their clothes with windows open and had the nerve to request heating to be turned up using the excuse that they were cold even though the extra blankets were scrunched up on the floor for the full stay lol. Very cheeky.  So yes shorter stays hopefully avoids this. It's definitely a learning curve. 

[Patricia2002]

I had a similar situation.  Fortunately, the guest has positive reviews, so I will keep the booking.
I switched automatic booking off, but don't know yet if there will be a decline.  If so, that will be a shame for both of us, me as a host, and Airbnb.  When we work together, we both make money and have positive outcomes.  I strongly feel Airbnb should encourage guests to contact the host to confirm booking dates.  We should keep the restrictions (only positive reviews, etc) so that guests can eliminate themselves without having to send too many emails.

I win. You win, Airbnb.
Pattie

[Robin4]

@Naz275 

Naz, personally I love Instant Book! What I love about it is, the guest just wants to pull out their card, pay and stay! They like what they see, they haven't got a mountain of questions for things that would have been answered if they had bothered to read the house rules.....they just want to stay.....done deal.

And from memory I have not have had more than 2 issues with and IB booking, and that is in more than 350 stays!

I have had a few issues with a haggler or two, I even had one who was brazen enough through the message stream to ask if I would send him a special offer before he chose to book with me.....and I didn't know him from JC. I declined that pre-approval and request faster than a freight train through a country siding!

Naz, I find, a booking request comes with strings attached to it, and every one of those strings is designed extract something out of me that I don't offer, either up-front, or during the stay!

To put it in perspective you are going to have issues with guests, no matter how they come to you, but I find the issues are heaps less with IB guests than request guests.

Here is my current calendar and every one of them is an IB, including the Stayz bookings which just show up on my ABB calendar as blocked!

For the first 18 months  of hosting I resisted the temptation to use IB, but in the end we were virtually forced into using it to maintain our visibility in search rankings.....IB's were given first preference in a general area search. I set all the filters I could, the guests started coming and after a while I realised I had nothing to fear.

If there is one filter I would like to access now, it would be....."Block guests with booking requests"

Cheers......Rob

[Sarah977]

@Robin4  

"I find, a booking request comes with strings attached to it, and every one of those strings is designed extract something out of me that I don't offer, either up-front, or during the stay!"

That may be precisely because you use IB, Rob. Anyone who doesn't fit your criteria for IB or who wants to ask for some special treatment, sends you a booking request. But I have never used IB, and in 3 years of hosting, my booking requests don't ask for any special anything- they just say hi, usually tell me something about themselves or their trip, etc.

[Robin4]

@Sarah977 

You may have something there Sarah but what I find is, along with the IB comes a guest message to the host, and quite often that message will have a request attached to it ....'is there a taxi service if Mt Barker' ....how far is your cottage from the main street'......'we are vegetarians, can you supply tofu instead of the bacon''!  more often than not there will be a request in that first message from the guest.

As well as that Sarah they will introduce themselves. These are my present guests and this was how they introduced themselves to me when they had booked.

It's not that I have a rigid set of criteria for booking guests, I don't, I am very accommodating. One upcoming guest on the 14th Jan I am driving down to the Adelaide airport 45 Kms away to pick them up when they fly in!

I have found over the years Sarah that guests who book first (IB) are happy with whatever I might offer and want to stay regardless, they might still have questions that I will answer but, they just want to stay! Guests who want to ask questions before they book expect those questions to be a condition of their booking....

Can you see what I mean?

Cheers......Rob