instant booking

[Rachel1672]

I recently had to cancel and instant booking that was made very last-minute, within an hour of the expected check-in time.  Now the person has left me a terrible review and lowered my rating, saying that I canceled when he was in the driveway and didn't want to give him a refund, neither of which is true.  How can I prevent this from happening again?  Airbnb really encourages instant booking, and I appreciate its value to the guest, but if someone books at 9 p.m. to check in at 10p.m., I should be able to say no without penalty.  And if someone doesn't actually stay here, they shouldn't be able to leave me a bad review!  Any advice?

[M199]

@Rachel1672 

Turn off Instant Book! Just my opinion.  Last minute Instant Book bookings, especially at that hour of the day/night, are asking for trouble.  Even being a new host, I had a last minute request to book on a Friday night for 4 guests for 1 night in Fall 2020, party????. Automatic answer within 30 seconds, both my husband and I.  "No way, No How".  The guest is desperate, doesn't plan and expects others to "accommodate" them.  No Way!, Not at My Place!"

[Colleen253]

@Rachel1672 If you allow instant booking with such short notice, then you should be prepared to receive the guest. Don't be cancelling, as it's not fair to the guest. You should change your settings if this doesn't work for you. The guest is allowed to review you, to reflect their experience booking with you, not to review the space. If you had cancelled with more notice, you would have gotten an automated cancel 'review' from Airbnb instead. Either way, not good. Yes, some instant bookings can be cancelled penalty free, but not for the reason you gave.

https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/368/can-i-leave-a-review-for-my-host-if-they-cancelled-my-reserva...

[Dale711]

@Rachel1672 

I am so sorry to hear that,  revenge review by cancellation guest.

You can consider to respond in the public comment. 
To prevent the last minutes booking, and the guest arrive in the next hours, you can consider do modified  in the Preparations Times  Section. 

[Emilia42]

@Rachel1672 There is nothing wrong with instant booking but fix your settings so that it works for you (not against you.) If you do not want last-minute bookings, update your Advance Notice settings (under the Availability tab) to At Least 1 day's notice. I opt-out of the "allow guests to send reservation requests without advance notice" because I don't want last-minute attempts, period.

[Sarah977]

@Rachel1672  Unless last minute bookings are your bread and butter, if you want to use IB, definitely set an advance notice of a day or two. The other thing about last minute bookings is that they are the most prone to payment issues. If someone books and shows up an hour later, Airbnb could find out after that that the payment was rejected because the guest's credit card was maxed out. Meantime, the guest has spent the night at your place.

[Alexandra199]

Hi Rachel, I'm really sorry you had this experience. Early on in my hosting I was advised by someone to make sure that I set a limit on how far in advance I host. The overriding motivation to set at least two days notice (and you could do longer) was that it is very rare that a really genuine guest needs immediate overnight accommodation. The examples I was given were the following:

Guest has actually been evicted from their permanent property and has nowhere to go. They rent Airbnb for short stay and then refuse to leave.

Guest has been ejected form their other Airbnb accommodation for breaking house rules and then book immediately in to another...host will not know about issue at previous property.

The possibilities are endless and such last minute bookings are rarely positive. I cant think of a genuine traveller who would not book at least a few days in advance. I have whole cottages so it may be different if you are renting out a room but I did feel more secure knowing that I was mitigating my risk.

[Sarah977]

@Alexandra199   Although last minute bookings can for sure be one of the scenarios you mention, or someone who is really disorganized, I can think of lots of legitimate reasons someone might need a place on short notice. (Although I'm not suggesting hosts accept them)

One host I know gets lots of last minutes- she lives just a few minutes off the interstate and people on a road trip who find themselves too tired to keep driving to the next city where they had planned to grab a motel room, or had car troubles, so their schedule got thrown off, book with her a lot. Hosts near airports might get lots of last minutes due to people having layovers, overbooked flights, etc.

But if it's a booking from a local, last minute, that's probably bad news.