Instant book - even the media says be wary!

[Andrea9]

Dear Airbnb,

Making IB mandatory works against everything that initially made you great and different from other booking sites.

It takes away the personal touch of letting guests into your home. And it doesn't fit the story of how Airbnb was conceived, and even tends to make a mockery of it. 

It's also flawed in that a host can either open themselves up to a lot of risk and invite shady or terrible guests by reducing requirements; Ir by increasing safety and requirements and thereby leaving first-time Airbnb users out in the cold.

Most of MY guests BTW  are first-timers.

In this interesting article 

inews.co.uk/essentials/lifestyle/travel/use-airbnb-like-expert/

it says:

"... Be wary of instant booking

If your host offers and accepts instant booking requests, it’s possible that the accommodation is a professionally run B&B or small hotel. Although perfectly pleasant, these kind of locations might not offer the unique local home you were looking for.

... "

So please don't force it down hosts' throats. And don't punish them either by favoring IB in searches.

What has happened to fair choice in this world...

[Fiona0]

I thought the whole idea of Airbnb was matching hosts to guests. Instant Book just makes us all into mini-hotels who will put up with any kind of behaviour in return for cash.

We are brave enough to open our homes up to strangers, it takes a certain kind of person to do that, so stop insulting us by calling all hosts discriminators and racists.

[Andrea9]

Except for that initial experiment with a certain percentage of new hosts having no option but IB, it seems they have now recently taken a step back and not made it mandatory. But I believe for some reason that the general drive is to have the largest percentage of bookings done through IB in the near future (I have no proof but have picked up some chatter from beings closer to the source). Since it's not mandatory, the only way to cook the frog is to boil the water faster. At the moment a guest can choose to view listings acc. to IB. Who knows, next year it might not even be a choice, and all the IBs are on the first 7 pages, while the non-IBs are listed afterwards. This dictatorial drive makes me sad and start to loose faith. Now when I see or hear the story of how ABB started with 3 guys and an air mattress (2-star rating now at the most!), I almost feel like crying at how hard it's become. I for one, am starting to look at the possibilities out there of diversification. Not happy about it, but I do get the feeling it might be good to not only rely on Airbnb.

[Mark-And-Hetty0]

Reading the rumours here of mandatory IB is new to me.

If it were to happen I would be against it and simply and slowly look for another portal between our 'space' and guests that allows for the kind of relationship that Airbnb currently offers, which I believe is very special.

I have no way of measuring the veracity of such rumours but observe that it does seem to be a pre-supposition presently built into the Airbnb website that IB is thought to be more 'desirable'. For example, by offering a lightning badge and suggesting that bookings will increase (similar to the Beta smart pricing promises). Mandatory IB may contain subtle dangers to some of the founding values present in Airbnb's DNA.

In our first months of hosting we have resisted joining IB without apparent detriment to bookings.

We enjoy the ability through Airbnb to have a sense of 'reciprocity' between guest and host. Guest and host are in relationship in a complementary way in a kind of dialogue to discover and meet each others needs.  This is a practical and congruent manifestation of ultra modern thinking in business practice and Airbnb as a portal is, in many ways, an example of it.

In our hosting we love to discover people who respond and engage with the space we are in and ongoing process of creating. Our guests help us to understand and develop the space through their appreciation and suggestions. This is a practical, flexible and resilient philosophy which seems to be working and which feels rewarding.

A key part of the sequence of this model is through the conversation that starts as a guest approaches us to stay here "Dear....we love your place and would love to come...." and this helps to establish this 'frame' as an ongoing 'conversation' between us. It seems to encourage host and guest to be at their best, creative self. Much flows from this which I will not go into here.

As hosts, for us at least, mandatory IB would disable the current start of this conversation and may allow bookings to be made with an older, les useful attitude to transaction where the opportunity to develop rapport is absent until much later (and may be more difficult to attain). As such I feel it's heartening (for the world) that younger guests really seem to 'get' this sense of conversation and co-creation completely naturally and respond with it. Perhaps they have less to unlearn. As hosts this kind of relationship is currently enabled (brilliantly) through the present qualities of the 'portal' of the airbnb website.

[Wyatt]

The status of this Idea has been changed to Popular. Ideas that receive 20 or more Thumbs up from the community within the first 7 days of being published become Popular. The Popular Ideas with the most Thumbs Up are reviewed closely by the Airbnb product team. In reviewing these Ideas, the original post and comments from the community will be considered. Thank you for taking the time to submit a thoughtful Idea that resonates with the community.

[Andrew90]

My biggest concern with IB is the integrity of the calendar.  I have on multiple occasions had both manuallly blocked days and synced days cleared and received inquiries/reservations submitted. With the significant penalties imposed for cancellations I cannot consider IB. 

[Kathryn51]

I agree that mandatory IB is against the Airbnb concept.  I always engage in an email conversation with my guests, and when I am a guest with my host, to decide whether I really want to stay there.  You even have this opportunity in a Marriott or Day's Inn --- to talk to a reservation person before committing.

[Helen56]

I'm a single lady and only rent my spare room to women.  I would immediately have to leave Airbnb if IB was required.

Even if I rented out a whole house where I didn't live I would not use IB. In the normal rental market, where people rent places to live for years, the applicants are vetted, need references, credit check, and more. It should be the same on Airbnb.

[Todd-and-Reese0]

I will quit AirBnB if they make Instant Book mandatory. All of our problem guests were through IB. Once we turned it off, we enjoyed hosting much more. We need to be able to screen who stays in our home!

[Amanda52]

I could not agree more! There are some obvious problems with IB, like a person doesn't even need to have a photo of themselves (security problem!) Also - they can book and not count their kids, then show up with more people than my maximum (this happend to me too)! Communication between potential guests and a host is about finding the right fit, and making sure that everyone is happy with the arrangement.

Don't take away a critical tool (communication...which leads to trust!)... Without that, the sharing economy is in trouble! I've been burned by bad guests and while it may save time for some, it shouldn't be forced.

https://medium.com/@sfamandamills/how-the-trashing-of-my-home-led-to-a-tool-for-the-sharing-economy-...

[Mick-and-Julie0]

I had to leave my job 3 hours early after the last Instant Book and rush home to clean and welcome my guests and then my other bedroom was instant book and my first guests was not happy to share the bathroom so I Will NOT instant book again because of this 

[Robert-And-Nancy0]

We also will join the many who state that if IB is required we will leave Airbnb.  We have never had it and would NEVER consider letting anyone into our house who we have not had the chance to communicate with.  Honestly, I think if they proceed in the direction they are going...lack of validating ID, require IB, NO customer service and NOT supporting hosts they are doomed. It was great while it lasted……..

[Holly42]

No instabook in a shared home, please. Ever! 

[Loretta2]

I agree with all of the above-we've been hosting, successfully, for about 5 years- and always engage the person making the request in conversation beforehand. We seldom get to meet our guests- the apartment we rent out is in Sydney, 800km away from where we live- so we need to know who's there and what they are expecting, and what we expect of them. If this is discrimination, so be it. Air bnb can easily see, by looking at our previous bookings and comments, that we don't discriminate on grounds of race, religion, colour, age, gender or sexual orientation- it's a matter of making sure that guests  are going to enjoy the experience and there will be no bad feeling afterwards.

Another point-I went to an Air bnb hosted event recently in Byron Bay (where we live)-and the rep. was keen to encourage the local hosts to recommend local businesses to their guests, thus getting the business owners 'on side'. They don't seem to be considering the fact that Byron council, and probably others, are facing immense pressure from local residents who are NOT renting out rooms/houses, to tax or penalise them in some way- most people do not want want mobs of teenage 'schoolies' and backpackers trashing their neighbourhoods and keeping everyone awake all night  because they are staying in a 'party town'. Seems to me that by discouraging thier hosts from exersizing a it of benign 'discrimination', Air bnb are ringing more trouble on the organisation and its hard working hosts. Incidentally, the Air bnb rep at this event was very evasive when I asked a question about Instant booking being compulsory in the future.

[Kate157]

I think one of the reason Airbnb is touting the IB feature is discrimination. It has been reported in local media in the past that some users are experiencing a high rate of declines of booking attempts. Airbnb's strategy for this seems to be forcing IB on everybody to cut down on potential guests being turned down because of their color, etc.

[Bethany7]

I turned on instant book this morning to see if I really would get "2x the reservations" and only qualified people that had good reviews, as IB says.

A few hours later I had a confirmed reservation from a single male (my house rules AND description clearly say I accept only women and their guests) and when I asked, he said he had not read my house rules.

Also, since I had checked the box for only guests with at least 1 positive review are able to IB, I checked his reviews. He had 1, and it was not a review, it was a host saying he was adventurous, and that's all. Nothing about his quality as a guest.

IB was turned off after that.