Ridiculous instant booking policy

[Greg-and-Ciara0]

I have instant book enabled, with requirements of prior reviews, host recommendations, and photo ID.

Yesterday I had a couple who me all the requirments inquire about a week stay in August. I pre-approved them and blocked off the dates for 24 hours.

The pre-approval expired, and she messaged me just now saying she got busy, but is nor ready to book but the dates are not available.

I checked and the dates are marked ‘pending’ by someone I’ve never spoken to. I am unable to unblock the dates.

I called Superhost superhost support to get the hold taken off, and they tell me that someone submitted a booking request who didnt meet my requirements, so they’re holding it for her while she figures out how to submit her photo ID.

My question for the supervisor, how could someone who doesnt meet my requirments possibly tie up my calendar without my approval? Isnt the whole point of the requirements to stop that from happening?

Their answer? I’m sorry sir, that’s Airbnb’s policy.

Absurd. 

[Rebecca0]

" i sure wish we could deflect disable overseas or stateside "undesirables" from even inquiries much less booking requests"

Ughh.  What a disgusting thing to say.  On the other hand, I'm with you on wishing there was a simple button to click for our preferences, ie.  'undesirable American racist bigots not accepted here'.   That would be ok with you, presumably.

[John1080]

Seems it very well could work out for the best with the new guest, who is attempting to meet the requirements, vs someone who had ample time to click book, but 'got busy'.  Those sorts of people signal bad news often times.  

[Greg-and-Ciara0]

Yeah that could very well be the case. 

[Clint-and-Kendall0]

Exactly what I was thinking, John.

[Liz343]

That happened to me as well!  And I got the same two word response from Airbnb. . . how do we effect some change in policy? 

[Pete69]

Airbnb puffs up instant book, but how many of your competitors are actually using it AND how many guests are using it? Very few hosts in my area use it. I don't think many guests use it, or if they do they quickly realize that they are severely limiting their options. Also one has to wonder if undesirable guests are more likely to use instant book. All in all the one time I used it I hated it because the person inquiring was using someone else's account to try to book.

[Huma0]

@Pete69

My experience is that a great number of guests use IB. I switched it on at the beginning of this year, not because I wanted to, but because I had to. Despite Superhost status, lots of glowing reviews, a competitive price etc. my listings were all but invisible without it.

Since then, all of my listings get booked back to back and the vast majority of guests use IB to do so. The ones who request book are usually first time users, who can't IB my listings because I require a positive review for that.

I only occasionally get a guest who sends an enquiry instead, usually because they have a question. Most guests don't need to send any questions before booking as my listing descriptions are very detailed.

To give you an example, for August I have 22 bookings so far and 18 of them are IBs. 

As for the desirability of IB guests v Request guests, this was something I was really worried about when I started using IB, but I don't really see any difference. You get good ones, okay ones and bad ones in both categories and it is not always possible to spot the bad ones at enquiry stage.

The advantage with IB is that you don't get penalised for not responding to a booking request within 24 hours, or for declining a request. More importantly, you can cancel penalty free under certain circumstances. The penalties for cancelling when NOT using IB, on the other hand, are very harsh.

I'm not trying to do a sales pitch for Airbnb. I was actually very resentful of needing to turn on IB, but I have to admit it's worked out fine for me.

The glitches described on this thread need to be sorted out though.

[Sammy35]

i wouldn't IB book or wouldn't set IB on if someone put a gun to my head or if god came down and condemned me to eternal hell if i didn't.  i actually can't even fathom how people use it.  that's not judgement or disapproval, its flat out bewilderment and beffudlement and inability to comprehend.  there are so many guest red flags i see (used to work in gov) and i'm so cya prone (used to work for gov) that i turn people away more than i accept.  aside from scammers, bots, crackpots, third party bookers (h3ll no) and general weirdos in this world, no no and no.

[Birgit0]

Hi Sammy,

I am curious as to how you learn so much about potential guests to tuen them away.  Do you have a questionaire for them?

[Alexandra316]

@Greg-and-Ciara0So what happened? Did the new guest end up successfully completing their booking?

To be fair, the ID verification on Airbnb often doesn't work well. It took me about 10 tries to get it done. It was a royal pain in the butt. 

[Greg-and-Ciara0]

Yes. Ultimately I had to reach out to her and let he know her booking was not complete, and help walk her through the verification process but it’s booked now.

[Sergio507]

I have the same situation - a pending booking from Nigeria that is likely spam and it is tying up my calendar but I do not have instant book on. Airb needs to address this by not allowing booking until a profile is complete. This is bs as I am loosing out on potential guests.

[John28]

IAs you can see from the screenshot I saved on my computer.  It was asking me to Pre-approve or decline?  So, I had to hit decline after I had removed the pre-approval.  It was also a "special offer"  I sent while I was I was still on Instant book, yet I am punished for removing the "pre-approval" of a "special offer" while I am on Instant Book.  I also have a "Declined" on another inquiry that wasn't an inquiry, but a special offer by me sent to him, but then Airbnb told me to block him b/c  he was asking if I wanted him to pay through paypal like last time, and there was no "last time".  He had never stayed with me.  So, my accepted reservation percentage plummeted all because of glitches in the Airbnb system.  I have sent messages about this and they go nowhere.

[Sammy35]

don't decline.  make an outrageous/flat out unacceptable special offer that's what i do.

[Victoria567]

Hi @Greg-and-Ciara0

With instant booking NEVER Tick the box that invites you to block off that date.