Airbnb promoting 1 night bookings to attract guests to listings, contrary to host's minimum stay?

[Veronica-Of-Excel-Proper0]

For many years now, we have NOT accepted guests for stays of 1 night only. This is stated clearly in the listings on Airbnb.

Despite this, there has been a spate of reservations made this year by Airbnb for guests who are booking for 1 night. In the past few days, another three reservations have been received for 1 night each.

Complaints have been made to Airbnb about this, but to no avail. Indeed, the latest booking was yesterday.

This issue is both irritating and time-wasting because I then have to advise guests to cancel the reservation made by Airbnb as it was against the terms of the listing. We offer a full refund when cancellation is made within 24 hours, the guests are encouraged to take action soonest.

I am raising this matter in this community to see if other hosts have had similar experiences of Airbnb seeking to foist '1 night' bookings at their properties. 

Or, is this Airbnb strategy a way of blocking a host's calendars to prevent the listing appearing in searches and to encourage more guests booking '1 night' stays? 

I'd welcome your thoughts or shared experiences on this matter!

[Emiel1]

@Veronica-Of-Excel-Proper0 

Your listings shows it can be booked for 1 night.

Check your listing and make the correct settings .

Added:

Minimum stay can be set in:

1. Section trip lenght:

- default minimum stay

- custom trip lenghts: minimumstay set for certain time period

2. In a ruleset (I can see you use rulesets, as you offer the "early bird discount")

[Veronica-Of-Excel-Proper0]

@Emiel1, thank you for your reply.
In the tab 'Pricing and Availability', under 'Trip length,  Minimum stay is 2 nights, and maximum stay 28 nights.

When I try booking 1 night, it does not allow this.

Is there somewhere else this information should be stated? 

[Colleen253]

@Veronica-Of-Excel-Proper0 You need to adjust your minimum stay settings to 2 nights, not 1. Then your property won’t show up in searches for 1 night, and thus also cannot be booked for such. Check your listing settings to make sure they are correct. I have experienced many instances of my listing settings spontaneously changing. I check them all daily now. 

[Veronica-Of-Excel-Proper0]

@Colleen253, thank you for your reply.  I too have experienced the 'spontaneous' changes to settings. 

However, in this instance with 1 night bookings, the minimum stay is stated as 2 nights. 

This was confirmed also when I contacted Airbnb on previous occasions that although the minimum was given in the settings, Airbnb was somehow bypassing this. If I try to book a single night, I'm unable to do so, but Airbnb is permitting guests to book for 1 night.
  

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Veronica-Of-Excel-Proper0 In April your min stay is 2 days. In May it is 1 day. I suggest you check the rulesets you have in the calendar for May onwards

[Veronica-Of-Excel-Proper0]

@Mike-And-Jane0 , thank you for the suggestion. 

I've now created a rules set for minimum 2 nights. This is in addition to what's already there in 'trip length'.

Do hope this stops these 1 night bookings! 

[Mary419]

Sounds like the spontaneous mystery override of your own settings. Maybe airbnb is doing it to boost their number of bookings for their statistics and even if you get them canceled they can count them.

I’ve had a lot of spontaneous loss of my event rates over years. And spontaneous re-activation of unlisted listings, as if you only snoozed temporarily when you definitely unlisted. 

The closest thing I’ve had to what you’re seeing is spontaneous loss of my no check in/out on Dec 25th or other special settings. 

Obviously you’re using instant book right? Seems like instant book listings are the ones that get the most “errors” with glitches of this nature. 

I would do one or both of these things:

1. Put in first line “one night stays are not allowed” and see if people at least start messaging you first before trying to book 1 night 

2. take it off instant book 

[Veronica-Of-Excel-Proper0]

@Mary419 , thank you for your observations and sharing useful insights from your own experiences. 

I've now created the rules set for 2 nights listing as suggested by community members who commented earlier. Will also add your suggestion of note at start of listing.

Yes, instant booking is on. That too has been a nightmare!

Several months ago, I asked to remove instant booking from my listings (as it was available as an option previously), but was told Airbnb couldn't change this because I was using a channel manager with my listings. Doesn't make sense, either then or now. So, now I snooze listings from time-to-time to reduce appearance of listings in searches.

Many thanks again @Mary419  for you suggestions!

[Nina75]

@Mary419  This is my observation as well... after a guest booked a 1 nighter contrary to my Minimum trip length AirBnb sent me a message stating why I should accept the 1 nite bookings. etc. I think there were trying some sort of 1 night booking test marketing. I think Airbnb is trying to move towards accepting more 1 night bookings. So they sporadically ask hosts to accept 1 night bookings.

[Veronica-Of-Excel-Proper0]

@Nina75  thanks for sharing you've had a similar experience with 1 night booking reservations from Airbnb.

The frequency with which such requests have increased recently makes me think you are correct with thinking Airbnb is market testing '1 night' stays to attract more guests to book on their platform.

[Colleen253]

@Nina75 Spontaneous over riding of a host’s settings to allow a 1 night booking to actually happen is very different from ‘asking’ a host to accept a 1 night booking. How brazen Airbnb is getting!

I’m quite convinced it is the case that they over ride settings on purpose, rather than these incidents being ‘glitches’. I’m sure it escapes no one’s notice that the so called platform ‘glitches’ are more rampant than ever these days. But ever notice how the ‘glitches’ NEVER favor the host? NEVER! 

@Veronica-Of-Excel-Proper0 

[Veronica-Of-Excel-Proper0]

@Colleen253,  agree with you. Indeed, seems that hosts are penalised, guests are favoured!

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Veronica-Of-Excel-Proper0 I can still book for 1 night in May. Do you check your listing through the eyes of a guest?

[Veronica-Of-Excel-Proper0]

@Mike-And-Jane0, thank you for bringing this to my attention that '1 nights' can still be booked. 

Having not figured out how to stop the single night bookings despite spent much time on this already, I've snooze the listing for a few days. Will reach out to Airbnb again to see what can be done.

More time wasting by hosts (including businesses) driven by Airbnb's 'glitches' on its platform!