Accepting bookings

[Louisa28]

A guest sent me a request asking "is your house available from this date to that date? then 30 minutes later, before I had even responded, I got a message they she had booked it? I do not have the auto-book feature on. What happened?!

[Lawrene0]

Hi, @Louisa28. You do have instant book on. It is the lightning bolt beside your nightly price. To turn it off, go to Booking Settings (in Manage Listings). Click "All guests must send reservation requests."

[Louisa28]

Hi Lawrene,

Thanks for your response. I double checked after posting my initial question & sure enough, that feature was on. I went through the series of questions to turn it off so each booking would need my approval, but there was a pop up question saying essentially that if I turned it off my listing would get less views, etc. I'm not Airbnb savvy enough yet to know which side of the fence I want to be on.....so I left it on for now.

[Colleen47 · Accepted solution]

@Louisa28

I would totally leave the instabook feature on as long as you keep your prices and calendar up to date. I was also hesitant at first, but there nothing better than getting that instant confirmation without a bunch of back and forth questions and haggling. Go for it!

[Maryann58]

I have been hosting for a year using auto book very successfully. I recently turned autobook off so I can offer my cabin to my family members a before accepting a request.  I have not had another request to book get since I turned it of.

  It says listings my appear lower in searches    When AB is turned  of. I wonder how much lower?