Airbnb retiring pre-booking questions

[Donata12]

Hi all! Just got this email from Airbnb and at first thought it was fake. Bit it isn’t apparently. Despite the typos and the totally unprofessional way they communicate to hosts,  again a useful tool is taken away from us. I don’t even use IB so I shouldn’t have received this in the first place but I contacted them because I wanted to make sure it was for real. It is. Still working with them in it but I thought I would share 

[Costa2]

Sure, airbnb will put as much prssure on hosts as they can. You are cow , that can bring milk. They will use every tool make get more  milk from you. Once you die , they will start to analize it. If you start screaming form pain, it bring their attention. If you fill pain - SCREAM.

[April96]

Would you think this is discrimination now? How all the safety is for the guest and the hosts are continually stripped of safety rights? 

I'm wondering if this would be a class action lawsuit if this question removal goes through. 

[Paul146]

 I don't use Instant Book anymore either . I would rather leave my room empty than just have some of these people stay here with me. People have been booking with such statements as " I will be checking at 6 am or I will be checking out at 4 pm" Too many calls to the call centre to cancel these jokers have prompted me to screen people. Of course , screening people without pics. I am really getting tired of the way airbnb is treating their hosts. Time to retire from this circus!

Oh yes, I thought the email was a scam or spam!

[Donata12]

@Paul146  I think that screening people and do not let them book instantly does not hurt our business. I am not saying that we are 100%more secure but we certainly are in more control. I have always and only have guests send me booking request first and it doesn’t look like I am losing business. The most important thing is to reply to a request right away while they are still in the platform.

[Donata12]

I have received a last message to close my complaint. Here it is. Still lots of typos and not even the name at the end of the message. I am not sure that support is connected to the company. I think that, depending on the time of the day, support is provided by hosts like us throughout the world. Too many times I have found support onore mess than I did

[Michael380]

I would have thought they would expand this feature, not discontinue it as I also received this message, twice now with the same grammatical errors.  Recently, I seen an increase in damage to my homes and was considering turning off Instant Book anyway.  This now verifies my decision to do so and I would rather receive bookings from other sites as I feel better protected by them than Airbnb. Thanks for posting @Donata4 

[Mark116]

Airbnb wants to be, not VRBO, but booking.com.  I don't know why, it seems a crazy strategy that instead of expanding their market by adding other types of listings, they seem bent on destroying the home hosts.

All of this stuff would still be okay, if there was a parallel development where hosts are not so tightly controlled, where reviews are managed differently, where there is no punishment for declining, where a real damage deposit can be taken, and so on. 

But airbnb wants you to host like you are a hotel, totally anonymously, 24/7 check in, and still maintain an ever increasing control over the hosts, down to minutia like towels.  So disappointing.

[Pippa13]

I too am angry that this really useful feature is due to be retired.  I can't understand why airbnb would chose to do this.  It's an extremely helpful thing to use and I for one want it retained. 

ps I also found the email really difficult to understand and was really irritated about the typos.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Automated-Questions-for-Instant-Booking-function-removed...