Booking being confirmed without host approval

[Sisanda0]

Good day

I am very confused as to how a guest booked, confirmed and paid for my apartment without my approval. How is that possible? I have a guest booked for today that I did not approve and if I cancel that booking then I get penalised.

Please advise on how I can go about fixing this or who to speak to in this regard. 

[Rowena29 · Accepted solution]

HI @Sisanda0,

WElcome to the community centre@!

Not sure if you are aware, but this is an area where hosts like yourself and guests post questions and comments. It has nothing to do with airbnb admin.

I've just taken a quick look at your listing and you definitely have Instant book turned on - you can only send out a special offer with instant book activated.

If this is not what you intended, you need to go back into your settings and change it ( goto your listing, go to booking settings, then go to "how guests can book" and turn off instant book.

You might also want limit how quickly guests can book - go to availability and select you want at least xxx day's notice.

As for the booking you already have, that is much trickier as if you cancel you will indeed be penalised. Perhaps you could ring cusomter service adn plead ignorance and they will take pity on you.   ( not very likely)  I will have a search and send you a link to a thread another host posted about how to create your listing so it's just how you want it.  Perhpas you could snooze your listing for the moment until you are sure of yourself so you don't get any more surprises.

Soem other more experienced host may be along shortly to offer more and better advice.

Good luck.

I will reply again if I find the link.

If you wnat to reply to anyone on these boards you need to "tag" then with the @ symbol and then their user name to be sure they recive it.

Regards

Rowena

[Helen3]

Hello @Sisanda0 

As @Rowena29  mentions, you have Instant Book turned on, which means guests can book without out you having to approve bookings.

If you don't want to have guests book instantly, you need to go in and change your booking settings so guests need to make a request to book.

If you are not able to accept bookings on certain dates, you can block the dates off in your calendar so guests cannot book for these dates.

You can give Airbnb a call and see if they can help cancel the booking, but they do expect you to keep your calendar up to date if you aren't available to accept a booking, so they may not cancel the booking penalty free.

[Rowena29]

Hi @Sisanda0 

Here is the post I mentionied - I hope you find it useful, It was created by an experienced host @Robin4

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Are-you-new-to-Airbnb-This-may-help/m-p/638215

[Sisanda0]

@Helen3 @Rowena29  Thank you so much for assisting 🙏

[Rowena29]

Hi @Sisanda0 

Here is another link that may be even more useful - it was the one I was looking for originally

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Back-to-Basics/m-p/988528

Regards

Rowena