Booking

[Catherine2945]

Hi everyone, I’m new to hosting but almost ready to go live. Question: is Instant Booking a good idea, or not?

[Gillian166]

no, especially not while you are still learning.  
some unscrupulous types also target new hosts, you need to have control over who is staying and have a chat with people beforehand. Once you've hosted for a while you'll be better at spotting the red flags, and also less likely to give to those types. (and hey, you probably will anyway, and getting burned once or twice is part of your learning curve) To help you learn faster def have a read of these forums and learn some of the tricks some guests try to pull, and get some professional responses ready. 

In your messaging you can create "quick replies", so I have these responses saved, and I have another Notes folder full of helpful phrases to use in various situations. 

I do use IB for one of my listings, max 2 people, no kids no pets allowed, the suite is right opposite my house and guests can see that, so I rarely get any bad guests. For my other 2 I always like to have a quick chat and check out their recent reviews. 

Good luck with it, @Catherine2945  remember you get an algo boost in the first few weeks so make sure your listing is fully fleshed out and ready to go.  

[Sudsrung0]

@Catherine2945 

Personally, we have always had IB turned on it's never been a problem for us, I have the app on my phone just make sure you have the notifications turned on,

We do have an office with a computer, once that goes on in the mornings it's always logged in, 

Airbnb do say you get more bookings with IB turned on, dont make it difficult for people to book,

I joined a long time ago but does Airbnb still give you the option to give your first 3 guest a 20% discount? once you decline that offer you cant go back and add it to your listing, I remember it did work for us within days we had bookings, The whole idea is to get some reviews as soon as you can.

Make sure you go through your listing again and again there will be something you missed.

There is a mountain of information on here.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Catherine2945 we have always had IB switched on apart from a small period of time around Covid when we needed to check if people could stay legally with us.

Yes @Gillian166 is right some people are targeted but these tend to be larger listings remote from the host where parties are more prevalent. Perhaps make it clearer in your listing just how close you are to the listing.

At the end of the day if you get a real con man/woman any amount of pre-screening won't work anyway.

There is no doubt, based on our experience, that IB enabled gets your property higher up the search listings.

Good luck with your property and don't get too scared by what you read in this community!

[Sudsrung0]

@Mike-And-Jane0 

I have it stated we will meet you at the property and the funny thing is, some people ask do we live nearby, Yep less than 5 minutes away, Thats true I do,

[Sudsrung0]

@Catherine2945 

We never do self check in we always meet our guest show them around and we dont do one night stays, we live on a party island, we have some nice pool villas which are not on airbnb at the moment, You get to learn when one person wants to book a 3 bedroom pool villa for one night hahaha like we dont know whats going on,

[Sudsrung0]

Add this to your photo's it works guest do notice it, a couple of guest have commented to my husband thats why they booked our place when they saw this,

[Gwen386]

I’ve been hosting since March and do IB. Knock-on-wood, I have not encountered any problems to-date. You just have to set-up the requirements for IB—no smoking, no parties, no children, no pets. Then, ask, do you agree to house rules?

[Sudsrung0]

@Gwen386 

I have never asked any guest that, but I do have my own contract they sign when they get here, The law is I need their details and copy of passport.