Camden Town London - instant booking or not? Strict cancellation or not

Nick2339
Level 2
England, United Kingdom

Camden Town London - instant booking or not? Strict cancellation or not

I've been hosting in rural Devon for years and have just started putting my beloved flat in the heart of Camden Town London on airbnb. I let the whole flat so am very careful about who I have to stay but I wonder if I am missing on lots of booking by not allowing IB? Would be very helpful to know what others think about this. Also having recently lost £750 because guest cancelled halfway through a booking I'm thinking I should increase my cancellation policy to strict - any opinions on this please?

 

10 Replies 10
Paul1255
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

Hi @Nick2339  I hope you are well!

 

Indeed, in a busy and generally saturated market like London- where my listings are too, you will struggle without IB on- you’ll be harder to find as IB listings are more visible in search.

 

I use IB on all my listings and have never had a problem, as long as your settings are nice and tight you should be fine.

 

I know it’s challenging to step away from the emotional connection to your property when you’re booking in guests.

 

When it comes to cancellation policy it’s harder- preCovid all my listings were on strict, and it was very rare a guest would cancel, and we would have a full calendar.

 

In the new world, guests look for more flexibility, and my listings are all set to moderate- and from summer to November we were almost fully booked. My feeling is if I was still listing on strict guests would be less inclined to commit to booking and would book elsewhere with a more relaxed policy.

 

As we have learnt with Omicron, things can change and move quickly- I may move my listings back to strict for the late spring/summer which should be more on an even keel, and then perhaps back to moderate for autumn/winter.

 

Best wishes

 

Paul 🙂 

Nick2339
Level 2
England, United Kingdom

Hi Paul

 

thank you - that’s  helpful. Please could you say more about what you mean about settings being nice and tight? 

And do you allow self check in?

Paul1255
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Nick2339 

 

Make sure that your instant book settings are checked to allow only guests with verified ID and previous positive reviews to instant book.

 

Everyone else will have to make a request to book, which they would have had to anyway- so essentially you’re using IB to fast-track guests who already meet your requirements.

 

Sometimes a guest can IB who has great reviews, and one bad one- then you’d need to message them for further info if you wanted it.

 

All my listings are default check in in person, some have self check in capacity- which I will use if I have a busy day and the guest has been communicating well and I feel confident that they’ll be able to get into the apartment easily, or if they plan to arrive outside of my usual operating hours.

 

For self check in you need very clear instructions, as well as images to help guests arrive smoothly and hassle-free!

Nick2339
Level 2
England, United Kingdom

Thanks again Paul - more very helpful advice. I've noticed that my London guests are much less keen on personal check in - it is as if they don't want that personal connection. I find this a bit disappointing as I like to meet my guests and get a sense of how they respond to home. 

Paul1255
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Nick2339 
Your London listing is set up self check in with lockbox, so you would attract guests looking to have minimal contact.

 

Have you tried the “host greets you” option previously?

 

Might not be relevant to your situation- but I find that guests who book a “host greets you” listing are totally open to doing self check in if it’s needed, but guests who are expecting to self check in don’t want a in person meet and greet.

John5097
Level 10
Charleston, SC

@Nick2339 

I have used both without any issue. I'll list some to the differences between the two. 

I used IB for the first two years, and worked well with most guest. Host can adjust the settings options which is very helpful, such as require more detailed info while guest is booking, require first time guest or guest with low ratings to use Request to Book, three penalty free cancelations if they booked with IB, and require government ID to be verified (which can vary depending on nationality).  

However I did change my setting to Request to Book about two months ago and didn't notice any changes in the rankings, page views, or reservations. You can access that info in the Insights drop down.  

I have noticed with IB or RTB that when an open night is suddenly available or coming up page views ramp way up. For example if someone cancels a week out it at least triples. So I think there are more important factors than IB or not in search results and conversions. Are guest clicking and then not booking? That would have more of an influence. From my observation, it can be a challenge for host to assess if there is something which is putting off guest when looking or staying at their place. I did look at one of your listings that has a 4.6 for cleanliness. There are only 5 reviews but just that would be a much more significant factor, in my opinion. It may have been unreasonable guest, or something very minor, but this is something within the host control to improve and would have more of an influence in rankings and bookings than booking settings, in my experience.    


However, with Request to Book I like having the final decision on approving or declining each guest. But with Instant book host can require more detailed info in the first message when making the reservation. And with Request to book you as a host are in position or extracting basic info and  guest would be more inclined to use Instant book and understand what info is required up front when making the reservation, and not some lengthy chat where they have to keep signing back in to the app or website to make the reservation. I don't do that and only want very basic info. 

I think it might be best to use both depending on the timing and listing. I hope that helps!  


I also think IB can create more a sense that guest are in complete control and have some kind of right to book your place, even with blank profile for example. So wish RTB had option for host to request more info, like IB. But that's the mani issue is host having to grapple with guest to include the most basic info.  

Although it would be with a try and changing to IB may give a needed boost and your other great reviews and listing could generate more bookings. As a lot of listings in popular travel destinations have dropped off and converted to long term rental, so yours may just need a temporary boost to kick start again. Although for me switching to RTB had no factor in bookings. 

Nick2339
Level 2
England, United Kingdom

Thank you John for taking time to post such full and helpful replies. I too had noticed the lower cleanliness score and have written to the guest asking if he would give me more details on what he saw as less than ideal. I have now switched to IB with all the checks suggested by Paul and will wait to see what happens.

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Nick2339 

 

My experience has been this:

 

- Initially started with request to book. I managed to appear reasonably high on the search results, especially after achieving Suerphost, no problems getting bookings.

- Airbnb started really pushing IB and some guests search with the IB only filter on (even if inadvertently). My bookings suddenly stopped in their tracks. I had to turn IB on even though I didn't want to. The bookings immediately started again.

- Found IB to be okay actually. I added all the settings that were mentioned above and also the three pre-booking questions (only about half of IB guests respond to those questions though). I still got a lot of request to book because many guests have questions and want some interaction before booking, but then I'm a home host. I liked the three penalty free cancellations, and never needed to use up all three in the space of a year.

- Recently, it's all gone to pot. I'm getting far more guests using IB, but most of them are not suitable. I had to call CS three times in one week to cancel instant bookings.

- So, I turned off IB on one of my listings (I have three) and will see how it goes, but it will be hard to tell as it's currently booked until the summer anyway... 

 

Basically, IB worked for me for a long time but now I'm finding it very problematic and would definitely turn it off if it didn't affect my search ranking. There's just so many listings in London, it's easy to get buried.

 

As for cancellation policy, I went from moderate to strict some time back because I had a string of guests waiting until the deadline for a full refund before cancelling, having tied up my calendar for months, and these were for peak season dates.

 

Now I host mostly long term, so it's not so relevant, but I still have Strict for when I do accept shorter stays. I don't think it affects bookings at all because most guests don't bother checking the cancellation policy.

 

Of course, these days, more people are changing their plans, but I'd rather know as far in advance as possible and be able to open up the dates for replacement bookings (you can always refund the guest extra if you want to). With moderate, you could be repeatedly left in the lurch. With strict, you still have some control.