Can I turn off instant book for a specific period of time?

Sherry58
Level 1
Glide, OR

Can I turn off instant book for a specific period of time?

I am in the area of Oregon that may be expecting an influx of 20,000 "Rainbow People" that have been rumored to book a room or house and sneak in hundreds of people for showers.  I would like to prevent this by turning off instant book, but only for a specific 2 week period in July.  Is this possible?

15 Replies 15
Steve143
Level 10
Limerick, Ireland

Hello @Sherry58,

 

No, it's not possible to turn off instant book in advance for a specific period. If you turn it off it's off for all bookings made from then on.

The only things that can be set in advance for a specific period are prices, minimum number of nights' stay and whether or not guests must check in on a specific day of the week.

 

Steve.

Ric11
Level 4
Salford, United Kingdom

I would like this as a feature. Mainly because for certain days, something might be happening. 

 

For example, I have an engineer booked for a certain day, who will be here to look at the internet and therefore no internet will be available during this engineering time period. I would rather have a guest enquire first for this day than to have a bad review because I told them after they booked. 

 

Is there a way to recommend this to AirBnB?

 

Thanks

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Sherry58

I would like to have this feature for New year period and days when big concerts are in the city etc...

Lou23
Level 1
Washington, DC

I have the same question, and the answer appears to be no.   In my case, I have a guest staying for a month starting in January and they may or may not need to stay a second month, in which case I would like to give them that option but cannot as long as Instant Book is on.  If someone makes a request, then my guest would have to commit one way or the other.   I guess the alternative is to allow Instant Book, but cancel it if my guest wants to stay, but that seems like a worse option.   Seems like Instant Book should be allowed temporarily for cases like this.

Emily145
Level 8
Takoma Park, MD

I also have a need for something like this. I'll be traveling on several short (2-3 night) trips this spring. I don't want to block off the days I'll be out of town, but I don't want anyone to arrive on one of those days so that my local back-up only has to be an emergency back-up and not a getting-settled back-up. At first I thought I could just say that for reservations between Tuesday and Friday, they must arrive on a Saturday-Monday, but then I discovered you can only choose a single arrival day or all of them, not three as I wanted to do.

 

I would be happy to approve an inquiry that met the right pattern but now am feeling like I have to make my place unavailable the whole time I'm gone just to avoid someone instant-booking an arrival while I'm away.

Ellie38
Level 2
Pittsburgh, PA

Airbnb needs to add the feature of being able to turn off instant book for certain days in advance, just like how you can with blocking off days. This would be extremely useful for me and many other hosts. We would be better able to provide better hosting services and be better equipped.

Thanks.

Susan-and-Thomas0
Level 3
South Padre Island, TX

I, too, would like to see this feature.  We are in a beach town and it would be nice to take IB off for spring break dates.  We want to be able to screen the spring breakers before booking, to try and avoid some of the horror stories that go on during that time.  The only option that I can come up with, is to raise the price so high that it will avoid bookings all together and put in comments to contact us for pricing.  Please help us Airbnb!

@Susan-and-Thomas0   I am also in a beach town on which thousands of teenagers and young adults descend for a week during Semana Santa. I never use IB, but I just blocked off my whole calendar for that week last season. Even without IB, I knew I would be having to deal with inappropriate requests for days. It just isn't worth it to me.

Yes, Semana Santa is another big week here in South Padre Island when I would like to turn off IB.    In the past, I was fortunate enough to have the whole month of March booked by Winter Texans, however, that is not the case this coming year.  I, too, was just going to block these days and not worry about it, but I would not mind renting to families who I could pre-approve.  It seems like an easy Airbnb fix and reasonable to use for times like these. 

@Susan-and-Thomas0  The problem I see is that young people these days seem to have a hard time reading through anything longer than a 2 line text or tweet, so reading through the whole listing description is not likely to be done. So then, one is likely to get a whole raft of booking requests that have to be declined, which leads to Airbnb chastising hosts. That's why I blocked off Semana Santa last season. Hopefully I get bookings this year from the type of guests I want ahead of time so that the dates will already be blocked by reservations.

Susan-and-Thomas0
Level 3
South Padre Island, TX

@Sarah977. Ahhh...thanks for that.  You are very correct.  Guess I will block the days as I didn't think about having to decline multiple requests.  Hopefully, this can be changed in the future.

@Susan-and-Thomas0   Yes, I blocked the days after the first inquiry rolled in, from a young girl who was obviously coming for the party-your-face-off Semana Santa madness. " So, is it just for 1 person?"  

My listing heading  states "For solo traveler". I could immediately foresee having to deal with 20 of these type of inquiries per day 😞  As it turned out, a friend of mine wanted to come visit for that week anyway, which was way more fun 🙂

I would love to have that feature too. Anyone knows if there is a way to suggest it to AirBnB?

Sarawut0
Level 2
Pai, Thailand

It seems so many people need this and makes perfect sense to me; I don't know why Airbnb has not introduced it yet. I'll look into way to make suggestions... finger crossed!