Instant Book disabled but ON in settings - GLITCH? (I have 0 Cancelations & 100% Acceptance Rate)

[Lucia152]

Hello,

I have "Instant Book: (IB) turned "ON" in my settings, but my listing doesn't appear when guests search for IB, and guests are not given the option to IB (SEE SCREENSHOTS BELOW).

My listing has fallen lower in the overal rankings as a result and doesn't appear as high in the search results. This is hurting the number of requests I'm getting.

A number of hosts are having this problem right now and are trying to figure out what is going on, because Airbnb is not being transparent with us, and Customer Service is not able to help. Some theories are that people are being penalized for too many Cancellations or a too-low Acceptance or Response Rate: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Host-Circle/Instant-Book-Cancelled-Theory-and-Research/m-p/95007...

In my case, however, I have **0** Cancellations and 100% Acceptance and Response Rates in the past year, and 100% 5-star positive ratings since I first joined Airbnb 3 years ago (SEE SCREENSHOT BELOW). (btw, the only reason I am not a Superhost is that we accept long-term rentals and hence I never have the 10 listings a year required.)  

So why am I being penalized by IB being disabled???

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Lucia152 

another theory is because you didn't update your calendar for some time or your listing was inactive / blocked for longer period of time (maybe because you had long term reservations)

I've read it somewhere but I don't remember where it was

to be able to instantly book it again you should be very active with your listing, change the description, prices, update it every day and in a few weeks or a month it will change.... hopefully ...

[Lucia152]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 - I had a long-term rental from Dec 1 - April 1 and didn't update my listing much during that time - but since then I've had a rental in April, two in May, and requests for June and July. As a result I have also been updating/tweaking my listing regularly and have changed my Calendar prices many times since before April 1 (so a good two months now). 

I really suspect some sort of technical glitch, because Airbnb is very transparent about other such rules. They just seem understaffed and disorganized in some areas.

I seem to recall some people reporting that the CS reps they spoke with admitted to some sort of technical glitch, while others seemed either not to know what was going on, or did not want to admit any technical problems.  

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Lucia152  I've seen your another post about dogs and you said you had to decline some requests because guests didn't respond on time to your questions.  those declines maybe affected your instant booking

[Lucia152]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 No, actually, I didn't decline anything directly, and according to my stats, I didn't even decline by "default" by failing to respond in time, at least not in the past year. I will try to contact CS to see if they can at least give me a reason.