Instant book for new members without referrals

[Bernadette82]

I just got another instant booking from someone that just became a member literally a few days ago and has no referrals and is staying for the maximum amount of days (5). He showed up at my doorstep 45 minutes after he booked. I had barely seen the booking and was still trying to look up info on him. This is the second one that did this and the first ended up in theft. They are locals (like the first ones). I literally didn't have enough time to even put in a cancellation if I had wanted to. I took the auto book setting off and Airbnb said gave me the drill on how I won't get any free cancellations now or it might hurt my superhost status that I'm trying to get to. I don't know how else to do it. I don't want locals using my home as a way to get around the rental system for apartments. I feel that this is a way for renters to house skip from rentals without the responsibility. There are four men in the group and no references and they got to instant stay in my house. Like I said they were at my door before I could do anything. I took the instant book off but is there something else I can do instead? Is anyone else having problems with locals? I just wanted my house to be a nice get-away in a quiet neighborhood that tourist came to. I am uneasy with locals knowing where I live and would def not like to see them in a grocery store in the future. Suggestions please. This is twice now. I don't like the instant book. I think it is unsafe.

[Cormac0]

@Bernadette

Would that be even enough time for the payment transaction to go through?

they could be in your property a few day before Airbnb find out there’s no money in their account.

In the words Stan Laurel "Well that’s another fine mess you got me into Airbnb" 

On the other hand, they could be involved in a merger and acquisition and they need some anonymity, which a complete long shot and is hardly worth considering.

In my book, locals + expedience = scam

[Bernadette82]

Nothing is a long shot in my book, Cormac. We had people living next door that were under protective service. Anything is possible. 

[Roberta2]

Hi 

You can change your settings to not accept same day booking - so at least you have 12 hours or so to make sure you are happy with the booking.

[Bernadette82]

Ok thank you, I will change that. I don't like the instant booking in these cases where the locals are coming to live. I love it for the tourists and it works for me. But when there is no picture or referals or any thing about them and they just joined a few days ago, I really don't like it. I can't believe Airbnb is not doing more about it. I contacted them and still haven't gotten a responce. 

[John1574]

@Bernadette0

Thanks for posting this. It is pretty mindboggling. 

This is why AirBnB loses good hosts and why they should take changing policy as needed seriousely and why it would be worth their while.

I am gathering information on hosts and guests dealing with AirBnB Customer Service so all can benifit from others experience on a CC forum post.

Here's the link:

 https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/How-Do-You-Rate-AirBnB-for-Customer-Service/m-p/712486#M...

It can be helpful as a clearing house if we keep the thread going so readers can discern where AirBnB shines and where there is room for improvement.

Please contribute there if you have the time.

[Lisa723]

You can also tighten up your instant book rules to allow only guests with previous host recommendations and/or verified government id to book instantly.

[Kati18]

I'm not sure if this will work in your situation but in order to prevent "locals" from booking I do a minimum of 2 days required.  My thought is that if someone is going to come rob me they don't want to be spending $150 or more to take a chance that I actually have something work stealing.  I also don't allow same day booking - as mentioned above.  Plus make sure you have it checked off that if you do IB they have to have positive thumbs up reviews in order to book.  If they don't have a review they shouldn't be able to IB and will have to send you a booking request.

[Bernadette82]

Most of my bookings are 1 day stays since Vegas is just a stopping place before Zion or Grand Canyon. So besides my locals I do get a lot of 1 day stays. I did change all of my settings to require thumbs up, thanks to all the good responses from you all. My room is also $50-$60 and I keep getting notices to lower the price. So I am at the top of the price list in my area for what I offer (No kitchen or fridge). I don't want to offer anything else. Thank you for your help. Oh it took customer service 2 days to get back to me. What a joke. 

[Pete69]

How many other hosts in your area actually accept instant book? In my area very few. I think the whole instant book thing is over rated (by airbnb). Airbnb tries to puff up the idea by saying that you appear in X% more searches. My very first instant book person was not ID verified, posted no selfie picture and even used someone else's account to book. So airbnb isn't even set up to enforce their instant book rules! It was a whole fiasco trying to get him to cancel and create his own account. So I was done with instant book as soon as I got started.

[Bernadette82]

After I took it off IB I kept on getting messages to switch it back. Like 3 a day. And I was still waiting for customer service to get back with me, which btw it took them 2 days. Good thing it wasn't an emergency. It said my host status could not get up to superhost status, a bunch of stuff. My room is only $50-$60 and I keep getting notices to lower the price. So I am at the top of the price list in my area for what I offer (No kitchen or fridge). I don't want to offer anything else. Plus it is very hard for me to stay connected to the computer all day and night. You're suppose to respond within the hour and approve within 24. I am not good at checking my messages every time I get a beep. So the IB works ok for me. (I have only been hosting since December last year so I don't have any super status yet), But the loop hole is having people that are locals renting as apartments. I don't want to see any of them later at the grocery store especially if they weren't a good group. I guess I have more than one problem but thankfully the community center has helped me out so much. 

[Rebecca160]

@Bernadette0 I have a 2 day advance notice on my bookings, plus a 2 night minimum. This prevents some of the issues from developing. Of course, I lose out on potentially many more booking nights, but that is just fine by me. I feel safer and I think I get higher quality bookings. 

It it is truly disturbing that you got IB from those with no references. This happened to me a few times and I cancelled the bookings and Airbnb refused to help. When I requested that these be removed from my account, it was denied. Now I have some strikes against my Superhost status. It is frustrating!  Not sure what we can do about to.

[Michael956]

As mentioned above, you can fine tune your instant book settings to  allow only those who have at least one positive review to use instant booking.  It works for me.  

[Elenita5]

Instant book is not a good idea actually I’m new with Airbnb at the beginning I did not even aware that my settings was IB I have a guest that was book already on that date   And someone else got a reservation on IB so in short o that dates I have two groups was book same date I called Airbnb how could that happen they even charge me a cancellation coz I need to cancel one group  that’s why I hate instant booking

[Matthew285]

@Elenita0,

Do you use more than one booking platform? (Meaning Airbnb plus VRBO or HomeAway or Booking.com).

(Which is perfectly fine. Many many people do that and it is not wrong in any way.)

Even with Instant Book, if you are *just* on Airbnb, then it should not be possible to have two conflicting bookings. If that did somehow happen, then you should be given a penalty-free cancellation.

However, if the conflict happened because you are on more than one booking platform, then yes, Instant Book can cause this sort of problem. There are some things you can do to help avoid it though.

(Synchronizing the calendars using a multi-platform manager, for example.)