Instant booking issue

[Jan83]

Hello,

I have already more then 3 weeks problem with my Instant booking. In my setting is Instant booking set and I set the Airbnb basic requirements but the problem is that the Instant booking doesn´t work for guests. When guests visit my offer they see only request of booking. And this problem is on my PC and my computer, my friends told that they don´t see the Instant booking and even the guests told me that they had to sent request. I alredy wrote 4x on Help centre but they did not help me. First person told me that there is not problem and closed the my case. Second and third person told me that I have maybe something wrong with setting and then closed my case. So when I wrote there again and told them to they set my setting for Instant booking, they wrote me that there really problem is and that they will try find out solution. After 4 days I got message that I should still wait and they they will let me know with any news. Next 5 days happend nothing and when I today checked the converstaion with help desk I saw that on monday was my case closed. Without any help or any anwer. 😞   

Could you please check if you see on my page Requests of booking or Instant booking?

Have anyone any ideas what should i do? I don´t want to cancel my profil and begin again when I have more then 160 reviews and 87x 5 stars.

Jan

[Sarah977]

@Jan83   I see them as Request to Book.  It's crazy that Airbnb is constantly pushing hosts to use Instant Book, which a lot of us don't want and refuse to use, and here you are wanting IB and they can't seem to make it happen for you. Have you tried contacting them on Twitter- I hear that gets the best responses.

[Jan83]

Hello Sarah,

Thank you, I  have not tried contact them on Twitter so I will try it.  The Instant book is important for me because here in Berlin many people looking for room for last minutes and they usually just for Instant Booking. And another thing is the communication with Help centre. There work many young people who even don´t know much about the Airbnb and when someone has ordinary issues it is without problem but when someone has specific problem they are lost. And it is kind of frustrating when I wrote them and they told me there is no problem and closed the case.

But thank you for your help 🙂

[Meiying--May--Liu0]

Yes. No Instant Book = No Money. Simple as that. 2nd, you need to first log out of airbnb account and use a new browser or computer and go airbnb and type in the City you are in and use the setting..."private room", "2 guest", "no instant book"...and go page by page and see where is your listing on page what number? That is YOUR RANKING and see if you are listed as "Instant Book". If you don't have IB then you need to turn it ON. 

[Sarah977]

@Meiying (May) Liu    There are lots of hosts who don't use Instant Book, me included and we get bookings, it's not at all true that not using IB means you won't get booked. It depends a lot on what you offer, the area, the amount of competition, many factors. personally, I'm not at all interested in having guests who can't be bothered to contact the host first- they're often the kind of people who don't even bother to read through the listing description.

@Jan83   Oh yes, it's a known and very frustrating problem, the CS personnel who are young, clueless, and who seem to think their job consists of only half-reading your communication, sending you some useless link to the Help pages, and instantly closing the case when they haven't helped at all. Hope you manage to get your IB turned back on ASAP.

[Jason159]

Hi All, had any luck, we have the same problem IB hasn't worked for nearly a month, we have called numerous times and messaged them every case gets closed. We have basically not had any sound response from them, we have done everything possible, unfortunately here in New Zealand right now it's our busiest time of year  and we have no bookings.  IB has always worked in the past suddenly it doesn't.

I have had repeat customers complaining it doesn't work.

I can not get any help at all from the help desk, like nothing. 

Is there any IT experts out there that could help us

My listing is Town and Country Private Guest Suite Kerikeri, Bay of Islands New Zealand. I can not honestly get help from air bnb, they say they are trying to look at it, but its been a month.  Yesterday they closed my ticket no again, by accident apparently. If there is some one who can fix it, you can come and stay with us for free.

Any one know how you can get in touch with the CEO?

We currently have no bookings usually at this time of year we would be full for a month, thanks to air bnb no one.

I don't trust their  systems at all. Come on IT experts please please help us regards Jason and Fleur 

[Jan83]

Hey, I had this problem more then one month. Some people said that they changed price every 24hours and after 2 weeks it began working. I did it too more then month but nothing helped me so I stopped with that. And after month and week or two it began working again.

[Jay374]

Hey guys, I have the same issue .support is not helping and hasn't gotten back to me in two weeks .

Any tips on how to get this IB feature to start working? I'll try waiting it out another few weeks,and update here if it begins working again .

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Jan83@Jay374@Jason159@Sarah977

I've read somewhere that if the host canceled the booking or did something similar then ABB can block instant booking option for some time. Maybe that's what happend to all of you, do you remember when it started?

[Jason159]

Hi every one, I've just recently learnt if you complain directly to the CEO personally 

About their very poor level of service standards, with exact clear examples,  suddenly in a day the issue is fixed, seriously true storey. It's the only way you will get any help.

Trust me it's now working well for now any way. Our instant book stopped working about 5 weeks ago randomly, no cancelled bookings. But we have also started a listing with Booking.com, their customer service people are exceptional. Good luck cheers Jason and fleur

[Jay374]

I did cancel a booking about two weeks ago and that's when it started. The confusion for me is that I had instant book on and was advised there would be no penalties as per the website . Also, I had called their office to cancel as I was worried it would affect me negatively in some way (like not showing up on IB) and I was assured i would not be affected as I am allowed one cancellation per year (even with IB on, which doesn't make sense to me, as they advertise the ability to cancel any guest as many times as I would like) . I'll wait it out a few more weeks to see if there are any changes. Thanks for your reply! 

[Alexandra199]

Help!!! I have this oproblem too. I didnt realise but I did a quick search to check my properties were showing up and with the instant book filter on, none of my 4 properties show up in search results. It has not dawned on me that the last few bookings i have had all start out as enquiries before they then book. What is wrong with Airbnb? I have been hostsing with them for a while now and i am gettig more and more fed up with them. Their attitude to owners is disgusting. Their systems dont work and their customer service helpdesk are useless. Im currenlty in a web chat situation trying to sort this out but nothing has changed. I am losing booking here and this is my business. The more i come on the community site the more i realise airbnb are really not working.

[Kostas35]

I just joining the conversation to comfirm that after 120+ reservations (instant booking from the beginning), i cancelled 1 that i did not feel confortable about (actually a guest with some red flags that he will not respect my hospitality and the appartement) and my instant booking was turn off! I have not contact their help support but from what i read that is a "PENALTY" that is not mentioned anywhere. And i believe it will be back to normal 1 month after the date of cancellation. I hope to report again when it is on. Spread it around! Take care!