Instant booking or not

[Yves561]

Hello, 

Last month we had a very stressful experience with a guest.  Since then I disconnected the "instant Booking" on my page.

I hesitate to re-activate it.  It is hard to make a decision to accept with only a first name. No way to get more information.

Since I turned it off there is no activity in our listing. 

Should I reactivate it or not? 

So fro we have 23 positive reviews.

Thank you for your help.

Yves Blondeau

Sacramento, California.

[Huma0 · Accepted solution]

@Yves561 

I am afraid this is the dilemma. I don't like IB either. It worked okay for me for quite some time, but lately I seem to be getting more and more unsuitable guests (e.g. people who haven't understood the listing) wanting to book. 

While some hosts say that they get plenty of bookings without it, I think it totally depends on your location and the competition and availability in your area. For me, I have found it makes a huge difference.

I was getting very frustrated with the type of bookings I was getting recently, so turned IB off on one of my rooms. This room was getting a lot of interest in the days running up to this, but since I turned IB off, nothing. Looking at my views, they have decreased significantly. 

It could be that the listing is not showing high up in searches now due to lack of available dates. I can't be 100% sure if it's that or turning off IB.

[Yves561]

Thank you, This helps a lot.

Yves

[Emilia42]

@Yves561 I’ve been using instant book successfully for over 4 years. I’ve never had any problems with it. There are certain features that come with instant book that make hosting go so much smoother for me and that I would never want to lose (answers to my pre-booking message, ability to cancel penalty free, requiring guests to automatically upload government ID…) I vet and communicate with all my guests, the difference is that I do so after the booking is confirmed. 

[Yves561]

Thank you very much, I thought Airbnb was automatically checking the gov. ids.  I have to find out about the pre-booking message.  I had no problem for 3 years but lately, things are changing.

Thanks for your help.

[Emilia42]

@Yves561 Looking back at these troubled guests that you had, was there anything in the first correspondence that would have made you decline the request had their been one?

[Huma0]

@Emilia42 

I have also been using IB for several years and my experience has been more or less like yours. I have certainly never needed to use all three of my penalty free cancellations in the space of a year.

However, Like @Yves561 , I have noticed a real difference lately. In the space of a week, I had to call CS three times to get them to cancel an IB (third party booking, guests expecting to quarantine at my shared house even though the listing says this is not possible and guest refusing to tell me anything about himself or read the listing/house rules). There is a shift.

The Airbnb rep who dealt with the last cancellation told me it was because it's holiday season and people are 'panic booking', but I never noticed this before during holiday season. Perhaps it's a combination of that and COVID. Time will tell.

As for the pre-booking questions, those have always been problematic. I would say around 50% or more of IB guests tell me they never saw them. I still haven't figured out what that is about because I've had very good, communicative guests who said they never saw the questions either...

[Yves561]

Thank you, Emilia.  You described the situation very clearly. It makes me feel better.

I am going to wait for a while before I re-activate IB.

I think Airbnb should revise its verification process.  Not just checking an ID.

Thank you.

Happy new year to you and your family.

Y.

[Grattan0]

Hi @Emilia42 

I agree with you that the better process is to accept the booking, have your settings to require Airbnb verification, and then as you say, that you vet your guests.  However, I find that some guests just don't respond to messages.  Any tips on how you vet guests, please?

Further to this point, I have a guest with me and I don't believe that Airbnb have vetted their identity properly, although their profile is marked as identity confirmed.  The name that they have given me is considerably different to the one on their profile. Perhaps something for another thread, but I wonder if anyone has experience with Airbnb identity vetting accuracy.

Thanks for any input!

Grattan

[Emilia42]

@Grattan0 As part of my instant booking requirements guests are instructed to provide me with whom they are traveling with and the purpose for their visit. This 'pre-booking message' is not available to non-IB hosts. 98% of guests answer these questions to my satisfaction when they instant book (it doesn't look like you have a pre-booking message set.) I then communicate with them by way of facts, not questions. I do not ask, what time will you be arriving? I say, you can arrive by x. I don't ask, have you read the house rules? I say, the rules are as such .. etc., etc. They have booked my apartment and they now they can abide by my terms. Guests may not respond right away but they always eventually respond; always when they need something from me. It makes me think that they are not getting my messages until they actually log back into Airbnb to find whatever they are looking for. 

Regarding your current guest: a guest can change their profile name to anything they want in their settings. Or it may be their legal name but they prefer to be called something different. Or the guest may not be the owner of the profile. It's against the rules but you might not necessarily know unless you asked. 

P.S. Make sure you have this box is checked:

https://www.airbnb.com/hosting/requirements

[Grattan0]

Thanks for the swift reply @Emilia42.  I'll try the pre-booking message feature - I had been thinking on that for a while.

I had a long exchange with Airbnb CS earlier.  They said that my guest's ID was verified against government ID, but refused to say which type of ID that was.  Hopefully it is simply a case of them changing their profile name after registration as you say - I didn't know that you could do that.

You hit the nail on the head when you say that guests don't always respond on the messenger until they need something!

[Kathryn541]

you are so helpful Emilia42, thanks!

[Michelle1164]

@Yves561 @ we use instant booking with one day advanced notice. Same day bookings do not work for us as we both work. Also same day bookings tend to attract less desirable guests according to many hosts on this forum.
Through trial and error we have come up with a set of questions all instant bookers must answer in order for their booking to be considered. If they don’t respond to the questions or my message their reservation gets cancelled. I have only had to do this once. I contacted Airbnb and had them cancel it stating guest had not followed instructions for booking with us. No issues and no penalty. 
Here are our pre booking questions that get sent to instant bookers. I actually send these same questions to those who inquire as well. 

For your instant booking to be considered please answer the questions below and respond to the follow up message we will be sending you, which will include our liability waiver information.
1. Full names of all guests.
2. Are you/guest allergic to cats?
3. Are you/guests willing to provide legal ID & sign liability waiver?
4. You are aware private room is located in our personal home?

Since doing this guest are no longer surprised about these items which should not have been a surprise anyway since all are clearly mentioned within our listing several times.
Do what you got to do to attract the type of guests you are looking for. What works for one host may not work for another. That’s the beauty of Airbnb. 

[Yves561]

Thank you Michelle,

I will try to follow your list of suggestions.  I do not get to send a follow-up message since I cannot communicate with the guest until I send my approval.  Am-I missing something?  Also, Where do I find a liability waiver to send to them?

Have a great and successful new year 2022.

Yves Blondeau

[Michelle1164]

@Yves561 you can communicate with potential guest prior to inquiry or request. You just have to switch over to you inbox. Airbnb gives you a 24 hr grace period before making your decision so you can make an informed decision. Prior communication with potential guests is what help you to make your decision to accept, decline or just let request expire. Hope that was helpful to you. 

Regarding liability waiver. Before we actually went live with our Airbnb listing we reached out to a local host who’s listing was comparable to ours. She shared her liability waiver with us that her home owners insurance highly recommended to her. They can be a little scary in wordage, but feel it helps detour those guests who don’t have the best of intentions when booking. If our liability scares a potential guest off, it’s probably a guest we didn’t want in the 1st place.