Instant booking

[Jamie100]

I am a very new host and am hoping someone can assist me.  It is my first week hosting and am still getting used to the differences in booking types.  I had the following timeline and I am unsure what to do:

- I received an enquiry about a two month stay, which I agreed to but the guest did not book. I offered for the guest to come and have a look prior to booking (as it was such a long stay, I thought they may like to see it first).

- during that period, i received some kind of booking from a second guest for one month.  I contacted them to say that I thought I had done something wrong with the site (at that time I didnt understand the process and thought I had), and as I had promised the place to the first booking, I felt obliged to honor the first booking.  I thus declined their reservation, and said I would open it on Tuesday if the first guest did not book, and give them a special offer for the inconvenience.

- while waiting for the first guest to get back to me and book, a third guest has booked for nine days over the top of the period, and I do not have the option to accept or decline (which I am not sure as to why).

I feel terrible and am not sure what to do.  Logically I feel like I should cancel the third and allow the first two to book, but when I look into this, it says I will lose my  superhost satus.   I know at the very least, I am swapping to reservation only, as my experience with this instabook feature has been very problematic as a new host!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Hilary-And-Ed0]

Do not cancel --more coming in the next minutes

[Hilary-And-Ed0]

If you  cancel a booking you will be penalized in three ways.  First, you will be blocked from booking those dates anyway, so the first guest couldn't book anyway. Second, you will be prevented from becoming a "superhost" for a year.  Third you may be fined the equivalent of $50 American.

It was very kind of you to offer for the person to see your place. However, if you have instant book on, and someone else books first, then the first guest loses their slot.  That is the whole point of IB - if the person wants to book, they can do it right then without any rigamarole.

I personally would never use IB, because I want a little bit of communication prior to approving the booking.  Even if you want to use IB, I would recommend turning it off until you understand it, and either way, stay up to date with your calendar.

[Jamie100]

Thanks Hillary and Ed.  I agree, Instabook is awful as a new host. I have since cancelled mine. Will someone from Airbnb contact me?  I think the honourable thing to do would be to honour the first two reservations, but I do not wish to lose my Superhost status.  It is also unfortunate as the first two bookings were for far longer than the third.

[Hilary-And-Ed0]

Good that you turned off IB.  I don't think I will ever use it.  I like to ask a few questions prior to approving.  In truth, I think people pretty much know that they will be asked questions because often the first communication I get is someone explaining why they are coming to Bosotn (professional conference, child's university graduation, etc.).

I don't think you will be contacted because right now, you have two bookings (from IB), and haven't made any changes. You are right, I recommend you just keep the bookings you have to save your status/not be penalized.  It is a bit of a drag, but I think everyone finds that there is a fairly steep learning curve to hosting.  Just take it as a learning experience, and next time it wont happen!

🙂

[Jamie100]

Thanks for the advice Hilary and Ed.  Your swift response is much appreciated.

[Pauline106]

I wanted to turn off my instant book but when I did I got info from AirBnb that was very discouraging, like how it would decrease my search numbers, and on and on. I really felt discourage by their response to hosts. 

[Helen3]

Don't worry they do this, because they don't want people turning it off. Just carry on and turn it off.

[Pauline106]

I have 2 rooms in my home to rent. Each can only accommodate 2 people. I say this on the listing, but to date I am having trouble with people booking in 3 people for one room. When I have to cancel them and explain that the room only has one bed I get penalized by AirBnB.  What can be done about this so I am not penalized?

[Monika64]

@Pauline106 You have 2 listings, each of them say you can accomodate 4 people. Aribnb will penalize you if you cancel because you have misleading info in your listings. Each should say you can accomodate 2 people. You can perharps have a slightly different photo for the 2 listings to make them stand out more but right now I'd also think I can book for 4 people.

[Pauline106]

Thank you Monica. I will change that immediately. 

New to this.  But I don't understand why Airbnb doesn't have the software set up so that all rooms can be under one listing. Having to have different listings means that people that need 2 rooms don't realize they can book the 2 rooms. And the other problem is that the listings don't say together. 

The other thing that just happened to me today is that a person booked via Instant Book and wanted to book my house for 2 hours to do photo shoots. I had to cancel that too! Another cancellation.

[Monika64]

@Pauline106 You can only have 1 calendar under 1 listing so while 1 of your room might be booked the other would be still free. You  really need 2 listings for this. I think it is actually better that way. I would, however, use a Room1/Room 2 name in the listings and use different cover photos so it's obvious for people. Also, mention the other listing in each listings. I saw hosts who have 4 condos listed in the same building listing all in each of their listings so this way people who are looking for space for a bigger group can book.

Also, kindly change your profile photo. While your dog is cute it is not the kind of photo potential guests are looking for.

Lastly, why would you cancel a 2 hour booking? If the person used IB (Instant Book) he obviously agreed to the price. I do rent my unit for photo shoots (bridal) that only takes a few hours. As long as it doesn't interfare with your scheduled guests for the previous or following nights I'm quite sure why you would have to cancel.

[R--Lorand0]

Hello guys,

My issue is almost identical to Jamies... I'm a new host and I was unaware of the IB feature...

An ABnB Guest sent me an inquiry about the cost of booking my property from May 20 thru June 16 (26 days)... I responded to the inquiry and later that day, I received an IB for the May 20 date (1 day)... I canceled the IB because I had committed to the 1st Guest...  I was unaware that the May 20 - 21st dates would be blocked... 

Now, it appears that I (and possibly ABnB) will lose the 1st guest (cannot book because ABnB blocked the May 20-21 dates), I (and possibly ABnB) will lose the guest that I cancelled (if the guests cannot find other ABnB host in the area)...

This is my first attempt at trying ABnB and this is a very dissappointing situation... I will be looking at other options for my property... It makes no sense to me to block available days that are available for whatever reason (ABnB provided no training)... Maybe, the group-home business or something else might be a better fit for me...  

R. L. J.

[Helen3]

Hello @R--Lorand0

I am sorry to hear about your experience.

You decided to have Instant Book turned on, which means any guest can book your place at any time that you have availability.

You weren't committed to your first guest they had simply made an inquiry, which they may or may not follow through with.  (Many guests make inquiries and then don't go onto book).

You then received a confirmed booking for part of the same period, which you decided to cancel. Before you cancel the booking, Airbnb does tell you that you will be penalised as a host. One of those penalties are blocking the dates, as you have told Airbnb these aren't available by cancelling the booking

If you want to choose which bookings you take turn off Instant Book - highly recommended as a new host you do this, so you can vet your guests and ensure there is a good fit.

Airbnb do provide lots of information for hosts, through it's website and help centre and indeed these forums have community guides, tutorials and tips for new hosts.

I think what happens is that Hosts set up listings without familiarising themselves with how Airbnb works and then find themselves getting into difficulty.

If you want to give the platform another try. Remove IB from your listing. Airbnb will try and get you to stay on Instant Book but ignore this. Then 'snooze' your listing (information on how to do this on Airbnb's Help Centre) - put it on hold while you read up on how the platform works.

[R--Lorand0]

Thanks for your response Helen,

I am inclined to take your advice...  I was unaware of the IB feature, but I did find information about the feature after the fact... I will look for the snooze feature also...  AirBnB has sent me a threatening email which states that if I cancel another guest my account will be suspended for a period of time...  I don't appreciate  the threat, so I think I will snooze my account here until I have a better understanding of the AirBnB process...  I'm also looking at "Short Term Stays" as an alturnative to the AirBnB system... I don't respond very well to being threatened...

Respectfully,

RLJ