Losing Confidence in Instant Book

[Susan653]

Tonight, I  received an instant booking for four nights in May. My understanding when I revised my IB settings (in response to the guest photo requirement being done away with) was that prospective guests are supposed to answer my "Guest Travel Information" questions before the booking can go through. This did not happen and I had no idea at all about who was coming or their travel plans. I did, however, get the following "message:"

K.

I need to send o mee ,cc ,#

Oookay. Then the guest's profile photo came through and it was not a human being, but a dog. About 30 minutes after the booking was made (10:00 p.m. EST), my phone rang. It was the guest, who wanted to know (a) if her reservation went through; (b) if I could take a different credit card over the phone; and (c) which property she'd booked. She announced that if there wasn't parking and a washer/dryer, she'd cancel immediately (I, stupidly, confirmed that the apartment has both).  Oh, and her booking was supposed to be for two people but she only listed one person on the reservation.  Frankly, she sounded drunk.

I dropped a line to customer service to let them know that I was uncomfortable with this reservation and also to ask why my Guest Information "requirement"  isn't being enforced. The agent's reply:

"Firstly I would like to inform that you have activated the Instant book option for guests and that is why the request was accepted automatically. You can change it to request to book option in case you want to get a request before it gets approved automatically."

Um, thanks? So I then had to explain that I do, in fact, understand that I have instant book enabled and that I do, in fact, understand how it works since I've been using it for three years. When I asked why it wasn't a security breach for the profile photo to be a dog rather than a human, I was told that, since the user was "verified" by Airbnb, they could use whatever photo they wanted. The agent suggested I ask the guest to change the photo to one of her in human form, at which point I was moved to ask whether the agent truly believed that this person, who found it so difficult to navigate the reservation process that she had to call me at 10:00 at night, would be inclined--much less able--to change her profile photo at my request. Once again, I asked why my "Guest Travel Information" requirement was not met before the reservation was confirmed.

The agent's response:

"Please allow a minute while I check it for you."

That was two hours ago.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Susan653 

contact Airbnb through twitter, they seems to be more competent there and request to cancel this reservation. Good luck 🙂

[Antonio-Luis0]

Hello @Susan653 

I think you have the option of cancelling 3 "instant bookings" a year without penalty if the guest is making you feel unconfortable or is not following your rules like having a profile picture. Policy is explained here:

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/2022/how-do-penalty-free-cancellations-work-for-instant-book-h...

Good luck!

[Susan653]

@Antonio-Luis0 , thanks and yes, I did know about the "3 cancellations" rule. This (if I cancel) would be my second cancellation in four months--and this is low season in my neck of the woods. By the time I hit high season in about 6 weeks, I'd only have one penalty-free cancellation left. These cancellations are happening because (a) IB guests are ignoring my house rule requesting a photo of them (which, of course, I'll only see after the reservation is made) and (b) IB overrides my "requirement" (sarcastic quotes) that guests provide trip information.

Interestingly, I've always had IB booking enabled, but have only run into this problem since Airbnb changed their guest photos policy. It's like all these sketchy people have suddenly come out of the woodwork.

[Helen3]

Hello @Susan653 

1. The guest doesn't have to answer your IB questions before they book - I often have to chase for responses on these

2. If you want to ensure only guests with photos of themselves book, then you need to have this as a house rule. As you know hosts and guests can upload any photo they want, so if you want the photo to be of the guest you need to say that in house rules and IB questions. (this is no different to how it was before the guest photo rules changed)

3. In your situation I would always call not message Airbnb and wouldn't be waiting for them to call back two hours later for a same day booking. I would be back on the phone within 10 minutes asking they cancel the booking with the guest as they hadn't responded to my IB questions and were asking to pay with an alternative credit card.

What happened with this guest @Susan653  did Airbnb cancel the booking?

[Susan653]

@Helen3 , thanks for your thoughtful advice. Clearly, as you said, Airbnb doesn't actually enforce the Guest Information "requirement." I guess what confuses me is that they do, in fact, present it as a requirement (on top of the "Airbnb standard requirements"  hosts can opt to use to screen guests.) This is what I see in my booking settings:

Airbnb standard requirements

Confirmed phone number, email address, payment information, and agreement to House Rules.

Profile photo

Government-issued ID

Recommendation from other hosts

Guest trip information

In edit mode, the following disclaimer appears:

Guest requirements

Adding more requirements may mean fewer reservations. Anyone who doesn’t meet your requirements can still send a request.

To me, this means that guests who meet my instant book requirements--including providing Guest Trip Information--will be permitted to book. Guests who don't provide Guest Trip Info will be permitted to inquire, but not permitted to book until my questions are answered or I manually approve their stay. If this isn't the case, Airbnb should make that clear, because I doubt I'm the only host who's been lulled into a false sense of security thinking I have "screening" questions to help me weed out guests (partiers, etc.) who don't fit my space.

To your second point, request for a profile photo (of a person, not an animal or other thing) is near the top of  my House Rules (rule #2). This is the second IB reservation in the last few months that hasn't provided a photo. The first one wouldn't provide a photo (or any trip info) even after several emails from me and contact from Airbnb CS. I ended up canceling that reservation.

I couldn't agree more with point 3. Nine times out of ten, I try calling before messaging. This was that one time I just didn't feel like talking to a person (after the drunk "guest" phone call), but you're right, I should have (and will be today)!

[Susan653]

Update:

I just had a long chat with Justine in customer service and now understand that Airbnb's Instant Book 'bots recognize pretty much any message a guest sends when making a reservation as "Guest Information." So that gibberish the woman last night messaged counts as "information" about her trip, and therefore opens the IB gate to her reservation. Bummer. 

The good news is that IB-enabled hosts can cancel more than 3 IBs as long as they cancel them through customer service and it's not excessive. I only had one other cancellation (family medical emergency) in the two years before the cancellation last fall and this one, and I obviously don't want to cancel if it can be avoided. Fingers crossed this sketchy reservations trend doesn't continue.

And from the files of "Whew, I'm not Crazy"--apparently, my drunk-calling guest also made reservations with three other hosts last night within an hour of when I heard from her, so yeah, she's flagged.