pre-approvals & choosing your guests

[Marie622]

I'm brand new to hosting and have three separate bookings over the next few weeks.  The bookings have been coming to me pre-approved.  I don't understand that, as i thought i had the right to approve or not a potential guest.  Also, i wish only to rent to women (it's a safety issue) but don't know if that's legal or can i put that somewhere in my profile?  I got a listing for a pre-approved male, and cancelled it within 3 hours of receiving the booking.  I got a message saying since it was my first cancellation they wouldn't charge me this time, however. . . . . .   shouldn't i be the one to approve a potential guest?  I'm also finding the site a little challenging to navigate.

Looking for your wisdom on these issues

[Cynthia-and-Chris1]

@Marie622 You’ve gone “live” before doing your research on how Airbnb works. Head over the the Help Center and read read read. 

You have Instant Book turned on, which allows verified guests to book without your approval. If you don’t want this, you need to turn IB off. 

[Allison2]

Hi Marie,

Welcome to hosting - it's a steep learning curve! The lightening strike at the top of your listing means it's "Instant Book" - guests can book a confirmed reservation without approval from you. You can find out how to turn this off here:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1510/how-do-i-turn-instant-book-on-or-off

There are some perks to being an IB host- your listing appears higher in the results, you can see guests' star ratings, and require a validated government ID on the guests' account.

As for whether you can host only women, that's been a topic of some controversy! Federal laws make exception to Fair Housing Act when the owner is sharing space with a renter - known as "Mrs Murphy" exceptions. Airbnb allows it when you're sharing living spaces as defined in the link below. You need to make this a requirement in your house rules - Airbnb will allow you to cancel penalty-free if someone books against your house rules.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1807/can-i-choose-to-only-host-people-of-my-own-gender

There are a lot of things to learn in hosting - reading through the articles on this forum, Airhostsforum.com, and Airbnb's help articles is invaluable to avoid pitfalls 

https://www.airbnb.com/help