Customising availability of Instant Book

[Alex168]

I would love to see the calendar options enhanced to show, instead of just "Blocked" and "Available", also a new status "Request" meaning that availability is to be determined by the host upon enquiry.

This change would benefit both guests and hosts: it would bring more hosts onto Instant Book as the main barrier to do so would be eliminated (not being able to control who books when). And it would benefit guests by ensuring their Instant Book is not a gamble on availability.

I host a few properties on airbnb and recently have switched on the Instant Book feature as this is sometimes a default selection when potential guests are seaching (depends on dates and maybe the device you're searching on) and I don't want my listings to be invisible by default.

This is great for getting last minute bookings, but not so great when trying to fill a calendar further ahead. For example a 2-day instant book can instantly mess up your calendar potential for getting longer bookings. 

There are workarounds and measures that can be taken, such as updating the "Pre-booking message" and/or house rules to state a restriction on Instant Bookings, but this is not ideal.

There are probably other such ideas in the pipeline, and I would welcome anyone's support or input into this proposal.

Thank you

[Lorri-And-Robin0]

We are new to Airbnb and have had luck with scheduling long term stays. This makes me very reluctant to turn instant booking on for all of the reasons other folks have stated -- I don't want to mess up our calendar for long term requests. There are some short gaps in the calendar where short term stays would be great. Who do we talk to to get some movement on the need for selective instant book dates?

As a side note, I have had excellent results when calling airbnb directly -- great customer service.

[Abdul1]

Really need this feature, When my entire home left some rooms to sell, now I can't. If I can switch off instant booking I can chat and convince customers that there's only n rooms left. If I didn't block, people expect entire home and they're not ready to share the area with someone who don't know.

Thanks