Airbnb API & Instant Book

[Aman13]

Hi All,

I'm a Superhost and also a property manager in India with more than 15 listings currently and in the process of adding more.

I have been using Airbnb for almost an year now and have gotten good response to say the least.

However, I'm stuck with a few issues and I wonder if anyone at Airbnb is listening to this who can initiate a solution for the same:

1. I'm currently using a channel manager/Property Management System and Airbnb's API only allows Instant Book for all API connected listings. As a PM of luxury vacation homes, I find this very unsettling and I don't understand on what purpose does Airbnb gets to decide my booking settings. As a host who welcomes guests, it should be my decision of choosing the booking settings and not the platform's.
2. To get a workaround, I got the API implemented and then contacted customer care to try and see if they could switch off the Instant Book. For the first week, they were able to. However, a few of my listings kept having their IB turned on automatically and hence I had to pull those listings off of API.
3. Request to Book was one of the few reasons Airbnb took off as a platform since it allowed the hosts to vet the guests before they booked. Hosts like me who have multiple high-value properties need that option along with using an API or else managing price and availability through so many different platforms will certainly be a time-consuming effort that could easily be avoided.

If there's any other host who's also had this problem, do let me know of your experience.

If Airbnb is reading this, I'm willing to be there to talk to your developer or tech teams to make them understand the importance of this but it all starts from the main thing that Airbnb started off with - LISTENING TO YOUR COMMUNITY.

Wish you all the best

Regards.

[Steve2416]

We switched to the API connection from our channel manager and have the same problems. We MUST have 48 hour notice prior to accepting a new reservation to give my staff time to prepare the property, and we MUST have a 24-hour Preparation time between reservation to give my staff time to clean in between guests. We will be switching back to the old iCal connection until these issues are addressed.