CONFUSED by Instant Book

Lucia152
Level 6
Windham, NY

CONFUSED by Instant Book

Even after 3 years of hosting, I'm so confused by Instant book. In the past when I had it on, guests could simply book a reservation without contacting me at all and I had no option to "Pre-Approve" or "Decline." As a result of too many problems with guests not reading the House Rules before booking, and being penalized by Airbnb despite the supposed "No Penalty" cancelation policy, I stopped using it, but I recently decided to try it again.

 

Now, it seems that whenever anyone "Instant Books" I get an "Inquiry" that I can either "Pre-Approve" or "Decline." So how is "Instant Book" any different from regular booking???

 

I'm not complaining, if this is REALLY now the policy. I'm just afraid of this being an abberation and receiving multiple requests for booking. To be specific, this is what I'm now facing:

 

Someone requested to book our home for the entire month of July. The guest has excellent recommendations. We exchanged a few messages and she said she could pay on Tuesday (it's Saturday today). OK, no problem -  I "Pre-Approved" her reservation and when I went to "Pre-Approve" it gave me the option to block those dates on the calendar, which is great, as I don't want to lose a month-long rental because someone Instant Books a 2-day stay.  But when I went to check the box that said "block" the dates, there was a message that said that guests won't be able to "instant book" those dates but they CAN send a reservation request. 

 

WTH??? If that happens, what do I do??? I have only 24 hours to either "Pre-Approve" or "Decline" a request. If I don't, I'm penalized -- my "Response Rate" is lowered and my listing won't appear as high in the search results. 

 

Worried about this scenario, I deciced that to be safe, I should just turn off Instant Book until Tuesday when my month-long renter will book (of course, doing this means my listing won't appear as high in the search results, but fine). Now I get a message that says that if I turn OFF Instant Book, I will have to respond to any request within 24 hours. Again, WHAT??? I  already have only 24 hours to respond WITH Instant Book ON!

 

The whole 24-hour thing is unfair to hosts because guests don't seem to realize the time pressure we hosts are under to respond to all inquiries. This is a problem with almost every booking. Besides the above scenario with my month-long renter, where a guest clearly does not understand how booking works, nor realize that when they book, their payment method is going to be charged right away, nor that I am under time limit to approve or decline (so really they should not book unless they are ready to pay), another scenario that happens frequently is that guests don't really read or observe the House Rules before Instant Booking. I don't have a Pet Policy set because it gives hosts only 2 OPTIONS, Allowed or Not (which is stupid because while I don't mind small dogs depending on the breed, I don't want large, smelly/oily or sheddy breeds) - BUT my rules clearly state "No pets unless approved prior to rental." Meaning they need to message me PRIOR to booking, but people will Instant Book and then in their Inquiry they will state that they have a dog (or two or three) and "is that OK?" 

 

Being aware of the 24-hour rule, I always message them back right away trying to get more information about the dog or dogs. Then I will sit waiting and the guest won't respond. So I am then forced to "Decline" the booking rather than exceeding the 24 hours and being penalized. Airbnb should more clearly explain to guests that there is a time limit to bookings on both sides!

 

Also, with "Pre-Approval" a guest is "encouraged" to respond within 24 hours but then it says that they can still Book AFTER 24 hours. So what happens in the case of multiple requests? 

 

Any insight into any of the above would be greatly appreciated - particularly whether all "Instant Bookings" now come as an "Inquiry" that a host can "Pre-Approve" or "Decline" - rather than as previously where the booking was simply completed automatically. 

 

Many thanks,

 

Lucia

 

 

 

 

 

29 Replies 29
Gordon0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

>>As a result of too many problems with guests not reading the House Rules before booking, and being penalized by Airbnb despite the supposed "No Penalty" cancelation policy, I stopped using it, but I recently decided to try it again<<

You do not have instant book turned on.

>>Now, it seems that whenever anyone "Instant Books" I get an "Inquiry" that I can either "Pre-Approve" or "Decline." So how is "Instant Book" any different from regular booking???<<

See above. Pre approvals are for enquiries, not booking requests.

 

>>Then I will sit waiting and the guest won't respond. So I am then forced to "Decline" the booking rather than exceeding the 24 hours and being penalized.<<

No. As soon as you respond to a enquiry you 'stop the clock'.

 

>>The whole 24-hour thing is unfair to hosts because guests don't seem to realize the time pressure we hosts are under to respond to all inquiries<<

I don't get this. Take the booking/don't take the booking. But 24 hours is plenty of time to make a decision.

 

>>Worried about this scenario, I deciced that to be safe, I should just turn off Instant Book until Tuesday when my month-long renter will book (of course, doing this means my listing won't appear as high in the search results, but fine). Now I get a message that says that if I turn OFF Instant Book, I will have to respond to any request within 24 hours.<<

Put yourselves in the shoes of somebody who wants to book. 24 hours in 2019 is a lifetime. You want answers now.

Again, WHAT??? I  already have only 24 hours to respond WITH Instant Book ON!<<

No, you don't need to 'respond' to instant bookings - they are what they say they are.

 

>>Also, with "Pre-Approval" a guest is "encouraged" to respond within 24 hours but then it says that they can still Book AFTER 24 hours. So what happens in the case of multiple requests?<<

You accept whichever booking comes in that you'd like to accept...a bird in the hand etc. 

 

>>Any insight into any of the above would be greatly appreciated - particularly whether all "Instant Bookings" now come as an "Inquiry" that a host can "Pre-Approve" or "Decline" - rather than as previously where the booking was simply completed automatically.<<

IBs come straight in to your calendar, you do not have the option to decline or accept.

 

I fear you may be overthinking this, @Lucia152. It's actually very simple, you just need to read up on it a little, and it's not like you have 20+ listings and are swatting off enquiries like flies (or although if you are, well done).

Sorry, Gordon, but  Instant Book is ON. I checked it 50 times over the past few bookings because I couldn't believe I was getting "Inquiries" instead of it just being instantly booked. I'm trying to attach a screen shot but it's not working. It clearly has the box checked that says:

 

"Guests who meet all your requirements can book instantly. Others will need to send a reservation request"
 

Also, I'm not complaining that I have 24 hours to respond. I'm asking why Airbnb is telling us that there's a difference, when you have 24 hours whether you have Instant Book on or off. 

 

Finally your reply is condescending ("It's very simple, you just need to read up on it a little"), as I have read everything I can find in the Help Section and Forums, and I'm not asking just to waste my time here -- and rude ("it's not like you have 20+ listings and are swatting off enquiries like flies"). In fact, I've had 5 inquiries for the same month in the past 2 days and as I said, this has been an ongoing problem. 

 

If you really want to help, perhaps you should read people's questions more carefully and practice some manners.

 

 

 

 

Gordon0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

OK, @Lucia152, although I wish I hadn't bothered, here's a screenshot of your listing illustrating IB is  off. But of course, you know best.

Response not required. 

Screenshot 2019-05-19 at 09.24.28.png

@Gordon0 , that may be what it shows on YOUR end, but on MY end, it shows Instant Book ON (see ATTACHED screenshot).  

 

 @Emilia42 was able to help to help me because she actually read and took my question seriously and didn't assume that she's the only one who can read or that I'm just making this up for the fun of it:

 

@Emilia42 wrote:

@Lucia152, you are being penalized by Airbnb. When you ask Airbnb to cancel instant book reservations, they will shut your instant book off for a period of time (even thought it says it's on.) It is happening to a lot of hosts. 

 

Here is one post. You can search many more:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Host-Circle/Instant-Book-Cancelled-Theory-and-Research/m-p/95007...

 


Instant Book ON.png

@Gordon0  the discussion in the link Emilia provided is about hosts having their Instant Book disabled when they enabled it and it shows as "ON" in their hosting Dashboard. One theory is that it is caused by one's cancellation rate being too high.

 

However, I actually have **0** Cancellations in the last year (and like I said only one before that, in the "Penalty Free Cancellation" promotion). But there is also some speculation that this has to do with Acceptance Rate. And I wonder about Response Rate as well.

 

Mine are low due to the afformentioned problem with the 24-hour period. Guests will accompany their booking request with "Oh and BTW is it OK to bring my two dogs?"  I reply *immediately* to every request and in a case like this will ask what breed and size of dog (because I allow small dogs but not large, oily-coated, or sheddy ones) - but then guests often won't respond for more than 24 hours (often the trip is booked more than a month ahead of time so apparently they're not in a hurry), leaving me in limbo.

 

And contrary to your answer above, the clock does NOT stop when you send a message. If you don't Accept or Decline within the 24 hours it is treated as a Decline and negatively affects your Acceptance Rate, which apparently is causing us to be penalized, as described by this Airbnb Administrator:

 

"As far as your acceptance rate goes, we only measure the final outcome of the booking request, and there are just three possible actions you can take: accept, decline, or let the request time out. If you let a request time out—even if you answer questions but take no action to approve or decline a request within 24 hours—that’s considered a decline."

 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Understanding-Response-Rate-and-Acceptance-Rate/m...

 

 

@Lucia152   

I looked and it is true,  IB does not appear on your listing, not on my end anyway.

Maybe Airbnb has removed it, they did it to me once for who knows what reason, they could never give me an answer so llikely it was a glitch they didn't want to take rsponsibility for.  Anyway, like you I had checked  IB in the back-end but it wasn't showing up on the guest end.

@Ange2 Thanks - see Emilia's answer below. 

@Lucia152   In my case it wasn't for that or so I was told.  One reason I was given that was subsequently contradicted by other support people was because I had no bookings for 3 months. Well,  I didn't want any,  'snooze'.  Go figure!

 

I'm still going with the 'glitch' factor, because my parameters for IB have also been periodically turned off, as has my check on not sending out address until the 48hour freebie has passed.

Can you explain the 48-hour thing? As it turns out I was reading my Stats wrong - I actually have 0 Cancellations, and 100% Approval and Acceptance Rates so no idea what's going on!

@Lucia152    If you have a strict cancellation policy (not sure if it is applicable to other policies) you can decide to hold your address and private information, such as telephone number and codes to locks, until the 48 hour freebie cancellation Airbnb forced on stricy policy hosts a while back has run out.  It's found under Location area.

Screen Shot 2019-05-19 at 3.56.59 PM.png

Emilia42
Level 10
Orono, ME

@Lucia152, you are being penalized by Airbnb. When you ask Airbnb to cancel instant book reservations, they will shut your instant book off for a period of time (even thought it says it's on.) It is happening to a lot of hosts. 

 

Here is one post. You can search many more:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Host-Circle/Instant-Book-Cancelled-Theory-and-Research/m-p/95007...

 

@Emilia42 thank you! That's so annoying, because I have cancelled only one reservation and it was over a year ago and during their "Penalty Free Cancelation" promotion! - but I will investigate further and see if they can reverse it. I hope you don't mind me asking also: How I can attach a screenshot to a reply here? When I click on the "camera" icon, there's no field or dropdown menu where I could search for and select an image from my laptop (or phone, as I've tried it in the mobile app too). I  just get a page with blank spaces for "Image Source," "Description," "Dimensions," etc that wants me to type something in. When I type in the name of the image file, nothing happens. Thank you again!

@Emilia42 I've been reading these posts you linked to (thanks again) and  I just looked at my Stats and I actually have **0** Cancellations in the last year! (and like I said only one before that, in the "Penalty Free Cancellation" promotion). But there is some speculation that this has to do with Acceptance Rate. I also wonder about Response Rate...

 

Mine are low due to the afformentioned problem with the 24-hour period. Guests will accompany their inquiry with "Oh and BTW is it OK to bring my two dogs?"  I reply immediately to every inquiry and in a case like this will ask what breed and size of dog (because I allow small dogs but not large, oily-coated, or sheddy ones) but then guests often won't respond for more than 24 hours (often the trip is booked more than a month ahead of time so I guess they're not in a hurry), leaving me in limbo.

 

And contrary to what Gordon said above, the clock does NOT stop when you send a message. If you don't Accept or Decline within the 24 hours it is treated as a Decline and negatively affects your Acceptance Rate, which apparently is causing us to be penalized in this way:

 

"As far as your acceptance rate goes, we only measure the final outcome of the booking request, and there are just three possible actions you can take: accept, decline, or let the request time out. If you let a request time out—even if you answer questions but take no action to approve or decline a request within 24 hours—that’s considered a decline."

 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Understanding-Response-Rate-and-Acceptance-Rate/m...

 

Thanks again for your help

@Emilia42 Turns out I was reading my Stats wrong - I actually have 0 Cancellations, and 100% Acceptance Rate and Response Rate! (see below) So now I really have no idea what is going on with Instant Book!

 

Acceptance Response Cancellation.png