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