Customising availability of instant book

[Alex168]

hi,

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. Fortunately there's always the option to cancel such a booking without penalty (presumably airbnb have added this fall-back to attract more listings with instant book.

I would love to see the calendar options enhanced to show, instead of just "Blocked" and "Available", also "Request (no instant)"

Airbnb already has this functionality at the back-end, because you can block instant book by sending yourself a dummy enquiry from another account, and then pre-approving yourself ticking the option to block instant bookings for that period. It's not ideal but useful in some situations.

Anyone else any experience with this issue, and please support this change if you think it'd be worthwhile for you.

Cheers

Alex

[Marisol5]

 Hello my name is Marisol, I had an immediate booking for one night with 7 months in advance, had to cancel and page penalized me for that reason I had to cancel the booking immediately. I think the page should ask the reasons for the cancellation before penalizing, give the right to explain the host.

[David126]

What was the reson you cancelled?

[Andrea9]

@Alex168

You only get 3 freeby cancellations if you don't feel comfortable with somebody who booked. It's not supposed to be a way out for getting better bookings.

And pre-approving is in no way a reservation. A request will always override it.

What you could do, but would really have a huge mix-up potential is to make an extra listing for your property  showing ONLY the dates you want filled in by Insta Book, but blocking all later dates.

Though it will probably get absolutely convoluted quite quickly.

[Alex168]

hi Andrea, thanks for the info. I wasn't aware of the limit of 3 cancellations, it must be buried in the small print!

Fortunately I've not had to cancel - I find that guests booking well in advance tend to enquire first. However as an additional measure I may add something about this to the house rule since guests must read and approve these before committing to book, and it could be another way to smooth out any potential issues. eg "Are you Instant Booking for more than 4 weeks in advance? Please enquire first to confirm availability - go back and click on 'Contact host' "

I agree a duplicate listing would be a mess, and without ratings would not achieve the desired effect anyway, and could just rouse suspicion from guests.

The work-around of sending yourself a pre-approval does work I think (I have not tested it fully), but it is not ideal. Possibly it needs daily management, which is not a big deal if running a portfolio as a business.

Many hosts are running a business, rather than earning extra income, so the risk of destroying the calendar or losing ratings must be weighed against the benefit of taking more bookings. My proposal to airbnb of adding a third calendar status eliminates this risk for hosts and guests alike. It would bring more hosts onto Instant Book as the main barrier to do so would be eliminated. And it would benefit guests by ensuring their Instant Book is not a gamble on availability.

Cheers

Alex

[Andrea9]

@Alex168

The 3 cancellations are stated quite clearly in the Instant Book section on the site.

Well, you can certainly try what you're suggesting, see how it works for you.

I have my doubts when I see what guests can think, do, assume  🙂

But experience is the best way to find out.

It would be great to have a kind of partial Instant Book for certain dates.

Why don't you go to Host Voice and leave that suggestion.

That's a new section which Airbnb wants to use to see what Host suggestions might be worth implementing.

[Alex168]

hi Andrea,

I could not see any mention on the help page about this, and Instant book is mentioned specifically here: https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/990/how-do-host-cancellation-penalties-work

Do you have a link to the page you mention?

Also for Host Voice, do you have a link? Google is providing a blog on this but no actual link, and I can't see anything on the website about it, or any results searching airbnb help. I think my first suggestion will be to make the page more visible 🙂

Cheers

Alex

[Andrea9]

Alex,

You are right that it isn't mentioned in that link. At some point I clearly remember caming across it and thinking that that wasn't so great after all....

In any case I have often seen other hosts talk about the 3 cancellations in the case of feeling uncomfortable as in reaction to this guest question:

https://community.airbnb.com/t5/Hosts/Should-we-be-punished-if-cancelled-an-instant-booking-from/m-p...

The bottom line would also be that if you use the 'feeling uncomfortable' reason too often, Airbnb will notice.

You can also use the search function box to look for any further instances of past answers to the IB cancellations.

The Host Voice is advertised on the top rotational banner of Community, and can easily be clicked on.

Otherwise:

https://community.airbnb.com/t5/Host-Voice/idb-p/host-voice

[Ahmed15]

. How about limiting the minimum reservation to 10 nights to for the 6months ahead. This will limit the damage of having one night instantly booked on the middle of summer months?

[Dylan1]

I too have had inquiries a year in advance, and since I'm not sure if I want my rental to be available then, I've had to decline.  It would be a simple change for Airbnb to set an end date and/or a certain number of months in advance for instant booking to work.  Within that window, instant booking would be an option, beyond that window, a guest would have to inquire.