Does AirBnB Care? Instant Booking not working

Helen213
Level 10
New York, NY

Does AirBnB Care? Instant Booking not working

My Instant Book function is still not working.  So I do not show up in searchs and lose out in last minute bookings. This is crazy! I reported the issue on 12/28 and I think it started around 12/18 after a cancellation for an illegal third party booking. So for at least 10 days but maybe over 20 days this has been an issue. I know many other hosts have reported the same issue too. There has been no statement from AirBnB even acknowledging the problem.  I am getting no bookings for Jan even though I am the cheapest in my area. I am very worried about not making my expenses.

 

I know manyhsts do not use Instant Book.  But in my area it is necessary as there are so many listings.  The proof, my bookings since off are down 80% over last yearfor Jan and Feb.

 

Where is management?  Why isn't this issue a priority and why is AirBnB not warning IB Hosts that this could happen to them?  When dealing with these issues it really feels like AirBnB does not care.

39 Replies 39

Pete you are absolutely wrong about Instant Booking Guests. They choose the function for convenience and not wanting to be judged. They book  30 days or so out as most guests do too. But in the slow season of Jan, IB is essential to capture any available guest. Normal Jan/Feb I am booked 70% of the time - which is slow since I am normally booked 98%. This year only 22%. It makes a big difference in bookings but not in guest quality.

Helen427
Level 10
Auckland, New Zealand

@Helen213 @Pete69 @Michele737 @Sarah-And-Tom0 @Alexandra199 

 

Have you ensured you put it in writing in "feedback" in your listing?

Make sure you include "bug' & an explaination as there's been all sorts of issues arising within IT.

Clear you cache a zillion times to however be mindful Guests are also having IT problems like we are as they use the same networks & have been unable to book - not good for ABB business, is it?

 

Very frustrating for us all.

 

As an side, look up recent posts re Safari Not Working & Log In

 

All the Best

Hi @Helen427 

This issue is an enforced penalty by Airbnb caused by IB owners cancelling reservations. It is nothing to do with technical issues. It goes totally against Airbnb policy but they do it anyway. It can take up to three month for the IB function to be put back on and customer services won’t do it manually. A £93 phone bill showed me there was no point contacting customer services to try to sort it out. 

 

@Alexandra199 @Helen213 @Sarah-And-Tom0 @Sophie1013 @Joy298 

 

I've not made any cancellations so it's not that at all.

There's been serious IT issues that to the best if my understanding have been generated by a 3rd party txt messaging service Data/Privacy Breach which has resulted in us, including Admin, been impacted on.  

As mentioned above, read all the other recent posts in those other topics.

 

You may also like to look up VOXOX Data breach & join the dots...

 

Those of us who have & use txt alert system know only to well the damage the criminal/s who have done this have caused 100000's of people worldwide.

 

I can only hope they, including ABB  as a company ensure they throw the book at those responsible, if it's true that ABB use the said txt msging company

I’m sorry Helen but there are too many people who have made cancellations and then lost IB to make this a coincidence. 

 

I had never cancelled a booking before and never had this problem, then I had to cancel two bookings due to guests trying to break house rules and all my listings were frozen off IB for three months. 

 

I have a looked at the voxox breach of mention and there is nothing to suggest this would affect IB function on Airbnb. I have also not had any other problems with Airbnb functions. 

Hi Helen,

 

Our turning of of IB (which has happened twice) only happened after a cancellation (which incidently was agreed by Airbnb - dodgy bookings).  If it is a known bug why does it take nearly a year to fix?

 

Ans I dont buy the innocence of the call centre either. This is definitely an Airbnb strategy, and a very unethical one at that.

Céline188
Level 2
Austin, TX

Same For me,  admitting that the IB is down "working on the issue"  and am on Airbnb Plus.. which is odd.  I needed to cancel on a guest as I needed a place to stay for myself to my mum who was diagnosed with cancer.   This happened in March. and now in May NO request from instant book since?  is there a link?

Hi @Céline188 

Yes there is a direct link. You cancelled a booking so you will now be penalised by Airbnb for at least two months. This penalty consists of your instant book button being disabled and guests can only request with you to book. This causes a big reduction in your potential bookings. 

 

It it is totally unfair, goes against their own policy and is disgraceful. Look into other ways to rent out your place eg booking.com or Homeaway. I have decided I cannot reply on airbnb  any more and I don’t trust their brand as a result. 

Joy298
Level 10
Sydney, Australia

This issue just happened on my listing. I discovered it about 4 days ago, if "instant booking" filtered on and my listing's not showing in the search result.

Called several times, the first rep said it could be a bug and would report to the technical team. No response afterward and case closed automatically. The second rep said that was due to my setting of requiring a government-issued ID. Then I switched that off, the problem's still there. So I just made my third call, the rep said she saw from her side that my account was locked by the system and hence not eligible for instant booking, but she didn't know why. I was pissed off and asked this case to be escalated. Later a so-called customer service manager called back and he was also confused about why I got that penalty. He saw my response rate was 90% from his side but actually it's 100%. But he's still not sure if this could be the real reason. He said he's submitting this issue to their technical team and would get back to me asap.

I highly suggest all hosts try searching your listing with instant booking filtered on frequently to see if you are also secretly affected. ABB platform has so many severe bugs that beyond our expectation.

Sarah-And-Tom0
Level 5
New South Wales, Australia

Hi Jang,

 

Everything you have said here happened to us almost to the letter - even the comments you got from Airbnb we got. This tells me it is a strategy with Airbnb to deal with cancellations this way and the call centre is scripted to play dumb. It never ceases to amaze me how little Airbnb support owners who take all the risk.

 

We have had this penalty applied to us twice, even when Airbnb have agreed that the guest was dodgy and agreed they should be cancelled and did it for us!

 

What more can you say!,

Oh and by the way expect to be off instant book for a couple of months. If you are prepared to make numerous calls and get angry you might bring that forward by a couple of weeks.

Thanks @Sarah-And-Tom0 

I just really don't understand why they are doing this under the table. If they don't like cancellation under any conditions why not stating it clearly in the policy?

Sarah-And-Tom0
Level 5
New South Wales, Australia

Yang, that is the million dollar question! Our guess is that they want to appear to be really flexible to get people like you and I on their platform. Then you learn the reality. In fairness you do get more bookings but they create much more stress and risk.

Alexandra199
Level 10
Gretton, United Kingdom

@Joy298  Have you recently cancelled a booking or asked Airbnb to cancel one? 

@Alexandra199 Yes, that was an overlapping reservation due to calendar synchronizing failure. I have called customer service many times and all reps said this was penalty-free. Looks like the customer service is just a joke.