Downside of Instant Booking

[Paul154]

At Airbnb's insistence and threat of blacklisting, I have tried Instant Booking (IB)

I like the higher placement, the ease of booking and the "feeling" that I was doing what airbnb wanted and I would be treated well.

(specifically, I could cancel a guest who would be a poor fit)

I now have been damaged by IB and it sucks. I have just cancelled  a reservation from a previous guest who had broke my rules. 

My cancellation was immediate - within 10 minutes. Because the reservation was made within 24 hours of the checkin date, I now have a terrible public automated response "Host cancelled reservation within 24 hours of check-in" . While techically correct, I am now painted as an abusive host, even though I was above-board and cancelled immediately allowing guest to search elsewhere in a timely manner.

I now am realizing the damage of IB

Yes - airbnb allows you to cancel penalty-free within 24 hours.

Yes. booking is easier

Yes. search is better

BUT if you cancel you will have a public scarlet letter A - "Host cancelled reservation"

BUT if reservation was made within 24 hours of check in you'll get a worse public punishment "Host cancelled with 24 hours of check-in"

AND airbnb will block off the cancelled dates and prevent you from earning revenue.

I like IB, but I wish Airbnb would be reasonable in their punishment of immediate cancellations. 

Most hosts cancel for a legitimate reason - poor fit, inappropriate greeting, bad prior experience.  It is not in a host's interest to lose out on a guest's revenue.

[Robin4]

@Paul154

I am so sorry for you that it has hit you this way Paul!

I have been staunchly against Instant Book since it was rumoured to be in the pipeline 2 years ago and for the last 18 months have resisted it with passion but, three weeks ago an incognito search of my state failed to find one listing that did not use instant book. It didn't matter how popular your listing is, or whether you have Superhost status, if you did not have Instant Book turned on, you are invisible to a search. For some time previous to this Paul when doing a search we were first confronted by a pop-up which advised us that Instant book lead to faster bookings but, you could disable it! Not now, click cancel and it just pops up again and when you search, every listing has the yellow flash, every one!

I got onto help to ask how my listing could be made visible without using instant book and was told by the service rep, that it was, as soon as she looked my listing was there. But she did say that certain aspects of Instant book are being trailed at the moment and that if I wanted to remain visible then it would be best to have instant book turned on. So, it appears it is now mandatory, the choice is taken away, and since having it turned on I have reveived 4 'Instant' bookings, three of which have stayed and they were fine......But experiences like your Paul have me really on edge!

Cheers....Rob

Cheers.....Rob