Hosts - Instant Book is now MANDATORY

Samuel19
Level 3
Oxford, United Kingdom

Hosts - Instant Book is now MANDATORY

Hi guys

 

Well after about a week of battling with the system and trying to figure out how to turn off instant book (no button appeared anywhere on my interface) and a bunch of phonecalls to Airbnb, I've finally received this email...

 

Hello Samuel,

My name is Michael with the Airbnb Trip Experience Team, and I wanted to reach out to you today regarding your reservations due to Instant Booking.

When you sign up for Airbnb and activate your listing, guests will be able to book your space without needing to request approval. This feature can’t be turned off, but you have the option to require all guests to meet additional requirements before they’re able to instantly book your space. This gives you more control over who can stay in your listing.

Here are a few ways to control who gets to book instantly:

1. Set your reservation preferences
You can use reservation preferences to control when and for how long guests can book your space. You can also block days before and between reservations to give you time to prepare. Read more about how to set your reservation preferences here:https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1210/

2. Set guest requirements.
All guests will have to provide Airbnb with certain information to book. You can also decide whether you’d like all your guests to meet additional requirements. Read more about guest requirements here: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1170/

3. Set House Rules.
In addition to meeting guest requirements, you can set House Rules that guests must agree to before booking. You’ll be able to cancel penalty-free if a guest breaks your House Rules. Read more about setting House Rules here:https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/472/

I hope this helps! Please don't hesitate to let me know if there's anything else I can help you with.

Regards,

Michael C
www.airbnb.com/help

 

I find this completely unacceptable and as a result will be withdrawing from this platform altogether. I want to speak to the guests and vet them first before I decide who I let into my apartments, and a bunch of settings and ticks Airbnb have added (agree house rules, verify ID) does not help whatsoever.

It has also caused me an inconvinience TWICE as the Airbnb calendar doesn't sync very well with my other calendar, as a result the apartment was double booked, and when I cancelled the reservations I was charged penalties (something the "case managers" are still looking into).

 

Has anyone else had this experience?

 

Cheers

Has anybody else 

70 Replies 70
Regina38
Level 10
Wilmington, DE

also would canceling and redoing the new listing I am adding possibly make instant book turn off button appear? I do not have instant book on on my other 3 listings.

Liz171
Level 2
Aquitaine, France

I have had the experience where the guest was able to book even though I have IB switched off. Their 1st enquiry only gave me a Accept/Decline button, when I've always been able to Pre-approve so that I could converse with the guest before accepting them. Unfortunately the new button threw me and I pressed accept instead of decline, thinking I would be able to have a conversation about dates, it was then instant payment was made, however I could only accept them for 4 days and not 8. Within minutes I changed the reservation ( there is that facility) but it didn’t work, so I had to cancel it, my calendar is now blocked and I’m unable to leave the days available. This is not acceptable practice. The dates are nearly 6 months ahead, and my changes were made within minutes. There doesn’t seem to be any way of appealing against this practice. I'd be grateful if Airbnb had a policy of not penalising their hosts when a simple error has been made, especially when the website was invented to be a platform for friendly exchange between ordinary people who were hosting or guesting. 

@Liz171  The system is working exactly as it should.  Unfortunately in this case, it's user error.  There are two different types of requests you can receive from guests - Inquiries and Reservation Requests.  Inquiries are when the guest just has some questions for the host and isn't ready to actually book yet.  Host cant send them a Pre-Approval or Decline their Inquiry.  When you Pre-Approve a guest, it just tells the guest you are OK with them proceeding to book your listing.  Reservation Requests are when the guest is ready to pull the trigger and book your listing.  They have already entered their payment information, they just need you to Accept or Decline.  Once you Accept, the booking is finalized and you immediately have a confirmed reservation.  This differs from Instant Book because guests can book and confirm immediately without the host Accepting or Declining.

 

Never never cancel a reservation, as there are lots of PENALTIES.

Thanks very much for your helpful advice. Certainly the system has changed since last year, I didn't realise that there was either an inquiries or reservation button for the guest now. Or maybe it's the guests who have changed and they are more ready to " pull the trigger" as you say. I have not been penalised financially for cancelling, as it's my first time, but the calendar has been blocked so in that sense I have been penalised. I still think there should be some flexibility for Airbnb to accept error in these cases. Once again thanks for your clear explanation.

Cynthia and Chris. Maybe you are not experiencing what we are experiencing in Los Angeles. I never had Instant Book - always request to book, chat, pre-approval  and book. I could see that they had ID and could read their reviews. Yesterday, when I got back from a vacation with no cell service, I was informed that I had an Instant Booking from someone I never chatted with or pre-approved. It appears Airbnb changed my setting on that bungalow to Instant Book and after a text to the Help Center they maintain that it must have happened "by accident" (funny as I never changed the original settings) and that I will no longer be able to see reviews or gov't proof of ID unless I Instant Book. This means I will need to accept all strangers onto my property without at any time they want -not when it is convenient to me. Not good. 

Jay104
Level 1
Vancouver, Canada

Wow, If they drop this on me I will be withdrawing from Airbnb

 I think you still have a choice, there's a strange symbol like a lightening bolt which you click on to see whether you have opted for instant booking or not on your host page. My objection to the way Airbnb behave is that they change the navigation and terminology on their website, but they do not inform you of each change, you have to search it out for yourself when you realise something has changed. They are faceless and uncompromising, the original idea to bring hosts and guests together is gone, now there's a gap in the market for an enterprising person.

 

You can choose not to Instant Book, but you will not be able to see confirmed gov't IDs, reviews or be featured - I was just texted by Elmer from AirBnb. So that means that what they built their brand on - safety through reviews in a community of travelers - has now turned into Bookings.com and we should behave like a hotel.  I am very angry. 

Jane354
Level 1
Leeds, United Kingdom

We listed our holiday home on airbnb about a month ago and immediately had reservation requests.  We are booked for the whole of July and most of August.  We decided that we did not want instant book turned on because we want to be able to approve who is staying at our penthouse.  However we now have had no bookings for september or october and our listing has received very few viewings.  When we visit airbandb as a guest, from a different device or server, to search for a property to rent, instead of a pop up asking if you want to instant book the instant book option is set to default automatically and since our property isnt on instant book we are not being seen.

 

As i said we will definately not use instant book and it seems pointless to be listed on airbandb if our property is not being seen.  is this affecting everybody or just newer listings?

 

We are looking at alternative sites for hosting our property since the help centre was unable to say if this is permanent or temporary and in which case how long it will last - i had to call them this morning since they did not reply to my email.

 

Does anyone have any thoughts on this situation?

You have to reset the rooms. I have done it myself by turning off the space (rooms or apt.)

 and then turning them on again. Also I've had Airbnb personnel do it twice to get the rooms to 

appear again . Another aspect to you question is : Have other Airbnb accounts experienced 

this trouble and/ or censorship both connected to the whole " instant booking " trap and independent from this?

         The answer isu YES INDEED it has  happened to me more times then I can recall. And YES

it did seem to be undeniably connect to retribution after turning off the instant booking function which w had never turned on in the first place.  However the stories about shall we say the peculiarities of the Kafkahesque. 

 

 

Christa17
Level 2
Phoenicia, NY

Everytime I log onto facebook they ask me to make my property 'instant book".  I have refused, because like you, and many of the commenters below, I want to have more controle over who books and to make sure that odd scheduling, work etc wont keep me from properly hosting a guest.  I just noticed that when I am searching for a property "instant book" is AUTOMATICALLY a filter, and a guest would have to know to turn that off when searching properties or else my property wont show up.  WHY are the cramming this down our throats?  I have been so happy as an Airbnb host and have Super Host standing....but not happy with this.... 

- Christa (US)

 

Richard471
Level 1
Charlotte, NC

I will be withdrawing my listings from Airbnb. Causing me untold problems with calenders. Double bookings etc.

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hello everyone,

 

I hope you are all good. 🙂

 

I know this discussion was started quite a long time ago now, so for anyone just coming across it I just wanted to say Instant Booking isn't currently mandatory for all host. As Instant Book is frequently talked of here in the Community Center, we took the most commonly asked questions from the Community Center and asked them to the Instant Book Team. I thought you might find this an interesting read, so feel free take a look here: Answers to your top Instant Book questions. 🙂

 

Thanks,

Lizzie

 

@Samuel19@Richard471@Christa17@Adam68@Chad-and-Char0@Hayley7@Sara2@Dede0@Debi1@Amaris0@Sandra126@Robert108@Daniel33@Kimberly24@Helen56@Tony47@Naomi24@Jana23@Jiw0@Florencia0@Alex168@Simona95@Liz171@Regina38@Cynthia-and-Chris1@Jay104@Jane354


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@Lizzie Thank you.

One of the problems I have with instant book, which just isn't clear to me in all these explanations, is guest trying to arrive outside my strict check-in window.

My window is 2 PM to 6 PM. I rarely waver and when I have it has been to allow for up to 60 minutes on the late side. One guest reserved far in advance in order to travel to view the eclipse. She thought she could arrive at 11 PM. I contacted her a week out to touch base and once she told me when she was coming in we had a big problem. She eventually cancelled, too late for me to rent the room.

So, someone IB's the room three weeks ahead. We touch base a couple times. 6 PM arrives and he isn't here. I contact him and he says he's arriving at midnight. Now what? We get up each morning by 5 AM. To check this guest's ID, let him in the house, show him the room, bathroom, breakfast room, etc, now the dogs are awake, and we get to sleep at 1 or 2.

I need to engage with my guests. I need to reinforce the guidelines. Most of my guests don't read the listing details. 

If I open up IB for a short period to try it can I shut it off if I feel it isn't working?

---> That's how I look at most guests, like cousins. And you know, some of those cousins are kooks.

Lizzie, as you can see for yourself from reading all the posts on this thread from hosts, the majority of hosts do not want the instant book feature. For obvious reasons. So posting answers as to how great it is and why we should all welcome and use this feature seems pretty disrespectful to me. If you are really interested in assisting Airbnb hosts, it would be more useful to let your company know that most hosts don't want to use it and would appreciate the option not to, without having to tweak all their settings.