Most all of my guests have no reviews, but are still able to book despite my options?

Tony-and-Tania0
Level 5
New South Wales, Australia

Most all of my guests have no reviews, but are still able to book despite my options?

Here's the thing; I have instant book turned on and run a fairly tight operation in The Blue Mountains of the greater Sydney area. I've held my Superhost status since I was first eligible and strive to meet guests demands irrespective of the occasionally bloated expectations they have.  After I received 40 positive reviews, I checked the option that meant only guests with positive reviews could book. I had some genuinely bad experiences and didn't want to have to disable instant booking as per AirBnB's threat to diminish the visibility of your listing if you do. 

 

Well, since enabling this "only guests with good reviews may book" option, virtually all bookings still come from people with no reviews. The problem here is that because instant book is turned on, I am still having problematic guests who can't or refuse to read my listing book - which means I have to cancel their bookings and get penalised for doing so. Essentially, if I turn off instant booking I get penalised, however, if I leave it on - I get penalised by cancelling bookings through guests that have not read my listing properly.

 

I'm at a complete loss of what to do.

 

Has anyone else experienced similar?  

7 Replies 7
David126
Level 10
Como, CO

My listing shows the option of having travelled on AirBnb and having no negative reviews, not quite the same.

David
Monika64
Level 10
New York, NY

@Tony-and-Tania0 Can you check your settings again? I looked at your listing but for me it looks like anyone can book. Do you still have the "positive reviews" options checked in?

Farah1
Level 10
Seattle, WA

@Tony-and-Tania0 if guests do an IB and they do not read your listing/don't agree to your house rules/want something that you do not provide, call airbnb right away to solve it. Airbnb team is pretty helpful about this since there are guidelines to follow.

Lois-and-Darryl0
Level 10
Rochester, WA

@Tony-and-Tania0:  I'm curious about how or where you learned of Airbnb's threat to reduce the visibility of your listing without Instant Book?  Maybe you meant to say that a different way?  We have an Airbnb house in a small and remote area (combined population of two tiny towns of 2500), and well over 100 Airbnb houses, and we have never had IB, and the IB houses do not come up first in the various searches that I occasionally conduct.  If you're having bad experiences via IB, then turn it off!  This is your home and you should not feel compelled to be at Airbnb's mercy by putting up with IB if you don't want to.  Airbnb is about developing relationshps and having a good feeling about your prospective Guests, an aspect of this enterprise that is supplanted with IB.  If you can, try renting without IB and see if your bookings rate suffers because of it.  If it does, go back to IB.  Good luck!  Lois

@Lois-and-Darryl0 If you search on a PC (not on your phone) the Airbnb program offers a huge pop up window asking if you want to see only IB listing (it's within probably a few seconds after you start your search). Lots of people click ok without thinking at all. So this by itself reduces the visibility of listings without IB. 

@Monika64:  Yes, I am aware of that feature too.  However, having a search feature or filter that sorts out all the listings except instant book doesn't equate to Airbnb reducing visibility if we do not offer Instant Book.  

Tony-and-Tania0
Level 5
New South Wales, Australia

We just had super awkward guests that clearly didn't read the listing and spoiled our long weekend for the last time. Awaiting their bad review in advance of which I can do nothing about. 

 

Instant booking turned off.