Turning OFF Instant Booking will make your listing DISAPPEAR from searches

[Casita0]

Hi guys
I have been constantly awarded with the Superhost Badge since my first quarter on Airbnb (almost 2 years ago).
I have been working very hard to maintain a high standard, in terms of interaction with guests, quality of the service and commitment. As you can see from my reviews, guests are always happy after they stay at La Casita.
I have been using Airbnb as the only platform where my apartment is listed, since I have been very happy with everything.
Until now.
My property is listed as a "rare find" (according to AirBnb), but it has been a while since the last reservation request. I did a search as an anonymous potential guest (without logging in) and I could not find my listing. I discovered that the INSTANT BOOKING is turned on by default, making all the listing without it INVISIBLE, mine included.

THIS IS NOT FAIR

I found the following on the “WHAT IS INSTANT BOOKING?” help article (here)

“FOR HOSTS
(…)Guests can use filters to search for listings that can be booked instantly. Instant Book listings are more popular with guests since they’re able to more easily plan their trip.

FOR GUESTS:
(…)You can filter your search to only view listings that are available through Instant Book.”

It is clearly stated that the IB filter is an option a guest CAN turn on, that it CAN make my listing more popular. It is actually an ADVANTAGE for those hosts who choose to use it. Turning it off as is a DISADVANTAGE.

My property is listed only on Airbnb since I can have full control on each and every aspect of my listing. I don’t like the IB feature, for many reasons (I think I do not owe explanations to anybody about that)
I am losing a lot of money at the moment, but I do not want to give up turning IB on.

I would like to ask the Community members who are experiencing the same issue to RAISE THEIR VOICES, I hope this way we can be heard by Airbnb (which I already contacted in private, let’s see what they answer)

[Marit-Anne0]

@Casita0

Those are old news. Without IB you are likely to be left out in the cold.  Talking from experience, been on airbnb since 2012, superhost for years on end.

[Casita0]

@Marit-Anne0

I was naively prompted to start a conversation on the Community, thinking that it was a new issue. Then I found a lot of old threads about that.

Anyway, nothing has been done, as I can see.

In the meantime I received an answer from the Customer Experience team. A lot of kind words, we extremely value your opinion as a Superhost bla bla bla....  but the not-so-hidden lie is always there: IB is a feature guests love. This is not the point.

Airbnb MUST give the user the OPTION to use it. Otherwise AirBnb is deliberately hiding and therefore discriminating some listings based on their preferences of advertising!

and this is not fair.

The moment a guest book my place, he has access to all my information (name, surname, address etc...). WITHOUT MY CONSENT. Has Airbnb thought about that?

I feel that with the IB turned on, I am giving away my privacy and my liberty of choosing the person I want to open the doors of my home to. It is like signing a contract without knowing the other party. In most countries, judges would declare unenforceable those contracts with such unbalanced rights among the two parties, where only one party has a almost 100% benefit from signing it. In person nobody would never sign a contract without knowing the other party. With IB I would also be in a position where I am waiving my rights to an unknown person! This is crazy!

The Airbnb rules about cancellation say that if I ever feel uncomfortable with guest behaviour, I can cancel anytime penalty-free. Again, this is not the point. Should I take the risk to experience a bad behaviour once the guest is ALREADY in my home? What's the point of cancelling if I am alone dealing face-to-face with a potential dangerous situation?

If there is any follow-up, I would be happy to keep the conversation open.

Please do not give up!

Thanks!

[David126]

I now use IB, but also within 3 days they need to contact me. And I have a little business outsode of ABB.

I have not seen much difference between those who IB and those who I pre approve, and always wondered how you would know who is a good and who is a bad prospect.

Most of my Guests have little AirBnB history. Never noticed anything bad in prior reviews.

I am sure I lose visibility for those looking to book at short notice, however I do seem to get more and more short notice bookings.

[Marit-Anne0]

@Casita0

Nothing has been done as this is the way airbnb wants it to be and the way it is going to stay. 

Looks like we are forced out in the cold little by litte to ease the protests and changes seem to be carried out during low season so that we are lead to think it would be seasonal variations. Seasonal variations were the explanations from airbnb late last year when this happened to many hosts in Europe, long standing superhosts included. At least they are now more honest about the issue.

This is what I did when the drought hit me:

1. Turned on IB
2. Changed cancellation policy from strict to moderate.
3. Removed all booking requirements (verified ID, positive reviews etc.)

Little by little I was back on track.  

With IB you can contact airbnb and cancel penalty free if you are not comfortable with the guest, thus last minute bookings are best avoided.

[Andrea9]

@Casita0

Unfortunately it's a feature guests AND Airbnb love.

Guests can book without disclosing anything beforehand or being grilled on how and what by future host, and Air seems to get more income through it.

Many hosts even say they love it, though I've even seen a numbe of them report that their booking was cancelled shortly beforehand for one or other reason ( the old-fashioned ask and answer method doesn't look so bad after all!), leaving them to scramble and re-book.

I guess it's different everywhere, but I'm still on non-IB in Amsterdam with lots of competition, and still have as many bookings as before. The type of guests have changed somewhat, and I have less of the ones who seem to regard Airbnb simply as cheap hotel, which honestly saves me a heck of a lot of time replying to wildly-sown and insincere inquiries. And my ratio of good and great guests have even increased! But maybe that's algorithms?... who knows...

[Danny21]

I will, under NO circumstances turn ON IB.

This is MY house **bleep** it and I will vet whomever comes into MY house. No exceptions.

If this was a hotel, fine, I get it. Hotels have the contents insurance, public liability insurance and goodness knows what else to protect them.

AirBnB rarely support Hosts and Hosts certainly don't have the sort of money to employ the insurance coverage that big hotels do.

AirBnB are just being greedy, underhanded and arrogent. They don't care about Hosts, they just care about lining their pockets.
Ironic isn't it - without US, there is no AirBnB.

Don't bite the hand that feeds you!

I too have suffered a significant loss in bookings over the last 6-8 months. You're not alone.

[Casita0]

Thank you!

[Grace232]

I completely agree...  ABB is just wants to collect its combined 9% to 10% fee from the hosts and the guests as much as possible.  When there's an issue ABB is NOT on yourside or any side of logic/commensens.

I canceld 3 reseravations, 1) apatmetn flooding - 3 weeks in advance, 2) regsistered sex offender 3) the guest wants to check-in past mid-night and my policy states 6:00 to 10:00  - I canceled for the guest because he was having issues from his app...  Doing the potential guest a favor.

THEN...  ABB shut down booking for that week - 2 weeks prior.. lost revenue for the entire week.  Esclated 6+ times and the CS couldn't do anyting and forwarded to their LAW team.  As the blocked out dates approcahed I called CS every day.  They did NOTHING.  Then a week later they removed my "super host" badge for too many cancelatins.

IB is "honey pot".  ABB's policy, email, site suggestions are all algorithimic auto responses.  They don't care  if they are at fault (registered )sex offender, if the property was damaged (and you cancled weeks in advanc) or they were doing the potential a favor.  Their penlizaing algorithem is faceless and devoid of anything but the lowest common denomenator logic.  Their CS is too small (20 min wait), have pracatically no deligated power for real life problem solutions.  For company that is racking in the profit and exapnding rapidly, their culture is much more akin to that of "Lord of the Flys". 

ABB is a tool, know its limitations, it's motives and make-up your own decision on what features works for you.

[David126]

I am intrigued, how do you vet people using the AirBnB system.

I have a long term rental and for that get bank, employment, credit references and a background check. Very very different to what I can hope to find out using AirBnB.

[Casita0]

@David126

for example until few weeks ago, we kindly asked the potential guest (either on "interaction with guests" and on our profile) to tell us something about them, the trip they have in mind (we are on a touristy island), expecially if they were newbies without any previous review. We said that " we would love to know something about them so we could feel comfortable opening the doors of our home to the guest", or something similar.

Then, to be more competitive, I declutter a little (but not too much, long and accurate descriptions do a very good job filtering out nice and respectful people 😉 ). It worked 95% 😄

[David126]

I may be getting too cynical, but would not anyone reply with suitable verbage? Not going to say we are on a stag do and will be drunk most of the time.

The last people to book with me, well their introduction sounded like they were up for Sainthood, will be interesting to see what the reality is, they are coming here to climv 14ers, a common reason. Presumably yours is a holiday away and some beach time.

Some people give me chapter and verse, some hardly anything, I am the same most are fine and I do look to see if I could spot the odd ones in advance and usually the answer is no.

I was just thinking that if I was looking to book I would come up with something that I know would be OK.

[Casita0]

Of course it is impossible to know 100% the level of Sainthood 😉 of a potential guests, but nice people are always open to tell them about themselves and write medium-long email from the very beginning. I mean, they are not bothered by my need of control, if we can call it this way, they totally understand it.

Of course it is not true the opposite (bad people write short and cold messages), but the kindness on the messages plus previous reviews help me get a better idea.

Then, when I need to fill holes in the calendar, I am not that picky... 🙂

[Marit-Anne0]

@Andrea9

Perhaps mostly those with "entire home/apartment" are targeted ?

[Andrea9]

@Marit-Anne0

"Perhaps mostly those with "entire home/apartment" are targeted ?"

Do you mean using IB?

I tend to doubt that, as from what I've gathered lots of hosts renting out even one room in their home feel pressured into using it.

But maybe I misunderstood your question...