Waiting on pre-approval guest and an instant booking has occured

[Meisha1]

Hello,

I am new to hosting and first time experiencing pre-approval.

I have pre-approved a guest, however hadn't blocked the dates and now have and instant booking.

Do I honor the instant booking or give the pre-approval the 24hrs to confirm?

It was my error to not block the dates.

[Kelly149]

@Meisha1 not necessarily your error, a booking is not a booking until it is a booking....

IB makes us all subject to First Come, First Served. This isn't your fault, it is a function of the system we have been given.

I'd honor the booking

[Meisha1]

Thank you Kellie.

This has helped, and glad I've experienced this situation at a not so peak time.

[Alexandra316]

@Meisha1 A lot of hosts treat booking requests with a first come, first served policy: whoever completes the booking first gets the date. A lot of guests who send inquiries never complete their booking: they're checking out a few different hosts, or they don't book for some other reason. I would by no means assume that the first guest who enquired was going to complete the booking.

If you do decide to cancel the new Instant Booking, make sure you contact Airbnb to do so. Never cancel on your own or penalties will be levied.

https://www.airbnb.ca/help/contact_us

[Meisha1]

This is a great help, Thank you

[Gordon0]

A bird in the hand and all that jazz...

[Cor3]

Hi @Meisha1,

This not only due to IB. Reservation(-Request)s always prevail over Inquiries.

When you would have cancelled the reservation, the dates would have remained blocked anyway 😞

So no chance for the other guest to book anyway.

I suppose it may have happened to all of us, in our earlier days.

But then again: Don't hold your breath over inquiring guests. They may have said the same to 10 other hosts or so 😞

[Helga0]

Sometimes it’s very satisfying when an IB, even a short one, frees you from the moral obligation to wait for a guest, who cannot make up his mind. 😉 

[Sarah977]

As @Cor3  says, also applies to Booking Requests. I did have one guest inquiry in which we messaged back and forth a few times and she seemed like an old friend right away, we just totally connected. She said she was going to arrange her flight and get back to me with firm dates. I didn't want to block the calendar in case she changed her mind, but as I didn't want to have to decline a booking request, when I didn't hear back for a few days, I messaged her again, saying, no pressure, but asking if she was still planning on the trip, as if I got a request in the meantime I'd have to take it. She responded right away, saying she has a fear of flying, which had held her up from booking a flight, thanked me for building a little fire under her a**, booked her flight and booked my place within a few hours.

Turned out we got along so well, that I asked her if she wanted to come back in a few months and house and dog sit for me while I took my annual trip to Canada. She was totally excited about the possibility and we are arranging that.

Personally I won't use IB cause I share my home and I love to have the flexibility to communicate with guests prior to booking. I know I'd get more bookings with IB, but having guests who I know will "fit" is more important to me.

[Cor3]

Hi @Sarah977,

You are entirely right! Usually they have all sorts of reasons to delay a final booking.

Ps

Since I know your reasons not to use IB, you are 100% right on that as well!

[Eileen0]

When you click on the pre-approve button, there is a box underneath that you can tick to block out those dates so that no one else can instant book. It will block out the dates for 24 hours. 

I don't usually tick this box because 'first in, first served' but last week a guest was trying to book in with me for a wedding close by and she was having trouble uploading ID, photos etc. 

[Tammy91]

When a guest sends me an inquiry, I generally find that they are shopping around. Many times, I do not send a pre-approval. I answer their question and tell them if they want to book, they can IB. If I DO send a pre-approval, which Airbnb prompts you to do so, I do not block the dates and I also send the guest a message to tell them that I sent a pre-approval however, the dates they requested could become unavailabl at anytime and urge the to book asap if interested. If you are short on time, you can create generic messages like this in order to respond to potential guests.

[Susan241]

I will never IB. They are the problem people. Heard enough of how people book for others, unsavory people show up etc. I would rather have fewer people of the caliber I’m looking for than a quantity of guests. I had over 1000 views in a month.  19 inquiries and to date 9 guests in July which is fine by me. Had I had instant booking and lower rates I woujd have had everyday taken which I did not want ...2-3 week was fine. More to come for month of August already . I close sept 1 till next summer. 

I also do first come first served. I will preapprove and if someone else comes in with a booking I’ll take them. 

[Sarah977]

@Susan241  Exactly my sentiments. Never used IB, have been hosting almost 3 years, and never had a guest issue where I had to involve Airbnb.

I think that hosts who use Airbnb as their sole or major source of income put themselves at a disadvantage as far as getting some bad guests, because they badly need that money. So they accept guests they really should be declining, run themselves ragged turning over rooms, try to please entitled, demanding guests, and so on. It seems the hosts who have the least problems with guests are those who do it as an aside, for fun money, and because they genuinely like meeting folks from all over. 

[Audrey443]

I am also new to hosting.  If I give a preapproval and then see credentials of guest that I am not comfortable with can I then decline the guest.