YOUR INSTANT BOOK MAY BE BROKEN. PLEASE READ.

Nathan92
Level 2
Estes Park, CO

YOUR INSTANT BOOK MAY BE BROKEN. PLEASE READ.

Totally frustrated and I'm taking a massive financial hit.

 

I rely on Instant Book and have three properties that are some of the most popular in my mountain town. I've hosted about 500+ parties. For about a month, you simply can't IB my places. IB is turned on, but if you filter the map by IB properties, they won't show up. People can only request to book my places. I have no IB requirements other than the absolute basics.

 

I have an open ticket with ABB about this and they say it's a "system bug" that they're working on. Case managers have escalated it multiple times as "urgent" to the product specialists but nothing has happened. Meanwhile my properties sit totally empty. I am about to bring 4 other listings online in the next week, but with this request to book stuff, they too will sit vacant. This is a massive problem!

 

Can you please check your listings and see if it's an issue? On my FB group, many people have reported the same thing. The last case manager I spoke to said I should try to have as many people report this to ABB as possible and it may push the fix up in the queue.

12 Replies 12
Susan151
Level 10
Somerville, MA

@Nathan92. My IB seems to be working properly.

Pete28
Level 10
Seattle, WA

@Nathan92

 

Another bug is that Airbnb on web is now just showing base prices when you search without cleaning fee etc.

 

This makes it almost impossible to find anything since you need to scroll over each listing to see the final price. In addition, if you daily price is high and cleaning fee is low you will never be found 😞

 

My IB is working, but the above problem will cripple booking. I wouldn't add more property - hard to know when Airbnb will fix these things.

Jan83
Level 2
Berlin, Germany

I have the same problem almost one month and still no help. I wrote 6 times  on help centre but first answer was that I have instant book in my setting and they closed my case. Second and third answer was that I had bad setting and when I wrote that in my setting was ok, they did not anwer and closed the case. So I wrote there again and they said that there is a issue and that they will let me know. After 3 days they wrote me that they still working on it and that they will write me. So I waited another 5 days and nothing so I wanted ask if there is any progres and then I saw that my case was closed. So I wrote there yesterday again and they wrote me that they will look at it. So I have no idea what to do.  Big part of my guests are people who come for last minute and they usually looking only for Instant booking.  During this month I lost of it a lots of guests and money but it looks like that nobody cares of it. But I check the forum there and there are more people with the same problems like me.

Gillian19
Level 10
St Leonards, Australia

@Nathan92 I don't have instant book turned on and I get plenty of bookings, so it may just be that the market has too much supply rather than no instant booking. 

Different markets in different parts of the country, clearly. For me, IB is critical.

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Nathan92

it seems you are not the only one, there are other new threads about it. ABB answer is - due to too much cancelations we turned off your instant book for 7 days...

But your problem is more than 7 days old so ....

I have never cancelled a reservation

Yun8
Level 10
Auckland, New Zealand

Hi @Nathan92,

 

Here is the thread that @Branka-and-Silvia0 is referring to:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/hidden-fines-for-host-when-guest-uses-48-hour-grace-peri...

 

The OP stated that their instant booking stopped working and Customer Service said it was due to their guests cancelling the bookings, and the system then decided to penalise the host - hence the system “bug”.

The DIY fix reported in that thread is to manually change the prices on your calendar to send “signals” to the system, which then corrected the bug for the OP - and Instant Book started working again.

Yun8
Level 10
Auckland, New Zealand

@Nathan92 @Jan83

 

Here is the method that the aforementioned host tried, which fixed their Instant Booking problem. 

AD9CFDB1-92F3-42E6-9075-7CEEDE4B69AE.jpeg

 

I wish that was the case but price labs update my calendar daily 😞

The prices change suggestion was a thought even if not for everyone. There may be something else.

 

I just tried switching back to "All guests must send a reservation request" temporarily last nite. Came back to it this morning and "Guests who meet all your requirements can book instantly. " had been auto-turned on, before I could do it manually.   The listing/system seems def screwed up. The airbnb desk woman had also said she couldn't change it from her end - wh. is normally pos.

 

I have 89 days out of local quota of 90 this year booked (my min is 2 days).  I tried blocking out my last free day this year - in case that might help - but the system won't change the calendar to show blocked.  Seems to be extensive screw-up in the system.

I'm still being dealt with - no idea when there will be  a resolution.  One comment in the latest airbnb person's email to me:

"Please note that we recommend that you use Google Chrome as your browser and also delete cache and cookies before the process as for some others who were affected, this workaround worked for them."

I always use Chrome for airbnb, though I haven't tried the cache and cookies. Anyone any thoughts?

PS My listing is screwed up in various ways related to this - changing to  Instant Booking under Booking Settings is not recognized and I also can't block out calendar days this year (though I can next year).