Instant booking is encouraged by Airbnb, we have used it for years but with the proviso that guests have positive reviews and agree to share the reason for their trip. These steps have helped us ward off problems. Now people can instant book if they have never used the platform before and the provision to give a reason for the trip has disappeared. As a result, I received an instant booking from a person who has never used Airbnb before and I was not happy about their intentions as they failed to respond to friendly questions.
In response, we have decided to stop instant booking until this is changed. By disabling instant booking, hosts are warned they will lose their page ranking, a threat that is frankly unfair on the hosts that support your Airbnb. It is all very well to say that we can claim when things go wrong but it is better to avoid issues which cost us and you time and money.