Instant booking changes hurt hosts

Fletch1
Level 2
Melbourne, Australia

Instant booking changes hurt hosts

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.

2 Replies 2
Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

Most importantly if Airbnb is not to truly screening reservations done through Instant Booking, then they need to defend the host from the occasional lunatic that gets through it.

Gwen386
Level 10
Lusby, MD

@Fletch1  Absolutely and the sole reason I turned IB off too. 

I believe hosts need to take charge and not be held hostage to rules that don’t advocate for us or penalize us because we want to protect ourselves and our property. I’ll rather take the chance of missing 100 prospective bookings versus getting the one that could possibly destroy my property.