Airbnb changed my listing

[Lana1222]

Hello everyone!

I have been having a good experience over the past 4 months of hosting, but I , only a few hours received  a request from a guest who sent an enquiry, only to discover that my Preapproval listing was changed to Instant access. I NEVER changed this,vand now am faced with a dilemma of having to possibly decline a request which may go against me.

This has never happened before and I wondered if behind the scenes, Airbnb can change a host's settings. 

The guest is going to be in my house essentially living with me for the time, and I NEED to feel secure. So far, despite my description saying that I require facial ID BEFORE I approve, this has proved challenging and I have to "take a chance" on the person.

In this case the person has no reviews and I am NOT comfortable not being able to see the face of a stranger who is coming to live in my house WITH ME .

They can easily see my face displayed. Why do I have to basically say - "sure come into my house" to essentially a "masked " person?

I have mentioned this before , and it does NOT sit well with me as a single female.

I welcome your thoughts and feedback thank you!

Best

Lana

[Joelle43 · Accepted solution]

Hello @Lana1222 

As a single female live-in host I can understand your concern Lana.   You received an enquiry from a potential guest and you sent them a pre-approval which in Airbnb terms, means that you were happy for them to book with you and all the guest had to do was to accept your invitation to book with you. So you only send a pre- approval if you are sure you want to host them.

You can however withdraw a pre-approval if it hasn't been accepted by the guest.  Please find a guide on the different actions you can take when you receive an enquiry versus a request to book:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Community-Guides/GUIDE-Handling-Enquiries-and-Bookings/td-p/1895...

Are you on Instant Book?  Have you ticked the box that expressly says that you require guests to have a proper photo of themselves once they have booked?  You cannot though say that you require facial ID BEFORE you book as Airbnb consider this as a way for hosts to discriminate.  And if they don't you can call CS to cancel penalty free this reservation?  It's under the listing Editor - top right with the three lines on top of each other?

If you live on the premises, you can also make it clear  that you only welcome female guests if this makes you more comfortable hosting strangers in your home? You have to share spaces with guests for Airbnb to make this exception.

All the best
Joëlle

[Lana1222]

Thank you for your detailed reply @Joelle43 !

Yes I have ticked all the boxes and I DID have preapproval as my setting. For this most recent request, however, the booking seems to have been instant access- something I KNOW I did not change. That is my main concern as noone else has access to my account or laptop.

I have had 4 guests so far- one I met on Zoom as she was the first and her pic could not be sent.

Then the next 3 were no problem, as I could easily see their facial profiles.

I just want to be safe.

Online people can masquerade as anything, and I do think that as a host, I have some right to request for my own safety. I do take your point on the risk of "profiling";  my thing is , I just want to feel safe, and I would like to not hand over my keys to a "blank screen".

I appreciate all your suggestions and thank you !

Best 

Lana

[Joelle43]

Hello again @Lana1222 and thank you for your nice reply.  I completely understand your position and even though I don't live on site, I like to be sure that my listing will be a good fit and that guests have agreed to my home rules too which is why I'm not on IB.

Your safety concerns are ligit and just to make sure how your listing is set up I went onto your calendar in guest mode to make a reservation.  You are not on Instant Book and guests have to request to book and then you have 24 hours to either accept or decline.

All the best
Joëlle

[Lana1222]

Thank you @Joelle43 !

I appreciate you taking the time to check and understand - yes I did go into listing and found that it was on Instant Booking (how, again I do not know); but I changed it back to preapproval required . 

My house rules are fairly robust and I am happy otherwise with the service provided by Airbnb and fellow hosts like yourself. It really does hel.

Thank you again and wishing you a good day/night

Lana

[Kia272]

@Lana1222  I feel like maybe you don't understand how profiles and booking work. You cannot see a picture of anyone seeking to stay with you until you have approved the booking. AirBnB does this to prevent discrimination. 

So, while you can NOT be on Instant Booking, and you can choose to accept or deny any inquiries that come through, you can't see a picture of the guest until you accept.

While I struggle with many of the things that AirBnB does, this particular one makes perfect sense to me, and I'm happy that it's in place. I believe that requiring a photo before booking may be against AirBnB Terms of Service, and would actually be challenging because you'd have to go off-platform to accomplish that goal. 

As @Joelle43 mentioned, you CAN choose to accept female guests only, as a safety measure for female hosts. 

It does sound- in your initial post- that an inquiry came through and you thought it was an Instant Booking. It's still a bit unclear to me. You'll become more familiar with how things works the longer you host, but it's good to have a fundamental understanding before you jump in. Anyway, good luck with your hosting. 

[Lana1222]

Hello @Kia272 thank you for your feedback!

Re the IB- I had already set up for preapproval (not IB)- what I said was it seemed that it had been changed back to IB for this latest guest- I am not sure how that happened as I do not recall changing it, which made it more puzzling.

That said- I double checked, and since tech glitches can happen anytime, I will from time to time, double-check my listing to ensure that it is as I have set it up and just maintain that routine.

For at least 2 guests, their pictures were visible from the moment they enquired.

Facial ID is a requirement for me personally as I simply need to see the face of the person who is coming to live with me in my house.  Airbnb stipulates that I absolutely have the right to request ID for confirmation. Their overarching policy is to block from their end; perfectly fine. I request it as a prerequisite and it has not been an issue.

So far, no worries, asking questions is a great way to get answers, and the more informed I am as a host, the better and more smoothly things will be!

All the best and thank you!

Lana

[Trude0]

@Lana1222 

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon that hosts find their settings have been changed. IB activated (has happened to me), preparation time shortened, min no of nights altered… Or that dates they had blocked, have been opened. Or their amenities list amended (has also happened to me).

It is a good idea to regularly check and screenshot settings and calendar, in case you end up inna situation where you need documentation. 

Hope the situation with the guest is solved in a good way. 

[Lana1222]

Hello @Trude0 !

Thank youuuuu so much for sharing this! (Thought there were Gremlins changing the wires or I was going crazy).

I really appreciate it, and it heightens my vigilance, and I hope for our fellow hosts as well- cause we set it up to have some autonomy whom we feel comfortable letting into our home.

All the best!

Lana