Automated booking

[Laura8194]

Hello, have you guys ever ran into situations where you had automated booking on but required a good track record and they allowed them to auto book anyway? The person had a 1.3 rating and the prior host made mention of them having an u planned party and causing damage. I called Airbnb and they told me I can ask them to cancel which I did and they didn’t. They said I’d have a cancellation penalty if I cancel them myself. 

how do I handle this?  Should this booking have been allowed?  Do I need to pre-approve all to avoid this?

[Guy991]

Hello @Laura8194 ,

There’s a whole discussion in another thread from today about hosts canceling reservations and why it’s not advisable. Search for it.

Also, turn off Instant Booking. As you’ve seen for yourself, you can’t trust the platform to consistently provide quality guests.

[Laura8194]

Thank you!  Do you believe you get less bookings because you approve each booking?  

[Joan2709]

@Laura8194 

We don't use Instant Book for this reason. 

If you actually had the good track record optional setting on, then they should NOT have been able to Instant Book. You'll have to prove you had that setting on to Airbnb (screen shot?) and take a screen shot of his bad review then send that along with their policy that SHOULD have prohibited the guest from Instant Booking. Get Airbnb to cancel the stay based on that.

Instant Book Optional Settings

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/484

You can also get Airbnb to cancel a stay if you have proof the guest plans to break a House Rule:

Canceling as Reservation as a Host

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2022#:~:text=If%20a%20Host%20uses%20Instant,information%20that%2...

DO NOT cancel the reservation yourself....Airbnb should do that based on the above so you do not get penalized. This is a clear case where Airbnb should be cancelling the stay. Contact them again until they do.

You should know there are several other loopholes with the "Good Track Record" in that if they were a bad guest, but the Host didn't review them, they can still Instant Book. Also, if they have no trips, they are not supposed to be able to Instant Book, but numerous Hosts have reported that has happened. 

[Laura8194]

Thank you!  After much back and forth with Airbnb they have finally agreed to cancel on their end and have it not impact me. 

what a pain, they argued and argued with me and I had the escalate it to a Sr manager to get this addressed. 

Airbnb has said there is an issue and they shouldn’t have been able to book. 

[Joan2709]

@Laura8194 

Glad they finally agreed to honor their own policy.

Shame you had to badger them to do it. Sigh. 😞