Bug with Instant Book?

[Peta7]

We have had a spate of recent INSTANT RESERVATIONS from seemingly DELINQUENT NEW PLATFORM USERS and are awaiting a report on a possible bug, this just after the removal and reinstatement of the Instant reservation Pre Booking Message, all as elaborated on below:

(Please do keep in mind that Guests must agree to House rules on confirmation of a Booking)

Jan 7, 2023 (**) A Guest with 5 positive reviews after 5 stays arrived with his plush BMW after making an Instant Reservation. The guest only learnt on Check In that he was NOT ALLOWED TO ARRANGE PARTIES OR EVENTS nor use Alcohol or Self-cater in a Boarding House, bring Visitors around etc. The guest reduced his term which we agreed to, and on a second attempt to do the same we refused him and are awaiting another bogus review as promised.

Jan 8, 2023 (**) The next Instant Reservation comes from a Guest with a 5 star rating after 1 review, who WORKS FROM HOME IN CONTRAVENTION of our House Rules and who extended his initial Instant reservation many times, leaving him with loads of reviews available to cause serious damage with. We are now devising a plot to get the guest to book an alternative and more suitable listing elsewhere as it appears as if he is refusing to Check out and wonder if this is another House Hijack attempt? Surely in fairness to all and after many extended stays in succession should there be only 1 opportunity available for a review?

Fri Jan 13, 2023 (**) This guest booked instantly, WITHOUT A TRACK RECORD OR A REVIEW available on her profile, this as requested with our additional Instant Reservation settings, and on top of it all, she did so ON BEHALF OF ANOTHER. The Guest and her unknown Companion she booked for, arrived with a Truck load of Kitchen goods, then complained about the size of our Bedroom and left precipitously with Airbnb adjusting the stay term equating in Cancellation without penalty for the guest while we have a strict cancellation policy in place. We are still awaiting a bad review as promised after the guest refused to acknowledge Platform Terms of Service and our House Rules.

Fri Jan 13, 2023 (**) Then came a real great Guest with an estimated mass of >200 kg who booked instantly after one review and whom ignored our listing limitations and House Rules regarding our mattress manufacturers specifications of MAX 85kg’s per side and so CAUSED PERMANENT DAMAGE TO FURNITURE’S, she attempted to Extend and we turned her down and are now awaiting a resulting and promised damaging review. This 85 kg limitation is well noted in more than one location in our Listing contents and also in our House Rules the Guest had to agree to when Booking?

Jan 17, 2023 (**) This Guest appeared to be a more experienced Airbnb user, although he only had a 4.5 star rating after 11 stays and we do ask for a good track record with no negative reviews for booking Instantly. He requested to Check In at 4:30 am and after objection does the Guest arrive at ~8:00. Although we thought the guest’s profile photo must be outdated did we invite him into our Home.  Meanwhile the total stranger that Checked In was not the Guest that booked, but rather a Non Airbnb community member. So we subsequently discovered that a total stranger WAS BOOKED FOR BY DON without any notification or even a hint that this was a booking on behalf of another. What is really scary is that this total stranger was sleeping with us in our Home in the alleged Murder Capitol of the World. This all in contravention of Platform guidelines and House Rules.

Jan 20, 2023 (**) A guest with a 4.5 rating after 2 stays then booked instantly, believably against our Listing Limitations and House rules reflecting a 85 kg Bed set manufacturers specification. This fine gentleman weighs an estimated >250 kg’s and is continuing destroying furniture’s where the guest from ** left off. At least this gent acknowledges his POTENTIAL FOR DESTRUCTION.

Jan 20, 2023 (**) So last night we received another New platform user making an Instant reservation, this guest has 2 positive reviews in place, however she is making another INSTANT RESERVATION ON BEHALF OF A FRIEND and doing so against Platform guidelines, which unknown friend she insists must check in at 6:00 am. So after advising on impossible early Check In and Airbnb Regulation re Booking on behalf of another, she cancels and we refunded in full. We are expecting another damaging review for punishment. 

This leaving us with a dreadful fear for the seemingly ALL NEW INSTANT RESERVATIONS and wondering whether we should follow platform guidelines and turn Instant Reservations On with benefits or should we choose to turn this Off in an effort to avoid further abuse, which will obviously lead to penalties.

Please note that this list represent only a drop in the bucket, there are also many related articles available on Host Forums and Social media articles from host with similar problems, and we believe this “NEW NORM” is more prevalent after the recent alterations to Instant Reservation Requirements on the platform when the Pre Booking message was removed and reinstated.

We also believe the relevant Social Media / Host Forum articles on the subject coupled with the above list should be deemed enough proof that there are glitches in the system when it comes to Instant Reservations and this part of the system needs revisiting.

We also pleaded for proper education and or guidance of new users before allowing Instant Reservations to be made by them, this to prevent Airbnb from becoming just another platform for advertising “Rooms to Let” on, which are in abundance in the Johannesburg Student Mecca we are sited in?

We are still awaiting a report on a system Bug and are expecting word from Airbnb Support regarding Fri 13 Jan booking where a guest without a track record or review made an Instant Reservation with us.

In conclusion our own Market Research indicated that 97,5% of all bookings are made by guests whom only considering Price and Availability, so nobody reads ANY Platform and or Listing contents before Booking and yet all have to agree to our UNKNOWN, UNSEEN and UNHEARD OFF House Rules when they book? Perhaps the Platform Administrators are able to devise a System with Checks and Balances to prevent these erroneous bookings from being made by unqualified guests?

[Bhumika]

Hello @Peta7 ,

As you commented on an older thread, I created a new topic for you! I hope other members notice it and share their suggestions or experiences related to this.

Can’t find what you’re searching for? start a conversation

[Huma0]

@Peta7 

Oh dear. It does sound like you are having a lot of problems. 

1.) Is instant booking essential to your business? If not, turn it off!! Vet your guests instead.

2.) I am not sure of your interpretation of the new IB settings and especially 'Good Track Record'. Where does it say that the guest must have only 5* reviews to have a good track record? It doesn't.

This is all that Airbnb says about that: "completed a stay without incident or bad reviews". Think about what that means. Without incident? What kind of incident? Without bad reviews? What does Airbnb consider bad in terms of a guest review? This is something they have never clarified, but I would be willing to bet they do not consider 4* (or probably even 3*) to be a bad review. And, is it even about stars? Is a bad review considered to be one in which the algorithm picks up certain key words or phrases like "terrible guest", "would not host again", "would not recommend"? Who knows? Airbnb won't tell us. I don't know if this has changed, but it was also saying "completed a stay without incident or bad reviews recently" at one point, with no explanation of what 'recently' meant.

3.) As for the guest having to have at least one positive review, nope, that is not stated there either. Although one of the moderators on this CC confirmed that the guest must have at least one review to have a good track record. However, numerous hosts have posted here that guests with no reviews have been able to IB even though they had that filter turned on. We are still waiting for a clear answer on that, but I suspect this filter does not rule out guests with no views and that it is not a bug, but how the algorithm is designed.

4.) The 'pre-booking' message is a misnomer because the guest does not have to respond to this message before booking. They are asked to respond to it when they are booking. Plus, it's not compulsory in order to complete the booking. They are just asked and they can ignore it. Also, if a guest sends you an enquiry first and then goes on to book from the message thread, they don't even get to see that pre-booking message.

5.) Airbnb has removed the ability for hosts to require verified government ID for IB or to require guests to be recommended by other hosts.

6.) In conclusion, what I am is saying is, do not rely on Airbnb to vet your guests for you. Airbnb wants as many bookings as possible, as quickly as possible. They aren't interested in vetting guests. You have to do that yourself.

What kind of correspondence do you have with your guests prior to booking/when they book? I ask because, although I don't use IB anymore, I used it for years and have never hosted a single third party booking. You seem to have had loads of them. That's not to say I haven't had lots of people TRY to book third party, but I have spotted it every time because I ask the guests questions until I am satisfied, and get Airbnb to cancel any third party bookings for me penalty free if the guest refuses to do it themselves.

No, guests don't read house rules, at least not the extended version. So, I have an Easter egg question in there that they must answer, or I am simply not going to host them.

None of this is fail safe and some awful guests do slip thought the net, but it reduces it significantly. 

It would be really great if we could rely on Airbnb to vet our guests and ensure our safety in our homes, but it's not going to happen. You have to take matters into your own hands. 

I turned off IB before the recent changes, but if I hadn't, I would certainly be turning it off now. The current choice of filters, which is basically just 'good track record' and 'pre (but really it's a post) booking message' are meaningless and useless.

[Peta7]

We do agree with your response, the problem is we are a busy City Listing and past experience taught that Instant Reservations turned off impacts severely.

We believe all seems to have gone WRONG after the recent incident of the removal of the Pre Booking message requirement for Instant Bookings, which was omitted and soon after reinstated due to high demand,  and obviously other changes were made to Instant Bookings at the time, like the requirement wording and ID verification etc.

(Apparently the ID verification requirement was replaced with the following extracted Term :

"Verified ID

From 16 November 2022, you’ll need to verify your identity to book stays in: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the US (including Puerto Rico).")

So saying all of this, we believe it is quite evident that there were definitely recent 'unnecessary' changes made to Instant Reservations and some have already been rectified.

(This all bringing an old saying to mind: "Nothing succeed like success"

The system was so well thought out and worked just fine and we were taught that fixing something that is not broken will always result in breaking it?:-)

So we had some Instant Bookings gone wrong in the old days but there seems to be a drastic increase in delinquent bookings from unqualified guests, where 3 rd party bookings or booking on behalf of another appears to be the new norm with all Reservations, sometimes without any warning, and this equates into allowing total strangers into our Home in Johannesburg, known as the murder capitol of the world, and is considered a serious security issue.

The Pre Booking message requirement that is ignored  by all like the rest of Listing Contents, and agreeing to unread House rules,  just does not make any sense to us?

The very sensitive mattress issue was deliberated on some time ago and we do not wish to let another pigeon loose amongst the Cats 🙂 Please refer the post "Mattresses and heavy guests, how to handle?"

We really believe Education is much needed for new Platform users, especially prior to making Instant Reservations, and due to past injustices do we believe Africa especially is in need of special attention.

[Huma0]

@Peta7 

Also, what is the deal with this mattress? It seems to be a regular issue. I am not saying that 85kg each side is a small amount, but if this is a reoccurring problem, would it be worth considering a different kind of mattress? To be honest, I have no idea whatsoever what weight my mattresses can take, but they are not particularly expensive and I've never had any sagging, even with some of my weightier guests, and I host long term stays, so one would image that one heavy guest could cause significant sagging if the mattress was not up to it.