How do I cancel an instant booking?

[Irina222]

Hi,

I recently joined airbnb and right before I had a chance to update my house rules and guest criteria, someone booked on Instant Book as I had it on.  The person 1. has not profile picture 2. no reviews only joined in january 3. nothing verified.  

I replied immediately and asked him to update profile pic and get a gove. id verified.  He did not reply for about a week... so I wrote again that I would not accept if it is not udpated.  He replied several days later... that he doesnt know how to do it and doesnt want to really do this.  He provided me name of other guests and said they are all between 57-59yrs old.  Since then I updated my policy... BUT what do I do about this booking?  I 100% will not accept him if he does not update profile picture and verify id.  I even sent him links on how to do it.  Booking is for Feb. 28 for 5 days. 

Can someone please help me to point me in the right direction where I need to go to contact Airbnb?  Is there an email or telephone number? I could not find...

Thank you so much!

[Branka-and-Silvia0 · Accepted solution]

@Irina222

you have a right to cancel few instant bookings if you feel inconfortable with a guest but don't do it by yourself, contact Airbnb instead and ask them to do it.

put in your house rules that all guests are obligated to show you their govermeent IDs at arrival and then write down all their personal informations: names, number of pasport/ID, gender, date of birth, citizenship. It is way better then when Airbnb verify their ID, it doesn't help you in case of any problem

[Kath9]

@Irina222, I also suggest contacting Airbnb to cancel - each country/region has its own number and I'm afraid I don't have one for Switzerland but you could try using Twitter. If you cancel them on your own, your calendar will remain blocked so no one else can book. If you end up going ahead with the booking, review them poorly on communication and possibly give them a thumbs down on recommending them to other hosts.

In future, if you decide to leave Instant Book turned on, set it up so that it is only people with verified ID and who have previous good reviews from other hosts.

[Irina222]

Thank you!

[Jani15]

Hi Irina,  I highly recommend you do not use instant book. The only one that benefits in the end is Airbnb.  They say you’ll have more bookings, but I don’t use instant book and I have ample bookings. 

[Irina222]

Thank you so much for all the info!  I now changed all my settings to make sure only ones with good reviews can book instant... Eventually I turn off all together.

[Eva650]

Hi! This morning I received a booking for dates that I thought were blocked. I blocked them on another calendar which was suposed to be synchronised with my airbnb one. Unfortunatelly this didn`t happen and I had to cancel the reservation By doing this I lost my opportunity to become a superhost. I was really close to that because I received only top reviews so far. Can I may be pre-approve the booking and fix that?

[Jeff158]

Hi @Eva650  

To turn Instant Book on or off:

1. Go to Your listings on airbnb.com and select a listing.
2. Click Manage listing.
3. Click Booking settings at the top of the page.
4. To turn Instant Book on, select Guests who meet all your requirements can book without requesting approval. To turn Instant Book off, select All guests must send reservation requests.

[Eva650]

thanks a lot 🙂

[Irina222]

Eva, you can write Airbnb and explain... Perhaps thwy will be lenient. I heard a lot of times it's the case.

[Ned18]

Hi.  I'm brand new to hosting on Airbnb.  How do I now CHANGE my listing to NOT BE "Instant Booking"?  I see no way to now 'undo' that bad choice yesterday.

N