Instant Book -What are the "good track record" requirements?

[Annette391]

Can someone explain what the "good track record" requirements are exactly? I have this setting checked on all my listings that allow instant book, but I just got an instant booking from a guest with no reviews - two trips - but no reviews. I was under the impression that they had to have a least one review and it be decent. I previously got an instant book from a person with 3.5 stars, and AIrbnb customer service told me that was an okay rating. Funny - because if we get a 3.5 rating, we get warning messages and "counseling" on how to improve. Anyway, that is off-topic. 

[Rebecca]

Hi @Annette391 👋

I had a little search through the Help Center and came across this article: How Instant Book works.  In particular it states:

"You can set your requirements to offer Instant Book only to guests who have a positive track record. That means they’ve completed at least one stay and haven’t received any negative reviews."

It's been a while since you posted, so I wondered how you got on with the Guest, if they stayed with you? 

Looking forward to hearing from you. 🙂

[Chris23652]

@Rebecca "haven’t received any negative reviews" means exactly that. So if they've had no reviews then thats technically no negative reviews.

Also the issue is that it does not clearly state what ranking a "negative review" is quantitatively

I think AirBNB needs to fine tune this to make it clearer and protect hosts better

[Tara0]

Good track record doesn't mean what any normal person would think it means.

Here, it means that the guest has either no reviews or at least one 'good' review, regardless of multiple other 'bad' reviews.

But good and bad are not defined, so I think it's all pretty much meaningless. 

Because the only guest who might (and only might) be prevented from booking Instantly would be one with a single bad host rating/non-recommendation, and no other reviews.

[James2815]

Get this... it gets even more counterintuitive:  we have no child-proofing in our unit, it is a nice place with fragile items, and we don't really want to encourage folks with a truckload of unsupervised toddlers to book it, so when asked if it is "suitable for children", our answer is no.  So it shows "unsuitable for children" on the listing, which we explain away in the listing with something like "it isn't child-proof -- plan on chemicals under the sinks and sharp farming and mining equipment around the property, requiring adult-equivalent awareness and judgement for safety."  So, as an unanticipated side effect of this answer, instant booking is not available for anyone with a child in their party.  It took forever for us to figure out why people with 20 five-star reviews and nothing less, had to contact us and ask "mother may I" to book the place.  Support didn't know the reason either, and just kept making up answers that were clearly already disproved.  It went on for many weeks before we finally found someone with the knowledge, and I went and tested the theory when I didn't believe them.  They REALLY need to document the logic behind the UI and the services behind it.

[Joan2709]

@James2815 

Thank you so much for posting this! I had no idea this was the case. Most of the Hosts I work with do not use IB or don't have the "not suitable for children" selected.

I learned something new today! 👍

[Chris23652]

Gawd... thats a bit rubbish isn't it

[Joan2709]

@Chris23652 

Yes...😒

Instant Book Loopholes - Optional Settings

- Guests with a 4.0 rating can IB (Airbnb considers 4.0 as "not negative")

- Guests with trips but no reviews can IB (cause they don't have any negative reviews - because they don't have any reviews)

I don't recommend to my Host clients they use IB, especially not as new hosts or for larger properties.

[Joan2709]

@Annette391 

Instant Book Loopholes - Optional Settings

- Guests with a 4.0 rating can IB (Airbnb considers 4.0 as "not negative"

- Guests with trips but no reviews can IB (cause they don't have any negative reviews - because they don't have any reviews)

I don't recommend to my Host clients they use IB, especially not as new hosts or for larger properties.

[Chris23652]

If we don't use Instant Book our booing rate drops quite a bit. So we just accept the risks. thats what insurance is for... 🙂

[Joan2709]

@Chris23652 

I work with a lot of other Hosts and have not seen the drop you mention.

Every listing, location and Host is different however. 

[Chris24630]

Just to add my own test results to this thread and clarify even further...

Guests only need ONE basic review to pass the 'good track record' hurdle. Regardless of any other track record they have.

Even if a host clicks NO to the question 'would you recommend this guest' (previously the 'would you host them again' question) 

They can STILL instant book and return to that very same property. 

This happened to me and support confirmed that to be the case.

The help files say 'good track record' guests  'haven't received any negative reviews' but support refuses to define what data collected constitutes a negative review.

[Chris23652]

This is not ideal is it.

We just had a guest book with a 3.2 rating off three reviews (really just two as one review seemed to have been posted twice)

The lack of clarity from Airbnb is frustrating.

We tend to find that folks with low ratings tend to be folks that stay in hotels more and treat Airbnb self catering homes like hotels and expect the "staff" to be on call at at the ready for their every whim.

Chris

[Joan2709]

@Chris23652 

I suggest you turn OFF Instant Book - since Airbnb is not removing retaliatory review this is the best option for now.

[Joan2709]

@Chris24630 

I suggest you turn OFF Instant Book - since Airbnb is not removing retaliatory review this is the best option for now.

As you mention, even if you select "would not host again", they guest CAN still book again using Instant Book. 

The only way to block a guest from booking again is to the flag the guest in the message thread:

Block a Guest

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2020

You'll have to choose one of the options that Airbnb displays as to the reason even if it doesn't exactly fit your situation - but oh well. The point is you don't want them to book or even attempt to book again.