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. 

[Joelle43]

Hello @Joan2709 

Great advice as usual but that « would you host again » option has been changed to « would you recommend this guest to other hosts? » with this option as default!

[Joan2709]

@Joelle43 

Oh brother 🙄

[Joan2709]

@Joelle43 

Not sure why Airbnb even has that option for reviews...it doesn't really do anything. I think the Host has to actually say in the text of the review "would not recommend to other Hosts and would not host again".

[Chris23652]

As I've mentioned before turning off Instant Book for us has a negative effect for us.

We work in another business and cannot monitor requests so easily. We know for a fact in our market booking guests who don't get instant confirmations shop around and often it who ever confirms first gets them.

Whilst it may work for you in your market and how you position your property(s) and how much you can focus on incoming requests, its the polar opposite for us.

But thank you for your time

Ciao

[Joan2709]

@Chris23652 

I did say that while I don't recommend Instant Book for new Hosts or larger properties, Every listing, location and Host is different however. 

If there is market saturation and alot of competition,  IB may be the best option. Sounds like turning it off didn't work for you as you found a drop in bookings and couldn't quickly respond in every case to Requests to Book. 

The real issue, is that Airbnb's tolerances for requirements for IB are too low (although Airbnb tries to sell that these optional settings protect Hosts). This creates more risk for the Host, especially in light of Airbnb not removing retaliatory reviews. Each Host must (and should) decide what works best for them.

The optional settings for IB don't really protect Hosts from "bad" guests in many cases. Airbnb should close the loopholes and raise the rating for "no bad reviews" to at least 4.5 overall rating or above. They should also start removing retaliatory reviews in accordance with their own written policies so Hosts feel more comfortable turning on IB. Guests with trips but no reviews should NOT be allowed to IB. Known cases have been discussed where a guest trashed one property then checked out. Then moved on to check-in to another property and trashed that one too. The guest was allowed to Instant Book the second property because they had a "trip with no bad reviews" as the first Host had not written a review yet.

[Madison277]

 I see what you're saying. When the system isn't entirely in line with how hosts are evaluated and scored, it's annoying. I appreciate you sharing the blocking suggestion; knowing that there is at least a method to stop reoccurring problems is useful.

[Jimmi27]

I am here just to agree with many about how poorly this whole feature is implemented.

I would have liked to see some fine grain controls like,

Required to book:

- Minimum Reviews = X

- Minimum Stars = Y

And it would be a mostly self-policing, self-balancing system. Those with strict minimums would miss out on many views, bookers, and income, highlighting a need to lower their requirements.

- Minimum Reviews = 10

- Minimum Stars = 4.9

The platform wouldn't even have to artificially push their listing down, as it would happen organically. Those with the least worries, set 0 and 0, grab those eyeballs, dollars, and risks.

- Minimum Reviews = 0

- Minimum Stars = 0

I myself would choose something like:

- Minimum Reviews = 2

- Minimum Stars = 4.6

Set minimums by calendar date, such as for certain party holidays... even better idea. But now I am just yelling at a cloud.

[Joan2709]

@Jimmi27 

Excellent ideas...

Doubtful Airbnb will use them though. Very few hosts would want to accept new guests with no reviews, so that will limit bookings from Airbnb's perspective and they only make money if guests book a stay. 

What might work is if more and more Hosts turn OFF Instant Book until they eliminate the exisiting loopholes. 

[Jimmi27]

I don't feel that "very few hosts would want to accept new guests with no reviews". 

Hosts are always looking for ways to beat out the competition. This is evident in the amount of fine-tuning and tweaking of their listings that hosts are encouraged to do (here, or via youtubers, bloggers, etc) to chase an ever changing black-box algo, and the amount of tweaks is shockingly high. It's an entire industry for some. But imagine a setting tweak that is transparently obvious in the search results; the reviews/stars. My theoretical filter of 2/4.6★ would not even show up in a search to new accounts (hidden to new guests), while the 0/0★ listings would be right there at the top of the search for other hosts. And we have all read stories or experienced it personally (myself included) where a host was terrified to accept a 0/0★, yet in the end the guests were delightful and the money was collected. This is what I mean by self-balancing.

Other design implementation choices: They do ask new listings to offer 20% off for their first 3 bookings. They could flip the script for new accounts, and charge 20% more for their first 3 bookings, rewarding hosts who set 0,0★. Too much sign-up friction? Maybe Airbnb could gift 10% more to the host instead, as the cost of doing business. There is always a way to influence for a desired outcome. As it stands now, many hosts already reject newbies, while others grab them. And worse, we decline a newby after inquiry (sometimes with a message), which is harsh and sours the experience for a new user; the HomeExchange problem. Heck, Airbnb could call a 0/0★ filter the "Welcome Mat", and give you a badge on your listing.

As an ex-game-designer, these design choices and implementations came up all of the time for me, balancing game play for a fun and rewarding experience for all sides, especially with asymmetrical games (a whole other cool topic one can search). Airbnb is, in nearly every way, an asymmetrical game.

But I am not a designer or engineer at Airbnb, so this is mostly futile and creeping into a waste of my time (and the readers). But I encourage others to think this way, and maybe one day, we can get some of these tweaks we have confidence in.