Instant Book ignoring rules?

[Richard1830]

Twice I've had instant booking on short notice when I'm set to 2 days notice. However, I've had an even more confusing one today.

An unverified guest has been able to book our villa for tomorrow.



How is this possible when I have the following settings?

...the guest in question has a new profile and zero reviews.

[Richard1830]

...and to make it worse my calendar is now blocked for the dates of this unverified booking.

Guess it's time to turn off instant booking.

[Anna9170]

@Richard1830 

If you are the owner of the Villa, I would advise you to disable the instant book, IMO this is only suitable for apartments that are not too expensive, where it is not so important who your guest is, because the damage can not be too great. A guest who likes your object can easily send a confirmation request, and you will have the opportunity to understand each other a little.

[Richard1830]

Yup. Have turned it off now.

Just the small matter of stopping this guest from getting to our villa now.

[Anna9170]

@Richard1830  
Stop the guest? Perhaps you wanted to play partisans as a child)))
To be honest, your question is not quite accurate. Because guests without reviews are sometimes the best guests, believe me! On the other hand, there may be technical issues for which you are not ready to receive a guest earlier than two days in advance. Which of these is the problem.

[Richard1830]

Both are true.

I need two days notice because of local covid 19 cleaning regulations in Florida. and to allow for time differences. Although we rent out a Florida villa, I'm actually based in the UK.

The majority of our guests have been fantastic however we had two bad experiences recently where both guests appeared to be new to airbnb, so I'm playing it safe. I'm happy to limit rentals to guests with positive reviews only.

[Anna9170]

@Richard1830  Good luck to you, and I hope that everything will be fine with this unexpected guest!

[Kelly149]

@Richard1830 it is a bit confusing and I've seen the same thing happen, BUT once the guest does complete the ID verification THEN the other parameters should come into play and then you will have a REQUEST and not an IB... at least that is what happened in my case.

Unfortunately for you, until you have a confirmed booking then you don't have anything to argue about/cancel. But I don't think this will override your 2 day ahead and/or positive reviews requirement. 

Of course, do let us know how it turns out!!

[Richard1830]

Just to let everyone know. The guest failed verification so the booking never went ahead.

I've now turned IB off.

[Lachristy0]

@Richard1830 i just experienced this, guest was av(awaiting vericiartion), it was a same day booking and i had another guest that wanted to stay. i called airbnb for 4 hours and not one single person could open my calender to allow the verified guest book. in my case, they were holding the calender allowing them 12 hours or more to provdide verification, way beyond the time of my checkout. so i missed a potential booking as they moved on to another house and the guest still ended up withdrawing their request. these type of issues have become out of control

[Richard1830]

...I had a sneaky theory about this. Do you think the unverified guest could be another local host on airbnb? Our villa is generally the top result for 4 bed villa in our area, so if you're in second place what better action that to make my property unavailable for a busy holiday weekend? 

[Janet41]

@Richard1830 I have never used IB because I always want to have some direct communication with prospective guests before they book. I need to make sure that they have read the description, and that they are going to be OK with being in a "transitional" neighborhood. 
In the early years, the inquiry process was designed to be conversational and leisurely, allowing guests and hosts to get to know each other a bit before deciding if the booking would be a mutually good fit.  Then Airbnb inserted the ticking time bomb ACCEPT or REJECT countdown into that relationship process, pressuring commitments based on a strict time limit, with penalties for non compliance. After that came the Instant Booking "feature," which discouraged any relationship building, and turns the booking into nothing more that a transaction.  Not the way I want to run my business. 
For years, it was possible for hosts to specify what verification elements they required for a booking. eg  I require that guests have a government issued photo ID on file with Airbnb, and until recently, Airbnb listed the specific elements of the guest's verification on their profile page. Without warning,  Host verification requirements were removed from our listings. Recently,  those specifics were removed from guest profiles, as part of a "new" verification process, which there is apparently no way to opt out of. We are supposed to trust that whatever background check company that Airbnb is contracting with is good enough.  It is not! 
Since I can no longer see what is in the verification, I'm now put in the position of having to ask prospective guests about ID, though whatever they say, I can't see if they're telling the truth or not. All this takes time, with the ACCEPT/REJECT clock clicking away.   I know of 2 relatively new local hosts, who presumed this cursory "verification" was thorough, and were burned by bad guests with common names who can't be traced. Frustrating as this is on a personal level,  when these stories get into the press, they provide ammo for the hotel industry, which would love to regulate us out of existence. By making it harder for hosts to vet their guests, Airbnb is ruining what was best about the business model in the first place. 
Guess you can tell that I'm REALLY frustrated with the direction the company has been going, particulary with IB and the changes to the verification process.  I've complained and complained, and recently decided to just block my property for the next 3 months and see if these are issues that new Dir. #CatherinePowell will address...

[Richard1830]

IB has become quite frustrating. I understand the benefit is higher prominence in the search results and likely better bookings, but at the expense of quality vetting.

I'd hoped the new IB options(e.g. only accept bookings from guest with positive reviews) would make it better, but my recent experience suggests this isn't working yet.

Are you ok blocking your property for the next 3 months? Do you have other sources of bookings? Surely it's fine to verify each guest individually without IB?

[Anna9170 · Accepted solution]

@Richard1830  IB is a great tool and I use it 90% of the time. But this is not suitable for renting part of the house, if the host also lives there or other guests, and is not suitable for expensive objects. In these cases, prior communication is most important.