Instant booking guest quality

[Deanna296]

Has anyone else noticed a substantial difference in the quality of guests you have gotten from instant booking vs guests that ask for approval? Out of 6 months of hosting, the only problem people were literally 3/3 of my instant bookers. One of them was non stop complaining/ messaging me all day stupid questions, next was a girl with a “service dog” that agreed to use a leash per county laws and then didn’t, chasing it all over the neighborhood, then left it alone for 5 hours while they went out. Air bnb doesn’t allow you to put that on a review and they deleted my review. Next kid was absolutely creepy/ scary/ threatening. Yelling outside at night. After that I promptly turned off instant booking and now I’ve only had super classy quiet people who love the property and give great reviews. Do the creepy people look for places with instant booking?! Why would you do instant booking unless you have an older property you don’t care about? 

[Zheng49]

For me the guests that ask for approval tend to be more difficult to deal with. Reason is because instant booking is turned on without filters for all my listings, so if they're sending a request this means they're trying to check-in earlier or later than we allow.

Instant booking guest quality can be controlled to a large extent by the prices you set. 

[Lorina14]

@Deanna296 

Several hosts would agree that it is better to avoid instant booking but we have had no issues with instant booking. What it comes down to is how clear you are in your listing descriptions for setting expectations and how you vet people after they instant book. If you have a larger home many people do not do instant book so they can vet the guests better. If you have specific rules because of HOA or resort rules like signing a lease or agreement to rules prior to the booking this would be better as well. If someone instant books that has a bad review, you could message them to ask what happened with that exchange and allow them to explain what happened. There was only one person who cancelled after the instant booking confirmed auto response asking some questions. 

We have a few questions we send immediately after booking thanking them for choosing our listing, may we ask where they are coming from, if this is a special occasion, please add all guests staying in the reservation or you will not allowed to enter the space (per our insurance coverage rules) and if they have any questions. Only one person didn’t respond in over a year of hosting and I’ve been able to catch or address potential issues before their stay answering all questions, sometimes advising them that our space may not suit their needs (we don’t have a sofa/living room), etc. 

So it depends on your listing, your area you live in, setting guests expectations, and having good communication. Many hosts have instant booking with no issues. Do what works best for you or tweak things to see if instant booking could work with good vetting questions upon booking. People have also found that when you dialogue with guests it forms a better connection and allows them to feel comfortable to bring up issues with you directly or in private messages rather than a public review. Instant booking also promotes you to more guests looking for a place to stay… some people change their minimum days, lower their cleaning fees, or allow instant bookings to increase bookings or viewing rates.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Deanna296 

We tried IB for awhile and went back to requests. Our IB guests were mostly indifferent to the rules and were not clear on expectations. It seemed they did not read the listing and just fell in love with the photos. We are delighted with the guests who request. They communicate very well from the start. They are no trouble at all and all but a few merit 10 stars from us.

[Joshua1217]

We might be lucky so far and haven't noticed anything negative with instant book. Been hosting for three months and have had it on the entire time.