Airbnb has REMOVED "positive host review" as a requirement for instant book!

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Some changes to the Airbnb interface I noticed today. Guests may book using instant book without any positive previous host reviews. Not that they really tell you anything about a guest, anyway, unless they are personal and glowing.

  1. If you Deactivate your listing you are DELETING it, so use the Unlist button instead.
  2. If you try to create a new listing since you accidentally deleted your old one, like me, you will get an error message if you try to put in any sum for a security deposit and be unable to list.
  3. Airbnb customer service reps will not even know about this themselves
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Wow! These are pretty major changes!!!

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Thanks for this timely warning … I was about to deactivate one of our listings since we have enough bookings for the season!

Do Airbnb deign to inform their hosts about this anywhere on the site? (She asks with heavy sarcasm …)

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Looks like I still have the ability to require “positive feedback” prior to booking:

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I tried to change my cleaning fee last night on an existing listing and received an error message. It is in the same section as the security deposit. I wonder if saving that page has a glitch.

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Update…oddly enough, I now see the button for requiring previous host reviews again. I can also enter a security deposit again. I was getting an error message instead for several days. FALSE ALARM!

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I had that error yesterday and phoned. They said they would get back to me. No response but I was able to do it today (July 15)

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I had an instant book with this box ticked. The guest scored a 3 star for cleanliness and host was lukewarm. If that is a positive review why do five. Star reviews get us warnings! A double standard. Have turned off instant book.

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I had an instant book with this box ticked. The guest scored a 3 star for cleanliness and host was lukewarm. If that is a positive review why do five. Star reviews get us warnings! A double standard. Have turned off instant book.

I wonder if they base it off the thumbs up / down question for hosts. A 1 star could hypothetically still get a thumbs up from the host.

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There was an announcement that 3 star would now be a fail for host recommendation but do not know if it is any one category or an average.

Otherwise thumbs up and down.