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I adjust my settings regularly, probably several times a week due to my schedule always being in flux. Today I went to turn on one day advance notice and I saw this
So that means I can accept same day bookings by request but instant book for all other bookings. Although same day, even late that same day bookings are fine most of the time, this is a great option for me.
Has this been there all along? Or is it new? @JJD you’re on top of these things.
Has been around for a while. For one of my listings here, I even have it set for 7 days advance.
It is quite nifty.
Hmmmm. This is a case of geo something, we don’t have that option.
This is one of my biggest irritations with Airbnb, the variations in both features and interfaces between different regions. It’s almost as if the whole platform has never managed to get out of beta release 
JF
It’s been there for over a year for me, I’ve always had it on. We do 3-day notice and do great with it. I’d be a nervous wreck if someone could IB for the same day 
But, thanks to you, I’ve gotten bold with taking last minute bookings! Just took one today!
Holy smokes! Unless it really cuts down on same day bookings this is fantastic!
I know that I have had guests send same day requests for the last year and a half, so I think it has been going for at least that long in the UK @KKC - not sure why it’s not working for you @JohnF
No idea. The check box simply isn’t there.
We have a noon cut off for same day bookings, and I’ve just checked to see if our vacant apartment shows up on searches. No trace on BDC but there on Airbnb, although when I filter by IB, we disappear from Airbnb.
It suggests that we have book by request (for same day) feature enabled, even though we don’t have a check box to enable/disable. Happy enough with that, and explains why, a month or so ago, we got a same day request to book at 14:00, or something like that. Had me a bit perplexed at the time, but turned out to be a great booking so wasn’t too unhappy.
Every day’s a school day and all that!
JF
I’ve has these since I began hosting in June 2017, so not new in the UK.
Is that in th e app or website? I don’t have it in the app
If you allow same day bookings you should also look at the time of day by which guests have to book. I had a guest make a booking at 9pm and they showed up about 20 minutes later. The room was ready but if it had not been ready it would have been a real thrash to turn it over in that time. I just about had time to run a quick duster over the surfaces and put out the correct number of towels. I have since adjusted the time on Airbnb so that now no-one can make a same-day booking after 7pm.
I have a 3-day notice set so no one can IB the same day anyways. They can request same-day and I have been accepting them. I used to be chicken, for some reason, about same-days and used to effectively block days as they got too close but were un-booked. My experiment this month with leaving the days available and accepting same-day bookings has definitely showed me the error of my former-ways. I had no idea so many people were booking day-of and usually for multiple days. But I definitely don’t want to be caught off-guard and so don’t take IB 3-days out (we have 3 apartments and do all of our own cleaning).
I’m still surprised at how many people wait until the last minute, even when it’s a trip they apparently had planned for awhile. Maybe they think they will get places cheaper last minute. I think taking same day may also affect your search results: your place will show higher in the ranking for last minute searches compared to when you started.
Maybe but that’s not working out for them because I’m liking it because instead of dropping my prices (beyond the normal seasonal change), I’m just booking later. Actually, usually, I’m raising the prices as the dates get closer. Some have been last-minute plans but just as many have been unplanned, needed trips (parents taking care of their college kids, funerals, etc).
I love this for my situation. Because of the dogs I’m always in flux and it’s great to be able to take a last minute break or block a day because something came up.
On a road trip I’m definitely a last-minute booker. We stop for food when we’re hungry and drive until we’re tired. You could say I PLAN to leave it until the last minute. 
I once went on a road trip with someone on the opposite end of the spectrum. She handed us an itinerary with meal stops indicated by exit number. And it wasn’t like “Town X is supposed to have the best buffalo wings.”. It was just Wendy’s or whatever. LOL. To me, it was absurd (surely we can find another Wendys if we’re not hungry at exit 189!), but to her, not knowing and locking down the details made her anxious.
I do the same sometimes. Last time driving from El Paso I wasn’t sure how far I’d get. I got to OKC and wasn’t tired, on to Tulsa, nope not yet. By Tulsa I was hoping to get to Joplin MO but as it got dark I realized I wasn’t that comfortable driving an unknown route in the dark. So Miami, OK it was. This was 2016 but I couldn’t find any IB Airbnbs doing same day bookings between and including Tulsa and Joplin.
We’ve had a lot of “drive until we’re tired” guests who book at the last minute. Yay for them!
I’ve seen so many appealing Airbnbs in the last couple of years that I think my next road trip will have me looking in advance and then trying to make it to those destinations. Even out of the way places have some real gems now. Only state I’ve noticed seems to be lagging is North Dakota. LOL.
I get a surprising number of last minute bookings, and I always raise my price for day-of bookings. It helps that only a few hosts in my town take day-of bookings so any last minute guests have fewer choices.
Yeah we’ve gotten those. They are they “we thought we’d make it to the next city but damn the traffic was exhausting”.
I noticed that too! It’s one of the only states I haven’t been to so I’m planning to trek up there, maybe next year. Even the boutique hotel in Fargo looked unappealing. Let me know if you find anything!