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This may have already been covered before; but is Airbnb favoring Instant Booking?
The wife and I were recently looking to book an Airbnb; and I noticed that the Instant Book filter was automatically set. This meant that none of the manually booked places were visible to use. Once I noticed this I turned it off; and suddenly we more than doubled our choices.
Are others noticing this as well?
It does encourage hosts to use IB. But I think the default is probably only in the US.
Helsi. They do indeed aggressively encourage we US hosts to use IB. However, my post deals with our potential guests searching for a place to stay. There is a search filter setting āinstant Bookā to look for only those properties that use IB. When this setting is engaged, it causes all non-IB properties to be excluded from your search. Iāve had to turn this setting off several times now during my searches for a place to stay.
As a host that doesnāt use IB; I donāt want to be excluded (penalized) for not using it. With the IB filter on by default, if indeed thatās whatās occurring, then thatās exactly whatās happening.
Yes and as I said in my previous post I think this default is only for those searching from the US.
We donāt have it here.
You are correct. You are being penalized and there is nothing you can do about it. If you use the search function of this site you can find many old threads of people commiserating with you.
You are better off to turn IB on. AIRbnb lets you cancel any IB reservations you are not comfortable with.
But have you seen where they clearly define what āuncomfortableā means @Brandt
I have a friend here who uses IB and she had some guests she wanted to cancel because they didnāt respond to messages and texts and were very demanding when they wanted something.
Airbnb said no.
No, but it seems like it is the same process either way:
With the booking request review system, you get the request and either accept or decline. With IB you just cancel the booking for whatever reason would have caused you to not accept the reservation request.
I also check the box that the guest needs a govt ID and positive review.
I also thought there is a button to cancel any reservation? Why was your friend in contact with Airbnb?
@Helsi
The part where you have to explain why you are uncomfortable is where they get you I guess. What are you supposed to say, the guest creeps me out? What would they believe is a valid reason for being uncomfortable I wonder.
From Airbnb help:
For Instant Book hosts only
You can cancel instant bookings penalty-free an unlimited number of times if youāre uncomfortable with a reservation or if a guest breaks one of your House Rules. āPenalty-freeā means you wonāt pay a fee, lose Superhost status (or eligibility for it), or receive any of the other penalties mentioned above.
You may not cancel reservations penalty-free for any other reason, including reasons that violate our nondiscrimination policy.
To cancel an Instant Book reservation youāre uncomfortable with:
Go to Your Reservations and find the reservation you need to cancel
Click Change or Cancel
Select "Iām uncomfortable with the reservation or the guest has broken my House Rules"
Click Next and provide a reason for your concerns
Click Next and write a message to your guest
Click Cancel reservation
Once you complete these steps, the host cancellation penalties for this reservation will be waived, and weāll help your guest find another place to stay.
If itās within 24 hours of check-in, contact us instead.
Note: If we observe abuse of the policy, we reserve the right to turn off Instant Book for your listing, and you may be subject to other penalties, up to and including suspension and deletion of your account.
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I think the best course is to establish that the guest broke one of the House Rules. This of course needs a bit of tact (or guile if you will) in linking their behavior to the house rules, and having crafted the rules to make this easy in the first place.
Thereās also the catch-22 of whether to first speak to Airbnb and then cancel or cancel on the webpage and then if necessary speak to them. In the former case they may say no, in the latter, if they say it must be reinstated, youāve already ruptured the goodwill with the guest. Tricky.
I feel exactly the same way. I donāt want to be penalized for not using Instant Book, but I am. I have still been able to stay nearly fully booked, but it requires pricing my room a few dollars less per night than other comparable properties nearby that do use Instant Book. To me, making a little bit less is worth it for the peace of mind.
Forming a personal connection with my guests is really important to me (I did not realize this at first, but after some reflection I came to this conclusion). Yes, you can now cancel penalty free and require positive recommendations from Instant Guests, but I donāt want to ever get to the point where I am hosting a guest I want to cancel. I depend on the money to pay my bills, so canceling has economic consequences.
I exchange a few messages with my guests before accepting reservation requests so that I can get a sense that potential guests are completely clear on what I offer and what I do not offer. Itās easy for guests to click a box that says āyes I agree to house rulesā but itās quite different to ask them a question about why they want to stay and have them respond in their own words: āI saw what you wrote in the listing about old buildings, and I live in an even older building so Iām totally cool with that!ā
I have recently considered doing a small test with Instant Book to see how it affects my overall hosting experience, but I havenāt done that yet. Opinions here seem to be mixed - some prefer IB and some would never use it. Seems like hosts who prioritize financial concerns prefer IB and hosts who prioritize having more control prefer non-IB.
Financial concerns are not the only reason to enable Instant Book. Iāve always used Instant Book and Iām very good at connecting with my guests. My reviews back me up on this.
A great benefit to Instant Book is that you donāt have to be tied to your phone to answer reservation requests.
On this board, Iāve noticed that the hosts who disparage Instant Books are the hosts whoāve never tried it.
Personally, I donāt believe that you can get to know a person by looking at their photo and exchanging a few emails. Therefore, I donāt see an advantage to not being on Instant Book. In fact, all of my problem guests have been ones who donāt Instant Book. They tend to be the needier ones.
This is a very good point. The last few IBs Iāve had were at 2am and 4am or when I was in the middle of something I couldnāt get out of right away. Enabling IB has helped me mitigate this pressure and stress.
I was skeptical about IB for a good while, but Iāve come to see the pros and cons, or should I say, the pros, after having it on for a while.
How would this work if the guest has not stayed yet? Have any of the hosts here canceled an instant booking successfully without penalty and what was the reason?
Interesting feedback, @Astaire and @EllenN. Thanks for the comments - I might just try it myself sometime soon!
Actually we donāt use IB on our properties because we wish to further review our potential guests. This is a personal choice for us; and we realize that this choice is probably costing us some money in the Nov - Apr season. But again, thatās our choice & we believe itās worked to out benefit
As for knowing potential guests based on their reviews and e-mail: I must disagree with the premise that you really donāt get a lot from those data points. We ask folks why there coming to the area; and people will generally reveal their plans to you as you go back and forth. This is important to us; as we want to make sure that they are a good fit for us and the neighborhoods were are properties are located (we know our neighbors!). Also, their reviews from other hosts a very helpful too; that is provided that they have several & the hosts were honest in those reviews.
The bottom line for me is that these are my properties and I care about who stays in them. And besides, Iām still making more than just renting them out for 12 months or more.
To see whether they saw her reasons as valid as she hadnāt done it before and their policy isnāt clear.
I tried it and it didnāt work for me as I got lots of people who didnāt meet my house/check in rules booking and it was a pain having to contact Airbnb to sort it out.
I canāt comment about others who have said itās not for them.
I always advise new hosts not to use it until they are comfortable with how Airbnb works because of the number who find themselves with inappropriate bookings because they havenāt thought through their house rules or who double book because they havenāt learnt to manage their calendars.
Then of course there are the guests who throw up red flags, but meet house rules who you donāt have a chance to decline.
I have.
A couple booked to stay 3 nights over a weekend, guy said wife was from this town, and they were driving over to meet friends and relatives.
Their responses were very spotty, these were all warning signs especially as they were hosts themselves so you would think they understood Airbnb and would care to be responsive etc.
About 3 days before the checkin, guy asks if there was a telly in the room. That was the last straw.
I cancelled using a clause in my House Rules which said Please ensure youāve read what amenities are on offer. That along with their lack of responsiveness.
He tried to call. Airbnb then called, I told them the above. They said ok fine. And that was it. No penalty nothing.