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I just got a confirmed instant booking for this Saturday from a guest who doesn’t meet my settings for instant bookings, that is to say : 1) verified government ID 2) Recommended by other host.
I phoned Airbnb and they told me that if a guest is a first-time user of Airbnb, they can overide my settings and accept the reservation with just the verified government ID condition being met.
I no longer have the control that I require on Instant bookings . 
No, they didn’t.
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I would try them on Twitter. This doesn’t sound right.
That is super strange. I suppose you could cancel and say not comfortable with guest if that is the case.
Unfortutnately , the only information I have for the 4 guests/2rooms is “Thanks!” and a pic of a young man, and that they live in a small town an hour away. Not much on which to base a decision. I sent my standard reply with standard questions but havn’t heard back from them yet. If I don’t get more details from this guest, I will use my first of 3 allowed instant booking cancellations.
I don’t use Twitter often but sent this (hope I did it right):
@AirbnbHelp Is this correct?
Got a confirmed instant booking from a guest who doesn’t meet my settings for instant bookings.Airbnb said if a guest is a first-time user of Airbnb,they can overide my settings and accept with just the verified government ID condition being met.
Sounds great be interesting to hear what they say. Do share their response.
Update : There is now a positive review from a previous stay on this guest’s profile, so his instant booking now meets all my settings for Instant bookings. I am starting to believe that there are syncronicity issues with Airbnb’s system and that the Airbnb rep I spoke with was misinformed.
Reason #267 for NOT using Instant Book!!
That sounds dodgy. I get a lot of first time Airbnb’s and they can never IB. Thank god, just got one yesterday who wanted to book for 3 months, ‘with possibility to extend if WE want’, and asked all these demanding questions for services/facilities I don’t provide.
When they never responded to my polite questions about their intended activities while in town for such a period and why no reviews when member since mid 2016, I politely declined. I noted sorry as you’ve not responded and I must approve/decline within 24hrs I have declined assuming you decided it’s not a good fit. I got such an aggressive response that 24 hours was in exactly 4 hours!!! 
lucky save there
Airbnb reply via Twitter :
Hi NAME, thank you for confirming your information and providing further context. We do apologize for the confusion as the information provided from our team member is incorrect. Per our Instant Book requirements, a guest has to meet these requirements even if they are a first time guest. We do apologize also that our system delayed the guest’s review and recommendation from a host. We appreciate you bringing this to our attention as we have addressed this with our team member’s management and our technical team to further investigate why the guest’s information was not populating for you when you received this reservation. We’re just a DM away if you have any other questions or concerns.
Translation
So sad too bad - they’re booked!
Until I cancel their reservation if they don’t communicate with me by noon today.
What is a DM??? In my day it was a ‘deep and meaningful’ conversation!
The explanation might be that the host already left a review, but the guest did not.
So the guest was able to IB, but the review was not visible yet.
But I noticed that the platform has some issues the last 48 hours, bookings from guests bouncing, guests accepting and paying our special offers, but not turning into bookings on our side. Verified guests waiting for verification and other strange things.
Direct message On the Twitter platform as opposed to a regular tweet, I assume
Hi there,
This happened to me too. The guest had stayed at an Airbnb the night before. It registered with Airbnb, but did not show up for a full 24 hours on her profile. FYI.
BINGO! …