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I have had two separate guests instant book this week. The first had a rating of 4.5 stars from 9 reviews and the previous host had complained that they left the apartment a mess. The second had a 4 star rating from 3 reviews and the previous host had complained about issues with smoking outside the designated area and bringing a pet to a no pets listing.
I was shocked they could instant book so I called Airbnb support and they told me it is based on an average of all of their reviews. He said that 4 star average is not considered a bad rating.
I knew the requirements for instant bookings had changed from “must be recommended by other hosts” to “without incidents or bad reviews” I didn’t realize it was an average of all reviews. So it is essentially a free for all.
He recommended that I turn off instant book and said there would be no difference in the visibility of my listing (not sure if I believe that or not).
No difference in the visibility? Sounds like another CS rep who has no idea what they are talking about. As far as I’m aware, IB is the primary factor in search ranking.
However, it depends on how saturated your area is with “similar listings”. I’ve never used IB and some guests have told me my listing came up first when they input their filters. But mine is one of the few private room homeshares for only 1 guest in my area and is also one of the least expensive.
I believe the wording on IB now is “Good track record”- not they have no negative reviews. And nowhere do they define what “good track record” means.
The problem with star ratings is that you have no idea whether 8 of that guest’s previous host rated them 5*s and one rated 3 or 4 stars, or whether most of the hosts rated 4 stars. Nor do you know whether what one host considers “messy” enough to mention is what you would consider more or less normal.
If I saw that a guest had one concerning written review out of 3 or 9, I’d just ask them about that and make sure they are aware of your house rules and expectations. Just because a guest screwed up once doesn’t mean they will be a bad guest, unless their past behavior was really egregious, like throwing a party and trashing a house.
But yeah, Airbnb has seemingly made it easier for guests to IB.
“has been updated to “good track record,” which only allows guests to book a stay if they’ve had no incidents or negative reviews”
That was my understanding which is why I was surprised to have two guests with concerning reviews be able to instant book.
The CS guy is saying that even if they have a negative review or incident, it doesn’t matter as long as their overall rating is acceptable. He could not define acceptable when I asked if that was a particular number of stars or number of bad ratings.
For me it’s not super concerning as my philosophy is mostly heads in beds. I have a very small unit and I’m on site. But I had assumed a basic level of screening and now I realize that’s not even there. Anyone can IB and I have to take that into account.
The question is what consitutes a “negative review or incident”. I suspect an “incident” is something they were reported for to Airbnb, not a host just mentioning in a review that they broke house rules.
