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Background
We have been hosting short-time stays since July, airbnb for the last month. We are experienced landlords, and are owner-occupied. We live 2 floors down from the guest apt.
Instant Book
We have Instant Book enabled, but had it set so Guests are Required to have only positive reviews. Today I turned that off, so anyone can IB.
My Concern?
We are ok with new guests with no record. But we are concerned about a possible IB from a guest who has one or more really negative reviews.
My Question
If I do get an IB from such a “Red Flag Guest” I would not want to take any chances.
What is the best way to get Air to cancel their booking, without me directly messaging the Guest (people never react well to confrontation).
One benefit of IB is that you get 3 cancellations a year, easy peasy. You can get more than that but probably won’t need them. Over 3 you have to call in. So if you get a guest with a bad prior review or other issues that make you uncomfortable just go to the platform and cancel the reservation. There will be a menu of reasons for you to select from.
If such a situation arises and you are uncertain you can come back here and someone will help walk you through it.
Do you have the chrome extension downloaded? This allows you to see guest reviews. I’m not sure what the search terms are, so perhaps someone can chime in for you.
Anyway, you can see poor reviews left by other hosts, giving you the ability to ask (im)pertinent questions of potential guests, particularly if they only have one poor review amongst other good ones. If someone has more than a few bad ones, you can use a precious cancellation up.
So I just installed it and can’t seem to see any additional info about previous guests (we do not currently have an upcoming booking (but do have a guest upstairs now).
“When you go into Airbnb with it installed, there’s an icon, (usually your photo),that tells you it’s running. If it’s not there, close your browser, clear your cache and stuff, then try again”.
Why turn off this feature if a guest with no review or a poor review is going to drive you crazy? They can still request to book. It just gives you the opportunity to accept or decline their request once you’ve communicated with them and or looked at their review(s).
Again, I am not concerned about a new guest with no history. Many people sign up to airbnb all the time. I would want to have their booking.
But I DO want a separate checkbox for “negative reviews”. For those guests, I would wish to review their profile / reviews and make my own decision.
What I really want is more control from the interface - separate checkboxes for “new account / no review” vs “negative reviews”.
It is so elementary. Airbnb’s interface is “one size fits some”.
What do you mean? You mean if the host clicked the “do not recommend” option? That used to be quasi visible but they removed it. For example I had a woman book with 16 reviews but only 12 hosts recommended her. And her average was 4 stars so I cancelled her instant booking. But now we can’t see how many hosts recommended. Airbnb is moving the opposite direction of your desires.
Just another point of view but I find that it’s pretty easy to engage the guest in conversation - “I read that review that Mary in Baltimore left for you and it seems that [insert misdemeanor] so I just want you to know that I’m not going to put up with that for a moment”…
I like to get the guest into a conversation. It’s worked for me.
Yes, I understand what the Airbnb platform says. In any case, for what it’s worth I’ve had IB with only the goverment ID requirement for about 3.5 years and 400+ guests and no problems.
I further advise not to get yourself wound up by Airbnb’s apparent inability to do the easy or logical.
Thanks - I do think the odds are in my favor. I feel better having the air review plugin.
I do not currently have the govt id checked. I am concerned that some people could have tech issues. Do you think I should reconsider and require the Govt ID?
its a binary option and its impossible to split. When you are revieiwng a guest u have to either give a thumbs up or thumbs down. Even if there was an option for the host to ignore it altogether, not selecting a thumbs up for the guest would have been a negative by default, as it only takes a click.
Airbnb’s concept of “negative” is unlikely to be based on the number of stars awarded, as that is a very subjective measure.
No i get it. I’m just pointing out the binary nature of that sentence. A better suggestion (as mentioned by OP himself) would be for a checkbox to allow new guests with no reviews to instant book.
