Instant Book - Turned on by default when client

Research
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I noticed when I was searching as a client in Boston that Instant Book was turned on by default. I noticed it. Do guests who aren’t paying attention notice? Who knows? The note (when I hovered over it) was something to the tune of “There are so many search results that we turned on instant book”. Unfortunately, I turned it off before I thought to take a screenshot.

I don’t know if this is affecting only densely populated areas or not. I don’t like it. I personally have instant book turned off because I want anyone booking with me to know they must communicate first. That could mean I’m missing out on people when Airbnb turns on this function for guests without permission. They have been pushing Instant Book HARD and I think it’s only a matter of time before they make it a requirement in some way – either by forcing it or making every default search for only instant books (unless guests turn it off).

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This has been true for the Boston market for at least a year. I am sure that it has affected the number of “eyes” that your booking receives.

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@anon67190644–you are correct.

@Suz-in-Boston

I don’t know if all areas were had the default flipped on at the same time, but North & South Carolina searches have the same IB (why does my nurse mind leap to Irritable Bowel?) default.

Because I require the guest to have a positive prior review to use IB for my rental, my listings will not display for all people browsing although I have IB.

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LOL! I thought I was the only one that had irritable bowel pop into my mind with IB (…but where’s the S = syndrome.).

It’s just that society uses initials for so many things, it’s like another language. It becomes second nature to connect initials with the corresponding names and words.

1 Like
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This is why I finally ended up turning IB on. Luckily, I haven’t had issues (yet), but otherwise I wouldn’t get bookings because of this new “feature”