IB or not , rules still stand. I am on IB and in my case it was all ways resolved in my favor.,it’s not hosts fault that guests don’t read rules.
As of now, Airbnb allows hosts to cancel up to THREE Instant booking in a calendar year, with NO penalty, provided suspicion or concern on guest behavior.
Having hosted over 200 guests, and constant,y answering questions clearly listed in the advert. Hosts are going to need a lot more than 3 free cancellations! And those 3 cancellations state if you feel uncomfortable with the guest when they arrive. Nothing about if the guest ignores every rule on your listing instant booking then being allowed to cancel because they ignore such rules!
I have it in writing, hosts cannot ever ask a guest to cancel their booking just because they ignore the house rules and book anyway. Yes this is complete contradiction to their vauge policy, and even 2 other members of staff. Plus, I’m sure the next Airbnb staff member will state yet something else as usual
The issue here is there is absolutely no clear guidance on the matter, everyone seems to get told something different, your house rules become irrelevant with instant book, the policy is useless, it’s all down to the person that answers the phone at Airbnb!
The only thing that is for sure is that the guest by doing instant booking automatic accept the house rules. I had over 100 guest last month and sometime guest still ask me to cancel because i made them aware of the house rule. I just say that i would love to have them as our guest and if they can not make it concerning our house rules, their are free to change their flight arrival. That seem to work well and they rather cancel than change flight. Its a little sad that we have to do it this way, but the other option would be calling Airbnb with bad connection from where i am. I wish they got a cancel button for instant booking saying breaking the house rules 
If you choose to use instant book, live with the consequences. You’ve given up the ability to screen guests before deciding to allow them in your home. It’s a risk I am not willing to accept.
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I wish I’d read your entry before. I just had a similar situation.
The first call centre girl said there was nothing they could do to fix my situation. I couldn’t not cancel an instant booking without severe penalty - even though the error was a technical glitch at Airbnb end.
The next woman was amazing. Looked up all the information, spotted the error and sorted the problem out within the hour with no penalty to either myself or the guest. It’s a shame they’re not all singing from the same songbook!
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How can you advise me after your experience? A guest just booked my space that takes 5 guests, but in the messaging, lets me know that it is two moms and ELEVEN KIDS.
I don’t have phone service to call airbnb as I myself am on vacation.
You are right that all the online choices are threatening to the host. I’ve messaged the guest several times (8 a.m. here in the US, with 4 kids, surely she is awake) but have no response.
Anyone advise?
11 kids? Is it a Boy Scout troop or class field trip? I’m wondering if you could send a change request billing for each of the 8 people beyond your limit. That would get her attention.
Maybe she hasn’t had enough coffee yet, and in an hour or so her head will clear enough to respond.
Go to twitter, they are awesome @airbnbhelp. Fb page also very responsive.
Hi, dcmooney,
I think i would say: Thank you so much for your booking, we have reserved for a maximum of 5 person including the kids. We hope you already have made arrangement for the rest since we have no more space.
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What I did was write her and instruct her to cancel immediately since she’s blocking my calendar. It just took her almost two hours to get to it. Then she wrote and said ‘how do I fix this’?
She wrote back and said “oh sorry, I thought I was just asking a question, I didn’t realize I was booking”
???
She did book at 2 am. She must have been very bleary eyed.
Then she said “I would have been happy to have stayed with my kids and find another place for my sister, but I think now that’s not possible since I messed up”
In her very long message she never once said she would be happy to stay with just her kids. Nor did she even say “what would the extra cost be?”. And she’s right, I don’t need that kind of headache.
So thankfully, it’s fixed now, my calendar is open. And I told her to use ‘contact host’ in the future instead of ‘instant book’.
Back to my regularly scheduled vacation.
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I’m not on twitter, but think I will sign-up, for this alone, or get a cell plan that covers me in the hills.
Or, snooze my listing when on vacation.
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Im not sure if you remember a few months back when IB was glitching and not counting kids in the total guest count. We had 2 set of people boom our max occupency 8 house for 12!!! First, I lost my mind, then called ABB about the glitch. One rep was great and i got no penalties. The other rep took one of my IB freebie cancels. It really just depends on the rep.
One of the groups dis offer to pay, like yours, but after much back and forth. It was just not worth it to me. No need to start someones holiday on a negative note.
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Yes, its possible. I did it in a beginning, i thought i was inquiring but in fact i booked.
My opinion is that when its a private room is rented, or a separate appartment in someone’s house where host can hear evrything, kids should not be allowed. I mean small kids. And parents should not be bringing small kids to anyone’s home. Totally separate app/house yes, but not shared spaces.
I dont know know how you do it, but what you described is a total nightmare.
hehehe Wing, yea i have become a little more direct now and just had a guest who never informed about his departure time, i ask several times. In the end at closure time 10 pm he said that his flight was 3am. So i was hard and asked if he did not read the house rules he admitted to read them and also see them inside his room, but still made me feel like a asshole when i said that he had to be fast because our gate is already closed now and you have 30 minutes to pack your things if you want to get your luggage before you leave. Off course no its the dilemma waiting for his review and stars rating, i am sure he did not like to respect our house rules 
Why would you want to lose one of your three cancellation ‘lives’ @chicagohost when it’s not your fault.
We just had an instant book for the same day (today) in spite of our listing stating 24 hours minimum notice required for booking. It also stated check in times between 3 and 9 pm with the notation that if outside of normal times please ask before booking. This reservation stated arrival at 10pm. As we will not be home much before 6 it does not give us much time, so I wrote to guest suggesting that either they had not read the listing or have us confused with another, and asked for confirmation if this was what they intended booking, in which case we will do our best to make sure everything is ready. We also asked for purpose of visit as we ask that also in our listing. At this point we have not had a response. If we do not get one, can we cancel without penalty as guest did not follow the rules? We are not happy to host guests who have not read the listing as they may have unrealistic expectations with regard to location and facilities.
For future reference, as you have your listing set for 24 Hour notice you could have called Airbnb and asked them to cancel the booking @RIGSBY
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Appears to be a common issue, I seem to recall a few others citing a similar issue over the past few months. Buggy and glitchy software is the problem, and as @Helsi said, if it happens again just get Airbnb to cancel it, if you want to cancel it that is.
JF
I had this problem too and ABB confirmed it was a glitch. I agreed to host anyway (another story, another post) but they would have cancelled it I’d asked. I have to advise that the rep did try to talk me into not cancelling though … Guest-centric ABB strikes again!
With all the changes they have made, my pricing settings have also changed a couple times. I now watch that even more stringently.