Newbie - so how many of you use instant book?

1

I just joined and it keeps trying to convince me not to remove the instant book, though I think I want to …

How many use instant book and have you ever had any problems with it?

2

I use it. 500 guests over 4+ years and zero problems with it. It depends on the kind of rental you have though. I live at the house but the room is separate with it’s own entrance.

2 Likes
3

I have a whole-house rental and use it. No problems so far. knock on wood

1 Like
4

I use it too. I prefer it.

1 Like
5

I had to use it to get anywhere up in the search results of my competitive market. I also have an (attached but) completely separate suite, so not quite as risky. Have not had a bad experience, at least not bad enough to mention.

2 Likes
6

It depends on the type. . We turn off instant booking on our home that we are living in and host . We want to see who we are "living " with. We turn it on for vacation home that we don’t meet the guests.

2 Likes
7

I use it and have (only) had 34-36 bookings…no problems and it does improve your rankings in searches, A LOT in my opinion. The only problem guests I had, had 7 good reviews. Go figure. Most other guests have zero reviews, but zero problems.
EDIT:
I have one bedroom/one private bath in shared home. Lots of (shared) amenities, and I keep myself very scarce, but I am here to keep an eye on things.

1 Like
8

Too funny, I just wrote the opposite. Whatever works! :yum:

1 Like
9

I am forced to leave IB on to keep me up the search results. I would prefer to screen everyone. I have my settings on guests must be recommended by other hosts to book, at least that weeds out the thumbs down not recommended ones.

1 Like
10

WILL NOT USE IB. I want more control over who is going to stay in our listing.

1 Like
11

I use it for most of my listings and have for years.

That said, and especially for a newbie: it depends on your listing and your market.
Does your listing have any quirks that need explaining. Can it attract party people? Do you know what you are you doing already?

3 Likes
12

I live on a lake with lots of property. It would be perfect for a party… and actually, the third day it was listed, someone tried to book it for a party. I declined it because she asked me first, thank heaven. That’s what I worry about. What if she would have just booked it and everyone just showed up.

13

Has it affected your bookings?

I guess you probably wouldn’t know if you’ve missed any bookings, though…

14

Where do you find that setting?

I think I’ve gone through the site 10 times, and every time, I find another setting that I didn’t see before. I don’t think I’ve seen this one.

15

Under Who Can Book I think

1 Like
16

I don´t use it. I live alone in the property and I want to control who is going to stay at my place. I do pretty well with bookings.

1 Like
17

I think you’ll find that hosts choose this setting differently for many reasons. If I hosted rooms in my house with shared space I would definitely want to IB off. so I could decide about who I would be living with

However, we have an attached in-law suite with a separate entrance and we share no living space but the back yard so we keep IB on. So far have only had one guest that was not stellar out of 50+ guests and, even then, what we didn’t appreciate about that guest wouldn’t have bothered some other hosts (attempting to smoke weed in the backyard, disregarding our check-in window.)

As a new host, though, you might want more control as you figure things out.

1 Like
18

i use it, but I do have the criteria of positive reviews and gov ID verified for guests to instant book though. I rent a whole apartment. However most of the bookings so far came from first time air users, so they did not have a chance to instant book

2 Likes
19

In that case, I would get off IB - too much risk of getting exactly the kind of group that you don’t want to have.

The financial risk on your vacation property far outweigh the monetary gain and there are plenty of threads on this forum about how helpful Airbnb is or not is in case of damages.

Unlike some other opinions here, I never had any issues with IB guests at my live-in rooms and would welcome most all of them again. But - I am in Costa Rica, most everybody is a tourist in for 1 or 2 nights and only on the way on to the party spots at the beach.

Now on the whole condo rental that I have with my partner at the beach … I am much more picky and careful … there are pool rules and noise restrictions from the community etc … plus we are not always around to nip any unwanted behaviour in the butt …

Here the link: just swap the xxx for your listing number.
https://www.airbnb.com/manage-your-space/xxx/booking

2 Likes
20

Only one that I know of. I had an Inquiry from someone who’s photo was a black silhouette of a woman (or a man with shoulder length hair). I explained that I didn’t care about many things but I did want to see the actual person who was going to be staying. Never heard another word…

1 Like