Push for Instant Book

I’ve never cancelled so I can’t say that I’m terribly familiar with the policy. I thought you had a limited number of penalty free cancellations but double booking might not be one of the penalty free categories. Some of the other hosts here might be able to share what tools they use to sync their calendars to prevent double booking. Edit: I went to look on another thread and it seems there isn’t a fool proof way to avoid double booking.

I am using calendar synch from a company, never get a double booking problem

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Instant Book for recommended guests has been activated on our listing for the last 20 days. It’s possibly a little early to draw conclusions, but I would say it has made no difference. There have been three IBs, one of which was in error from a guest who really only wanted to enquire about our location. Several other first time guests booked via the usual request. From my experience it seems the kind of more mature guests we attract are not too worried about being able to book instantly.

I’ve been a very busy host for three years now, and after deciding that I am not going to give in to the IB pressure, or the pressure to implement their shitty (sorry, but they are) “pricing tips”, I have seen our business drop off DRAMATICALLY. As in, we have ZERO bookings for the foreseeable future. It’s all because of the way we are placed in search, as the only requests we’ve had last month have been from past guests who already have stayed here and wanted to stay again. That was the only way they found us–from their message history. We do not even show up at all in search.

I am standing by my principles, though, and I’d rather have no bookings than unvetted, random folks paying less than half of what they should to stay here. I will stand my ground.

I’d honestly rather make no money than give in to this bullshit.

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You should report this to Airbnb. Other people have, and they fixed it. But you could first ask people in the forum to verify that you are not showing up in search.

Yes and No.
Yes, to report this to Airbnb. It might literally help her solve the search problem
No, to send the link to us to check its placement. If many of us look at their listing and no one books it that affects the booking rate and this is a crucial parameter for Airbnb to determine search placement. What she could do instead is send us a screenshot of how it looks her place at the search page and teach us how we could find her (city, type of listing, neighborhood, etc). But none of us should click in her listing search´s thumbnail if we really want to help her.

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Hi @florbone,

@Natalie says she does not show up at all in search. We could check and see whether she shows up in search. As I understand it. placement isn’t the issue. She says she is not showing up at all. Unless I’m misunderstanding her.

Yes, I understood her well. But being “off” the search page doesn´t mean her listing is inactive. Hence if she provides us her link I´m sure we will be able to open it . What she needs to provide us is a proper search criteria we should use to find her listing attached with a picture of how it looks her very first picture on the search page so we could identify it.

If 100/200 people go and click her listings and no one books, it will have a negative effect on its search placement than doing nothing. Not to mention that if you first open her listing and then search for it, won´t help as Airbnb will remember your browsing history to make your past selected listings stay more relevant in your future searches.

Hi, I think I know exactly where you’re coming from, as I used to think the same way. To improve your search placement have you tried all the usual things? Like posting some new pictures, updating your desription, adding in some new local attractions or advice? I totaly agree on the the ridiculous-ness of the pricing tips, quite often they differ very little from my prices, but I’m still deemed to be out of line. I suppose it just shows the limitations of computer programmes. If you would like to say what city you’re in and what kind of property you’re letting I’d love to see if I can find you.

I agree, that sounds reasonable. Can you do that, @Natalie?

@Natalie ask @smartbnb.io to do one of his smart searches for you, or look at his website to run your own.

What is his website?

20 20 20

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Not sure, but now that we have tagged him, he may answer.

You have to call me 3 times :smiley:

@Natalie: I believe what you are looking for is a “listing report”, available on https://smartbnb.io/report to check if your listing appears in search results, and your placement position if you are.

If you have an account with Smartbnb, you may also order daily market reports that will give you your search results ranking for the next 30 stays.

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I just signed up, thanks! And it looks like my listings are doing perfectly fine, though that doesn’t explain why I couldn’t see it (of course, now I can), or my previous guests. Weird! Maybe because I’ve been on airbnb so much the past few days–getting annoyed–they boosted me back up? Who knows!

At any rate, the bookings are still not coming in, but at least I can be reasonably sure it’s not a result of anything I’m doing or not doing. I guess it’s slow all around here…

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January is a pretty slow month where you are. It will get better. As for the search placement, now you get to monitor it for the next 14 days and see how it goes. Fingers crossed!

What I can’t believe is that I’ve just tried the service for the first time and what a useful resource it is. I’m amazed that I hadn’t tried it before. Quick and accurate. :slight_smile:

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Haven’t I been singing the praises of Smart!!! It’s outstnading what he offers!!!

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Not sure if it was mentioned before in the topic, but the IB is now by default in guests profile. I didn’t have any requests since the last booking that is from mid march until 2nd of May. Then i went and searched for my listing as a guest and couldn’t find it, then i went to see my filters and realised i had an instant booking on by default. Most guests aren’t even aware of this and will only see listings that have IB on! I think this is unfair! Why as a host i can’t have an option of cancelling someone who want to book for 1 night knowing that i can get a 10 days booking instead!!!