Restrict who can see your listing?

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I have questions for folks who have hosted on Airbnb that I can’t seem to find on the site… I want to host, but don’t necessarily want the general public to be able to see a listing. I am buying a home near my grad school and would like to host a spare room to others in my program. Is this possible? I’m thinking something along the lines of google docs where you can send a shareable link to a select few but people can’take view the content unless they’ve been sent the link. Thanks in advance!

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You can put the listing to sleep, I think, which means people can’t book it so they won’t see it if they do a random search - but you will have to make it briefly available when the people you want try to book it, so make sure you don’t have Instant Book on. :slight_smile:

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I very much doubt that it’s possible. I would have thought that Airbnb’s anti-discrimination policy might come into play here, even though I know that’s not what you mean. But in a weird way it can be construed as cherry picking your guests above and beyond the usual reject/accept system.

But I’m wondering why you want to use Airbnb as opposed to other methods? Wouldn’t advertising at your grad school be easier and cheaper?

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I live in a very small town and have a rare and unusual first name, I’m also a visiting nurse in the town. For privacy, I use my middle name in the listing. Maybe that will help?

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I’d put the price per night at something like $1,000–the general public will either have it filtered out or won’t book. In your grad school group you can explain it’s really x per night, but send a booking request and you’ll correct it to the appropriate price at that time.

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I host grad students during the school year, but I just post at the University. Does your Uni not have a housing site?

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Why would you even bother to use AirBnB in this case?
Build your own small 1 page website, and send a link around.

AirBnB is not build for direct marketing, it is a booking platform so people can find your place.
But you do want people to find you, and you already know to contact your customers, so I would stay away from AirBnB.

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