Feeling more and more like a hotel…taking all comers…you have a credit card? Come this way! So much for their community Bullsh*t!
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Yeah I saw this and went to “scheduled messages“. There is no option for “pre-booking message”. The best you can do is a post-booking message that the guest probably won’t see or read. Super not helpful. 100% of my guests filled this out…. I really like to know the who/what/where/why before they show up on my doorstep.
Home share hosts are especially screwed by this new policy.
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Owners can’t write any words on Vrbo to go along with the star ratings, and the guests can see the star ratings they were given. My impression is that most owners end up not rating the guest at all.
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So if you schedule a message immediately after booking, you don’t think the guest will see that?
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Yes and no. Many homeshare hosts,like me, don’t use IB anyway, so the pre-booking message is a moot point if they have always required Requests.
None of my guests seem to have notifications turned on - I always have to text them and alert them that I’ve sent info via ABB Messenger. So no, I don’t think they will see it.
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I should have clarified, I meant home share hosts who use IB. I love IB personally. So much less work and guests are great. (Knocks wood!) I understand it doesn’t work for everyone, however.
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Funny how different our experiences with guests can be. I have very rarely not had a guest answer a message from me in a reasonable time frame, so I assume they have their notifications turned on. And the few times they weren’t answering, there turned out to be a good reason for it.
Well that would be nice! Finding out their Check-in time is always down to the last minute, which I dislike, but not the end of the world having to send a text. Along the same lines, I saw some others comment that few people answer the pre-booking questions, where as I literally think 100% of my guests send a detailed description of why they are coming, etc. etc. Funny how widely the host experience differs on this forum!
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I had a VRBO guest message me and complain about a lower star rating on cleanliness, which she earned. I just did not respond.
RR
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I remember all the complaints when Airbnb decided guest’s pictures wouldn’t be shown until after a booking was confirmed. As I recall there were a lot peanut gallery predictions about the negative effect that would have on Airbnb. It doesn’t seem like that happened.
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Appears this is already done.
Saw a Facebook post, guest IBed. Guest told host more were planning to stay exceeding maximum occupancy. Host said not possible. Guest insisted. Host cancelled reservation incurring penalties. Host talked to CS about being uncomfortable with this guest who said on the platform he was bringing more than maximum #allowed guests. CS told him the 3 free cancellations were gone.
The IB information for hosts updated on 11/17 still shows the 3 free cancellations. CS stated since problem & cancellation occurred after 48 hr free cancellation period, no free IB cancellation.
https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/understanding-instant-book-17
So if the guest doesn’t mention intending to break your rules and getting stroppy about it until 48 hours after they IB, tough luck for the host, huh? That’s cute.
Sounds like everyone who cares about the quality of guests they get now needs to turn off IB.
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yep, I did that yesterday.
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I do care about the “quality of guests” I suppose. I don’t know, two of my last 4 reviews I marked “do not recommend.” But at some places they would probably do fine, I just don’t want to host them again. However, I don’t see turning off IB. It not only ensures that I drop in search rank, but if anyone finds me, it’s more work for me. I already get enough “request to book” that I know I don’t want that to be my standard.
I’ve never believed in “vetting” guests anyway and Airbnb going from “little” to “none” on assistance isn’t going to make much difference. 90+% of guests are fine and turning off IB would be cutting off my nose to spite my face.
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I agree. I do ask a set of questions for everyone who books and require appropriate profiles and pix of guest along with names, addresses, age and phone number. I also ask check in time, if they have a car, reason for travel and that they and their guests agree to my house rules. In my house rules I require that they answer these questions.
This info is due within 24 hours of booking and I stay on top of the guest and will send a text to see the message and if that doesn’t work, then I call.
I often accept people who don’t have reviews and have found that often they are not any better or worse than the folks with good reviews.
I think that by my asking these questions and having them agree to my house rules, that scares off any bad actors. Also, I think even in my slow season to make sure I don’t drop my prices too low so that I don’t get the locals that don’t have a steady place to stay.
I am disappointed that Airbnb with every update seems to make it harder for long-time, quality hosts to rise to the top.
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No, I don’t think ABB will go in this direction, although I understand why it might look that way to you. I sat in on the Zoom meeting where all these changes were discussed, and that’s why I say this.
Of course ABB is unpredictable from where I sit, and who knows if the meeting I attended even reflects ABB’s true priorities and strategy. But I’ll assume they were being honest during the meeting, and also not revealing everything.
ABB doesn’t care if a booked guest comes via IB or if a guest is booked by host approval. All that matters is that the guest is booked. I think IB exists so hosts don’t absentmindedly forget to approve a booking, causing a loss of income, and to make the experience more hotel reservation like for guests who are unfamiliar with ABB.
At the Zoom meeting ABB’s biggest concern is host cancellations of confirmed bookings, followed by unreasonably high cleaning fees and unreasonable check-out demands by hosts. I also saw mention of ABB’s high host cancellation rates in an article by a Wall St analyst. These behaviors by hosts really hurt the brand.
I just cancelled my Instant Book and will now have to individually approve each proposed booking. I did so because I do not know the details of their new IB policy, even though I sat in on the meeting!
I do not want any guests with 0 prior bookings and I want a message from my guests. I make my ABB as hotel like as I know how to do, but the cottage is near my home and I don’t have hotel security.
The other reason I dropped IB is for fear of being penalized if a suspect person gets booked, and I really want to cancel them.
I’m finding it’s pretty easy to discourage guests who have red flags, even when I was using IB but the guest didn’t qualify and so messaged me instead. One way I do this is just keep the dialog going until the potential guest finally says “I would rather book elsewhere.”
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I saw a Facebook post today in a travel forum where someone said they were staying at “an AirBnB” and wanted activity recommendations. Someone said “We recommend you DON’T stay at an AirBnB - too many unknowns”. So the brand is definitely starting to be tarnished.
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I agree wholeheartedly. (Except I’d say that 99% of guests are fine).
If Airbnb does have an ulterior motive, it could be that it’s to deter part-time hosts and therefore make the whole service more professional with a better public persona.
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I’ve said for years that I think they will eventually do that. I see no evidence to think otherwise. I completely understand hosts who want to control who stays in their rental but I think the only way to do that 100% of the time is to only do direct bookings.
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