Can someone confirm that the new update has and auto instant book filter please?
That when searching for accommodation, you need to have this filter switched off in order for your listing to be seen/found?
Could you explain please?
When you search, you won’t find hosts that don’t instant book, unless you turn the filter off…. It is automatically applied to the search
Do you mean the guest filters out instant book? …unless they are sophisticated enough to reset the default?
Yes!
How to force a host to have it turned on!
I just searched as a guest and IB was not an active filter by default.
But maybe my app hasn’t been updated yet.
… and is it different for the browser interface?
This will be a disaster for so many of us if it’s true. There is no way I would use IB.
I bet more and more hosts have been turning off IB since Airbnb ditched the 3 free cancellations, so instead of reinstating that to solve that, they now want to try to force us all to use IB?
Airbnb obviously wants hosts to have no way of avoiding red flag guests. What a nasty way to treat their hosts.
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Hotel model
Just like booking.con
Yeah, except it’s not a hotel model, because hotels have security staff that can boot out badly behaving guests, and they also have guests’ credit card info and will charge them for damages.
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As a host, I turned instant booking off after seeing latest change where “good guest” requirement means they have completed one reservation without incident or bad reviews, too risky for me…
As a guest trying to search places, I dont see instant book filter as enabled by default. Maybe the update is rolled out in certain markets before others?
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Updates are definitely rolled out in different areas at different times. When Airbnb removed guest photos before bookings were confirmed, I was still shown guest photos for about 2 months after hosts in other places were no longer seeing them.
Also, I think this update is still at the “early release” stage. Meaning hosts can opt in for early release. Which is always a bad idea, because that is essentially Airbnb using the opt-in hosts as guinea pigs to work out all the inevitable glitches that occur every time they do an update.
And yeah, I just read a post on another hosting forum where the host said someone who had 3 bad reviews was able to IB because they had one good review.
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My views and bookings have dropped dramatically.
Have a few from BDC, nothing from Airbnb…. Calendars are yawning empty.
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Yep , it happened with me in North Florida. After that craziness I had months ago when AIR decided to tell all and sundry my exact physical address prior to booking. , they finally took it off so I listed again. Now you cannot look up my house unless you know the name of the house. I will never allow instant booking. 
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How far Chesky has come from renting out an air mattress in his home and welcoming guests on a personal basis to the greed machine he now makes billions off of. Quite honestly, I hate ladder pullers like him who forget their roots. They are people with no moral compass- money becomes their god.
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I just opened an incognito window in chrome on desktop and searched for my area on dates I’m available.
I opened filters and “Instant book” was NOT pre selected.
All my RTB listings showed up when I zoomed in on my neighborhood. Both shared spaces and private home rentals showed up.
It did not appear ANY filters were pre selected, which would be in ABB best interest IMO. Show everything, let guest decide to filter.
Possibly if you are a frequent ABB guest who always uses the same filters, ABB might decide to only show what they think you want.
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Thanks for that info. I hadn’t got around to checking myself, because I had guests already booked til the end of this month and it’s really the end of my booking season anyway- I rarely get bookings from the end of May until Oct. (Super hot and humid location in summer).
were you using the updated app?
Since my place is currently unlisted, I was curious to opt in as one of the guinea pigs for testing - as @muddy described it so amusingly. I checked the filters from a guest’s perspective, and they are not turned on by default. It might have been an beta testing version that failed? Is it still as you described?
Yes, the new update may hide your listing if the “Instant Book” filter is on. To ensure visibility, guests must turn off that filter when searching.