Customising availability of Instant Book

Customising availability of Instant Book

I would love to see the calendar options enhanced to show, instead of just "Blocked" and "Available", also a new status "Request" meaning that availability is to be determined by the host upon enquiry.

 

This change would benefit both guests and hosts: it would bring more hosts onto Instant Book as the main barrier to do so would be eliminated (not being able to control who books when). And it would benefit guests by ensuring their Instant Book is not a gamble on availability.

 

I host a few properties on airbnb and recently have switched on the Instant Book feature as this is sometimes a default selection when potential guests are seaching (depends on dates and maybe the device you're searching on) and I don't want my listings to be invisible by default.

 

This is great for getting last minute bookings, but not so great when trying to fill a calendar further ahead. For example a 2-day instant book can instantly mess up your calendar potential for getting longer bookings. 

 

There are workarounds and measures that can be taken, such as updating the "Pre-booking message" and/or house rules to state a restriction on Instant Bookings, but this is not ideal.

 

There are probably other such ideas in the pipeline, and I would welcome anyone's support or input into this proposal.

 

Thank you

 

 

 

 

22 Comments
Kristine16
Level 1

I agree about the Instant Book need for an intermediate step while host and client are discussing the possibility of booking.  I note that the Air Bnb APP does not recognize that this discussion is going on.  I am receiving messages from Air Bnb to book within an allotted time frame; which I am actively doing.  This middle step would be very useful, especially when dealing with first-timers. 

--Kristine

Manfredo1
Level 3

I overall agree but this could also be against guest effectivly making reservations, because they could resign after a period of time if you dont answer immediatly or worse they could not answer immediatly so you have to establish wich period of time you will wait until answers arrive stopping other potential guest from effectivly making reservations. 

 

On the other hand if you would like not to make them book days which are against your long term booking periods, you have other tools like establishing a minimum booking period for example.

 

Maybe the idea is worth some second thoughts.

 

Manfredo

Alex168
Level 5

@Kristine0: not sure i understand what you mean.

 

I'm suggesting that instead of just being able to turn Instant Book on/off for all periods, that it should be possible to turn it on/off for specific dates using the calendar.

 

Or at least to be able to specify how far into the future Instant Book should apply, eg 2 weeks

Alex168
Level 5

Perhaps an example is useful:

Suppose as a host i set all of September as "Available" and all of October as "Request"

If someone searches for a period in September, they will be able to Instant Book as normal.

If someone searches for a period in October, they will be able to request to book as normal as if Instant book is disabled.

 

Manfredo1
Level 3

I agree this is an improvement!

 

With actual system you can only switch to booking system on the day you want to start with whereas with your suggestion you could switch in advance which is how guest searches are done. +1

 

--- manfredo

Andrew90
Level 10

Big thumbs up!!!  

 

Great idea. I would defiantly use this. Or perhaps a setting for Instant book within 30 days only of stay only.  

Alex168
Level 5

I realise now that this is a hot topic due to an experient that Airbnb has been running: here is a good article shedding some light on the issue on mandatory Instant Book: https://guesthoo.com/2016/08/06/airbnb-instant-book-mandatory-new-hosts/

 

 

Whist my proposal doesn't aim to address the racist issue, it could well be a solution because giving hosts MORE control over how they receive bookings would make it harder for racist hosts to justify denying bookings.

Shelley23
Level 2

I think being able to have more flexibility with availability to long term bookings would be great.

I have had several inquiries in communication for long term stays (I rent three listings) and literally had instant books for one night mess up an entire month long stay.
I don't want to mess with my host status by canceling the one night res for the 3 week res, but there is no way to avoid that unless you turn off instant book altogether.

GREAT SUGGESTION!

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Status changed to: Archived
 
Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Status changed to: Archived