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Airbnb Instant Book and How to Use It Effectively
If you’re a member of the Airbnb community, chances are you’ve seen the Instant Book option, and you know that it’s a feature that many hosts are already using. If you haven’t tried it out yourself, here’s all the information you need to help you gain a better understanding of this feature.
Airbnb introduced Instant Book to improve the user experience on its platform and speed up the booking process. Though, this option comes with advantages and disadvantages that you should be aware of before adding it to your listing.
What Is Airbnb Instant Book?
Instant Book is an option that an host can turn on for their listings. It allows guests to book a property instantly. With Instant Book enabled, booking requests don’t need to be approved by the host first. Instead, guests can enter their travel dates and proceed straight to discussing check-in with the host.
Should You Use the Airbnb Instant Book Feature?
If you’re still in doubt whether the Airbnb Instant Book feature is a good idea for you, here are benefits and downsides to consider.
Benefits
Maximizes your bookings
Having Instant Book enabled will help you secure more reservations. Many guests enjoy the convenience Instant Book provides. So, they often use filters to find a listing that can be booked with just one click. This is why, by turning this feature on, you can speed up the whole booking process and drive more prospective guests to your listing.
Improves your Airbnb ranking
Your listing’s position is lowered within Airbnb’s rankings when you don’t have Instant Book on. To appear among the top listings in Airbnb’s search results, add this option to your listing. By improving your ranking, you can increase visibility for your listing.
Increases the number of reviews
To put it simply, more guests means more reviews. When you have Instant Book turned on, you’ll be able to receive more reviews and achieve the Airbnb Superhost status title much faster.
Makes your life easier
Guests can book properties without the approval of a host. This means you don’t have to respond to every guests’ requests. You can save time on guest communication and spend it on other essential tasks.
Disadvantages
Increased cancelations
With Instant Book turned on, guests have a tendency to book first and go over the details with the host after making the reservation. When guests fail to read the house rules, it could lead to increased cancelations. Moreover, it can lead to a loss in profit, if you get a last-minute cancelation.
Possible unreliable guests
Hosts can’t decide on who makes reservations to stay at their vacation rental. Many hosts prefer to vet their guests before they allow them to stay in their homes and they feel that Instant Book takes this right away from them.
If you are still unsure about using this feature, these tactics can help you understand what you need to do when dealing with Instant Book guests.
5 Tactics for Dealing with an Instant Book Reservation
Set Up a Dialogue
First, if you have doubts about your guest, try communicating with them. You can get a better idea of the type of guest you are dealing with during a conversation. When guests book, they’ll always send a message about their booking. You can use this as a chance to talk through things like the house rules and if there are any special requirements on their end.
Include a 1-day Notice
One option you might want to avoid is allowing same-day requests with Instant Book. Same-day bookings can be hard to manage, especially when it comes to property preparation and cleaning.
To avoid a last-minute surprise booking, set a 1-day notice for all reservations, or more if you feel like it’s necessary. Airbnb will automatically block the chosen dates and days in your calendar.
Set a Minimum and Maximum Stay
Instant Book on Airbnb allows you to use filters to help you avoid short bookings or guests who only want to stay for one night. You can add a 2 or 3-night stay requirement.
You can also set a maximum stay policy for booking your vacation rental. If you don’t set a maximum number of nights, Airbnb will automatically apply a 14-night maximum stay to your listing. This ensures there is a cut off time for the booking.
Add Additional Requirements for Guests to Book.
Airbnb claims that your guests will meet all of Airbnb’s requirements before they make a reservation. However, they can’t guarantee this. That is why it is a good decision to add additional guest requirements to protect yourself, such as:
- limit bookings to guests who’ve submitted their government-issued ID to Airbnb;
- only accept guests who’ve already used Airbnb and received positive reviews from other hosts.
Cancel a Reservation if Necessary
You don’t have to put up with a reservation that makes you feel uncomfortable or raises doubts. According to Airbnb’s rules, you can cancel reservations if you have a solid reason to do so. This option allows you to have more control over your reservations, even when they are booked instantly.
Top 3 Commonly Asked Questions About Instant Book
Can I cancel an Instant Book reservation penalty-free?
Yes. Hosts who have Instant Book turned on can cancel without penalty. They will have to provide reasons as to why they don’t want to proceed with a reservation. Hosts can’t cancel penalty-free if their reasons violate Airbnb’s Non-discrimination policy.
Here are a few examples of when you may cancel the booking request without penalty:
- If the guest is unreliable and has bad reviews;
- If the guest hasn’t responded or avoids responding to your questions about his or her trip;
- If the guest is likely to break your’ house rules, i.e. if guests make it clear that they will bring a pet or smoke inside when both things are strictly forbidden.
Keep in mind that you can cancel Instant Book reservations only 3 times in the space of one year. After that, to cancel a reservation that you’re uncomfortable with, you will have to contact Support to get a penalty-free cancelation. If it happens quite often, Airbnb will require you to turn the Instant Book option off.
How and when can I enable/disable Instant Book?
You can enable/disable Instant Book at any time. To turn the feature on or off, open Booking Settings. To enable Instant Book, select “Guests who meet all your requirements can book instantly without requesting approval”. If you want to disable it, you should select “All guests must send reservation requests”.
However, instead of turning off this feature, Airbnb advises and encourages hosts to explore other useful options. For instance, if you notice that you don’t have enough time between reservations for, let’s say, cleaning, you can edit calendar settings to block days between bookings automatically.
Be sure to check out the guest, calendar, and reservation settings available and opt for the ones that will help attract reservations that fit your Airbnb listing.
If you manage multiple accounts, adjusting your settings, updating calendars, and tracking reservations are much easier with a vacation rental software, such as iGMS. You can easily turn on/turn off Instant Book for your listings via iGMS.
In addition, iGMS will help you to automate your routine operations and boost productivity. Take advantage of the following features:
- Unified inbox for all your Airbnb and HomeAway/Vrbo messages
- Review management module to automate the process of leaving reviews
- Multiple account management
- Reporting feature to track your business performance
- Email and chat support
- Cleaning and team management
Why does Airbnb give a search boost to hosts who have Instant Book turned on?
The answer to this question is pretty simple. Airbnb promotes listings with the Instant Book option turned on because the company wants to make sure that travelers choose its platform for booking vacation rentals.
Guests are more likely to choose rentals that can be booked instantly due to convenience. Instantly bookable rentals ensure more future bookings for hosts, as well as more business for the company.
Airbnb encourages hosts to have this option turned on since, with it, there’s a lot more potential for increasing profits.
What Are Hosts Saying About Airbnb Instant Book?
Whether a host uses Airbnb Instant Book or not depends on the individual host’s preferences. In fact, hosts have shared both reasons for and against a host using Instant Book on the Air Hosts Forum.
You can also request to check their ID when they arrive at your rental. As for rules, they have to say they have read them and agree to them. Airbnb has no way to force them to follow them. You have to try to police them.” – K9KarmaCasa
“I personally don’t use Instant Book and it does not affect my bookings rating but I don’t have a private guest entrance and want to know exactly who is coming, when, and to ensure guests’ needs are what I can meet.” – Emily
As you can see, there are a myriad of reasons why hosts are for or against turning on Instant Book for their listings. It is a smart decision to read what others have to say about their experience of using Airbnb Instant Book on several forums. This way you will be sure that you’ve made the right choice for your short-term rental property.
Final Thoughts
Despite grievances from some hosts, Airbnb Instant Book works well for both guests and hosts. Many hosts have reported that they had a significant boost in response rate, got more visibility on Airbnb, and, thus, more bookings. Give it a try and see whether Airbnb Instant Book has a positive effect on your business. As time goes by, you can decide whether or not to continue to use it.
To reduce potential risks, make sure to enable additional guest requirements, and use the option of penalty-free cancelations if a guest appears to be suspicious. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.
