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Our place hosts up to 14 guests with different bed configurations available, preparation required, etc.
Instant book simply wouldn’t work for us, and would likely hit our ratings in a big way, with no real benefit.
For the kind of groups that would be interested in a larger place, my experience is they are usually willing to take the time to request, and even do a little inquiring of their own.
So I try to achieve high search placement by quick responses, trying to maintain high reviews, and perhaps riding on superhost status, to overcome my not having instant book enabled!
that’s a very good point about sync in real time. At the moment our whole house is only on Airbnb, but bookings are a lot slower than last year even though our prices and our product are the same, so in future I would consider another booking site. By the way, can I ask what an “efficiency” is? Sounds intriguing.
My experience and that of other hosts in Ireland is that quick responses, plenty of good reviews and superhost status make no difference to your search ranking. I would be very happy if it did, because we as hosts have some control over these. It seems that guests searching for a listing are first of all encouraged to switch on instant book, which eliminates all listings that don’t offer IB. On non IB searches the ranking of properties seems totally random.
This one is one giant room that includes living area, bed area, and fridge, microwave, etc. There is no actual full kitchen. Then the bathroom is separate
And I could be not calling it the correct term. There are efficiency apartments and studio apartments. Not sure the exact difference. But this one is above a garage.
A lot of that is because AirBnB makes it hard for potential guests to send an inquiry. When I first started in 2011, that was the first step to the rest I just do not see why they don’t let somebody just send a note to a host without having to pick dates. It’s crap for hosts and craps for guests as well. When I started the website and the services were geared to people you were letting people into the their homes while in residence; it’s 180 degrees different now.
For me, offering IB simply means less work. I do try to answer each and every guest request within an hour, or less, and with the Airbnb app permanently able to alert me of any upcoming booking, this usually works fine. But IB is easier still.
that’s exactly what I used to say, but then I listened to some comments and decided to give it a try. IB has been on for about a week now, with the condition that only guests recommended by other hosts can book instantly. Today came the first enquiry/ request from an Airbnb newcomer. She sent a nice note explaining who she and her group are, just as before IB, and we confirmed the reservation. To summarize: other than (hopefully) improving our search ranking IB has made no difference.
I haven’t used IB at all, I’m a single woman, live alone, and I rent out two private rooms in my house… I know that reading a profile and having a quick conversation with someone before booking is giving me what adds up to mostly just a false sense of security, but in the past two years I have only turned down two requests because they just seemed ‘off’…
As far as the quality of guests is concerned, it has made no difference to us. But it has lowered the time we used to spend answering inquiries and messing about which is a good thing. I would also suggest that it increases bookings too because it’s a time saver for guests.
I was thinking of it from the opposite perspective, but those are very valid points. This encouraged me to look back at some listing data I have and, indeed, IB was a little bit more common in private rooms than entire homes.
Today I noticed the impact on how AirBnB is forcing IB on us.
All my 8 listings have bookings up to march, with some 3 or 4 day gaps.
It has been quiet on AirBnB for the last few weeks, I got some requests, but because the most popular dates and weekends are booked. Nothing much has been going on.
Today I switched on IB for 2 of these listings, and within 2 hours, the gaps I had for january have been filled.
So it seems IB is really making a big impact on the search, and conversion rate
“Penalty free” cancellations are rapidly becoming a thing of the past!
I was charged a penalty for an IB I cancelled within minutes of receiving the booking. No reason was given and I am now being constantly warned that I am at risk of being suspended. I’m sure that has a major negative impact on my ranking.
that doesn’t sound fair. I’ve not experienced it myself, but have heard from other hosts that if you take your case to customer services in a constructive and polite manner they can overturn the penalty. Might be worth a try!
