|
Post by helgaparis on Aug 1, 2016 18:12:05 GMT
Hah, Keith, that's the firdt reasonable explanation for such a test! Maybe tweek the algorithm for part of ot and check how many bookings they need to stay / at how bad a result they give up.
|
|
|
Post by High Priestess on Aug 19, 2016 0:29:28 GMT
|
|
|
Post by High Priestess on Aug 19, 2016 0:37:51 GMT
HEre's a comment from someone who seems to have found a way around mandatory instant book: (from the thread posted above)
Also there may be a way around it: if you register an account in your spouse's name and make an inquiry for the whole of the next month and then pre-approve it, then you have the option to disable instant book for that month. Repeat every day.
You'd have to test if regular inquiries can still be made.
|
|
|
Post by High Priestess on Sept 1, 2016 14:45:00 GMT
I saw this post on this same issue on another website: guesthoo.com/2016/08/06/airbnb-instant-book-mandatory-new-hosts/Where the author of the post recommends these techniques for "hacking" the Airbnb "forced Intant BOok" situation some news hosts are stuck with (it's reported to be either 10% or 25% of new hosts who are being forced to use IB) 1) Create/delete an account. This is a trial programme and Airbnb instant book is not mandatory for all new hosts. One host in Prague, Czech Republic and another in San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala reported that creating/deleting an account eventually leads to the creation of a normal listing with the option to toggle instant book on/off. 2) Toggle on/off with phone app.Airbnb SEO Since this is a new policy, you can still exploit the bugs. A host from Washington, USA found they were able to toggle the feature by clicking the lightening bolt icon in the phone app. Others also had success with this method. 3) House rules. If the above two don’t work for you we suggest including the following in your house rules: All guests must contact us before making a booking. We reserve the right to cancel, without penalty, if guests fail to comply with our house rules. In the meantime, we urge everyone to leave feedback on Airbnb!
|
|
|
Post by maria on Sept 5, 2016 2:38:31 GMT
UPDATE:
Hello Deborah and everybody. I was away travelling for a couple of and just tonight decided to create a new listing for a room in my new home. Please note that I keep my listing in Virginia active and have also kept in my account 4 unlisted rooms of a house I owned in New Jersey. In other words, I am not a new Host. I was a SuperHost until last quarter.
Tonight, I decided to list one of my rooms, as Holidays will arrive soon, and I do not want a guest staying for a long time. If I try to add a new listing, it treats me as a newbie. My others listings still show (I have 4) but the New listing must have "instant booking." No way I am going to use instant book.
I am disappointed as thought that older Hosts (I have been hosting since September 2012) would be exempt from this forced instant booking frenzy. Not anymore.
Just venting. Did anybody know about this? You can test it by just trying to add a new listing to your current ones.
Maria (shaking my head)
|
|
|
Post by Maria Lurdes (Milu) on Sept 5, 2016 8:53:20 GMT
Hi Maria it has to be regional because I also created a new listing on my profile a few days ago, and I wasn't forced into using Instant Booking. I'm in New Jersey. It seems so random. I wish Airbnb would just be upfront with how it's working.
|
|
|
Post by maria on Sept 5, 2016 11:41:48 GMT
Hi Maria it has to be regional because I also created a new listing on my profile a few days ago, and I wasn't forced into using Instant Booking. I'm in New Jersey. It seems so random. I wish Airbnb would just be upfront with how it's working. Interesting! Maybe, I could revert to my old address in New Jersey, add this listing and change my address again. I do not know if this applies to your registered Host address or the listing address (I had listings in 2 states previously with no problem). Seems, they want all Hosts with instant booking in the future.
|
|
|
Post by High Priestess on Sept 5, 2016 14:04:48 GMT
I'm very upset to hear about your experience being forced to use Instant Book, Maria.
I would suggest using one of your old listings, and just changing the name, description, photos and then maybe get help from Airbnb CX changing the address and pin location -- see if you can move it to where you are now.
WHen Airbnb rolls out new things, anything, they always seem to roll it out in one region before another. SO I would think that if Maria is experiencing this now, we all will eventually. Thus I encourage anyone who thinks that they may EVER need to add a new listing, to do so now, and just keep it snoozed/unlisted...in case this change will only effect new listings and not old pre-existing ones.
Also, I may have written this above, not sure --- but one technique that some hosts are using to fight IB is to state in their house rules something to the effect, "Guests must contact me before booking, and allow me to communicate with them before booking. Guests who book without contacting me first may have their reservation cancelled." Thus any guest who uses IB has violated your house rules and you should be able to cancel their reservation.
ANd COMPLAIN to Airbnb!!!
I sincerely hope that some other short term rental platforms emerge which do not require hosts to use Instant book....and best of all, in my view, which dont' even allow hosts to use it if they want to. Homes are not hotels and as I see it, it's important that we don't feel pressured to run our homes as if they were hotels.
|
|
|
Post by helgaparis on Sept 5, 2016 17:04:45 GMT
I created a lusting on August 4th and had no mandatory IB. That was for my old Sète apartment which I had already empty when the owner asked me to keep it for cheap as storage and I rented it as "basic and cheap" quite succesfully. This week, I'll test with another one.
Maybe we should all create blanco listings, to transform at need, as long as we can do it without IB. I did that, when they experimented eith flexible cancellation - came handy later when the other one was mixed up in booking chaos.
|
|
|
Post by CC on Sept 5, 2016 17:46:38 GMT
Helga, do people stay there with absolutely no furniture?
|
|
|
Post by High Priestess on Sept 5, 2016 22:48:46 GMT
This week, I'll test with another one. Maybe we should all create blanco listings, to transform at need, as long as we can do it without IB. I recommend all hosts have at least one "spare" listing that they can use if there is ever a problem or glitch with their main listing...
|
|
|
Post by High Priestess on Sept 5, 2016 22:54:27 GMT
Also....a host pointed this out regarding setting up a new listing and the "tricky" way AIrbnb is trying to get you to set it up with Instant BOok:
" When you create a new listing you have to be very careful: at some moment you will arrive to a screen with some text about the way you will get bookings (IB) and in very little red text "I want to see inquiries before accepting". If you don't click on this you will be automatically on IB without any way to turn it off. I had to delete the first new listing to recreate a new one without IB."
|
|
|
Post by helgaparis on Sept 7, 2016 7:44:24 GMT
CC, I'll write a story about my crazy summer. It had a bed left and a few sheets and towels, not misused to wrap paintings and dishes ;-)
Deborah, thanks for finding that. Sometimes airbnb overdoes their "marketing " skills as much that everyone else would say they are not crossing from sale to manipulation but already from manipulation into bullying. Over the last months, I had to call CS twice to find a function well hidden in favour of a preferred one. If that happens to me on a new website, I just close it, fed up with it. If you overdo manipulations, it backfires.
|
|
|
Post by High Priestess on Oct 8, 2016 21:24:17 GMT
|
|