Should you enable Instant Book on Airbnb? Pros, cons, and expert tips for hosts!
Frictionless booking is the future. I avoided using Airbnb’s Instant Book feature for a while, but now I would never go back.
Think of booking a hotel room. The process of calling the General Manager just isn’t necessary in today’s world. Airbnb instant book is essential in today’s travel landscape and helps bring in those eager visitors ready to experience your rental. You’ll learn ways for you to start using it.
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What Exactly is Airbnb Instant Book?
- What Exactly is Airbnb Instant Book?
- Why Airbnb Favors Instant Book
- Addressing Common Fears about Airbnb Instant Book
- Conclusion
What Exactly is Airbnb Instant Book?
Airbnb instant book lets guests immediately reserve your property without needing your direct approval for each booking. The beauty lies in its simplicity. You can customize several parameters to keep a certain measure of control, while also enjoying less menial labor in your operations.
Many of us were resistant at first to fully give it control. Years ago, back in 2016, I had the privilege of attending the Airbnb Open in Los Angeles. At the time, the one significant benefit hosts mentioned over and over, was implementing instant book in order to generate a much higher number of reservations.
My Airbnb Instant Book Epiphany
It hit me right there, amidst the lively buzz of LA and insights from Airbnb’s executives that I needed a switch in my system. Seeing hosts from more than a 100 countries gave me the nudge I needed. Before leaving, I switched it on and still recall feeling hesitant in doing so.
This mirrors the hotel industry’s approach. You never call them and so should have some trust in how this popular system continues to operate for Airbnb’s sake as well as our bottom line as hosts.
Why Airbnb Favors Instant Book
It really benefits them. But when does benefiting a larger entity also directly provide revenue to its base? The Airbnb algorithm gives precedence to listings that have instant book on.
Properties with Airbnb instant book turned on will see 60% higher presence in searches over the properties that do not use the feature. So it truly rewards us and our hosting business too. An Airbnb host can benefit greatly from this feature.
How Instant Book Benefits Hosts
Aside from a major visibility boost, it reduces manual work. The number one way that happens, is you stop being constantly on your phone going back and forth with your prospects on your property. It saves you the steps you would have previously put yourself through for each prospect.
- Significant increase in search visibility which lead to more bookings.
- Time saved communicating allows more attention to be put into optimizing the hosting business.
- Less tedious communications, as most of your work has already gone into creating your stellar Airbnb profile that the potential visitor is seeing, liking, and now booking.
Speed really does matter here, in your guests getting what they are paying for, and you freeing your attention from what you already accomplished with your listing. Turning on this feature can assist with avoiding a neighborhood concern report.
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Addressing Common Fears about Airbnb Instant Book
The hesitation is rooted in the fear of drawing in problematic guests. You might think you are going to be overwhelmed with last minute bookings from unreliable guests. My partner has a spontaneous approach to reservations, sometimes deciding where she will stay on the same day of a trip, but this can lead to amazing guests.
We’ve implemented extra layers in our operations to counteract those concerns. The “good track record” setting in Airbnb lets you require guests to have previous positive reviews for your listing. If someone tries to reserve but has a poor history, then you’re immediately contacted to check if you want to override and you could even send reservation request instead of using instant book.
Controlling Your Calendar and Settings
Losing some authority can certainly make some business owners concerned. This can easily be dealt with using the instant book settings where you specify the terms of use of the function. You can find information within their site footer.
We don’t ever completely hand-off control on something as valuable as our booking business. It’s important to have house rules setup and communicate thoroughly any violations that visitors want to inflict on your system. You must always be hosting responsibly.
Leverage these features to be successful in creating a system that runs for your convenience. There is a lot of great info on Airbnb’s Community forum for any specific problems.
| Control Aspects | Solutions for Peace of Mind |
|---|---|
| Good History Settings | This assures that the booking function only works for guests with positive records. |
| Calendar Settings | These configurations can provide an advance notice period before anyone attempts to occupy your home last minute. |
| Dialed In House Rules | Thorough guidelines help communicate anything they must be cognizant of, as well as being a solid fallback if any issues do arise. |
How to Approach Bad Guest Behavior with Instant Book
It’s useful to stay aware and observant, especially with messaging, should anyone’s comments make you feel bad in any way. You should have your own procedure in handling those situations. You always have cancellation options too.
A good place to start with, is trusting your intuition, as that helps verify what needs to be addressed. Check in on them routinely and notice any patterns.
Take note of where guests come from, their reviews, and whatever data you have available to see their activity trail on the web. You can get more info for specific situations by using the Airbnb phone number.
💡 Managing multiple units or shared spaces? If you’re listing multiple properties or renting out separate rooms under one roof, structuring your listings correctly can help prevent unwanted guest behavior and improve the booking experience. Check out our guide to parent-child listing strategies to optimize your setup and attract the right guests!
Key Takeaways
In summary, setting up Airbnb instant book to work is worthwhile for both you, the organization, and your potential guests. Testing this and other new processes help keep your brand progressing instead of idle.
The industry, platform, guests, and data shows that leveraging automation provides great benefits in reservations for hosts. The ability to monitor instant book with safeguards, will help you avoid many troubles along the way.
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Calling All Hosts: The Hosting Handbook
If you loved this post we invite you to check out our one-stop-shop solution for hosts everywhere —the Hosting Handbook! While you can download all the easy to consume, step-by-step tips we use in our own hosting business and create the ultimate “book” the Hosting Handbook is so much more than that! If you’ve consumed or content for years (or just met us!) this is the reference guide for all the amazing and tactical tips we have for running a profitable and, more importantly hospitable, short-term rental. How do we price for pets? How do we fold our towels? What sheets do we buy? How do I purchase a short-term rental? All these questions (and more!) can be answered in the Hosting Handbook! Check it out now!
Happy Hosting!
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