Our listing not showing up with "instant book" filter turned on.

[John1512]

Hoping someone on here can help me get through to the technical team to resolve what is a very clear and obvious bug that unfortunately is currently diminishing our views and bookings. 

I've had to go through 3 ambassadors now with the first closing the case prematurely, of course. The issue begin with my listing not showing up at all which happens from time to time and sadly we've just become accustomed to so we regularly check our listing on google incognito. Once we showed the ambassador how to use maps to look for a listing, they were able to verify it wasn't showing. However, once our listing reappeared, the current issue of our listing not showing up with instant book filter turned on started happening. This of course took some instruction for the ambassador to understand as well but they were able to verify only to have now passed me along to multiple ambassadors.

Ambassadors love to thank hosts and praise listings and SuperHost Status, but when it comes to resolving issues they just disappear w/ zero accountability. You'd think Airbnb would've tried to course correct this by now, as it's the biggest complaint I hear on the regular from other hosts. 

[Ann72]

@John1512  If you’re searching in incognito mode, you’re not logged into your Airbnb account.  And if you’re not logged in, you can’t use Instant Book.  Do other properties with Instant Book show up?

[John1512]

Yes, other properties do show up. You can’t book, to your point, but you can see instant book listings. I was able to get this resolved with the 5th ambassador I talked to. Thanks for follow up. 

[Bhumika]

Hi @John1512, thanks for sharing that it has been resolved for you.

Would you mind sharing what steps it took to get this resolved in your profile through which settings?

It will help other members, who may come up with a similar query and may be able to get it resolved through your answer!

[John1512]

Sadly, the secret was merely doing my best to not lose my $hit while dealing with ambassadors who didn’t understand the Airbnb platform or actually care to resolve the issue. Two of the ambassadors tried closing the case before it was fixed. Zero accountability. The 5th ambassador actually understood the platform and quickly worked with the tech team to resolve. You have to keep calling and asking for another ambassador to take over if you run into a dead end. You have to create messages like this. You have to do their feedback form, even though you never hear anything on that. You have to create noise. They’ll say it’s already being handled by someone but you have to stress that it’s not being handled properly. The ambassadors that were not helpful will be slow to close their ticket afterwards because they don’t want to look bad, even after you tell them it’s been resolved by another ambassador. Just horribly run host support / customer service. Boggles the mind how we’ve all just come to accept this as ok. If you dread calling customer support, you are not alone. But it appears to be part of Airbnb’s plan because things aren’t getting better. You shouldn’t have to work this hard to find a capable ambassador. The silos help shield the tech team but they certainly don’t help hosts. I’ve got a few other issues that were never resolved that still persist to this day so being noisy doesn’t always work. Good luck. 

[Julia4637]

Could you share how you got the instant booking problem resolved

.I am having exactly the same problem with the filters and the same  with ambassadors marking the case closed whilst I am still awaiting resolution on the matter. .. thank you in advance

[John1512]

This merely required convincing an Airbnb SuperHost ambassador to actually understand the problem and then send it to tech with the right description. As stated, I had to go through several reps before I found an Airbnb SuperHost ambassador who was actually familiar with how the platform worked. There was no trick toggle on my end. 

[Joan2709]

@John1512 

Thanks for posting here about this and Airbnb has been aware of this for months I also reported months ago and there are several other threads in the CC on this. I just verified with several other listings that it's still happening.

@Julia4637, I have posted a screen shot that maybe you can use with CS. This is a big issue and could result in the loss of many potential bookings. Instant Book is a very popular search filter for many guests. Airbnb always suggests Hosts allow Instant Book and the algorithm does reward it supposedly, but unfortunately, this is a reason not to use it? It could be related to some of the Optional Instant Book Settings, but only Airbnb can determine if that is the issue with the programming, or simply just the fact that Instant Book has been selected (no optional Instant Book settings selected). It would be great if Airbnb could get this resolved platform-wide; especially before the busy summer travel season (Folks in the Northern Hemisphere 😊).

Perhaps one of the moderators could kindly refer this the appropriate Team at Airbnb, as this issue impacts many Hosts (as well as Airbnb) @Bhumika  @Paula:

[Julia4637]

Thank you Joan. I think I resolved it myself without the help of yet another ambassador.

Simply switched off IB. Refreshed page and switched back on and now it works fine. Could it really be that simple? 

I wonder if it gets glitchy if we make other  alterations to the page then doesn't acknowledge those changes without " reboot"  the IB

Just a thought. Thank you for your input

[Joan2709]

@John1512 

Could you advise if you were using any of the Optional Instant Book Settings like "Good Track Record" or Pre Booking Message?

[John1512]

I just looked at my optional instant booking settings and realized that "good track record" is not currently turned on. I would NEVER turn this option off. This isn't the first time I've discovered my instant booking settings altered w/o my knowing. 

It's been a while since I posted about the initial issue of my listing not showing up with instant booking on, but that wasn't the only issue I have had with instant booking. Around that time I also had guests instantly book my listing who didn't have a "good track record." Now I'm starting to think that maybe the tech who resolved the issue of my listing not showing up did so by merely turning off the "good track record" option;) 

I want to turn it back on right now but I'm nervous that may make my listing not show up again. If this is happening again and again, could this be by design from Airbnb to prevent hosts from turning away fees?  

[Joan2709]

Hmmm...   @John1512 . If I was a betting person, I would suspect you are on to the answer? It's possible that the "Good Track Record" issue is involved. The guest would have to be logged into their account when searching in order for the system to know if they had a good track record. 

I do not currently have any stays as a guest on Airbnb:

- Not logged into my account

Searched NOT logged into my account. When I chose "Instant Book" Filter, the listing disappeared. The listing I was looking at DOES have Instant book on and uses the optional setting "Good Track Record" (I know the Host). This doesn't make sense to me, but perhaps this is working the way it is intended?

- Logged into my account

Did the same search and when I chose Instant Book Filter, the same listing also disappeared (programming knows I don't have a "Good Track Record as I have no reviews). This makes sense to me if you have the optional "Good Track Record" setting, but the system shouldn't remove the listing from search results. I have seen where the guest is new (no reviews) and Host received a request to book instead of guest being able to Instant Book. This makes more sense. This allows the new guests to still see the listing in search results, but reverts to Request to Book if "Good Track Record" is turned on, but they are new, so of course they don't have a good track record (no reviews). This allows Host to decide if they want to accept. I know this as I Co-Hosted for a listing that had this exact scenario. Here is the Callout that Host receives when a new guest (no reviews) wants to book her place:

I suggest that Airbnb in attempting to encourage Hosts to use Instant Book, offered these optional settings as a way to prevent Hosts from turning Instant Book off. However, they probably did not thoroughly anticipate how this programming would affect search results for the Hosts that use the optional settings 🤔. For the time being, seems like the only way for the listing not to disappear is to turn OFF Good Track Record & Pre-Booking message on Instant Book. Unfortunately, that is not something Hosts want to do, so that means turning OFF instant book entirely and losing the algorithm search results ponts for not having Instant Book on. Sigh. Sometimes ya just can't win. 🙄

Perhaps they should add a new optional Instant Book setting for "New guests/No Reviews can Request to Book"? Many new guests don't have a profile yet and are just looking around for properties. These guests will not see your listing if they select the Instant Book Filter.

I'm not exactly sure whats happening, but I believe @John1512 your statement that the CS Rep just turned off Good Track Record in your Instant Book Optional Settings is probably correct.

---

[John1512]

No matter the reason, all the optional instant book settings should work without negatively impacting a listing. As a host w/ instant booking turned on, we're already playing ball with Airbnb's algo, so you'd think they could throw us a bone on the options they purportedly offer;) However, I could see them ultimately killing optional settings altogether for instant book, as they are rumored to be set to do for cleaning fees. 

We used to get request to book notifications for new to Airbnb and less-than-perfect-reviewed guests with our instant booking options turned on. That stopped happening even when it was turned on, and people were allowed to book directly. We'd have to go argue our case with Ambassadors and only a handful out of many understood how that was an issue.  

Wouldn't it be great if we could post things on here and Airbnb would actually listen to our POV, and perhaps fix issues with the current settings they have in place? I'm skeptical but would love to be proved wrong;) 

[John1512]

BTW, I think that is a good idea for optional settings, "new to airbnb." But again, they'll probably just kill this feature altogether. 

One thing I want to clarify, however, is that my pre-booking option is turned on and I still show up. So it seems to perhaps only be an issue with "Good track record" if that's in fact the case.