hello YouTube it's Richard founder of short-term rental secrets.com and
Airbnb super host and today on this video we're going to address if not the
number one certainly one of the top questions that I'm asked repeatedly and
that is Airbnb instant book yay or nay so you may recall I filmed a video a
long time ago where I recommended instant book as the importance of
instant book make sure that you accept instant bookings it will drive more
revenue and I really believed in it and then subsequently I had a couple of bad
experiences back to back where instant bookings were like really problematic
and people had a party in my home and I just got really soured on it so I was
willing to forgo some of the benefits of instant book because I just wanted like
safety and security and so I turned it off and I filmed the video on that well
it's now a different day I've rethought about things Airbnb has changed their
business and I'm here to give you my most current thinking's as to why to use
instant on and whether it's right for you so here's the reason I turned it
back on as you know I had a security problem and I think Airbnb became aware
of it it wasn't just me I haven't read anywhere officially that
they've like solved the problem but I think they've definitely taken steps to
address it and so as a consequence I always want to be optimizing my listings
and making as much money as possible and I was prepared to like try it again and
see if there was any incidents I'm happy to report since I've turned it on which
has been now several months I've had no problems at all and everything has been
fine so I do think that they've shored up their security breach whatever was
occurring I don't see any signs they want to compete with regular hotels so
when you're a guest and you're shopping for a place to stay and you're calling
or looking at the Marriott or the Hilton you don't have to worry about
availability like they're only showing you what's available and that's a flaw
with Airbnb is that they're showing you everything whether it's available or not
and I don't mean that the calendar is blocked I just mean the calendars open
but if you don't have instant booked on there's an added layer of like
uncertainty I have to now ask if I can stay there maybe answer some questions
and that period could be anywhere from like a very responsive host as an hour
to an unresponsive host can be 24 hours 48 hours or I've been
book places for a conference in Boston and I got no response an Airbnb does not
want that bad guest experience or that lost revenue so they're gonna do
everything in their power to push towards instant-on everywhere in order
to encourage people to go to instant book you have unlimited cancellations
now so if somebody books your place and you're not comfortable with it you can
cancel that reservation it used to be limited to three now it's an unlimited
number of cancellations so that's a really strong weapon in your arsenal and
encouraging you to do instant book conversely if you don't have instant
book enabled you are very restricted and they're super harsh about cancellations
so it's almost like you need to turn it on to protect your account and your
super ho status and the fourth reason although I think it's pretty small right
now it's clearly showing us the future and so you want to pay attention to it
now and you want to get ahead of the curve is on a recent search I was flying
out to Jackson Hole and and when I looked for hotels the search engine
showed me the list of different hotels you know Marriott Hilton and
interspersed in there was also Airbnb and it said Airbnb and we're gonna do a
video charles write this down about how to optimize your title for this new form
of search but what's really interesting as it relates to the instant book it
also showed people like myself which Airbnb listings were available for
instant booking so like if you're not doing that yet
you need to have the instant book on and you need to have that optimized title
because this is the wave of the future people aren't going to be going to
Airbnb to book your place they're now gonna be booking your place on kayak
Expedia Hipmunk etc so that's it as always I keep the opportunity to change
my mind if I do change my mind I'll film another video and let you know why I'd
love to hear your comments and your experiences with instant book and if you
thought this video is helpful please go ahead and like it and as always please
thanks for very much have a great day