Allow for Auto-Booking?

[Rob Anteau]

After five years of having STRs and dealing with multiple parties, I decided to turn off auto bookings back in April. Since then bookings have remained about the same, but I have had zero issues with parties. 

Curious what other hosts do with auto-booking. Do you have it enabled or not?

[John Carbone]

Quote from @Rob Anteau:

Quote from @John Underwood:

Quote from @Rob Anteau:

Quote from @Luke Carl:

Quote from @Rob Anteau:

After five years of having STRs and dealing with multiple parties, I decided to turn off auto bookings back in April. Since then bookings have remained about the same, but I have had zero issues with parties. 

Curious what other hosts do with auto-booking. Do you have it enabled or not?

Yes you will want to do instant-book on both airbnb and vrbo. It makes your life easier. You have to manage it though. It gives you options. Caveats. Choose the ones you like and keep an eye on things. ALSO you can cancel up to 3 instant books per year penalty free. Today is the last day before that resets so get to canceling lol.

I think the instant-book-off and the lack-of-parties -was a coincidence. There are plenty of old boring people using instant-book. In other words turning it off is not going to be a filter for Miller Lite.

In order to get rid of the parties you have to make yourself more clear. It's exactly like LTR. If you don't want someone under 600 credit, you don't take anyone under 600 credit. Simply tweak your listing and your messages to make it VERY CLEAR parties are not allowed at your property. In fact I wouldn't even use the word party. "this is a quiet family property" something like that. VERY FIRM.

Just one mans opinion.

Thank you Carl for sharing your thoughts. I think I have tried everything. My first rule listed is "> NO PARTIES OR LOUD MUSIC. We have a zero-tolerance policy to this rule and so we cannot stress it enough..." I even have this in my listings descriptions. I don't allow one-night bookings on the weekends. I've direct messaged guests I was suspicious of after they booked to remind them parties are not allowed, and still they disrespectfully threw a party. I realize that I will miss out on some bookings, but to me it is worth it.

 Do you have exterior security cameras?

What about noise sensors?

 I have exterior cameras at all my properties. Ring doorbell and camera on the driveway. 

I purchased and used noise sensors at a townhome, but I thought it wasn't very helpful. It could have been the brand or I did not have the placement/settings right. I eventually stopped the service and just left them plugged in so people thought there was noise monitoring in place lol.

I agree with Luke, the additional time is not worth it, and you definitely will be losing revenue. I know I wouldn’t book a place that wasn’t instant booking. I think once I did a non-instant booking and in the time it took them to reply back I ended up finding another place I liked that had instant booking and I withdrew my inquiry.

have you tried including things in the initial “welcome” message after a guest books to get the point across? In my first message that’s automated after a guest books I mention things like “as mentioned in the listing, I have a steep driveway but it is maintained. There are no parties allowed this is strictly enforced etc etc if these are issues for you, you may cancel your reservation free of charge within 48 hours of now.”

I’ve had a few guests cancel immediately after, and if someone is going to cancel immediately after my message, I consider myself fortunate.