Hi, I’m just wondering what the opinion is for hosts with Instant Booking feature. For those that have that turned on, do you think it improves your search optimization or ultimate booking amounts? I’m wondering if I might try it although I have my family residence listed so there could be some time where I may have to decline…
If it’s a residence, I recommend against instant booking.
We only use instant booking for our conference rooms because they are straightforward and easy to handle. Our larger spaces are all request to book.
At first, we thought instant book would work well for the larger spaces if we made our rules clear and listed everything in add-ons, but in practice, we found that instant book causes confusion, arguments and angry clients, which ultimately decreases bookings and can lead to you having to cancel a confirmed booking, which will negatively affect your ranking.
Alternatively, what we typically find is that anyone who decides to go with a different venue just because we don’t have an instant book option is unlikely to be the type of guest we wanted in the first place.
People who want to instant book a larger space without talking to the booking agent or manager will:
- Assume the base-rate is the only rate and is all-inclusive
- Argue about cleaning fees
- Attempt to pay for only the time of the event and assume time for setup and strike are somehow included
- Bring/consume liquor without permission
- Smoke on premises without asking
- Assume everything you list in the add-ons section is actually included for free
- Bring more guests than allowed
- Use more space than they have booked
- The list is quite long, but you get the picture
You should always talk to guests about their event details prior to confirming a booking, and the best way to do that is to require them to get a booking confirmation. That gives you the opportunity to reach out and discuss any details prior to confirming the booking, and if you reach an impasse, you can walk away without a negative review or a cancelled event, both of which will negatively impact your ranking.
On a special side-note:
I mention people not wanting to pay for setup and strike. For anyone who doesn’t already understand this, many people think of their event as the “thing” they’re paying for, so it doesn’t occur to them that they would need to pay for the setup time or the time to break down and clean-up, because in their mind, that’s not part of the event.
You need to be firm with these folks and make sure you get them to pay for the extra time. No other venue allows for free setup and strike, and anyone who claims to know a venue that does is scamming you (or has used the crappiest venue in town).
But another version of this is someone who genuinely doesn’t understand timing and event management:
We’ve had dozens performers try to book concerts for 1-hour - 
really, you’re going to setup, get 100 people inside, play a concert, and then vacate, all in 1 hour?
We had one of these last night; we convinced him to add a half hour on both ends for setup and strike and STILL finally had to go in and turn the lights on 15 minutes after his booking was over because his guests were just hanging around. No arguing or animosity, just a lack of practical understanding on his part of what it takes to get people in and out of a venue for a show.
But don’t get frustrated or angry with these people up front, and be prepared to deal with it over and over and over - your guests don’t run venues, you do, so you’re on a different page of understanding, and just like you hope the plumber will be patient with your dumb plumbing questions, your guests should reasonably be able to expect patience and understanding from you, the venue owner with their dumb venue questions.
10 Likes
I agree with Christopher. I also have a residence and would never consider instant booking. I always speak to the guest prior to accepting a booking. I have to know exactly what they intend to do and have avoided some potential disasters that way. Don’t need to go into details here because Christopher listed them so well. Only one to add in my case: certain bookings do require a film permit so I have to make sure of that.
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I have instant book turned on for my residence because instant book returns my listing higher in the search. I don’t like it, because it creates a situation in which I could get a booking one day with the shoot the next day. This means that they will not be getting permits, because that takes at least 3 days in my locality.
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We have a studio not a residence but have had no issues or seen any disadvantages with Instant Booking so far! Guests can’t Instant Book within 24hrs of the booking time anyway so that’s been a manageable turn around time on our end.
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I don’t recall seeing a place to set an advance notice on bookings. Is that 24-hour window automatic or did I miss something?
@Jennifer_P Smac is correct! Guests can receive immediate booking confirmation if a space is designated as Instant Book so long as the event start time is at least 24 hours away.
That wasn’t my question. My question is whether that is a default, platform-wide standard or a custom setting that hosts must designate.
@Jennifer_P Custom setting! Feel free to follow the below instructions to turn instant book on and off:
- Go to your listings tab and click the “Edit” button next to the listing you want to edit. (Note: this is different than the “Edit Space” button).
- On the next page click “Edit” to the right of the section titled “Instant Book”.
- To turn on Instant Book, slide the Instant Book button to the right. *If this option is not available, click the “Request Access” button and our team will review your eligibility.
- To turn off Instant Book, slide the Instant Book button to the left.