Instant Book on Airbnb: I switched it on, then off, then on again across five properties — here's what changed each time

I turned Instant Book off on every property in October 2023 after a guest caused £340 of damage to my Edinburgh flat. Turned it back on in March 2024 when I noticed my bookings had slowed and couldn't work out why. And then I turned it off on two properties and kept it on three, which is where I've landed for now.

There's a lot of confident advice about Instant Book in the hosting world — usually either "you must have it on or you'll get buried in search" or "never use it, you'll get terrible guests." Neither is quite right.

What Airbnb actually says about search ranking

This is worth being clear on: Airbnb does state in their help documentation that listings with Instant Book enabled may rank higher in search results because responses are automatic and the booking is confirmed without the host needing to affirmatively accept. That's their language. So there is a stated search benefit. Whether it's substantial or marginal is harder to know — Airbnb doesn't publish the algorithm weights.

What I observed was roughly this: when I turned Instant Book off across all five properties in October 2023, I saw no immediate drop in inquiries. But by December I was running about 12% lower on confirmed bookings for the following eight weeks. Could be coincidence — December is a weird month and the Edinburgh flat's October incident might have affected my response metrics. But the timing made me wonder.

When I turned it back on in March 2024, I had a strong April and May. Which might have been seasonal. Or might have been the search ranking. I genuinely can't say for certain.

What you lose when Instant Book is on

The thing I actually valued most about Request to Book wasn't the ability to say no — it was the window to ask a question.

Most of my problem bookings came from groups. And most groups, when I asked "what brings you to Edinburgh this weekend?" before confirming, either answered in a way that reassured me or answered in a way that told me everything I needed to know. A confident, specific answer — "it's my hen do, just four of us, we're seeing a show at the Traverse" — is a very different message from "just a girls' trip, five of us, we like to have fun."

With Instant Book, that window closes. The booking confirms automatically. You find out what's coming when they arrive.

You can still cancel an Instant Book booking without a penalty if you have serious concerns — Airbnb calls this a "host cancellation with waived penalty" for safety reasons. But the bar is high, the process is uncomfortable, and using it regularly will hurt your metrics. In practice, you're not cancelling Instant Book bookings. You're accepting them.

The guest requirements Instant Book still lets you set

You can require that Instant Book guests have a verified government ID, a positive track record (no reviews mentioning rule violations), and a recommendation from a previous host. These filters narrow the pool of who can book instantly.

I have all three requirements set on the three properties where I currently run Instant Book. It does thin the guest pool, and I've had fewer issues than I did in the first experimental phase when I had no additional requirements turned on. But it also means some first-time Airbnb guests can't book instantly on my listings, which probably costs me some bookings.

The tradeoff isn't Instant Book vs no-Instant Book. It's a triangle: booking volume, screening ability, and search visibility. You don't get all three at maximum settings.

The two properties where I kept Request to Book

My Edinburgh city centre flat and the Lake District cottage both stayed on Request to Book. These are my higher-risk listings for different reasons — Edinburgh because it attracts group bookings for events, the cottage because it's remote and damage is harder to sort quickly. For both of those, the screening window is worth more to me than whatever search benefit I'm giving up.

The three properties on Instant Book are all either lower-demand markets (where I want every booking I can get) or properties with a profile that doesn't attract problem bookings — a one-bed in a residential Brighton street doesn't get many stag dos.

The incident that made me change my mind

The October 2023 Edinburgh damage wasn't catastrophic, but it was avoidable. A group of five had booked as "colleagues attending a conference" — which turned out to be partially true, in that three of them were attending a conference and two weren't. The two who weren't decided to extend the evening back at the flat. I had an Instant Book booking with no screening requirements at the time, and I'd confirmed it without asking anything.

When I added the government ID requirement and the positive track record filter after that, I also started messaging every Instant Book guest within an hour of confirmation. Not asking for permission to keep the booking — just introducing myself. "Hi, I'm Sarah, looking forward to having you stay. Please let me know if you have any questions about the flat or the area." That small thing seems to matter. Guests who've interacted with a real person behave differently from guests who've booked a unit on an app.

The boring conclusion

There is no single right answer here. I've talked to hosts with identical occupancy rates who run full Instant Book with no requirements, and hosts who haven't had it on in five years. I've met a host in Brighton who runs eight properties entirely on Instant Book and hasn't had a serious incident in three years. I know a host in Edinburgh Old Town who had two consecutive nightmare guests via Instant Book and swore it off for good.

What seems to matter more than the setting itself is what you do around it. On Instant Book: set the guest requirements, message every confirmed guest quickly, and treat the first hour after a confirmation as your screening opportunity even though you can't decline. Off Instant Book: respond to every inquiry within an hour or your metrics will suffer, ask your qualifying question before confirming, and don't let requests sit more than 24 hours.

My current setup — three on, two off — isn't a considered strategy. It's the result of two years of switching and watching. And I'll probably adjust it again before the year is out.