Instant Booking

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  • This content has been removed.
  • How do I cancel the direct booking option? Since Thumbtack decided to do direct booking, without my discretion, I have not been getting any leads. Is anyone else having that problem?

  • Since Thumbtack went to direct booking, without my discretion, I have not been getting any leads. Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

  • DustiO
    DustiO Administrator, Moderator Posts: 1,853

    @Average_joe1 I think this might be due to a missing setting — I was looking around and it looks like you have one of your availability settings that hasn't been set yet. Go to the calendar tab and click on the availability section and you'll see one that is blank and outlined in red. LMK if this doesn't help! BUt fingers crossed that it will!

  • According to what I see that is not one that’s required to be instant booking. I don’t want to activate it because for landscape design and install i can already tell that the customer are going to instant book looking for quotes and cost me a lot of money. Thumbtack is currently flawed in their operations

  • Matt
    Matt Posts: 167

    You cannot turn it off, it is mandatory for all Pro's and you have to deal with the consequences regardless of how much many pro's have asked.

  • does this qualify for a refund well if you ask me i would say yes but thumbtack said otherwise.


  • Your first indication they were just price shopping is the 4 pros contacted. You messed up by trying to collect 20% from them up front. Also I think it’s best to call the customer right away vs respond like you did. Luckily it was only $8

  • I don't necessarily think this qualifies for a refund either. Leads aren't marketed as guarantees, unlike instant booking. I go through the same process of protecting myself and get plenty of "no thanks" in the process. I think this helps weed out the less than serious clientele.

    To be honest, you were probably better off that they said no if they had that perspective in the matter.

  • Quinn
    Quinn Posts: 1

    I’m not getting any views on Thumbtack, can’t even look myself up. Support is none existent. I got a ludicrous booking cleaning 1 bedroom for 163$! One time 1 bed for 163$ and the client canceled! Thumbtack took my money and then i get no more leads or views and my business doesn’t even exist.

  • The holidays are coming and my business is still hidden because I refuse to pay over 100$ a lead for 20$ of work!!!! HELP!!!!

  • System
    System Administrator Posts: 5
    This discussion was created from comments split from: Welcome to our new Community members! (November 2023).
  • Cliff
    Cliff Posts: 1

    I don’t know how many times I have had an instant booking $30+ and before the customer even responded to me they contact me hours later just to tell me they are canceling. Literally out of my hands. Yet thumbtack tells me they won’t refund it. Due to I have had 3 refunds since I’ve been in business. So the customers indecisiveness.has become my problem. So thumbtack just pockets the money………. If you ask me it’s just wrong

  • Matt
    Matt Posts: 167

    @Cliff Unfortunately it seems this is the case. I wish they were more collaborative with decisions, and allowed for us users/customers to decide which features we want to use based on the need. I have had two instant bookings. One of which was simply to get a price, the other may book for real, but the user was confused on what exactly they signed up for.

  • @DustiO


    Will you explain to all of us why TT says this will benefit businesses? What are they saying is the reason and motivation for making a decision everyone that hires them is vocally against?

  • Matt
    Matt Posts: 167

    Hey @DustiO can you tell us more about what future features will be rolled out ? Currently the Instant Book just isn't something that works for my industry.

  • DustiO
    DustiO Administrator, Moderator Posts: 1,853

    As soon as I have updates to share I will definitely share here. Thanks!

  • Matt
    Matt Posts: 167

    Reached out to support in regards to instant booking and having the ability to disable it if you want. Here is your response. Looks like the solution if you don’t like it, turn off targeting and use the “opportunities” tab, which has never worked to get any jobs at all. Such a terrible response.


  • That’s funny it’s got a 0 percent success rate for me they just want quotes

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  • Modern_designer11
    Modern_designer11 Posts: 26
    edited November 2023

    I wrote a long response and it was deleted. Hopefully it was a glitch?

    @DustiO Have you removed the option for the customer to message us directly as a regular lead? Will you show us where that is if it’s still available?

    To recap what was deleted, this is a picture where the client is being forced to use the book now feature. There is also a claim that the in home consultation will help the client understand the scope and get an accurate quote.


    Architects and Designers cannot provide a quote without conducting a thorough discovery phase which includes a design brief and many meetings with other contractors, it’s essentially impossible. It does go against our code of ethics and the entire industries system to protect our business, our work, and our clients interests.

    @DustiO We haven’t heard back from you. Why and how is this helping Pro’s and Customers? Is there a PR statement you can share? Thank you in advance.

  • Lol I was trying to read your last one it got deleted you probably violated terms lmao. @DustiO is just assigned to come on here and give us generic responses to make us feel like we are being heard. Nothing will change no matter how much we complain. The truth is thumbtack is just a call center probably all working from home with orders to not give refunds and tell us there is nothing they can do about it. Thumbtack is owned by venture Capitol firms now and only answers to share holders

  • Modern_designer11
    Modern_designer11 Posts: 26
    edited November 2023

    That’s interesting. I would never be abusive or threatening and I can’t imagine what else would have broken any rules. This is against our license and code of ethics, is this why? I suppose you’re right and it doesn’t matter.

  • DustiO
    DustiO Administrator, Moderator Posts: 1,853

    @Modern_designer11 I did not delete your response. The platform has automatic spam filters, so if very long responses are posted quickly (like copy pasted from somewhere else, for example) they are automatically flagged as spam and the system deletes them. Sorry that happened to you, it's annoying!

    This is really good feedback. Do you typically do a phone consult/virtual consult for your discovery phase? Is there anything that could be tweaked that would make an instant consult/estimate work for your industry? Industry feedback like this is really valuable!

    I have posted more than one detailed comment in this thread outlining the pluses of Instant Book and some tips and tricks to make it work better. There is also more info here in this article. I would recommend for now making sure you edit the outgoing message that goes to customers when they book you - and be sure it reflects what your process/next steps are (ie, if you need to hop on a phone call first for your discovery phase, etc), and more detail on how your pricing works. You can also play with your availability settings to control how soon or far out customers can book you, which will eliminate same day/next day or bookings that are too soon and gives you some time to work with the customer on that discovery phase. You can also block off time on your calendar there as well. Hopefully this helps make things work better for now!

    @Average_joe1 please refer to our Community Code of Conduct and keep conversations constructive.

    As I have mentioned several times, this thread is being shared with teams and as soon as there are updates to share, I will share here.

    Thanks to all for your great feedback!

  • DustiO
    DustiO Administrator, Moderator Posts: 1,853

    Meant to drop this in that comment - but here is where you edit the outgoing message (you may already know this, but I have had a lot of pros ask about it!).

  • DustiO
    DustiO Administrator, Moderator Posts: 1,853

    @Modern_designer11 It literally just deletes posts with too many characters in too short of a time (so there was probably nothing wrong with your post!). Just wanted to let you know that was why it was deleted (by the system, and not me), sorry for the confusion! It is a really annoying feature, I wish I could turn it off honestly! But occasionally it does filter out real spam, so that part is nice!

  • Modern_designer11
    Modern_designer11 Posts: 26
    edited November 2023

    Thank you, it’s okay. I’m glad this was the case.


    ETA- where can the client message us directly as a regular inquiry?