Airbnb to Retire Guest Email Feature

We have RemoteLocks at our Airbnb home. RemoteLock sent us an email yesterday that said this, in part:

"Airbnb recently announced that it will be retiring the guest email feature. Many RemoteLock customers have relied upon this feature in order to send access instructions and door pin codes to guests. Due to this change on the Airbnb platform, this feature will no longer be available. All communications with guests regarding access instructions and pin codes must now occur through Airbnb’s messaging.”

We don’t actually care that guest email goes away. We never use it. For unfamiliar guests, we always use the Airbnb platform. For repeat guests whom we know well, we often text or use their personal email.

Anyway, I thought other hosts might be interested to know this.

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This is kind of true. They say they are “retiring” the email feature to discourage off-platform communication; however, they also say you can still use email if you attest to use it for “good reasons and not bad reasons” (lol, I’m paraphrasing). I was just emailing with a guest today. If a guest wants me to, I send PDFs of my lists of local activities, etc ahead of time. For anyone who likes to use email, here’s how you secure that:

Go to this link and click on “attestation” which is about 2/3 down the page: https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/an-update-for-hosts-who-use-the-guest-email-feature-195

attestation1

That link will take you to this page where you attest and then you can still use email. (just don’t use it to take guests off-platform :wink:

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Interesting. Airbnb passes all e-mail through their own proxy (i.e. they can filter all of the same stuff they the can in messaging), so I don’t understand why the can’t continue to use it.

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I respect that you surely know more about the tech stuff than I do. I really don’t know anything. But I do know that I can’t send a guest an email until they’re booked. And once I can send them an email, I can send them links to anything, attachments of any kind and they can (and do) send me their actual personal email addresses (I’ve never had anything blocked in the email). And then…maybe sometimes they book their college kid to stay with me for 3 months on a direct-lease, leaving Airbnb without their hefty fees. I am pretty sure that’s why they are cracking down on it.

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I used the guest email for every booking. I need to send them my hand-drawn map or they’ll ever find my place. But half the time guests said they got the email, but without the attachment. So then I’d have to ask for their actual email address. No guest ever balked at that.

Yes, I’m quite sure they all but did away with it to prevent off-site arrangements.

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Thank you! I do exactly the same, and for now I will do the attestation.

I would actually prefer to use the app. I currently send pics (maps, pics of other features not on the listing) via messaging on the App; in lieu of this development it would be logical and functional to create a way to attach PDFs on the messaging app as well. Too much to ask?

I have AirBNB Data Scientest staying in in my Listing right now; I will ask him tomorrow.

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Ha!!
Perhaps you can also ask him to let us see the number of reviews in our stats again? 100% of what? Smh.

Actually, this is probably the reason they want to ditch e-mail. They want to push more people to use the app and only the app. There’s a reason why every type of service has an app and they always nag you to install their app even when they have a functional website. They can collect a lot more data with an app than they can with traditional internet tools like web browsers and e-mail.

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That’s an interesting point, I hadn’t thought about that. I think they are probably pushing for the app too. But, I’m not sure how successful they will be. All the hotels still have websites and I think there’s a reason for that. I have a lot of young guests and even they refer to the website, so I don’t think that many people are using the app exclusively. They would have to make it a lot better to accomplish that. It’s different than a ride share, there’s not so many choices to make or photos to look at.

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They’d definitely lose some guests and even hosts if they went to app only. Believe it or not, there are still people who don’t even use a smart phone at all. And it’s not just old folks- there’s a host I know, who also travels a lot as a guest- she’s a millennial and doesn’t use a smart phone.

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I hate that app. Not all apps, but the ABB app in particular. And I hate writing more than a few words on my phone and I even have the larger iphone. If I get a booking and am not at home but can get home in a reasonable amount of time, I will go home to respond to it.

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Yes, that’s my other issue with smart phones- even typing a short text is frustrating- my fingers hit 2 letters at once. I’ve done so much physical labor, lots of tiling and gardening, I have working fingers.

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Same here. Sometimes I will try voice-to-text if I need to get in a response real quick. Ahhhh I think we know how that can turn out!

:upside_down_face:

Use talk to text. There is a small microphone symbol in your phone keyboard area. They often work best in my experience if you talk a “bit like a machine” and punctuate your speech.

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That would be nice. But there’s no microphone symbol in my keyboard area. It’s a Motorola Android and made in Latin America.

" Turn Voice Input On / Off - Android

  1. From a Home screen, navigate: Apps icon > Settings then tap “Language & input” or “Language & keyboard”. …
  2. From the On-screen keyboard, tap Google Keyboard/Gboard. …
  3. Tap Preferences.
  4. Tap the Voice input key switch to turn on or off ."

Under “Language and input” it might say one of several things but there should be a SECTION called “Speech”.

It may also have “Google Voice Typing”. And also look for “Text-to-speech options”.

Worst case - install (free) from the Google Play Store (home -> apps) Google Voice. It “should” be on your phone but who knows if you bought it in Mexico

I dictate almost all my texts and many of my Airbnb messages. You learn to speak distinctly, indicate punctuation, as you said, and indicate capital letters. When you have some practice, it’s easy.

I can do more on the website. Getting out of IB on the app is impossible for me.

I am a millennial and I hate apps and typing on the phone! I hate it so much I procrastinate texting people back haha. Too many typos and I don’t even have large hands. And forget about talk to text… I just like to review my messages on a real screen!

Is it too much to ask to see things on a larger screen and type on an actual keyboard??? :sweat_smile:

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