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Hello
In regard to Auto messages / ‘Short codes’. As per the picture below there are short codes to insert ‘guest country/city/contact number’. I am confused/curious to understand why/when you would use this info to contact guests? (i maybe missing something here)
Does anyone have any examples of when they have included this into their automated emails ?
Chloe
Not only NO, Heck NO! The guest knows where they’re coming from and how much they paid – from the messages which Air sends when they book.
Are you asking about the specific codes in your screenshot? Or just about the codes in general?
Here’s how we use the codes… Example of our confirmation that gets sent automatically 5 minutes after the booking is confirmed:
Hi [guest first name] [guest last name]!
Thank you for booking [number of nights] for [number of guests] guests at Tranquility Base Cabin starting on [check-in date]. We look forward to hosting you. If you haven’t done so already, please share any relevant trip info and the name of your guest, if any, so we can best organize your check-in and personalize our welcome sign.
Check-in is [check-in time]. Check-out time is by [checkout time] on [checkout date].
Future communication: Three days before your reservation, you’ll receive an automatic reminder containing additional important information. At noon on the day before your arrival we’ll send your check-in info including your door unlock code.
About the neighborhood: [neighborhood]
Getting around: [getting around]
You may find our guidebook helpful:
[guidebook]
House Rules:
[house rules]
– Bob & Tam
We have this message above and the other 2 auto messages and then an auto check-out message that gets sent at 8 AM on check-out day. For the other messages we only use the guest-first-name for the greeting.
Thanks. That’s good to know air bnb send the price info.
I thought that was a little strange but worth and ask incase someone has done something creative with the information 
thanks Ken
Thankyou! That’s really insightful.
I have something similar. Good to know there is no need to include guests location.
ok, I use these, and here’s why : to remind the guest of what exactly they just booked.
Here’s what I write:
Hi short code start[guest first name]short code end,
We appreciate you choosing us for your Adelaide Hills stay in short code start
[listing name]short code end. Thank you! Your arrival date is short code start
[check-in date]short code end, and you have booked for short code start
[number of guests]short code end . (then i have some nice fluffy stuff after that)
What this does is confirm immediately how many nights they booked and how many people. It catches out the people who book for only one but actually have 4 guests + a pet. They have a chance to acknowledge that with me, so later if they bring in more guests I can point to this confirmation message I sent them.
That’s the only time i use the short codes.
This was a really interesting post because through it I realised that I have access to the guests’ phone number and address – I had no idea! This sounds like a stupid question, but is there another way to see this info (e.g. to text a guest who isn’t responding to messages on the app) other than creating a message with the short codes in it and then discarding the message after noting down the number? I can’t seem to find that info anywhere else. When I click on the profile it only says that the guest confirmed their phone number and address with Airbnb but it doesn’t tell me what it is.
The guest’s phone number is on the booking confirmation. Airbnb has now made it super small and grey, so it’s hard to see, but it’s there. You have their phone number as soon as the booking is confirmed. I always write it down in a little book I use especially for that purpose (cause I’m a pen and paper gal) right away. Hosts have had their listings suspended and no way to reach their booked guests, so it’s really important to do this. Besides, you may want to contact them in the future for whatever reason, after they have stayed.
How do you have access to the guests’ address?
You can send them an email with attachments too. If they’ve agreed to get emails is not very noticeable in the lower portion of the reservation details is email
that is not their email, but an email that would be sent thru airbnb’s email system. I thought it was a direct email link…
When I used to use that coded email to attach the map to my place to, half the time guests said the email came through but the attachment wasn’t there. That’s why I started asking guests for their actual email address when ready to send the map.
@Rolf you are correct it is an anonymized email. Their real email is hidden. A few years ago Airbnb stated they were going to discontinue the anonymized emails & allow attachments to be sent via the airbnb text thread.
It didn’t happen for rentals. I don’t know about experiences.
@muddy email attachments are strange. If people check email on their phone, they may not can open Word or PDF documents.
These days because everyone uses their phones to access email, it’s probably a good practice to mention “This email contains a MS Word document. It may not open or display properly when viewed on a phone.”
