Can no longer text or contact guests who just or previously departed?

Any idea how we can now contact guests who have departed? ABB has removed the ability to click in the diary on a guest that departed to message them by any means. I had guests leave 15 minutes ago and tried to text them, as I often do, to thank them for leaving my place so nice. My text did not go through, instead I get a message “please contact Airbnb”.

Just in the last 16 hours I am appalled at the various negative changes Airbnb seem to be implementing, making our job as hosts, much more difficult and more likely we make an error due to not being able to access information as easily, such as notes.

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I almost always collect direct contact details on arrival so if I like a guest I can keep in touch with news about my listing.

It is unusual for their contact details to disappear so quickly.

But you can drop them a message on their phone number that should still be on the booking confirmation.

@hostinglady -
I can go into the Inbox (desktop, haven’t tried the app) and click on their last message and it still looks the same - it looks like I could send a message if I wanted to.

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I can still message guests from last year and also leave one of these for guests to fill in
guest-registration-cards

I have not had that problem of being able to contact guests after they leave (yet). I messaged a guest yesterday after they had been gone for a couple hours. It’s important to be able to contact guests after they check out in case they left something behind.

I have noticed changes in text messages I receive from Airbnb though. I should preface this saying that I don’t have a smartphone. In the recent past, if a guest or potential guest texted me through Airbnb’s system, I could read the text and respond. Then, Airbnb changed it so I could read the text but could not respond from my phone. I had to use my computer. Now, I can’t even read the message from the guest, even a guest who is already booked. The text message just says “You have unread messages in your inbox.” So they definitely have made some changes to their SMS.

Have you tried messaging them on a computer through the Airbnb website?

As has already been pointed out, you can use the Airbnb messaging system or their phone number which is hopefully a cell number, which is on the itinerary. I’d advise hosts to start saving this information on their own if it’s important to you because I don’t trust Airbnb to keep it available to us forever.

I’ve recently had several instances of the website going down and I have guests coming that day. I’ve had to wait up to 45 minutes to be able to message them on the platform. What if they can’t access the information on their phone and site it down. I’ve started screen shotting the week’s upcoming reservations.

I had a guests once who loved her stay but lost her engagement ring at the beach. About a month later it was found and I had no way of reaching the guest. She didn’t answer her Air messages.

I try to get their emails when I can but I don’t always manage to do it.

You can get their phone # on the reservation detail.

I think that goes away after a while too. In this case I could not reach the guest. I tried.

I jot the phone number of the guest down on the very un-tech paper calendar when I make a note of the guests’ arrival and departure dates. Pretty simple.

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Thanks everyone and the screenshots are a great idea! I was able to message through the messaging system in the end.

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