Is this how it works?

A friend booked an airbnb for us; I was surprised when I was asked by the friend for my name and email address when booking (it came up as part of the booking process). It was not thru the messenger, but was requested thru airbnb (fill in the blanks). I am wondering if airbnb does this whenever there are more than one guest? And is there a way for me, as a host, to have this information too, or is this for airbnb only?

And, why not give the host a list of the additional folks - it would be a great benefit. Is there a setting I missed on MY airbnb?

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Air now requests the contact info for all guests staying, not just the ‘booker’

Not sure if this is a trick question but Airbnb has been collecting party-traveller info for a while which shows up for the host in two different places:

  1. On the ‘Today’ tab where your check-in/currently hosting/check-out guest is shown (at least on PC). It will (would) show multiple profile photos of the travelling party. If the booking guest just selected 2 guests but fails to provide any personal details there won’t be any other profile pics shown beside the one who booked.

  2. For us hosts, go to ‘Reservation Details’ then scroll down to ‘Booking Details’ right below you see ‘Guests’ and to the right a link ‘View’. There you will see any additionally guest if the booking guest has provided their info as mentioned above. Best case scenario, you will see the other guest’s Airbnb profile as well.

However, we do not get their E-Mail address or any other means to contact them besides the name that the booking guest provides. This could be as annoying as 'T.J. ’ or literally all the necessary details of an Airbnb guest including the reviews they received etc.

A ‘friend’ asked ‘for your name’ :thinking: …are we all friends here already?

I’m not sure when ‘now’ started but at least until one month ago it was not mandatory to provide additional info for the fellow guests. I don’t know if ABB is handling this differently in the EU than in the US though.

As someone who uses Airbnb as a guest regularly I can confirm that this has been there a long time, I have always filled it out and I believe it is optional. It says “Let the host know who else is coming,” or something to that effect but it isn’t required in order to make the reservation. I expect to be making more reservations in the coming weeks and I will try to remember to grab some screen shots next time.

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I am just surprised that this information is not shared with the host - I I have many ‘couples’ and unless I asked the primary guest would have no information.

There’s a lot of things that aren’t shared with the host- guest’s ID, credit card info, where they live, email address. Hosts would have to request that info from the guest if they wanted it.

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Some of that info IS shared with us IF the guests decide to provide that information. Airbnb isn’t making it mandatory for the guests to put that information in their profile.

For some reason Airbnb does provide the phone number even if no other profile info has been given. I do see several guests who did list which town, country they reside. Although, this even doesn’t mean much as we’ve had guests with a different residential address on their IDs. We even had guests with only a made up first name and no family name in their profile. That was a bit unsettling.

French law requires the hosts to collect all that info and more from non-French nationals that stay at any type of accommodation (fiche individuelle de police). It is most welcome and we enforce this law to the max :grimacing: It’s a little piece of mind knowing who actually is sharing our roof with us.

Yes, many European countries require registering guest ID info. You have an advantage over other places in that regard.

I guess Airbnb shares guest’s phone numbers with hosts (and vice versa) so users have at least one way of getting in touch with each other if messaging on the platform isn’t practical sometimes.
I’ve had a few confirmed guests whose phone numbers were said to be “unavailable”. But when I asked them for it, they were all easily forthcoming.

Guests don’t necessarily know what info Airbnb shares with hosts. I’ve read posts by guests who wonder why the host is asking for their ID, assuming that Airbnb makes it visible to hosts.

I’ve been lucky- I’ve never had a guest whose full name (first and last) didn’t appear once their booking was confirmed. Not that I’ve ever, also luckily, had any reason to need it.

I’ve never had it happen over 900 guests

Never had what happen? Having to get in touch with guests off-platform?
I use whatsapp a lot with guests. Of course I wouldn’t do it for anything that needed to be documented, but it works well for guests to let me know when they have boarded the bus after they leave the airport, which is about an hour away, and again when they arrive at the bus station here so I can pick them up.

Or if I’m going to go out shopping at the big supermarket, a half hour’s drive away, and my guest is out and about, or up in their room and I don’t want to disturb them by knocking on their door, I’ll send them a whatsapp msg. asking if there’s anything they’d like me to pick up for them.

There have also been times when my Wifi is down, but I can still phone or send an SMS message if necessary.

I have never had airbnb share my guest’s Phone numbers with me.

Airbnb shares the booking guests phone number every single booking. Are you saying that Airbnb doesn’t share number of the booking guest’s guest? If so, no they won’t because they don’t ask for it. They only ask for the additional guest’s full name and email address.

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As I said in the first post here, As a host I have NEVER gotten ‘additional guest’ names or emails from airbnb. Until I booked recently, I had never seen airbnb ask a guest for the names and emails of ‘additional guests’.

As a host, I think it would be a good idea for hosts to have that information - or at least the names.

When I need added information from guests I ask them for it. I only ask Airbnb for two things, bookings and payment processing and delivery. Neither Airbnb nor I can force guests to provide it; I can miss out on a booking if guests don’t care to provide extra information.

I recently accepted a third party booking and I asked for contact information for the guests. The person booking said he would send passport photos for the guests because they didn’t have cell service and didn’t speak English. That was fine with me and I also live here and met the guests. If I needed something I could just go knock on the door.

I’m sure some hosts are rigid about wanting information about every guest that is on their property and that’s fine. Others of us can take the bookings of guests who don’t want to supply that information.

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Since airbnb requires it, I also require it from my guests. The won’t airbnb share the name with me first, the host?

I’m sure primary guests are puzzled when I ask for the name of the second guest - after all, it was required by airbnb to tell airbnb this info and they just did - and not being able to cross-check this info leaves a host at a disadvantage.

Yes, every host is different which is why it’s important to develop a hosting strategy that’s right for them, their rental and their location.

I’ve never asked guests for additional information. (It would be different if it was required by local authorities, of course).

If a guest is up to no good for whatever reason, they wouldn’t give accurate information anyway.

Even if the guest doesn’t have any malicious intent, there’s still the prospect of the fellow guest being a married lover or a couple that shouldn’t be together for whatever reason. (Both my apartments are one-bedroom in a fairly romantic location so many guests are with someone they shouldn’t be with).

Also people are getting increasingly weird about privacy and that Big Brother is watching.

I’ve said this many times here (ad nauseam, I know) but in the ‘olden days’, when I started out in this business, all we used to know about a guest before their arrival was their name. And there was no guarantee that it was their real name.

It was fine.

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I can appreciate that. I know a couple of people who have had their identities hacked. Seems like all a professional scammer needs is your ID and your phone number and they can start messing up your life.

The booking guest’s phone number appears as soon as their booking is confirmed.

Again, not the primary guest, but their additional guest.