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Good Morning!
I emailed a guest last night in response to her messaging me about arrival time. This morning she messaged me and texted me asking that I please reply.
My email didn’t get to the messaging system, so she never got it. It’s in my hotmail ‘sent’ folder but not on the message platform. I had this problem last summer -
Just fyi check your messaging to be sure your emails are making it through. If your communication with a guest looks skippy, that may be why.
Good Morning DC!
When you say “check your messaging” do you mean your inbox on the airbnb platform? I’m so sorry if I’m being dense, but I’m still pretty new.
The reason I ask is because I may have had an issue yesterday too. I had a guest checking in yesterday, so I sent my normal message at 10:00AM saying I was excited to meet them, blah blah, check in is at 3:00, please let me know an approximate time of arrival so I can be sure to be home to greet you. Crickets. All day. Sent another message around 4:00PM. Crickets. Finally I get a phone call at 7:30 saying she’d been shopping and expected to be at my house in an hour and a half. She finally showed up 3 hours later and just breezed in with light apologies about it being so late. Whatever. I was a bit annoyed to say the least. I’d had evening plans with my husband and friends, which we can almost never coordinate, but I stayed home since I had NO IDEA when this guest was going to show up.
I plan to tell her, nicely, in the private section, that she needs to be considerate of other people’s time. But if she couldn’t have seen my messages then I will just let it go and not mention it.
My messages to her appear in my inbox on the air platform.
I’d ask her flat out if she got your messages. Can you put a digital lock or a key box so people can do self check in?
I generally ask people to acknowledge emails in a hosting context, whether sent via the Airbnb messaging platform, using Airbnb’s obfuscated email addresses, or just by regular email. In general, people don’t, whether you ask them or not. But you can but try.
Hi @Chloe,
That sounds fairly bad. I’d consider saying something about in the review, though I realise most people don’t want to rock the boat - I’m that way too. But especially if that’s not the only issue.
Like @KKC says, just ask her if she got the messages. Did you send them via Airbnb’s web form, or via email using their obfuscated email addresses?
I mean that I got the message in my hotmail in-box, and responded to that email using hotmail, but it didn’t show up in the airbnb messaging platform - it normally does. So the message never went through.
@KKC, I did ask this morning if she got my messages, which were sent directly from Airbnb’s web interface/inbox. She claimed she was out of cell phone range for most of the day. When she called, she was in a town that I know has great service, but in Maine, there are areas with awful cell coverage, so it’s possible.
I am starting to think about getting one of those digital locks, but I really don’t want to spend the money. I’m doing very well now, but our season is really short (10 weeks) and I expect very few reservations for the other 42 weeks of the year.
In this woman’s defense (she was otherwise a great guest) I do have a check in range from 3PM to 9PM. I’ve been under the impression that it was reasonable and customary to simply ask approximately when people plan on arriving, so as to not be tied to my house. But perhaps when people see that, they assume they are just free to show up any time during that window? I don’t want to say a strict 3:00 PM check in time, as that seems really restrictive, but if this sort of thing keeps happening…
Felixcat posted a Schlage that was a daily deal on Amazon for $70. I initally just got a box with a code that you put your house key in for about $25. But even if you get one full price at the local hardware store don’t think of it as just being for air guests. It’s a home improvement. You can get in if you lose your key. You can give the code to a friend to get in your house in case of an emergency.
These are some very good points K9. Thanks!
I had a message returned yesterday also. Had to get the guest email to send out the document.
I have had the same issue. BUT even the ones showing up on the Air platform are not being answered.
We do not live here. How long does one need to wait???
Is anyone else still having issues? I received a message from a guest 2 days after she sent it. Ugh, thankfully she had my cell number I keep posted in the apartment…
The last two guests have been unable to get messages through the platform, Have had to ask for their “real” addresses.
I received two messages saying a guest was leaving shortly or had just left…the following day after they were already gone. I’ve taken to asking people to confirm receipt of my messages, but unfortunately that doesn’t help when they send ME something…and then there goes the 'ol communication rating! 
Both the text message and the messenger are not working very well right now.
I’m getting guest emails or texting their phones just to be sure.
does this mean business is picking up for you?
Not really. One guest tomorrow and another in the distant future, but in both cases the messaging platform would not deliver my guest info document and I had to ask for their real email.
It’s still dead as door nails here. That will continue for a while.