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We received 3 reservations over the weekend and only found out about them when one of the guests arrived at 10:40pm last night. We finally opened the app and realized we had 3 confirmed bookings in the last 48 hours. We had a lazy Sunday, so we needed to scramble to finishing making the bed and tidying the room when he arrived. Luckily he was a returning guest and good-natured about it. Lack of push notifications and SMS is crippling to hosts (and I suppose guests such as ourselves who’ve come to rely on this technology for travel.) I need to turn Instant Booking off to avoid any more surprises.
Well that’s interesting because I use the app about 95% of the time, but yesterday I posted about having a problem accessing all parts of my listing via the app. I don’t have a vacancy until March 4th, but I think I better check my calendar via the website and make sure I don’t have any surprise bookings coming up!!
The app seems very glitchy right now. Works perfectly for me but my partner is having trouble accessing anything on the app. Seems to coincide with their changes to listing description we’re all being asked to update
Is your partner set up as a cohost by any chance? Just wondering because I am the cohost, the listing is under my husband’s account. He doesn’t even have the app so I have no way of knowing if he can access everything.
Strange! I can still access everything via the website, although ages ago they took away my ability to see the number of views and the guests’ star ratings. I reported it but finally resigned myself to having to look via his account.
It’s not so much the app - I wasn’t getting any SMS notices either. I checked my message settings on both the website and the app and restarted my phone and I seem to be getting push and SMS notifications again. I actually prefer not to get SMS notifications bc they’re pretty useless to me.
I do get email messages too, but my Gmail doesn’t send me an alert every time I get an email. If it did, my phone wouldn’t stop sending me messages.
I’m impressed (or surprised) how many hosts (and guests we’ve had who) don’t use the app. As both a guest and host, I rely on the app to even use Airbnb at all.
My partner is the co-host for our 2 listings (2 bedrooms in our house), and I am the co-host for a friend’s listing in another town (he needed help listing his space and responding to guests).
Here’s what Airbnb has to say about co-hosts:
What can a co-host do?
A co-host can help a listing owner with their space, their guests, or both. Co-hosts decide how much they want to handle, and work out the details with the listing owner ahead of time.
How it works
Here are some ways co-hosts can help:
• Get the space guest-ready: If a home has never been listed on Airbnb, a co-host can help make sure it’s set up to welcome guests. They can recommend repairs, buy necessary items like towels and toilet paper, set up a lockbox, and create house manual.
• Create a listing: Co-hosts can create an Airbnb listing for a space. They can write titles and descriptions, take and upload photos, and help determine the nightly price.
• Message with guests: A co-host can message guests on behalf of the listing owner, using the co-host’s own Airbnb account. They can get to know guests, answer questions, and coordinate their arrival and departure.
• Manage reservations: Co-hosts can manage the host’s reservation settings and accept or decline reservation requests.
• Welcome guests in person: Co-hosts can greet guests in person, give them a tour of the space, and answer questions about the house and neighborhood.
• Help guests during their stay: If guests have an issue during their stay, co-hosts can communicate with them and fix the problem. For example, if a guest is locked out, their shower stops working, or their internet is down, they can call a co-host to help fix the problem.
• Write reviews: Co-hosts can use their own Airbnb account to write review of guests on behalf of the listing owner. Guests will be able to review the listing and the co-host.
• Update calendar and pricing Co-hosts can keep a listing’s availability up to date and manage the listing’s price settings. They can also add things like seasonal pricing and weekly discounts.
• Restock essential supplies: Co-hosts can help stock a home with a few basic guest necessities like towels, toilet paper, and soap.
• Cleaning and maintenance: Co-hosts can clean the space themselves, work with a professional cleaning service, or both. For example, a co-host may wash towels and sheets, while a cleaning service takes care of the kitchen and bathrooms. Co-hosts can also handle general home maintenance and make sure anything that’s damaged gets repaired.
• Get help from Airbnb: If the listing owner needs to contact Airbnb to get help with a reservation or guest issue, a co-host can work handle the communication and find a resolution.
Co-hosts can’t:
• Access the listing owner’s payout or taxpayer information
• Review the listing owner’s activity traveling on Airbnb as a guest
• View any messages that the host had with their guests before the co-host was added to the listing
I don’t use the app much because I spend a lot of time on my desktop computer. Also I send individualized messages to all inquiries as well and it’s much easier to type on a real keyboard. But I have the app and use the app when not near my computer. It’s good to have both in case on is glitchy. I like to be able to see the app so I can help guests who use the app to book and it’s a lot of them.
Last year I got an inquiry that I didn’t get a notification for. Of course I didn’t get the booking because I didn’t see the message until 3 or 4 months later. All of a sudden it popped up. I answered it then of course and told the guest, sorry this was invisible to me until today. They didn’t bother to reply to me. It pissed me off because I now have a 99% response rate through no fault of my own.
Yea, what the co-host can see is quite limited. I suppose though if I was asking a friend or neighbor’s kid to co-host, I don’t suppose I wouldn’t want them to see all that information. I guess the alternative would be for us to login under the same account, but I have used Airbnb without my partner and he doesn’t need to see all the messages I exchanged with other hosts.
When I started I could see that. In fact I do need to see the detailed reviews and stats as I’m the one adjusting the pricing and doing quality control. It was all there until maybe about 6 months ago…I can’t remember how long exactly.
I rarely use the app. The text messaging seemed to stop for a while. I rebooted my phone text messages restarted. I don’t know if the reboot was the fix.
I am using the app mostly. I am a co-host and generally, I haven’t had any problems with the app. But my android phone (Huawei) did a system upgrade and ever since, I am not receiving the push notifications on my phone. Generally the app notifications are going crazy. One time it will send me a text message, and the next an e-mail. But no push notifications. I have to actually go in the app and see that someone has texted me 5 hours ago! I have done everything airbnb and Huawei have told me to do. Still not fixed. Does any of you still have the problem? Or, did you see the problem appear after a system upgrade, maybe?
You might want to just unintall/reinstall the app on your phone.
The following was for me the host - not as a co-host - so not sure if you could get your host to do this…
When I have had issues with not getting notifications and/or email:
I keep airbnb open on about 3 computers and as an app on 2 phones. When something odd happens with notifications, I log out of all my instances of airbnb. Log into one instance on a computer, go change something on my notifications page. Like uncheck a box. Save. Log out. Log in. Check that box again. Save. The method sounds a bit crazy, but it seems to work for me to “jostle” it a bit to get the notifications coming properly again.
Thank you for your quick answer! I have uninstalled and installed it back, twice. It didn’t work… But I will definitely try your other method! And it’s not crazy at all! Usually those things work!!
