Hi all,
A question for the forum. Totally understand not collaborating with guests via personal communications. However, what if communications for voice and/video conference could happen using the AirBnB web/mobile platform? This would keep personal contact (cell phone) out of it. All communications tracked through the platform to ensure it meets all business requirements. If anyone is interested in seeing how this would work, let me know.
I think it would create a huge demand on our time. I deal with people in person as a visiting nurse, each day I have to call to arrange visit time. It can take me an hour some days just to call 6-8 people. some are quick calls, others take ages as they have questions which are then duplicated when Iām doing the visit. Time is money. Then there are the language barriers, arranging mutually convenient times, time zones. Nightmare.
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I think it would allow guests to ask even more stupid questions.Imagine having to walk your guest through the entire process - and then because they donāt have it in writing, they still come back to you and ask again. Think about the last phone conversation you had with an elderly relative, trying to talk them through really basic computer or smartphone things like using their email. Itās an hour long conversation and at the end theyāve learned nothing but youāve lost years off your life. At least if they ask a lot of questions through the messaging system (because they didnāt bother to read your listings) they have to at least take the time to write it out and wait for you to respond.
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Hey, me too! The only thing worse than the phone calls taking forever with questions from patients, is arriving at the home to have either the patient or family members leaving the tv on as a noise barrier/disturbance, or talking on their phones about nothing pertinent to my visit. The other day, I had to tell a family that had converged at their Dadās due to his very recent serious illness, who I actually had to send to the hospital during the visit, to stop trying to set up the new Dell laptop, shut off the TV, get off the phone, and be quiet, cause ya know, your Dad is in active CHF right now. Sorry, didnāt mean to hijack the thread.
So, I agree, Iām not spending time on the phone with my guests, and to me, having them ask is a big clue that they are not the kind of guests I want to tolerate.
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In the last few years I donāt start care till tv/ other noise is turned off, kids, dogs, guests out of the way. Iām there to provide skilled, professional care. Canāt do that if thereās a three ring circus going on. Hen I went to homes with smokers, they had to butt out. But I donāt enter any homes with smokers o protect my own health. No pneumonia or sinus infections since. If thy donāt like it, they can go to the outpatient clinic.
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I think this depends on market and type of space. I would LOVE for anyone to find my 2 bedroom cabin rental through my own website. They call me on the phoneā¦we confirm everything is great. I send the contract, and they write me a check. Or they pay credit card depending on my payment terms if it is within 30 days
Or they can go through Airbnb, Flipkey, and pay sky high booking fees worth the cost of a nice dinner or two out. And then I am susceptible to a guest cancelling a 2 week booking because they all of a sudden got sickā¦and I get zero.
Some people are scammers but with separate whole home rentals it is the norm to speak to the owner. At least for old school renters. And those are the people who most likely will take great care of your home.
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Karen Iāve found this too with older, new guests but also followed up phone call on the air message thread. ā to confirm what we discussed earlierā¦ā
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Now thatās interesting. Why would anyone list a fake place? Since the Airbnb money is not paid out until 24 hours after check-in, they would clearly not be gaining anything from doing this.
There are scammers who use fake listings to scam guests into sending money thru bank transfer. I could go into more detail but itās midnight here in Tokyo and it is pretty common knowledge including several mentions of this scam in this forum.
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Are you from ABNB??? Iām
Definitely not interested, I have a full time job and most guests are outside my time zone. Calls at work and 3am NO THANKS even on the platform. Good way for sex offenders to pick targets too. I am actually serious about that.
Donāt mean to derail things, but to your point, Emily, I was contacted tonight on ABB by a man wanting to '`come see (my) place", move in tonight, and then discuss extensions.
When I declined, he emailed back a rude comment, and added, āNow I know something about you.ā
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Eeek! Bullet dodged! I think Iād send that message along to Airbnb too. Not that they will do anything but at least it will be in the record.
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That is just tooo creepyā¦with a capital ācreepā! I hope Air cancels his account based on his comments to a host.
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I had a future guest message me asking to call me about something unrelated to the reservation. He insisted he needed to call me and the if I could help it would be āa small miracle.ā I told him I can only provide information regarding the reservation. That seems obviously strange to me. What should I do?
Simply reply. āAll communications must remain here within the app for our mutual protection, per the AirBnB terms of service. What kind of assistance do you need?ā
Thatās exactly what I said. Thank you for assuring me that pragmatism and decorum is the best option in dealing with these kinds of issues.