I apologize (in advance) for going off on a tangent … what would this forum be without doing such? But @Don_Burns you started it, and this video is too funny to not share.
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Five years ago, I worked in an office with young staff who were in their 20s. They had no idea how my generation played music at parties, by stacking vinyl records that individually dropped after each play-through.
Then, we turned the vinyl records over and had the other record sides play until the last one in the stack.
God, I miss 8-track music tapes!
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So Danged Sad.
I pay the mortgage on my home, but ABB controls who we speak to, how we speak to them, and every other rule about who comes under my roof.
I loved this business before ABB came along…
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I am 63. Should I feel insulted? Not sure…
They can search me also, but my website is also instant book. I work full time and can’t be randomly called for 45 minutes of questions in the middle of the day. There is no phone number on my site
Book first, send questions and I will get back to you. I try to automate as much as possible through a prop mgmt system. I weary of tire kickers.
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That would be a no for me. All communication must be via the Airbnb app, website or unique email address Airbnb provides. Sadly I don’t trust guests anymore. I want everything documented.
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One problem with the phone conversation is that you don’t have a record of what was said. If you do decide to talk with this potential guest, I would follow-up with a message to her in the AIrbnb thread. In the message refer to the fact that he/she called you and just say that you are reiterating what you told her for her benefit. Rarely, I have someone complain about something and it’s nice to be able to refer to my description or messages that clearly informed the guest of whatever was of concern before they booked.
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Exactly. And with flippant charge backs and ABB extenuating circumstances andlaims of hidden cameras, etc.
Get it all on record always.
The very fact that they are doing so mean that they are taking a huge risk.
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I am possibly unique because I normally will not rent to anyone without having talked to them by phone or in person first. Only twice have I done an Airbnb deal without it and those were folks from Canada and Germany who were in USA but didn’t have cell phone voice option. I have a preexisting ‘business’ so only use Airbnb for my leftovers. Back a few years ago, they had Voice Connect which allowed us to call potential guest via bridge line so…I find it leads to better results.
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Hi Gardengnome
Something wrong here. No potential guest should ever have your phone number. Once they have booked they see your number. I never do private phone calls with a guest, I always message with the Airbnb app. By doing this there can never be any misunderstandings and you always have a record of things spoken about. Keep everything above board.
All the best
Al
I prefer not to take private phone calls and to keep an audit trail of communications on the platform for the obvious reasons. However, I had an interesting booking just this last weekend that involved a call. The guest who sent a request, for himself and his wife, was new to Airbnb and said he hadn’t a clue what he’d done. By now I’d accepted and he’d received confirmation. He told me that he was an absolute idiot with computers and needed help with telling his wife where they were going/staying etc.
We had a lovely weekend with them both, plus other guests they kept splendidly entertained over breakfast. What I gradually realised was that the husband has such severe dyslexia and poor reading skills, he is terrified of using websites for fear of getting it wrong, even making a fool of himself in front of others. He has been receiving support more recently, and his wife was guiding him along a confidence building pathway.
And a lovely review sent this morning!
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@alkira Guests having phone number before booking really depends on host situation as I have my Airbnb listings to fill in gaps from my existing customers and have my own web site with phone number listed there as well as on other sites, so while i get that a person sharing their home may not want to be that public, i am already that way and kind of resent not being able to talk to guest easily before booking.
I’ll be 63 shortly. I still have one of those rotary phones…not connected to anything, just as a conversation piece. It was my grandmother’s phone.
It’s hysterical, some of my young family members reactions to it!
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I had one I got at a garage sale for $5. (1944 model) Had it cleaned up with a modular plug put on it and plugged it in. I loved the sound of the real ringer, two bells in the bottom with a hammer that vibrates against them. Same with my clock from the 1800s with a chime. Real sounds not digital ones. I sold the phone on ebay for $50.
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The one of the nicest things about them is that they still work in a power outrage, even when the cell towers are down.
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I have no problem with guests calling before arrival. Often we have exchanged about 3 emails already, as I send them a detailed welcome letter 2 weeks ahead, with a couple of questions (Do you have a late night flight? Will you be needing the Pack n Play?) In fact, I had a call today. Her credit card had not been charged for full payment yet, and she and 7 others are due to arrive in 2 weeks. Airbnb could not tell her why her final payment had not been processed, so feeling she was getting the run-around by novices, she became frantic wondering if her reservation had been dropped. This therefore was an important call. I assured her everything on my end is still “on” and that we are expecting them. She was then able to relax, and sent a lovely follow-up email, saying thank you for putting her mind at ease and just how much the family was looking forward to this trip. To me this is just goodwill.
Maybe they have a few questions that they feel may lead to other questions, and would rather have a chat and have it sorted in one go, rather than a dozen messages. Some people only check for messages a couple of times a day, so a message conversations could go on for days.
Many a time I’ve messaged a guest, and not been responded to for DAYS