This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
It is not a direct flight… the person can connect to wifi at the connecting airport and then communicate. The point was if someone is on a flight from Germany to Bombay, they would most likely not have wifi or phone access for over 8 hours.
I understand you are approaching this situation with a western frame of mind and your hosting style. I think you should respect the frame of mind that other cultures in the world have and their communication styles. Things don’t work the same way everywhere.
I am well aware of that and I do. And I am certainly not approaching it from a “western frame of mind”. I have lived and travelled in other countries outside of North America and have hosted guests from Europe and other far flung areas. And Mexican culture and communication style is far different from that of Americans and Canadians. I know all about difference in communication styles, difficulties in communicating while travelling, phones that may not function on arrival in a foreign country, language barriers, etc.
When I first started hosting, I spent a frustrating and unproductive 45 minutes on the phone with an Airbnb rep, trying to find out how I could send my guests my hand-drawn map to my house, which is hard to find. The rep kept insisting that all they needed was the GPS coordinates and couldn’t get it through his thick head that not all my guests’ phones work here when they arrive, their phone may be out of charge, a couple of them have even lost their phones in transit, and my house address is useless to them, as none of the house numbers go in any discernible order and the dirt roads in my countryside area do not have street signs. I doubt the guy had ever been out of the city and never had a non-working phone.
Not a mistake at all, you have valid reasons for wanting the flight number imo
RR
Not at all. I just think l the guy might have been more forthcoming if you had explained to him why you needed the information, which it didn’t sound like you did. Most people will be reasonable if they know why information is being solicited, otherwise they can be suspicious and guarded.
I’ve read posts from guests who were being asked for their passport number, full name, etc, when they made a booking, worried the host was up to something nefarious, when in fact, hosts in the countries they were travelling to are required by the govt. to register that info of all their foreign guests with the local police. But the guests weren’t aware of that and the hosts hadn’t explained, just asked for the documentation. We can’t assume that guests understand why a host would be asking for something, even though it may seem obvious or benign to us.
That is what we do. If they ask for airport pickup (there is a driver that works with us), they know they need to provide the flight info. If they rent their own vehicle, I tell them our housekeeper will be waiting to meet them and we need their flight info to check on the status of their flight so she knows about when to expect them.
Sadly, that is not reflected in your attacks on the OP.
You attacked him to the point where he regretted starting this thread.
You continue refuting any reasons provided for needing this information. All your responses about flight delays and connectivity are from a Western frame of mind even though Faheem and I explained to you that this information is pertinent for a guest traveling from Germany to Bombay. My guess is you have not been to Bombay.
You cannot imagine doing this but Faheem does not mind doing it. So I say let him do it.
Just as an FYI – and this capability was probably not available when you first started hosting – but today you could take a picture of that map and send it on the platform.
Yes, I could. But I got in the habit of sending it as an attachment directly to the guests’ email address, which I ask them for. It’s also easy for them to print out a hard copy of it from their email, which I advise them to do. My last guest would have been hooped without the hard copy- she had accidentally left her phone in her friend’s car who drove her to the airport, so she couldn’t have even called me.
No, I haven’t. Is that I prerequisite for being capable of understanding why someone might need flight info? I already said I understood why it might be valuable info for a host. You can stop the attacks now.
I send their flight information to our housekeeper and she simply asks Alexa what the flight status is as she cleans the house.
The OP is hosting people in his HOME, and the guest thinks it is too personal/ sensitive/ intrusive to provide his flight arrival information? I myself don’t ask for flight information myself but that’s because I don’t care. But if I did ask for it, and the guest refused on the grounds that it wasn’t my business, I would be perplexed, and stressed. Welcoming someone into your home is an act of trust and Airbnb is all about trying to build trust between people (hence the fact that we’re all asked to vote on each other’s “communication” etc.) so if someone thinks it’s too intrusive to provide the not-very-personal information of what flight they’re traveling on, then for god’s sake they can go check in a hotel (which will take a copy of their passport, by the way, and spy on them every day when the maid comes in to clean their room, and monitor every time they leave and enter the room with their access card, etc.).
I still remember my first Airbnb stay as a guest. I had no clue about Airbnb culture, but I completely understood that it was risky and scary for a young woman to be welcoming a stranger to stay in a bedroom in her apartment for 3 weeks. So without even being prompted, I provided my full name, my employer, my website, invited her to contact my colleagues for references, and told her the name of my local host at her university. I wanted her to feel safe and feel like I was a known entity. I can’t understand someone who would want to share someone’s home and not feel comfortable providing some personal information about themselves.
And, to be clear, I’m American originally and this original stay was in America, so I think that talking about a Western mindset about privacy or whatever is a canard. (Sure, we know the OP lives in Bombay but that’s all we know – he could have been raised in Europe for all we know; as for me as an American-Australian, I don’t want the NSA to spy on me, but I’m happy to share details about myself and my travel with an Airbnb host!)
I would say that the majority of my single female guests volunteer information similarly, maybe because I’m a single female homeshare host. And many of the men do, as well.
Their initial message with the request usually offers some basic info about themselves, that they are looking forward to some warm beach time, or taking surf lessons, or whatever their purpose in coming is, and is personable and friendly. I rarely feel I have to ask them any questions before accepting.
Any practical info questions I have come after that, such as their ETA, how they are arriving, so I can send them bus or driving info, whether their phone will be set up to work in this country, etc.
I think I’m in the minority here, but we always ask flight times “so we can check online for flight delays to make sure we are here in person to greet you when you arrive.”
Nobody has ever objected.
We do not always get the info upon booking – often they have not even booked the flight yet, but we’ve always got it before they travel.
I think if a guest objected on the grounds it was “none of my business” I would decline, because it was very much my business a couple of times in the past when guests did experience delays and failed to inform us. This is what prompted us to start asking for flight details.
If we had a lock box and if the Airbnb property was not under the same roof as our house where there is no locked door separating our part of the house from the common entrance (the guests do have a locked door) I would probably feel differently, but that’s what my wife and I are comfortable with.
This isn’t a hotel setup – we are inviting the guest and trusting them - a total stranger - to actually come into our personal house… so if they cannot find it within themselves to trust us with their flight number, it isn’t a good match.
I guess that depends on how many guests you have – we get a small number of guests with longer stays – ranging from one week to three months. It’s no big deal for me to check the small number of incoming flights, but if I had a property with several suites/rooms and lots and lots of quick turnovers, I might be less inclined.
I only have one homeshare listing and only host one guest at a time. And the average stay is 10 days, so I certainly don’t have a constantly revolving door of guests to deal with. I just never thought of asking my guests for that info, since the ones I’ve had who did have flight delays, were great about keeping me in the loop without me having to ask.
Lucky you 
My experience was otherwise – even with guests who otherwise were perfect.
Not at all.
Not at all.
Well, one who kept me in the loop really well, texting me from the Vancouver airport when her flight was delayed, then again when they said it would leave in an hour, then again when in fact it was further delayed and she was finally boarding, putting her arrival here in my town at 11pm, and expecting a call from her then so I could pick her up at the bus station, suddenly went incommunicado, deciding to take a walk around town and get something to eat, leaving me waiting up until almost 1am, wondering what had happened to her and arriving by cab.
So she was great with communication until she wasn’t. But that had nothing to do with her flight time.
You might say “not clear on the concept.” 
Maybe that was the night the tourism board was comping mescal double shooters to new arrivals stepping off the plane.
She was an odd one in many ways- super sociable and vivacious, but oblivious to what most people would find obvious. She would just start blabbing away in English to Mexicans on the street, who obviously didn’t speak English and couldn’t understand a word she was saying.
I was sitting in a beach restaurant with her one day, and she took a shine to a girl about 7 years old, who was sitting with her dad who had a stand on the beach selling some touristy stuff. She ordered a whole meal for the child and had the waiter bring it over to the kid, as if the dad couldn’t afford to feed his kid, who looked well-fed, and well-dressed, she wasn’t some street urchin. The dad smiled a bit and nodded, but I could tell it made him quite uncomfortable. She was quite culturally insensitive like that.