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Every time I open Airbnb on my laptop, boxes pop up to ask if our listing has a stove, a dishwasher, a refrigerator, etc. We DON’T offer use of our kitchen. I just verified both listings to make sure of that.
Of course our house has all those things, but they’re not available to guests (which is pretty much what I assume from not listing “Kitchen” as an amenity).
I keep saying “no” to the “Stove?” “Dishwasher?” questions. I don’t suppose there’s any way to get Airbnb to stop asking inane things, is there?
When I first started hosting, after my first couple of guests, I got a message from Airbnb asking if I had an oven. It seemed to have been triggered by a guest reporting that I had an oven, maybe there is some kind of survey the guest was asked to fill out? Anyway, it stopped once I checked the box for oven on my listing. Maybe you could check the box, then uncheck, to make it stop asking?
I’ve been getting these prompts everytime I go to the listing page, but only for 2 of our listings, not the 3rd one. It’s not always the same thing but some things repeat. Except for once, it’s always been something we actually have. One unit only has a kitchenette and even though I have some condiments and S&P in there I don’t tick “cooking basics” because I don’t have pots and pans in there but a guest must’ve reported that we had cooking basics.
“Free Street Parking” is the one thing that kept getting repeated over and over. We have free parking on the premises anyways and the street parking is “free” but you can’t park overnight without a permit so I had erred on not listing “free street parking”. I guess if you don’t get a ticket then it is still “free” I finally just ticked the box for “free street parking” so it would go away. Ultimately, it’s just people visiting the guests that would need to park on the street anyways and that should be within normal hours and it is free. I have in my house manual about the parking restrictions already anyways. It’s kind of a grey area, I guess.
I thought all of the amenity-checking was maybe part of this verifying all of the listings thing because it’s just happening since that announcement. It points to the suspicion that they may use guests to do at least part of the verification.
Here’s something interesting. I haven’t seen these in a couple months, but I just turned on Professional Hosting Tools and I immediately got 3 of these prompts (free street parking, refrigerator, and stove).
I often wonder if guests see a different amenities list. During the past few weeks I’ve gotten the same Airbnb query on “hot water”, “coffee pot” and “free street parking”. I have plenty of parking on my property for my 6 guests, there is no parking on our street. I am in the middle of downtown and once you step off the curb you are in the roadway. Yesterday I went back through the amenities list, because I have always had a coffee pot. Very odd…
@RebeccaF, I had a series of stays as a guest this fall, and every time there was a survey at the end of the review saying something like, “You just stayed with Rebecca, so you’re the expert! Help out the community by answering these questions.”
The questions are about the stove, wheelchair accessibility, parking, backyard - all sorts of things the host never said she had. Answers are “yes”, “no”, and “not sure”.
I overuse the “not sure” box. The last thing I want to do when arriving home tired is to go through the listing to see whether free parking (which I didn’t need) was even offered so that I know the right answer that won’t get the host an annoying popup.
On my own listing, I am seeing funnier amenity popups every day. Some guests are obviously just clicking “yes” to everything, and now the bot is keen for me to say I have things I don’t have.
And then there are the guests who click “no” to the towels because they didn’t see them right before their eyes or brought their own or whatever. “No” to getting one pillow per guest – because they got two pillows per guest.
Honestly, you could not get more inept inspectors than Airbnb guests (and I’m including myself) if you tried.
I really think this is part of their verification thing, does anyone else?
The unit I’m getting the most prompts on hasn’t had a new review in over 3 or 4 weeks (I had a, unusal to me, longer stay so it wasn’t turning over). It makes me think they are dredging up old guest surveys because there couldn’t be any recent ones.
I would be willing to bet this is a result of a guest survey. I wonder if this happens when your guest gives an answer that doesn’t match your amenities check boxes? For example, if you have NOT clicked the “free street parking” and your guest clicks “yes” (because they realize you DO have plenty of parking and they are trying to be helpful) or “not sure” (maybe they think you’ll be dinged if they give a “no” response?), I wonder if that automatically triggers the prompt to you, the host.
I agree, it’s not really new. I have received the occasional prompt over the last year but I get multiple prompts on a daily basis for one of my listings right now - the one that hasn’t even had a new guest since Nov 1. The last new review came in on Nov 1 for it, so it seems odd to get inundated with these amenity questions. They have all been amenities we do have and it always says, “your guests says you have this - is this true” (something like that) so I say “yes” and it says “we’ll add it to your amenity list” … but it’s all stuff that is already on the amenity list. I just thought the timing and pattern was odd.
Is anybody getting these that is not using the professional hosting tools? It may just be coincidence, but I turned on Professional Hosting Tools last night just to see something that was mentioned in another post, and immediately got 3 prompts to confirm I have stove, refrigerator, and free street parking. Then I turned it off. Turned them on again just now and got 3 more prompts for microwave, dishes, and coffee maker.
I am using the pro ho tools. But I did get these on the rare occasion prior to using them.
I notice that I get them almost always if I do anything that updates the listing, which I do daily but sometimes more often for various reasons. It is probably that turning on the pro ho tools is registered as an update to your listing.
I really think it’s just because it’s registering as an “update”. I get the same response from changing a single word in my listing description. Maybe try that and see if you get the prompts?
I didn’t get the prompts after changing a few words in the listing description. However, I turned on Professional Hosting Tools again and also did not get the prompts this time, so it’s inconclusive.
LOL, wait, I closed the browser and now I got 3 more prompts for garden, patio, and stove. Still inconclusive since I don’t know which change triggered it.
I finally just ticked the box for “free street parking” so it would go away. Ultimately, it’s just people visiting the guests that would need to park on the street anyways and that should be within normal hours and it is free. I have in my house manual about the parking restrictions already anyways. It’s kind of a grey area, I guess.