I have a couple of guests who have just checked in - the ‘suggested four digit door codes’ that are given in the reservation are the last four digits of the phone numbers given in their reservation info. Has the rollout of Hidden phone numbers been slow (not in my area, for instance) or is the rest of the phone number not the real number?
The only one that can confirm that is your guest.
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Yes, of course, maybe I wasn’t clear in my post. I’m asking if anybody in other areas of the world have found that, despite airbnb mentioning that this policy is going to be everywhere, they have found that it has not been rolled out in their area.
I still see guest’s real phone numbers here in Mexico. Even when the guest is from the US. So it obviously doesn’t have to do with where the guest is based, but still unclear as to whether it has to do with where the listing is based, or where the host is based. (I.e. US phone number). I suspect it’s based on the location of the listing.
My understanding was that it was only being done in the US, and I haven’t seen anything written saying it will be rolled out everywhere, or it’s only a US thing.
As usual, Airbnb’s wording is non-commital and unclear. What is says is:
“This feature is currently only available to a limited number of users in the United States. Any reservations involving guests or hosts from outside of the United States will not support temporary phone numbers and work as-is.”
Then it also says:
“Currently, this feature is available to a limited number of users in the United States. If a guest or host books a home from outside the U.S., temporary numbers will not be assigned. Additional markets will be available over time.”
So which is it, “guests or hosts from outside the US” or “books a home from outside the US”?
And who are the “limited number of users in the US”?
Gotta love how they say it’s “available”, when it seems they give you no choice.
Also, “books a home from outside the US” literally means the guest is sitting in another country while booking.
Homes are not “from” anywhere, unless you actually moved the house from one country to another.
Homes are “located” somewhere. Airbnb seems to employ copywriters who flunked high school composition class.
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Not rolled out here in the UK. We still get full numbers and the new ‘suggested door code’ which is indeed the last 4 digits of the guest’s phone number.
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As a US host, and having talked to some guests, yes, the 4 digit code is that last 4 of their phone but since people have area codes and first 3 digits that don’t always match up to an area that they live (especially with cellphones) it would be hard to guess the full number.
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Host (me) lives in the US, property is in the Caribbean (St Lucia), almost all guests are from the US. Phone number seems to be real so far.
But I did read on a different forum that an owner had already experienced the “fake” number. The owner and guest were both in the US.
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If your phone number is a US one, and so is the guest’s, and real numbers aren’t blocked, just as real numbers aren’t blocked for me in Mexico when I get guests from the US, this temp. phone number thing is obviously based on a listing being in the US, nothing to do with where the host or guest are based.
I sure hope they get a lot of complaints from hosts and guests booking a listing in the US- maybe they’ll rethink it before rolling it out everywhere, although Airbnb is notorious for stubbornly ignoring feedback once they’ve decided they came up with a great feature.
We also still see the guest’s full phone number here in Europe. But I believe it’s the law that guests must supply their phone number to any accommodation provider (hotels, STRs, etc), so that may be why.
It’s not clear why Airbnb is doing this, other than to “prevent” direct bookings (although this obviously couldn’t possibly prevent it).
If it’s for “safety”, then it’s unclear how hiding the phone number is “safer” than providing it.
Just another not-well-thought-through idea that goes to a lot of trouble to make things more difficult, for no apparent reason.
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I am still getting phone numbers in California, I have a API connected account (ownerres) so I am not sure if that affects things
RR