The AirBNB "Platform"

Ah, the wonderful random world of Airbnb.
My latest issue is that I can’t get any pricing changes to stick. Even Air couldn’t help and I was told to wait a few days to see if “the system will re-set”. WTF? As if it’s like some untamed beast that does it’s own thing.

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Airbnb needs to step up their game with devices. I just found out from my husband that he can’t access the saved messages in the Inbox on his iPhone. I use them all the time. Who wants to type out the parking instructions anew for each guest?

Yes. Severe limitation… Someone on this forum gave me a great suggestion though. They store their saved_messages in a small text app on the phone so they can copy/paste from their text document. Brilliant workaround, isn’t it?

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Hi Susan,

Thanks for that tip. I passed it on to my husband.

I was surprised that, in the midst of another topic, several hosts said they never thank the guest, only after leaving, if they were good guests. This has been on my mind ever since. I don’t understand it - there’s so much competition - I’m genuinely thankful when someone books. I know what it’s like to not get the bing-love @anon67190644 was talking about!! I love the bing-love and am eager to love-bing them right back!

So I’m glad to ‘hear’ you say that.

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Pierre, do you know what the sliding scale is? where the 12% starts and when it becomes 6%? Looking to add this into my own pricing model so I can understand what the guest is paying. :slight_smile:

So someone is playing with our interface again. Go to your message list and you see the profile pictures. Click on any guest name to see the message history and the profile pictures are gone [bd for me since I have recently changed my appearance a lot] and you can no longer click on the profile icon to get to the profile of the person. And the icon isn’t the name of the guest. It is a big first letter of their name. So we have lost the click to profile, and the reminder of the guest name all in shot.

We can hope that this is testing that fails the test… and they go back to an interface that actually worked!

Why should hosts be able to see a picture at all?

What an odd response. At this time, AirBNB does show us an image of our future guests. I don’t understand why their NAMES have been removed from the message threads, next to the messages that they have sent me, and replaced by a single letter. Of course, I can scroll down to find their name, but this takes more time which can be in short supply.

It is puzzling when they take a useful feature and remove it.

I agree that it’s weird and non helpful.

Mine still looks the same as always, ie complete with names and pictures. Is this in a phone app or in the web version?

This morning, all pictures are gone from my message thread page. This is really inconvenient since there is no last name of the guest either! So, I have three Charles with upcoming bookings and it now takes an additional minute or so to look at the details of that booking to know which Charles has sent me a message.

I am fairly sure that some nitwit thought that this would help with the discrimination issues that AirBNB has, but these people already have a reservation! I have not discriminated since I accepted their reservations, right?

Some of us remember images more than names, especially when you have so many guests coming and going. Strangely, when I see the artichoke, I know the name. When I see the name, I don’t remember the artichoke.

Oddly irritating.

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I got my first new reservation today with the letters. When I clicked on the profile to go see the picture it was some sort of drawing/cartoon picture anyway. So I have no idea what tomorrow’s guest looks like. I wouldn’t be surprised if eventually Airbnb goes to all instant book and no pictures… just like hotel reservations.

When I go to dashboard and reservations and scroll down (computer) the pictures are there.

My point is, if we don’t get the picture, could we at least have the full name in the message list? Very often I have as many as 10-12 messages between my guest and myself which means I have to scroll down quite a ways to see the name.

I just don’t understand how this is better.

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My message threads still show the picture and the guest’s first and last name. It’s a puzzlement.

Wierd. Mine show the photo but only the first name.

Oops should be weird. Fast fingers on my phone.

I like IB, but I wish there was an option to turn it off for certain dates, and/or change the checkin ot checkout time by date. There have been a few times I could have happily rented the place, but needed a couple more hours for checkin for some reason. If I could explain this maybe I could have booked at a slightly lower price but a later checkin time. Instead I have to forfeit the whole night.

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My issue with this is that the guest believes I can see their pic. I just received a booking request and messaged once back and forth. Then I got a phone call so couldn’t accept until I got off the phone.

Well…I had replied immediately to the guest when she sent the booking request, so I guess she thought I was hesitating based on her pic. Since I didn’t accept immediately she sent a new message saying that she isn’t as crazy as what she looks like in her profile pic, she’s actually quite normal.

I let her know that all I can see is a giant letter J on my end and can’t even view her pic. BAD idea Airbnb!! Guests may now believe I am might decline a reservation based on judging a crazy looking pic that I can’t even view. Ugh!! Just get rid of the pics altogether or show them all. But don’t have guests assuming we can see a pic, and on our end we can’t.

I simply cannot understand what business reason Abnb would have NOT to inform hosts of platform tests or tweaks, e.g. We are testing not showing guest photos in a select number of metro areas in US as a possible approach to help meet our nondiscrimination standards between (date) and (date). Hosts may see x on their listing site.
I just randomly discovered that there is now a bunch of drop down detail I can add to my listing regarding my handicap accessibility. Did I get any alert about this? Nope.
Is this the Silicon Valley way to do product development? (You don’t even change a package on a physical product without holding focus groups). It just seems so weird.

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