WARNING! Airbnb cancelled ALL my reservations without notification or good reason!

[RiverRock]

@KKC

Most of us record the name and phone number of the guest in our records. Many of us also get email information from the guest.

I have been way more proactive in recording guest information for future marketing and in case something happens like what happened to the OP in this thread. Email addresses are a bit harder, I wait until the day they leave to ask for that and I dangle a carrot of future discount/3rd night free type of thing and so far almost everyone has given me the email address. All of this is done via direct text on check out day.

RR

[KKC]

@RiverRock

guest information for future marketing

I don’t do marketing. If a guest has local connections like family here or comes for regular shopping trips then yes, I make sure I have their phone number and often message them and tell them to contact me directly to save fees on their next stay. But I get their number down as soon as they reserve (and I’d get emails too if I had a use for them) because my main concern is an Airbnb problem before the stay, not after it begins.

[yecatsr]

@KKC

Most of us record the name and phone number of the guest in our records

Really? Is it because of this?

@KKC

my main concern is an Airbnb problem before the stay

Are you concerned that airbnb might glitch out and cancel the guest or you may not be able to see their phone number? (I noticed a while back that I can see guest number now, after their stay - they used to block that)

I feel like a slacker now for not recording this info somewhere!

[KKC]

@yecatsr

Really? Is it because of this?

Really… but I started recording them because of Airbnb site being down from time to time. It always gets restored in time (so far) but this gives me peace of mind. I can always find a guests number on the reservation info (if the site is up) and they didn’t cancel. But if I wanted to message a guest who cancelled or was cancelled by Airbnb I wouldn’t be able to get that info from Airbnb.

Many people record the info so they can turn a good guest into a direct booking. So, say you have a good guest who said they come each year for grandma’s birthday. You can text them directly and offer to have them just contact you next year if they are comfortable with that.

[muddy]

I also make a note of the guest’s phone number when they book. I also usually get their email address, as I have to send them a map attachment which doesn’t always attach using the coded email addresses Airbnb assigns.
I started doing this because the site is so subject to glitches. I could see needing to get ahold of a guest shortly before they arrive and finding the site is undergoing some upgrade (which I refer to, in the case of Airbnb, as downgrades) which makes it impossible for us to log-in.
Also, if I decided to set up my own website, or started listing on another platform, I could let all my past guests know.

[jaquo]

@yecatsr

Are you concerned that airbnb might glitch out and cancel the guest or you may not be able to see their phone number?

I do it because I’ve always done it. There are so many things that can go wrong if we rely on a website (or the internet on general) to store vital information that we need.

These days it’s unlikely that the internet would go down but it does happen. Here, it happens during bad weather (for some reason) and even though the internet is a lot more reliable than it used to be, it’s just a matter of habit for me now to record a forthcoming guest’s details on paper as soon as they’ve made the booking.

I use the app and the laptop almost exclusively but I do like to have paper records too. Nine times out of ten, if not ninety nine times out of a hundred, it’s easier, quicker and more sensible to use the phone to retrieve information but I still feel more confident knowing that I have a written back up too. It only takes a few moments to jot it down.

[NordlingHouse]

@RIGSBY

In the meantime, we are saving our reservation details to paper or pc immediately and advising guest to do the same as well as informing them that if we have to cancel due to a catastrophe we will always notify them direct along with Airbnb and if they get a message that the “hosts have cancelled” to contact us immediately and we will honor their reservation privately.

I do this with every booking. With the poor quality of Air’s software, I don’t trust it (I was in the IT business for 40 years) so I just enter all bookings in an Excel spreadsheet so I can track the sales and room taxes I have to pay to my city quarterly. I make sure I get their phone numbers every time.