Possibly. I agree that the number used to be easier to see.
Muddy, you say it is probable that Airbnb is not just blocking contact information in messaging but also logging it against the individual host. Do you have any evidence? It is possible, but is it probable? What evidence do you have? You are giving information to other hosts here you need to be careful not to mislead them. My personal experience is that Airbnb is not going any further than removing content that the algorithm suspect is contact information (rightly or wrongly) or not delivering the message at all. ( on the couple of occasions that they have not delivered the message an automatic massage has come up). I would say from my experience that it is possible, but probably unlikely that Airbnb are logging any instances against individual hosts.
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I disagree- I think the host will collect “flags”
That eventually put you on a watch list.
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Anyone posting here probably only has anecdotal evidence since none of us are Airbnb employees. Over the years on this forum we have had multiple hosts say their account was suspended for no reason, they don’t know the reason, Airbnb won’t tell them the reason or some variation thereof. Is it possible that the violations were related to taking or attempting to take bookings off Airbnb? What evidence do you have that it’s not the reason?
Second, if Airbnb can (and does) track nights booked, nights blocked off, percentage of 5 star reviews, number of bookings canceled, conversion rate, claims against hosts and all the factors used to determine search rankings I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t also track number of messages sent with blocked information.
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If I had evidence, I wouldn’t have said “probably”.
As KKC said, they seem to have algorithms that track almost everything, so there’s no reason to think msgs that have been flagged and blocked by their algo wouldn’t be.
I had a host give me their phone number so surreptitiously that I almost didn’t see it. And I’m sure Airbnb didn’t catch it.
Basically you can write a poem or paragraph.
From our balcony you can see 408 trees in the forest.
In the trees are 876 birds chirping.
To get to the trees through our yard you many encounter 5309 snails on the path.
But I prefer to just share my business address and company name and encourage them to look is up for more information. Sadly a large amount of people don’t seem to have the search skills to search for a business on Google. And I think “Google” flags the message in Airbnb. So you have to use words like " look up" or “w3b site”
If I recall the host just said
408 trees
867 cats
5309 flamingos
And it worked.
A handy trick to keep in mind in case you need to thwart censorship and actually talk. You can still take the booking on Airbnb after talking to someone. Not everyone is trying to take direct bookings. And as a host, there’s really no reason to take a direct booking unless you are going to capture some of the margin Airbnb ads to the transaction. One of the only cases I try to take a direct booking is when the guest says the price is out of their budget. Then I let them know that Airbnb adds 14% to their reservation cost and they can look up our web site for more information and pictures. There are cases where $500 to $1,000 in additional fees makes the transaction out of the budget of the guests. And a direct booking would make the transaction feasible.
I had a guest message me on whatsapp after I had accepted her booking request and she had my number, asking if I would consider direct booking, in which case she would cancel the Airbnb booking.
I answered her, also on whatsapp, explaining that while I am fine with accepting direct bookings for repeat guests, or someone who is introduced to me through a friend, neighbor or family, I don’t feel comfortable doing so with someone who is a stranger to me, and when someone finds my listing on Airbnb and contacts me through their platform, I feel it’s unethical to bypass them, as they provided a service to me and the guests.
She didn’t push back at all, said she totally understood. And she turned out to be a lovely guest, she was just trying to save a little money.
I would not “surreptitiously” try to give an unconfirmed guest my number, just so they would direct book, meaning I could charge a little more. All you need is a guest who reports this to Airbnb to get delisted.
While I think most guests would be happy to save all the Airbnb fees, there are guests who are uncomfortable and adamant about not communicating off-platform.
I had such a guest book. She was fine in communication until I told her to call or whatsapp me when she was boarding the bus for the hour drive to my place, to give me a heads-up, as buses are not on strict schedules here and I pick my guests up at the bus station. She then said she never communicates off-platform. But she didn’t use a smart phone, and wouldn’t have any wifi connection to send an Airbnb message to let me know when to pick her up. I said that not being able to inform me of a definite arrival time was problematic, as it meant I would have no way of knowing when to pick her up, so she’d have to take a cab from the bus station. She then phoned Airbnb 12 hours before check-in to say she wanted to cancel if I would agree to a full refund,and that I was “pressuring” her to communicate off-platform.
I told Airbnb to look at our message stream, that I certainly wasn’t pressuring her, but that she was being unreasonable- I couldn’t be expected to waste my time sitting in my car waiting for her at the bus station, not knowing when she would arrive. She ended up cancelling anyway, at 4am on check-in day. I was relieved- I had no interest in hosting her after all that BS.
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Thank you everyone… your advice and comments are appreciated!
Sounds like her accusing you of pressuring her to communicate off-platform was an attempt to get a refund for a stay she was planning to cancel anyway.
Yep. Except when she phoned them she told them she’d keep the booking if I wouldn’t refund.
Then I saw that she had immediately left a review after she cancelled. I told Airbnb that as she cancelled at 4am the day of check-in, she quite obviously never arrived, and they agreed not to publish her review, which I’m sure repeated the lie that I pressured her to communicate off-platform. (One of those times Airbnb surprised me by doing the right thing without 10 back and forth messages)
Why would Airbnb’s system even allow a review to be posted by a guest on check-in day - even regardless of the time - although it should definitely be impossible to leave a review before the official check-in time.
How could a guest review an accommodation if they never even checked-in (or -out in case the host would allowed an early check-in at 2am 
)
I think Airbnb allows a guest to leave a review on check-in day because in most cases, they have no way of knowing if the guest actually did arrive- it would just be the guest’s word against the host’s.
Guests can arrive to find they can’t get in (door code doesn’t work, host not answering phone or msgs, etc.), or arrive to find they’ve been scammed and the place is nothing like what was advertised, or it’s some filthy dump.
If any of that is the case, it seems reasonable for a guest to be able to leave a review. But it also seems like they should have to submit a selfie of themselves standing in front of the unit, with the address visible as proof that they did arrive.
In my opinion the process of removing phone numbers from chat is automated and there is no logging or notice kept ifor the host account. I received a message from another host around in a very clever manner, who skipped their automated system. My neighbor simply wanted to contact me and offer me a guest he was unable to accommodate because he was solid booked. That was last year, since then we exchanged a bunch of guests when we had too many. There were no actions against the “rule breaker” who was enough creative to find a way to tell the number in an unconventional way 
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I just tell them that unfortunately there is no way to exchange addresses or phone numbers. Though if your property has a distinctive name and location, is listed elsewhere where you can leave your number or email they can search and find it. I also have mine listed on a government tourism website I pay a fixed annual fee to. I get about 20% of my bookings through them.
Ola, My experience also is that there is automated deleting of perceived phone numbers and web and email addresses but no follow through. I assume to impose penalties would involve staff oversight and Airbnb does not like to spend any of the 18.8% of their fees and charges on labour costs. We are in a destination town. Sometimes potential guests have questions, not just deciding on our accommodation, but which town in the region and even which region for their activities. If I can answer their query with a simple yes the facilities or information you require are available, all the information is available on our website after you book I do so. However sometimes it is not so simple and I need to direct them to the page on our site or other resource. Other times I want to influence them to choose us or to influence when to come or to book for longer so I want them to look at the information before making their decision. In the early days it took a while for me to work out how to word things to point them to the web links without the information being deleted. There seemed to be no kick back from Airbnb on this. I now know how to work messages to avoid deletion but potential guests still try to include phone numbers and email addresses in messages to me and I does not seem to affect my rating on the platform.
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Last I noticed it was a pretty stupid algorithm and deleted my business license and permit number, neither of which has the same number of digits as a U.S. phone number.
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