I just replied a thread talking about listings far from the city but listed as closed to the subway getting all the advantage.
They list convenience as top priority even though they are 1hour from the city most important area.
Thanks @KKC,
The problem with that approach is that it isnāt officially sanctioned by Airbnb, and itās conceivable that Airbnb would take action against a host that did this if the other host complained.
And in fact I have done this twice, both times with hosts in Bombay/Mumbai. The first one didnāt seem to understand what I was asking him. I think I contacted him twice; the second time I didnāt get a reply. The second host freaked out and accused me of abusing the Airbnb system to make a fake booking. Which I hadnāt done - it was just an inquiry, of course. But I felt I didnāt have much to gain in arguing with her. She didnāt answer my question either.
I would not contact other hosts through their listing except to book. Itās a misuse of the platform. There is a community forum inside the Airbnb platform for that but I personally have never had any response to a question.
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There are certainly people who could take it that way. And itās not clear what Airbnb might do if someone complained. Which brings me back to my original point, there is no good way for Airbnb hosts to communicate via the platform. This is presumably by design.
Thereās an Airbnb India forum (on the Airbnb site itself) but itās completely useless. I posted to it once and got nothing useful. It seems to be mostly dead.
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Once you are a super host I think they contact you. I did not meet through Linda but through my neighbor. Linda just hosted the meetup.
Iām so glad you didnāt send this!
But it probably felt good to get your feelings out!
As I mentioned previously, I never look at my so-called competition. Every host has something unique to offer and some are better than us and some worse.
if heās being deceitful about distance to DC it will surely show up in the reviews. Not your place or responsibility to warn him.
As a recent visitor to DC myself, it only took one day of commuting to the sights to know exactly how far the Captiol is (in our case, two stops from DuPont Circle but still took about 10 minutes to get from our hotel to Capitol Hill)ā¦anyone can look at a map and see they are a good distance from things unless they are right in townā¦ And even then it could take some time!
Donāt worry about this guyā¦ Heās a newb and just think of it this way, thereās always enough business for all of us!
Try not to obsess about what the so called competitors are doing. As I mentioned, I did that as a new host and it drove me nuts. Everyone seemed to have teak floors, granite and original art, while I had utility carpet, Formica and framed posters. If I looked a little closer Iād realize their location was nowhere near the beach like I am. They are in areas which have loud shrieking frogs (mentioned by guests as bothersome)ā¦ and I donāt. And I do think tourists coming to the island would more likely want to be at the beach than in the mountains, view or no view. (And I have the view AND the beach!)
Glad you didnāt send this, and as others have mentioned, it could have got you flagged for harassment even though your intentions are goodā¦just relaxā¦enough business is out there for everyone! Let the new people find their way. Itās really not our business what they do or donāt do!
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In my case I wanted it on the platform as I felt I was in the right and he was wrong. I didnāt have anything to hide. With the experience and reviews I have now Iād just ignore it but at the time I felt that he was using my intellectual property without permission.
There is a link that says ācontact host.ā Does the TOS say you can only contact a host if you intend to book the room? I can see where complaining to a host about their listing might be seen as harassment but merely the act of using a āContact Hostā link to contact a host isnāt a misuse of the platform.
I did this once to ask about a bad guest and the host seemed put off since I had to make an inquiry that she had to decline. Iāve never done it since.
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The system requires you to specify a date. I think itās pretty much clear, even if only implicitly, that this is intended for booking inquiries. I suppose one could ask Airbnb how much they would frown on itā¦
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Ohā¦I have had property managers in the area contact me through Airbnb to see if I was interested in allowing them to manage it. I just replied back and felt no need to flag. Now soliciting is actually abusing the system.
I donāt think there was anything wrong with the way you reached out to the two hosts. I think you just had bad luck with their responses. I once contacted a host on behalf of another host to ask about a potential traveler. That host was so kind and replied back to my questions.
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Does it? I think you can leave that blank. But Iāll be finding out soon enough as I would like to plan a trip for my birthday in summer of 2017 or summer of 2018. I donāt have dates as my dates are flexible depending on finding the right place. I expect that I will have some difficulties based on posts here. 1. Lots of hosts donāt seem to like hosting fellow hosts. 2. Iāll have questions and lots of hosts donāt seem to like answering questions 3. Since I want to rent an entire house or two and it for my birthday lots of hosts will probably consider that an event or a party. Because the process of finding a place on ABB can be quite arduous I may not be able to use it for my plan.
Yes, possibly. But it didnāt encourage me to try again. I guess I could ask Air how they feel about it.
Heh. Any volunteers for a test run?
You have to put in dates for an inquiry.
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@faheem you can contact me. Make sure you use the ācontact hostā link not the make a booking inquiry link
Hi @KKC,
With no dates set, the form says:
Sorry, you cannot message this host because the dates you have selected are unavailable.
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Interesting. Thanks for trying. Trying to book an airbnb for my birthday is going to be even harder than I imagined.
I had responses from both that were helpful about the guest but i stopped doing this because it is bothersome and it creates an inquiry.
Any host contact requires dates, probably for the best. I had the daughter of a recent booked guest contact me under her account with a question and she had to put in dates. Kind of annoying since I then had to decline, or pre approve so I pre approved knowing full well she did not intend to book.
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