Upcoming beta: Inbox search + filter

[Scott]

Hi folks, we’re working to improve your guest messaging experience with some new search and filter capabilities for the host inbox.

As members of this private community, you’ll all get early access to these new features through our beta testing program.  

In a nutshell, we plan to add the ability to do the following over time, starting with 1 and 2:

1. Search by guest name or confirmation code (mid-February)
2. Filter by listing(s) (mid-February)
3. Filter by more granular stages of the trip:
1. Requests and Inquiries
2. Pre-trip
3. Checking in 
4. On trip
5. Checking out
6. Post-trip
7. Needs a review
4. Search for keywords in the message text
5. Filter by unreplied (ie. threads where there the last message was from the guest)
6. Filter by date range

How our beta program works:

• When the new feature is available, we’ll activate it in your hosting accounts
• We’re available to answer questions and provide any help needed to take advantage of the new feature
• We’re standing by to hear any suggestions or feedback you have -- our goal is to make sure these updates actually improve your experience.

If inbox search interests you, we’d love to hear any feedback you have for us here in the forum!  Topics include:

1. Does the order 1-6 above match the needs and priorities of your team?
2. If not, what’s missing, or which do you want sooner?

Thanks!

[Nicolas-And-The-Bnbhere-Team0]

Great shot Airbnb ! Excited to test this

[Nicolas-And-The-Bnbhere-Team0]

@Scott  7. Need a review OR > REVIEW section, to acces all the review that has been done/received/to do...

[Scott]

Hi @Nicolas-And-The-Bnbhere-Team0 thanks for the suggestion.  I'm not positive I understand the details of your suggestion, and I want to make sure I do, so can you elaborate a bit more on what you're looking to accomplish? Thx!

[Nicolas-And-The-Bnbhere-Team0]

Sorry for the bad explanations.

I was suggesting, to add a section

7. REVIEW

To manage all the review that has been posted, to post, scores and performances...

[Scott]

Ah yes, that makes sense @Nicolas-And-The-Bnbhere-Team0 -- thanks for clarifying.

Our current plan is to provide that capability as the "Needs a Review" option in the stage of trip filter:

• Filter by more granular stages of the trip:
1. Requests and Inquiries
2. Pre-trip
3. Checking in 
4. On trip
5. Checking out
6. Post-trip
7. Needs a review

[Scott]

Would love to hear from others on inbox search as well? 🙏
@William74 @Bridget116 @West-Indies0 @Julie675 @Alex7202 @Vinicius-Parisian0 @Julia197 @Paco112 @Svyatoslav0 @Manuel3688 @WeHost2 @Hojin0 @Caroline80 @Aesha0 @Thibault103 

[Bridget116]

Thank you so much for adding me to the group 🙂 My wife and I and about 3 managers all use the account daily so Ill update them also and revert back with feedback once they have had a chance to play around with it. Hope you are all getting lots of bookings!

[WeHost2]

Bonjour Scott,

This is great news and the different features will all be quite helpful. In terms of the sequencing, would it be possible to explain the order presented above? 

I am leaning towards a different organisation of each item based on how my team uses the MA, but you guys know best, so this is merely a suggestion: 

2 

1

6

4

5

Open to discussion as always. 

[Scott]

Thank you @WeHost2 for the suggestion!  To recap, you prefer the following sequencing:

(2) Filter by listing(s)

(1) Search by guest name or confirmation code

(6) Filter by date range

(4) Search for keywords in message text

(5) Filter by unreplied

(3) Filter by more granular stages of trip

The good news is we'll be rolling out both (1) and (2) at the same time, so we have your highest priority coming first.

We're surprised to see date range as your 3rd priority -- can you paint a concrete scenario for us how you want use search by date range? Thanks!

Anyone else have a different set of priorities for searching their inbox?

[WeHost2]

Hi everyone,

@Scott As we all have to plan ahead in this business when organising check-ins and cleanings and other maintenance work in our different apartments, the date range is important as we know certain days of the week tend to be busier by others and depending on whether or not there are important events taking place in certain cities, this would definitely help from an organisational standpoint.

For e.g. In France, the month of May contains the most public holidays. Many people plan long weekends around these dates and so we know that this month in particular is usually a busy period. Being able to zone in to the different dates would be a big help. The Master Account's calendar view does allow us to see what is to come on a given date, but it would be a lot more fluid if the reservations for a date in particular would come up when you type in that date.

Hoping that my example got my point across. 

[West-Indies0]

Hi all, 

@Scott This all sounds quite nice. We think the #2 would be the most helpful to our managers as they all manage specific properties so being able to search based on their specific properties sounds like it would help them the most. 

With regards to #3 we are quite interested in the "Pre-trip" part - would it show reservations X amount of days prior to the check-in date? Our managers make sure to contact guests 2-3 days prior to arrival so if they can search for reservations that fall within a certain time frame prior to arrival, that would be helpful. 

Would "Needs a review" go back to us being able to seen them listed based on by the days we have left to leave a review for them/request a review? There was a page before where this was the case but we're not seeing that any longer. 

Is #4 just for searching within a specific reservation or would it show all reservations/threads where the keyword was mentioned? If it's for all the instances the keyword was used, would we be able to use multiple filter/searches simultaneously to be able to compress those results a little bit? i.e. 3d (on trip) + 4 (search for keyword) or 4 + 6 (date range). Just curious, don't have any specific in mind right now. 

Should be good. We'll keep an eye out for this. 

Kind regards! 

[Scott]

@West-Indies0 thanks for sharing that 2 "filter by listing" is most useful for your team, as well as all these questions.  

Re: #3 it sounds like your team is interested in a specific definition of pre-trip or checking-in defined as "2-3 days prior to checking in."  This is great feedback -- our current definition checking-in is <=1 days prior to check-in, so it's close to what you're looking for, but not the same.

Re: Needs review, yes this would be a list of inbox threads with reservations in the review period, but are not yet reviewed. You should still see the separate page that lists all your outstanding reviews, but that list is outside of inbox and is typically shown any time after you complete a review.

Re: message search, you will be able to search for message keyword and use filters at the same time.  So for example you could search for the word "gold" in any conversation related to listingX and listingY that took place on-trip.

[Bridget116]

@Scott I think the revised order is great but one of my managers has a suggestion on "filter by listing".

 "It would make it easier for us is to be able to search up the listing by the internal name instead of just the listing name as this changes all the time and we struggle to find our properties."

I sometimes change the listing name or vary it and my managers, staff and book keepers have trouble figuring out which listing is which.

I probably shouldn't change it but I might add in certain phrases such as "discounted" "walk to town" "garden office" .... I do this to freshen up the listing to hopefully get more bookings, not sure if it works?

Anyway being able to search by internal name would be helpful.

Thank you,

[Scott]

@Bridget116 thanks for asking about internal listing names.  We know they're important for the reason you mention, and yes you will be able to set your inbox listing filter based on internal name.