Your feedback inspired the 2024 Summer Release

[Airbnb]

 

The 2024 Summer Release includes upgrades you’ve asked for to help you:

• Simplify communication with guests.
• Get a better look at your earnings.
• Know more about who you’re hosting.
• Reorder photos in your photo tour. 

Communication: The Messages tab totally redesigns the inbox, putting all your hosting, traveling, and support messages in one place. You’ll be able to filter and search across messages, have a group conversation with every guest who joins a trip, react to messages with emojis, and answer guests’ questions more efficiently with AI-suggested quick replies.

 

Earnings: The enhanced earnings dashboard includes interactive charts that show your earnings by month, year, and listing, and offers more details on prior years and future projections. A new reporting hub makes it easy to download monthly and yearly reports, including breakdowns by listing or payout method. 

 

Guest profiles: Guests who book or join a trip will be prompted to create a more complete profile. Our new profile setup includes guided photo capture for better profile photos. It also prompts guests to add more details about themselves, so you get a better sense of who’s coming to stay.

 

Photo tour: The Listings tab now includes the ability to reorder listing photos within rooms. This was the top request from Hosts for the photo tour.

 

The Messages tab and enhanced earnings dashboard are available when you enroll in Early Access. The photo tour upgrade is out now, and guest profiles are available to all guests. 

Find out how Early Access works and how to share feedback

Which upgrade will be most helpful for your hosting business? 

Learn more about what’s in the 2024 Summer Release:

• The Messages tab is your new inbox
• Earnings dashboard: A better look at your bottom line
• Know more about your guests with profile upgrades
• More control in the Listings tab

[Elaine701]

If a guest has no profile or history, they're very unlikely to be allowed to book our place, notwithstanding providing cordial, direct answers to a few benign questions (or lack of answers) which can speak volumes about the character of the no-profile, no-history inquirer.

This is a preventative measure which ultimately serves both to weed out undesirable guests and/or scammers, but also to encourage legitimate newbies to create a profile, have their ID verified, and answer questions directly.

[Trude0]

All messages in one place is an improvement, thanks.

BUT: 

”AI-suggested quick replies help you answer questions more efficiently than ever.”

Why would we want MORE AI?!? Just bring back the Airbnb notification sound instead of the stupid, impossible to hear little ”blip”. THAT would help us answer guests more efficiently…

There are so many posts here, from frustrated hosts wondering why the sound was changed, and asking to have the old one back. 

I’ve asked before, but don’t think my questions have been answered?: 

1) Are you working on bringing back the old Airbnb sound?

2) If YES, when can we expect it?

3) If NO, why not?

[Rebecca]

Hi @Trude0 & @Kia272 👋

I saw that you've both asked very similar questions to @Branka-and-Silvia0 and wanted to share that @Bhumika has answered in a comment below. 👇

Based on feedback from Hosts, Airbnb recently changed the type of notification sound that plays when...

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Please let me know if this has answered your question. If not, I'll take it away and feedback to the team. 

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your questions. 😊

[Trude0]

Hi @Rebecca,

thanks for your message - and yes, I saw what Bhumika replied. 

But I have a hard time believing that the special Airbnb sound that most of us love  - by some hosts called ”the sweet sound of money”  - was removed because hosts asked to have it replaced by an extremely neutral, non-distinguishable ”blip”. Meaning I doubt both that many (any?) hosts actually requested this, and even if some did, I doubt you would replace the sound for that reason. Must be a misunderstanding?

There are so many threads in here with frustrated hosts asking for the old sound back - but I haven’t seen any posts by hosts happy with the change. 

Maybe you could launch a poll, to see how many hosts prefer the new sound, and how many want the old one back? 😄 You know where I stand. 

[Rebecca]

Hi @Trude0 👋

Thank you so much for your reply.  I've fed this back to the team and will try to get some clarification. 😊

[Kia272]

@Trude0  Seems to me that somebody at AirBnB doesn't understand branding. Because that sound was part of the brand. 

And honestly, if somebody didn't like that sound, it seems very low on the list of things the company should be working on. It seems like they haven't settled on what type of company they want to be, hence the constant updates and changes in messaging. 

There are much bigger issues within AirBnB than the app notification sound. I'm still absolutely mystified as to why they changed it. Truly mystified. 

[Karen1100]

I LOVE all the new updates in this new release!! 

The Earnings  function is Wonderful!! 
The message even though

it’s just a slight change, it better and more impactful than I expected. 

Best Release Ever! Well done to all those that it happen at Airbnb! 

Karen Belland 

[Bhumika]

Hi @Karen1100 , I'm so delighted to hear that you're loving these updates! Out of all the updates you adore, which has been your favorite one so far?

Please continue to share your valuable feedback with us.🌻

[Lisa207]

Hi, can you please add back the internal names to the update, we can't tell which property guests are enquiring about? We use internal names to know by putting the address there, we list over 45 properties and can't operate without knowing which property a guest is asking about. 

[Bhumika]

Hi @Lisa207 Thank you for flagging this and totally understand how confusing it can get, especially given the number of properties. I'm happy to inform you that Airbnb is actively working to resolve it and expect the update to start rolling out as early as next week. We'll be sure to keep you posted. 

[Justin564]

Hi Airbnb, 

Please allow your hosts to create custom names for spaces in their rentals. For instance, you don't have the option for a loft, which is a very common space.  It would be good to be clear with guests, as lofts have no door to close and often are height limited. I can think of other examples where the ability to name a space would be important - particularly for studios where everything is one space.

Thank you!

Justin

[Bhumika]

Hi @Justin564 , thank you for sharing your suggestions with us. Would you mind elaborating a bit on this suggestion? Do you mean categories or filters for a listing or space? 

While I take a note of your ideas to share with the Airbnb teams, it'd be also great if you could share this idea directly with Airbnb through the Feedback Form.

Did you also get a chance to explore the new updates shared above? We're keen to hear your feedback and thoughts about it.

On a side note, I curiously had a peek at your listings and the studio looks so neat and beautiful. I'm sure your guests would be having a great time at your listing! 

[John5097]

@Airbnb 

It's impressive how quickly Airbnb can make changes and adjustments to their website.

What I like:

Host being able to order their photos. 

What I'm not sure about: 

I personally don't want to get messages from additional guest who didn't make the reservation. Maybe some other host with different listing would like this. But I can deal with it. 

A future suggestion. 

Airbnb needs to update their SMOKING policy. As it is now a NON SMOKING listing means guest can smoke outside, per Airbnb policy. This is perfect example of how Airbnb just wants reservations and put host at higher risk, conflict and retaliation. Guest dump their cigarette butts in the trash that is a fire risk, as a NON SMOKING listing isn't going to have a designated smoking area.

In my area (and pretty much everywhere) smoking is banned from all city, county, state parks, all college campuses, all public public beaches, all businesses open to the public, that includes both inside and outside. 

NON SMOKING listing should include both inside and outside. Come on! 

Guest like this also typically don't read the listing at all, then retaliate.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2894#:~:text=Smoking%3A%20Guests%20should%20not%20smoke,%2C%20e%...

 




 And this is response I just got from a guest when I declined a reservation request because they dumped cig butts in the trash bin in my non smoking listing. 

 






 

[Bhumika]

Hi @John5097 ! Thanks for sharing your candid feedback related to group messaging with guests. Also appreciate your suggestions related to the smoking policy. While I pass forward your experience related to the smoking policy with the Airbnb team, I also wanted to share link to Airbnb's Feedback Form, in case you were interested in sharing your recommendations directly with Airbnb.

From your comment, it seems you've already explored the photo tour and group messages updates. Have you managed to explore and look into the earnings dashboard as well? How do you find the upgrades there?

As always, your insights and suggestions are truly valuable!

[John5097]

Hi @Bhumika !

The Airbnb booking platform, website and app, really is an impressive feat of engineering. I don't know how to code or even create a Go Daddy website, but the Airbnb site is very good at generating bookings. If I get a cancellation it often rebooks within hours. I can see my views go from like 20 to 100 automatically. And I'm just one of millions of listings. I can't think of any other platform or website like that except maybe Amazon. 

Anyway, I haven't yet tried the new update so will do so when it rolls out. I also liked the year view with the calendar, but that also wasn't a deal breaking. 

In my experience 99% of guest stays are amazing and very rewarding. Guest are very positive influence, yet the 1% or less is something very minor that escalates, like finding cig butts in trash, for example. I'll also look and try to find where to submit feedback and suggestions to Airbnb directly. I've only seen that once. 

While you mentioned it already, I think the AI offering answers to some of the most commonly asked questions could be helpful, prior to guest sending an inquiry. Such as does host offer discounts. If a listing has 5.0 for value, booked out 4 months in advance, it's already discounted and the same price for everyone. For host it's like trying to read tea leaves. Some think they have a reservation and don't, or think host is the one requesting their ID.  I'm also in the process of creating more saved messages but this will always be tricky, and just one sight misunderstanding can result in host being reported, when its the guest that didn't read any part  of the listing.