I'm both the primary host of a listing--supported by a co-host--and serve as co-host for a couple of listings.
Since early December, my co-host and I have encountered a number of technical glitches specifically having to do with a cohost's access / security privileges, which are negatively impacting the guest experience.
In a nutshell, though I'm officially a co-host of a particular listing, I lost access to the message thread with a guest. The thread disappeared entirely from my Airbnb Inbox, and if I try to access via the Calendar view the booking and then the message thread, I got a "You don't have access to this thread" error. When the guest replies, I *may* re-gain access to the message thread, only to lose it again later after I send a reply. Similarly, if the guest wishes to alter the booking, I can't review the request or approve it.
I have received (some of the) notifications sent to my regular email--however clicking via the regular email while I'm on my laptop or iPhone gets me the same "access" error message/glitch. In some cases, say when the (primary) host sends a message to the guest, I don't even get the email or mobile phone notifications anymore and had to ask my co-host/host if a message was sent. Previously I would have received a mobile phone notification and an email.
The above "restricted access" issues have happened to me:
* Multiple times with the same guest/message thread
* More than one guest/message thread for the same listing
* More than one listing
* Regardless of whether I access Airbnb from my iPhone or laptop (via Google Chrome)
And it has only become more frequent in the last 3 weeks.
The same is happening to my co-host when she's trying to help out on messages for guests booked at the listing where I'm the primary host. Similar (lack of) access issues are occurring with respect to writing guest reviews. As a co-host I was able to write guest reviews, but not since December.
All this despite our making NO changes to our listings, hosting/cohosting arrangements, etc.
I called Customer Service on at least two occasions before Christmas, and though they were able to replicate the issue, they refused to escalate and keep open a support ticket because apparently the Engineering is already aware of this and has been working on it. For the last 3+ weeks there have been no updates or resolutions, so we tried the following workarounds ourselves but none worked:
* Removing myself as a co-host and then adding me back on--or removing my co-host from the listing where I'm the primary host and adding her back on. It worked only temporarily and we started to encounter the same issues again.
* Re-installing the app, clearing cache, logging out, etc. Been there, done it.
Searching the Airbnb community for cohost (lack of) access issues has revealed I'm NOT the only host/co-host encountering this. There were several similar posts from prior years but those seem to be unrelated. I can't help but have the suspicion Engineering has implemented last month some non-essential oh-so-clever "coding enhancement" and in the mean time broke the rather MISSION CRITICAL security model governing host/cohost system privileges.
How are we able to stay on top of guest communications, enquiries, etc. when our system access is being hindered by these technical glitches--and seemingly little Engineering attention is assigned to resolve this ASAP??? There is SIGNIFICANT IMPACT to the guest not to mention the hosting experience...but let's not kid ourselves which one Airbnb priorities.
