@Bettye6
You are making sense 😊. You just did something that most Hosts didn't do when they first became Hosts.
When you became a Host, you assigned a ringtone to Airbnb messages right away. Most Hosts didn't do that; there really wasn't a need to, as the Airbnb App itself had it's own unique notification sound. Click the link below. This is the unique Airbnb notification sound that was embedded in the App and what the majority of Hosts heard when receiving an Airbnb message (courtesy of @Ben5101)
https://prodigits.co.uk/content/ringtones/tone/2020/alert/airbnb_bb906f114930880.mp3
Hosts became accustomed to this sound and knew to respond quickly as it indicated a message from Airbnb. You became accustomed to the tone you assigned to Airbnb messages. All is well.
Fast forward to just a month or so ago....
For some unknown reason, Airbnb removed the unique tone alert associated with the App. No one was notified of this. Once that unique tone was no longer associated with the App itself, the iPhone simply defaulted to whatever default tone was set in the iPhone for ALL text messages. You didn't notice, as you had assigned a unique tone when you first became a Host. However, for the majority of Hosts, this was an unwelcome surprise and caused many Hosts to miss Airbnb messages. This was because they were not hearing the unique Airbnb tone they had become accustomed to.
Temporary Work-Around - US Hosts
You don't really need to change anything, as you assigned a tone to Airbnb messages from the get-go and are used to hearing that. Seems like Hosts in the US receive Airbnb messages from one phone number? (still investigating that). Since they can't rely on the App to provide the tone anymore, they can assign whatever ringtone they want from what is available on the iPhone and attach that to Airbnb Messages. They can also use the work around we have provided to keep the Airbnb tone by using the Garage Band method to create it and attach to the Airbnb text messages. All is well.
Hosts Outside the US
@Trude0 (Not US based) said she gets Airbnb messages from multiple phone numbers (not just one). This complicates matters, as if there are too many numbers Airbnb is using to send messages, it makes it impractical to assign a unique ringtone to each phone number every time one pops up. Kinda like "Whack-a-Mole" 😊 (if you know that reference). The only option there is to change the default tone for ALL text messages received so you will get the Airbnb tone on any messages no matter what phone number Airbnb is using to send them. Then assign other unique tones to contacts/texts you receive from family and friends. @Trude0 thought she might do that at first, but realized she gets alot of texts from other businesses, not just family and friends and felt it would be too stressful to constantly hear the Airbnb tone on these texts. Hence the dilemma for non-U.S. Hosts.
The Short Answer is
Please bring back the Airbnb Tone to the App!