Airbnb's idea of sending greeting cards to former guests is wonderful! However...

[Erin443]

Airbnb's idea of sending greeting cards to former guests is wonderful! However... the only option I'm seeing is sending to guests from 2019. I'd really like to send cards to some spectacular guests in 2020. Has anyone found a way to bring those guests up on the greeting card program? Thank you!

[Robin4]

@Erin443  @Colleen253  @Emilia42  @Bronwyn38 

Thanks for that Colleen, that's why I never saw it, my dashboard is simply filled with promotional rubbish and I never bother to look at it.

Airbnb's sole desire is to have it's hosts lose money, a property will never be cheap enough, even if the host gave it away. How many hosts are willing to lose 30% per night to take a one week booking over a three night booking. The rationale is completely bonkers when you think about it. 

But I am afraid that is what my dashboard is full of so, I never look at it!

But now that I have, mine also only shows guests up to February 2018 so there you go, you can put that greeting card info in with all the other useless information on the dashboard page!

Cheers..........Rob

[Emilia42]

@Robin4 I love bringing hostess gifts. I try to leave a little something every time I stay in an Airbnb. But sadly, it's not the norm.  

I like the idea of sending a personalized holiday card where I can write some unique to my best guests. But Airbnb doesn't make that easy. Tomorrow I will send a package to the guest who stayed with me for 3 months at the start of the pandemic. She has had a very tough year so I'll send her some Maine treats she enjoyed while she was here. 

Here is the prompt on my dashboard:

[Ann72]

@Robin4  Your dashboard tips are the worst I've seen.  Definitely a good idea to ignore them.

My guest list for cards starts in 2018, with the one guest that year who demanded a fire pit, then gave me a 4 for location.  Ugh.  And I was psyched to message some favorite guests from this year.  

I assume this is another ploy to guilt us into getting repeat guests by offering old guests big discounts.  If it's not a ploy, there's no reason we shouldn't be able to freely choose from a list of every guest we've ever had.

[Sarah977]

Mine are even worse. Insulting. As if someone who has bee hosting on the platform for 4 years wouldn't be using those features if they wanted to. And by the way, I do offer WIFI, it's just not listed as continuous, high speed, unlimited, because that option isn't available to me where I live.

 

 

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@Ann72

[Colleen253]

Good grief @Sarah977  what is wrong with you, you bad girl! You will be getting a lump of coal in your stocking. That's if Santa even deigns to stop by. 🤣

Honestly, that's the reason I don't go to my dashboard generally, either. Who needs a regular dose of shame? It's why I also hate going to the dental hygienist. Why subject oneself?

[Helen350]

LOL! @Colleen253 

[Ann72]

That is gnarly af @Sarah977 - ugh!

[Robin4]

@Ann72 

It was possibly a bit ignorant on my part, but to me there has never been a solitary piece of useful information on my Dashboard page. I can be absolutely sure if there is something on there it's for Airbnb's benefit, not mine. So, for that reason I do not ever look at it. All the information I need to successfully run my listing is either on my Calendar page, my Inbox, Listing description or Account pages.

@Sarah977 Coming back to that discount enticer of 29% for a weekly stay. Any person with the most miniscule of brains would realise, a combination of any of the 10 following....

Two x 2 nights and two x 1 night.

One x 4 night and one x 2 night.

One x 5 night and one x 1 night.

One x 1 night and one x 2 night and one x 3 night.

One x 6 nights.

Three x 2 nights. 

Two x 3 nights.

One x 4 nights and one x 1 night.

Two x 2 nights and one x 1 night.

One x 5 night.

are better off than that one 7 night + booking where you have to give away 29% for each and every night. So that beggars the questions, why would one offer a 7 night stay for 30% off, block the calendar up and cruel the chance of getting any of those other 10 combinations for those dates at full tariff! 

If you have any sort of business brain, you wouldn't. I offer discounts.....but never up-front, I offer them at my discretion, not Airbnb's. If someone jumps in at the last minute and I have a 6, 7 + days free window, sure I will offer a discount, sometimes I have offered up to 50% in one special circumstance. But I am never going to cruel 95% of my potential business to throw away money on 5% of it. Can you understand where I am coming from? 

Airbnb are doing their hosts a serious mis-service by continuing to promote this whole discount sham, they are disadvantaging their hosts, furthering their revenue at the hosts expense! That's how serious they are about helping their hosts!

But, seeing as I was there I did have a look at that 'Greeting card' banner and I clicked the 'Get Started'. The only guests who came up were from 2017 up to Feb 2018. From there on........nothing!!

Once again, did anyone in the publicity dept seriously look at the end result of this initiative before it went public?

This is exactly why we, the hosting community mistrust the company, we are all the time on our toes hoping to get something reliable out of them!

Cheers........Rob

@Erin443  @Helen350  @Angela1056 

[Sarah977]

If Airbnb's algorithm was actually pegged to looking at a host's calendar, instead of generating irrelevant nonsense suggestions, what it would see is that the majority of my reservations have always been in the one-two week range, anyway, without offering any discount. So what would be the point in offering a discount?

Well, the point in pushing hosts to offer discounts is that when a host does that, Airbnb ups their service charge. So the guest pays not much less than without the discount, the host earns less, and Airbnb makes more. Sweet deal. 

@Robin4

[Dimitar27]

Good option, I just sent some cards. And got few replies already.

[Sarah977]

And here's the thing which makes it so irritatingly obnoxious:

Provide a lockbox: My doors are hand-wrought iron- they are't constructed so as to accommodate that. And as a home-share host, I have to be here when guests arrive- nothing is standard suburban home here and most things require explanation.

Welcome guests for short stays: No one comes to this destination tourist beach town for less than 3 days, which is my minimum.

Host longer stays: My max is 2 weeks, which is the maximum time that most people who come on vacation have to be away from their home and work commitments.

Allow short notice: I have a sewing business, with deadlines for projects. I can't drop everything on a moments notice to prepare for a guest.

Allow pets at your place: My 70 pound alpha female dog will attack other dogs on her territory.

Add Wifi: I have Wifi. The only type available to me.

Offer weekly discounts: 90% of my guests book for a week to 2 weeks anyway.

Add a early bird discount: All my guests plan ahead, and I don't want those types who don't. 

Offer monthly discounts: If I wanted a full-time roommate, I wouldn't have an str listing, duh.

Switch to Flexible: We all know why not.

Add last-minute discount: Same as not wanting bookings with short notice. 

Does Airbnb really think we don't follow their "tips" because we don't want bookings?

@Colleen253 

[Angela1056]

Hi dear CC members, I live in Italy and host at Lake Maggiore. This year i had some postcards of our house printed and I sent them to all our guests by regular mail. I wrote that I remember them, that I hope they are well and can have peaceful holidays even in these difficult times. 

For the next year I plan to leave a postcard at our home along with the stamps for each couple/family guest so they can send their greetings from our place. 

With best wishes for happy holidays,

Angela

Inviato da iPad

[John5097]

I got my first holiday card from a guest. I'm also limited in which guest I can send greeting cards to. I'm presented with a list of 50 guest who left 5 star review but I had 75 five star reviews in my first year. My goal before signing up to host on Airbnb was my first hundred reviews would be 5 stars and still on track but is anyone else limited to only sending 50 cards to five star guest?  

[Colleen253]

@John5097 It's proving to be full of glitches, which certainly isn't unusual for an Airbnb feature.

[John5097]

@Colleen253 oh good thanks, was wondering if it could have been something else.