Airbnb, Isn't It Time to Realize the Issue with Email, SMS and App Notifications?

[Dave-and-Deb0]

Dear Airbnb,

I do not know yet if I am affected by the issues noted in the title above as I have for some reason not received even an inquiry in quite some time but as a huge contributor to the Community Center, I am seeing a great deal of posts on the issue of notifications/alerts on the CC, Twitter and the old groups.

Many of the posts are about hosts no longer receiving alerts or notifications through either email, SMS, or the Airbnb app.  Other posts indicate that Airbnb are planning on removing the ability to receive these notifications.  I went back through 6 days of posts in the CC to see that there have been 9 posts about this issue and several complaints within each of the posts.  I have saved you some time and am including all the posts below for your reading pleasure.  

I have also been in contact with your team @Airbnbhelp who have twice said they will forward this to the appropriate team.  Can you provide an update?

I have two questions in which I hope somebody who is a decision maker or influencer at Airbnb can answer:

1. Is there a problem with the notification system and if so, is it currently being worked on?
2. Is Airbnb in the works or are they planning on getting rid of the notification system?

As promised, here are the nine posts which were written on this topic over the last six days:

No Notice of Inquiry

issues on being notified of new inquiry

NO EMAIL NOTIFICATION

Airbnb Glitches

Where to from here!

Buggy App - been missing guest messages, inquiries and booking requests.

missing texts and admin contact?

I can't actually believe this

Reservation Request Alert Problem

[Bridget0]

And for me, I have reset and am still not getting text messages.

it is absurd.

[Robin4]

@Bridget0 @Dave-and-Deb0 @Christine28....I have not had a message of any kind regarding new business for more than 2 weeks now! The only emails I have received are for payment transfers for existing guests and new guest arrivals, and these were all established before this sms/cellular thing came up!

I have reset my notifications, and I have had the help people in Sydney reset my notifications but....nothing!

I am still hopeful that this whole raft of problems the hosting community are experiencing with Airbnb are the result of some heavy duty hacking and that sooner or later the backroom boys will get on top of this and these issues will be sorted out and we can go back to business. But as each day passes, and the stony silence from the top becomes more and more deafening....... I am becoming less optimistic. Even @Lizzie , God bless her, is absent from these pages, I guess because she is just as much in the dark as we are, and simply has nothing to contribute! 

I am giving it till Monday the 15th February for some sort of order to return to Airbnb. I am waiting to see the impact, or result, of this mass arbitrary removal of hosts and their listings that is supposed to take place on the 9th Feb. I guess this will tell us where the problem lies.

If the current situation remains at that point, or we have heard nothing from those who are supposed to have their finger on this, I will put my listing into 'snooze' for a few months and look at other hosting platforms for a logical alternative. I don't want to do this....

A/. Because I will have to start to build an enviable review base all over again!

B/. Because Airbnb has been one of the best things that ever happened to me....It's brought me together with some wonderful people who have now become my friends, and this site has allowed me to be that 'over the top' host that I love being!

Fingers crossed everyone.....where is that light at the end of the tunnel????......Cheers.....Rob

[Olivera-And-Russell-John0]

Has a definitive reply to this been given by Airbnb.  I have twice reported  that we no longer receive SMS alerts, which have apparently been passed to the appropriate team, but nothing has changed.  The last time we received an SMS alert was back in December.

[Mirjam0]

Hi Olivera and Russel,  Have  you  checkted all the  earlier mentioned options?  Have  you restarted  your  smartphone ?   Did  you download the latest app? It isreally frustrating to loose the SMS indications. It should still work, at least: it works on my smartphone.  Good luck!  Mirjam

[Olivera-And-Russell-John0]

Hi Mirjam,

Thank you for taking the time to respond.  I don't use the app, just SMS to myu phone and then email on my computer. 

I have had a reply this morning from Airbnb to say that the SMS system is active in N.America and Europe.  Whilst my account setting are correct their advice was to clear all browing history and cache from my web browser and then reinput our phone numbers and have them verified once again.  As I'd already done this I'm not optimistic of success, but I've done as requested and we will know the outcome when we get our next enquiry! 

Russell

[Mirjam0]

Good Luck, Russell..

[Olivera-And-Russell-John0]

If you have problems then keep pestering as finally our SMS alerts are working againg (and two bookings to show for it).

[Monica4]

Yes, the SMS alerts are working again BUT the website is no! I almost missed two booking requests because they didn't show up in my dashboard. In order to see them, I had to click on "reservations" to find the pending reservations and accept them! Any reservation request or inquiry should be immediately noticable when the airbnb site is opened.

[Louise32]

I've been complaining about this since last September and am told it is my problem. But I am very obiously not alone.

[Erin39]

Yesterday I DECLINED a reservation request via my iPhone Airbnb app and even wrote a note to the guest. The guest received the note but the Airbnb website showed no history of me declining the reservation, so as a result, my response rate has fallen.

[Nicolas101]

Hi all
I got the same "no notification" issue again for 5-6 days now. No e-mail, push or text notification is going through. I got a host trying to reach me to sort out a remote check in, I could only see it by checking 4 hours later the app by coincidence.
Am I the only one experiencing this?

Thank you for your reactions
Nicolas
Host in brussels, Belgium

[Olivera-And-Russell-John0]

Pester them and they will sort it out.  We had to contact them 3 or 4 times before ours notifications were working again.

[Deb29]

@Olivera0 And Russell John

Wow!

How long were your notifications not working? What was the magic words to get them to fix it? Has it been ok since?

[Olivera-And-Russell-John0]

Magic word? Persistence. And yes, it has been working perfectly for months now.

[Maria843]

I have also ben having this problem from the 20th of September 2018, sudddently stopped getting e-mails. I have called them over 6 times about the issue and they keep on saying they are giving it the tchnical team, but do not know when the issue will be resoved. About 10 days ago I also stopped getting SMS messages.

As I have 65 properties up with Airbnb it is impossible to keep going to the dashboard to see if a request has come through. On the dashboard it only shows the title of the property, so I have to start looking through the properties to see which property they are talking about. I told them that if I cannot see the picture of the property I cannot know which property they mean.

Speaking to them today again, I told them that didi not receive any notification of the money to be sent for a booking. The client is leaving today, they said they are sending the money and are sorry I ddid not receive a notification. Not knowning when money is being sent is an impossible situation.

Messages and e-mails from automated@airbnb, reply@airbnb and Support@airbnb come through. The ones that do not come through, which are the requests are from express@airbnb. That is the e-mail that I see all my requests have come from. That is whre there is problem with their server.