How to include email addresses or URL's in an Airbnb message?

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Stephen-Y-Edda0
Level 3
Jerez de la Frontera, Spain

How to include email addresses or URL's in an Airbnb message?

As in the title, I'd like to know how to include email addresses or URL's in an Airbnb message. Such information normally gets deleted (masked out) when the message is posted. Thanks.

 

Top Answer

I understand. Some guests want to be completely sure before booking and would like to see the place. However Airbnb advices otherwise and doesn't promote having guests over without a booking. As I had mentioned, 1) For your saftey, as you do not want a thief disguised as potential guest reach your apartment. That'd be bad for you as well as the company's reputation and 2) Airbnb wants to eliminate alll possibilites that would allow guests to book directly with the hosts in order to avoid the service charges and taxes. That's bad for the business and the beautiful eco-system that they provide us. 

 

TIP: You've managed to send you send the mail-id this time but be careful, Airbnb has auto scanners that might detect this and flag your lisitng and send you are warning mail. It's best to avoid sharing sensitive information prior to booking, altough I completely understand your case and agree that the message app is not the best tool for hosts and guests to communicate. 

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44 Replies 44

Hello @Stephen-Y-Edda0,

 

Airbnb policy, disallows sharing email addresses, contact numbers, or any other URLs before a booking is confirmed, hence the masking.

Refer to this article for more details: https://www.airbnb.co.in/help/article/1121/why-was-text-removed-from-my-airbnb-message-thread

 

I hope that helps. Happy hosting 🙂

Jeet

 

 

Stephen-Y-Edda0
Level 3
Jerez de la Frontera, Spain

Thanks Jeet!

The situation was the following. A potential guest was interested in our place but before committing they wanted to have a look. We were not in town so I gave the potential guest the email address of a friend who could show them the apartment. However, they could not see the email address.

Can I include an email address by disguising it a bit, like personx at geemale. calm.  ??

Thanks!
-Stephen
 

@Stephen-Y-Edda0 lol, I suppose there is nothing stopping you from doing that, although it would be totally against Airbnb's TOS. And I suspect that if they find out about it, your listing may be removed.

 

Make sure your listing is as accurate as possible, that way guests dont need to see it before hand, they should be able to make a decision based on the info on your listing.

 

Hope that helps....

Stephen-Y-Edda0
Level 3
Jerez de la Frontera, Spain

Thank you; I understand your point. However, I'm not trying too subvert the Airbnb TOS. It's just an honest case which can arise from time to time no matter how perfect my Airbnb listing may be, and it seems like there should be a way to accomodate cases like mine. I'm sure I'm not the first, or last, to run into this. Any ideas? 

 

Thanks!

 

I know of a few people who have done this - in each case it was someone with expectations impossible to deal with, was so nervous they'd be a mess to host, or they rocked up and tried to beat the price down.  Not worth it IMHO!



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Contact AirBNB

When this happens again, contact Airbnb support (you can look in search field above for HOW TO) and they will set it up with the guest.   They've done it for many hosts because as you say, sometimes there is a legitimate visit for a site visit prior to booking.  

 

As a host, I have also had a person want to see my space for completely legitimate reasons.  I had a company wishing to rent my space for an intern for two months.  Since it was a long term rental they wanted to look at it.  It was difficult to coordinate times for them to visit without using phone numbers.  But when they did see the space, they rented it through Airbnb as agreed.  This policy, while understandable, can make things difficult and takes away our ability to make a case by case decision.  In my case it all worked out anyway, and I was able to get a very desireable booking despite the site interference!

Stephen-Y-Edda0
Level 3
Jerez de la Frontera, Spain

Thanks Lynn! This is the sort of thing I was hoping Airbnb had a way to accomodate. Their programmers seem pretty clever; hopefully they can get thos figured out!

-Stephen

 

You can reach a potential guest through Airbnb. Its a bit a pain but it work.  You call Airbnb, explain why, they then contact guest and if they agree to you contact them they either connect you or provide details. 

 

Andrew

Andrew - see community help guides for many great FAQ

Andrew,

 

What about sending a link to another of one's listings?  I used to be able to do it, when another room or long stay listing would better suit the inquiry, or even another host's listing.  But now it treats the numbers at the end like a phone number.  I notice you have your listing at the bottom of your post, but it's not hidden.  Any tricks or advice?

How do you call Airbnb? A phone number seems impossible to find. 


@Lisa660wrote:

How do you call Airbnb? A phone number seems impossible to find. 



Google "Airbnb phone number" and it comes right up. How can you possibly manage a rental if you can't manage a simple google search? Jeez

 

You can send email info AFTER a guest books. So instead of breaking Airbnb TOS I ask a guest to book 1 night and then I can exchange information with them. If after they see the place they don't like it (never happened yet) then they can cancel the one night booking and get a full refund. If your cancellation policy is strict, then ask them to book one night twelve months away. That gives them plenty of time to cancel.

 

Hope this helps. I don't think it contravenes any TOS.

Pete26
Level 2
San Luis Obispo, CA

No, we cannot share info after booking.  Like so many large companies they violate even their own policy. Even after a booking, during and after a stay we cannot share our email address with a guest or vice versa. Always hidden. I have called them many times about this and it is always a wasted call, I get no help, only lies. 

 

I also find their phone app worthless and they never have an answer for that other than to admit it. For a huge company this is all terrible customer service.