What the heck is the reason for AirBnB redacting guest phone numbers?

[Tony2217]

I am so frustrated by the new “policy” of not sharing confirmed guest phone numbers with rental owners.  I can’t tell you how many times I have needed it, and now it is a hassle to get it from the guests when you could have just kept the same policy!  Sharing confirmed guests emails would also be very helpful because your message venue will not post photos without truncating the message.  I have been frustrated with nearly every “policy” decision you have made in the past several years!   

[Elaine701]

@Tony2217 

I haven't experienced this yet. Perhaps it's a US only thing. 

But if I do not have the guest's phone number, then the whole process of guest access and use of the accommodation becomes much less assured.

Many guests don't have or use Airbnb app. So if that's the only means of communication, then lots of information will be be lost or missed. 

Again, we still get the guest's phone numbers. But if that goes away, then I expect there will be a big increase in guests having problems. 

[Shelley159]

Hi @Elaine701 

You and the guest will be assigned a temporary phone number that masks your actual phone number. So they can still phone and text you while the booking is active, but apparently not Whatsapp.

It's being rolled out in the US now, but we're all going to change to that eventually.

I can imagine there are some solid security and privacy reasons for it (hosts and guests in a dispute, who harass each other), but the upside for Airbnb is that it also means repeat bookings are more likely to be made through Airbnb.

Personally I wouldn't mind if my repeat bookings did rather come through Airbnb, but it does mean that more of your eggs are in one basket ...

[Elaine701]

@Shelley159 

Fair enough... 

But Virtual phone numbers usually don't support text messaging. This is especially critical for multilingual dialogue, since text is easily translated. We have to do it constantly. 

And as for assuring that repeat bookings are made through Airbnb... Our phone number is written on nearly every document they'll find in the house, and we generally meet and greet and would have every opportunity to acquire their phone number too. Besides, I'm not going to cancel an Airbnb booking so that I can make 100 bucks by booking it direct. 

So, it's like going out of their way to make things more difficult, for no particular gain. 

[Joelle43]

Hello @Shelley159 @Elaine701 

Well this new temporary telephone policy can only make sense to Airbnb and will not stop guests going direct when they can. A simple search on the net will lead you to a hosts personal home page anyway.

Plus, anyone operating as a business has the email and phone number appearing on the listing anyway in compliance with the Dac7 directives so that's another way for guests to go direct.

And as you say Elaine, there are many ways to encourage guests to go direct for their next stay so it's a no brainer really and won't solve the problem. What Airbnb should be doing, is to make it attractive enough in the first place for hosts NOT to want to set up their own direct home page but knowing how guest centric Airbnb has become and with AI controlling the review removal process, I can imagine that many hosts are seriously seeking alternatives to Airbnb. 

[Greystone0]

HI @Tony2217 ,

Agree with your comments - we've found this to be a particularly offensive idea. I can say that our  upcoming AIRBNB reservation, the guest profile has a phone number, so it's interesting that you do not.

I read about this idea coming previously and have added a note in our house rules that a guest phone number is necessary. Along with all the really good comments as to why a phone number  is necessary, I'd add that our home is a huge investment for us and having people inside our home without being able to call them easily is a very dangerous idea.  We've had only a few issues of 'emergency' and in each case needed to reach the guest immediately, including a roof leak issue from an ice ******, a giant tree falling over from almost hurricane winds, town wide emergency forced electrical to be shut down. 

Not to mention the mundane of needing general support for whatever may arise - an extra garbage pick up, question on how something works, one time a guest couldn't find the knives (they are just in a drawer next to the sink but for whatever reason they never uncovered them). Imagine how annoying needing a knife and not finding one. A quick text 'found' them and they were very thankful and a bit embarrassed.

Other platforms aren't currently doing this and so we focus our minds elsewhere, where our property and sanity are bit more protected.

Good luck!