I have no problem with Airbnb excluding direct contact information between host and guest prior to confirmation, but communicating through the Airbnb email system is often unreliable, such as in its regularly cutting short text messages.
Once the guest is confirmed, Airbnb has no reasonable cause for curtailing direct contact information, and, indeed, some of the thread comments gere say that this is permitted, post-confirmation.
Alas, that has not been my experience, and not providingg direct contact information to the guest can create significant problems for me as a host. While I provide detailed instructions and directions to incoming guests (and been praised for this many times), some guests either don't read through, or have trouble following such instructions, and want to call or text with questions (including directions!).
I also find that the Airbnb email and text-pass-along system is clumsy to use, and sometimes want to have more control and use my email and/or text for direct communication. Yet, even after a guest has confirmed and paid into Airbnb, my contact info gets stripped. Bad play, Airbnb--you are getting in the way of host-guest communication that is, of course, a central component of ggood guest service provision. I'd love to see a consistent and smart fix of this problem.
