No Guest Names on ICal ....seriously???

[Bonita5]

Hello Airbnb

This is NOT HELPFUL and will create much confusion for hosts and cleaners and c- hosts.   

WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?

To maintain privacy for guests  fine ... PLEASE PUT  FIRST NAME ONLY for our bookings at the very least! 

 If all bookings say is RESERVED, then we do NOT know where one booking ENDS and another one BEGINS. 

This is absurd and you are making it very difficult for HOSTS. 

We have enjoyed in the past Airbnb HELPING HOSTS.  You were keeping things clear and easy to navigate.

But now it’s all about the GUESTS.   

It is not necessary to withhold a guests first name .... PLEASE DO NOT COMPLICATE THIS ICAL SYSTEM with useless string of numbers. 

We rely on Airbnb to work WITH US to make bookings easy and clear.   This new system of URL numbers will create opportunities for many MISTAKES and many PROBLEMS. 

Eliminate phone numbers if that is a privacy issue including last 4 digits (not helpful) 

But please give us the names of our guests for clarity!

I am appalled that you would even suggest such am absurd idea. 

Airbnb Plus Superhost,

Bonita in Victoria, Canada

[Adam828]

I agree with Bonita, this is not helpful for host at all. The guest first name is more useful than the phone number. In addition, the notes entered in the booking should also still export

Were any community of hosts consulted on this change?

Adam

[Christine615]

Airbnb never consults hosts. I suggest modifying the calendar manually and cutting and pasting the info into the notes section. I’m kind of tired of the guest privacy excuse being used to override host concerns and safety.  

[Yuki-and-Charlie0]

Many hosts rely on the phone number being present in iCal to automatically push smart lock codes to guests via SMS. Changing this is a huge inconvenience. Take off the last name of the guests or something to protect their privacy. Why are hosts never consulted in any decisions like this.  Please don’t take the phone number off. Leaving the last four digits doesn’t work either.

[John_Erica0]

Agreed with Yuki - this change will severely impact our lock automation and SMS notification process to our guests. Bad change!

[Harriet68]

This is a terrible idea!

You have regularly made it more and more difficult for Hosts! 

You don't care about the Traveler or the Host!

You tell the Traveler not to give us their personal information now.  That means they don't receive any of the informative emails that we send leading up to their arrival date INCLUDING THE KEY LESS ENTRY CODE.

*Your email system doesn't work.  We have scheduled emails that go out to all customers. 
 Emails sent to the email address that you assign to the Traveler are routinely returned to us. 
 I do not have time to send Air BNB customers their own special message.

*Of course, your messaging system only works IF the traveler sets up an account & then remembers to go there to read messages.  THEY DON'T LOG IN WHEN THEY ARE TRAVELING!

We require a lease be signed, copy of ID, & everything be paid (including extras) BEFORE we will let the Traveler into our houses.  

If I can't contact them, who do you think is upset?  The Traveler AND the Host!

  Your calendar doesn't sync half the time either & you blame us!  

It is obvious that you are only concerned with money.  Perhaps you should get your own system error free first!

We are having a company meeting to decide whether we will be pulling all of our houses off your site.  (we have 12)

If you have any insight, let me know.

Mary B Forbes

Rentals on the Ocean

[Denise-and-Tim0]

I totally agree with the previous comments 100%. I work in a Medical IT environment and I do not believe that there is anything wrong with the information presented in the calendar, I do not see any Personally Identifiable Information (PII). I work with this stuff everyday. 

We have multiple listings, 8 active and building out 5 more, and my automation system relies heavily on that calendar information, because it feeds my google calendar so the automation system can read the information automatically and parse into a format that is readable by the automation system. This information tells the "house" when to go online on the check-in date and when to go offline on the check-out date. 

The information I use is:

1. Property Name - This tells the automation system what house calendar to use

2. CheckIn date - This tells the automation system when to turn on the Rental

3. CheckOut date - This tells the automation system when to turn off the Rental and puts it on the cleaning calendar that this Rental will be ready for cleaning at Check out time. They do not get any further information.

4. Phone Number - I am ok with just getting the last 4 digits of the phone number, that is what gets programmed into the door locks.

5. Email Address (AirBnB): Don't need it, it is on their reservation.

6. Tenant Name: This is nice to have so you can properly identify who is coming to stay.

With the information listed above, what information is PII? As a person that deals with this stuff everyday, I say "None Of It"

Doing all of this manually will kill the efficiency that I have spent long hours in programming and writing scripts to parse the information from the calendar, and simply put, make our life easier. This change is a HUGE game changer for us as hosts. I have been trying to find the right person to talk to at AirBnB to plead my case for not removing vital information from the calendar.  

[Connie94]

As both a host and a guest, I've used Airbnb for years. As a guest, I would expect my host to have access to my name and phone number and neither of those showing up in my host's calendar seem even remotely to violate my privacy.

As a host, I rely on iCal to inform me of the upcoming days' arrivals. The Airbnb app is too slow to load and often gives an error when I try to access the calendar within the app, so I rarely rely on it. I don't mind their removing the last name, if that is truly a concern, but the first name, the dates checking in and out, and the number of nights are all very helpful to me to see at a glance along with the rest of my commitments for the day or week. What is missing currently is the number of guests, which impacts the supplies (towels, water bottles, etc.) that I leave out for the guests. I have only one property but if I had more than one, having the property name would be critical as well.

My question is, does anybody from Airbnb ever read these posts? I don't need to vent, I need to communicate with the development team who will be implementing this mistake. As they make it harder and harder to host, I am seriously considering removing my listing. It is just becoming too much of a hassle.

[Bonita5]

You will need to sync with google calendar instead of ICal .  
That’s what they want I think. 

[Bonita5]

You need to sync through Google Chrome . It takes about a day or more to load everything and for names to show up. 
so don’t be impatient.  You can colour code your apartments to make it easy to view. 

[David6299]

Is it working now if you sync with Google Calendar? Can you see the names? I am still getting RESERVED. 

[Kathleen187]

I agree! This is ridiculous. This will make it extremely difficult, to know who's coming in . Most of my guests will not even use the Airbnb platform to communicate with. It's all about the money and guests. Please help your hosts! If not for us there wouldn't be Airbnb. 

[Zappa0]

NONE OF THE IS MAKES SENSE TO ME:

IS iCAL the actual airbnb calendar? If we can only see the last 4 digits, how do we get in touch with them besides the APP (which right now, fails at sending every message until I send it two or 3 times).?

Upcoming change to iCal listing information

As part of Airbnb’s ongoing efforts to minimize exposure of guest information, exported iCal events will no longer display reservation details. These changes will take effect on December 1, 2019.

What’s changing?

The iCal calendar sync description for reservations will display only the last 4 digits of the guest phone number, along with a link to the reservation details page. The guest name and reservation code will be removed from the event titles, and the calendar sync will export listing calendar information for future dates only.

The following information will be provided for each reservation exported via iCal moving forward:

• Summary: Will appear as “Reserved”
• Description: Will include a “Reservation URL” section with the link to the reservation details page and a “Phone Number (Last 4 Digits)” section with the last 4 digits of the guest’s phone number

What does this mean for hosts?

If you rely on detailed information from the iCal calendar sync descriptions, you may need to make updates or alert your software partners to the changes above so they’re ready when they take effect on December 1, 2019.

These changes won’t impact iCal’s syncing functionality—your calendar will continue to prevent multiple guests from booking the same dates.

Example of how a reservation will display in iCal

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
PRODID;X-RICAL-TZSOURCE=TZINFO:-//Airbnb Inc//Hosting Calendar 0.8.8//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
VERSION:2.0
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200922
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200919
UID:1418fb94e984-b4e92efbf4f55c8319ff865981f14d8f@airbnb.com
DESCRIPTION:Reservation URL: https://www.airbnb.com/reservation/itinerary
 ?code=HMLXEJLGWY\nPhone Number (Last 4 Digits): 5555
SUMMARY:Reserved
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20200929
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20200926
UID:1418fb94e984-fe6b76c65a92c68a8f13c64906aef0cb@airbnb.com
DESCRIPTION:Reservation URL:
 ?code=HMLXEJLGSD\nPhone Number (Last 4 Digits): 5555
SUMMARY:Reserved
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

[Bonita5]

The Airbnb calendar stays the same.

i cal is the apple calendar on your iPhone.

Some hosts sync Airbnb calendar with ICal calendar (apple) or with google calendar (Android).  They can see all their listings at once if they have multiples.  Or property managers can see all their listings at once. 
Also these calendars can be shared with your cleaners or co- hosts so they can see all your Airbnb reservations.   
Now it is better to sync with google calendar ( not ICal).  That is all. 
Maybe you need a newer phone or better internet if your Airbnb App isn’t working well.  It is very responsive and works perfectly.

All the best with everything,

Bonita

[Bob935]

Sorry Bonita, but this doesn't seem to make sense. The only type of calendar you can export from AirBnb is an iCal link (see attached image). Even if you're using Google Calendar to externally view and share your AirBnb calendar, you can only create Google Calendars from iCal links (see 2nd attached).

I've contact ABNB directly, there is no way to get guest info back into external calendars. They definitely messed this up and I encourage all of you to send in your feedback.