Profile Thumbnails should be pics, not an initial!

[Lois-and-Darryl0]

This recent change is not one of Airbnb's "changes for the better"!  This is a ridiculously dumb idea.  Now my Guests are showing on my listing as simply a letter of the alphabet.  I'm not anywhere near as busy as many people on Airbnb, and I rely on that miniature little photo to quickly identify my Guests - a letter doesn't help me!  When a new request comes in on my phone, and I can't get to my Mac, it first shows up as a letter.  When I go into the actual site to read their message, it is STILL just a letter.  Also, it now takes more steps to get to their profile then before this Letter Fiasco.  These changes are not increasing efficiency, streamlining, or making things look or work better.  Lastly, in the listing of Pending or Past Reservations, I rely on our Guests thumbnails of their profile picture to recall how the visit went - who they are - it's a quick trigger for my brain (and everyone else's brain).  A letter doesn't help me remember anything about my Guests, especially as the list grows longer and longer.  We shouldn't be removing those tools that help your Hosts with their jobs.  Put the photos on the thumbnails back.  PLEASE!  And, lastly, if you're going to mess around with the look and function of the website, as you do every week, hire real professionals to show you what actually works, and not just people who know how to code and want to get credit for "updating" the Airbnb website.  Make sure you are improving the Airbnb site, not just changing it.  This change is a real fail.  Thanks!

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

I think it is just a letter until the guest books. You can always click through to their profile to see the picture. It seems to be a response to people saying they are denied bookings because of race, so they've taken the pictures off the communication until the guest actually books.

[Lois-and-Darryl0]

No the letter does stay after the booking.  I hope that I was clar that this change is about changing for change's sake - and not about preventing discrimination (because you can still get to their profile picture, so that is not the reason).  This appears to me to be done by people wanting to make their own mark on Airbnb, and no one in charge was paying attention to see what a fiasco this is.  Imagine people with a couple dozen listings pending.  Using one letter to distinguish them?  This is just a very unprofessional and just plain stupid idea.

[Andrew151]

Lois and Darryl, you are absolutley correct in all your observations.

Yes, this is really annoying.  I hate it.  Whoever had this idea at Airbnb, please give them a long holiday.  Airbnb seems to have forgotten what Airbnb claims to be about... connecting people.  

Now it is "A", meet "B".  Or, as happened to me recently, "A", meet "A". It has come to me as a completely stupid surprise.  And I have to be really annoyed about something before I will go on a chatpage to talk about it.  Airbnb, you had better be listening in, because your hosts are very annoyed.  

And that Airbnb staff member who is about to get an unplanned holiday, I think we should list you as "X" (as in "ex") when you make your own Airbnb bookings.