AirBnB guest commications getting truncated

[Nancy1]

I use the AirBnB website to communicate with guests.  A couple guests have complained that my messages to them are being truncated.  I assume this is because the message is being sent to them as a text message which is limited to 140 chars.

Is this correct of is something else going on?

How do hosts deal with this?

Thanks

[Nuno-Y-Daniel0]

Send them 2, 3, 4 messages with 140 characters most then. It will probably solve the problem!

[Nancy1]

Yes, but that looks like a mess to a normal guest.  Also the AirBnB screen does not count characters so I would have to build the message elsewhere and then import it into AirBnB.

[Amir-Homayoon0]

I know Airbnb hides phone numbers, website addresses, email addresses or privacy issues. Is that what they mean by truncating?

I agree that Text that goes to your phone are truncated but you could read the entire message if you download the Airbnb App on your phone or tablet

Hope that helps

[Nancy1]

What the guests are saying is that they get a partial message.  When I check the actual message the cutoff is around 140 chars.

What I would like is:

If AirBnB knows that the guest is using texts (they should, they are sending the message) they can :

1.  Auto-break the message into 140 char units.

2. Tell the host that the guest is using texts, add a char count to the input bos and don't accept messages longer than they can send

3.  Send the guest a link to the full message telling the guest that the message is truncated and they need to install the AirBnB App or go to the website. 

4.  I am open to other ideas.

I cannot tell from the guests email whether they are using text messages or a tool that can display render full messages.

Thanks!

[Luis-and-Tati0]

Hi @Nancy1

Until a couple months ago we could see on the web version what kind of platform the guest/host was using... Too bad they removed this feature...
Now when I get a similar message from my guests I send just this note,

"SMS can only take 160 characters, please read this message on your Airbnb Smartphone app, email or webpage"

after 1 or 2 minutes later I send the entire message... Usually it works...

Luis

[Leo12]

Apparently the truncation occurs in both directions.  When a message to the host is truncated, it will end with "..." and then you have to go to the app (phone or website) to see the rest of the message.  Of course, this does not help a guest who is not getting everything. I think the best idea is to monitor what you send out and if over 140 characters (spaces count), then break up into separate messages yourself. 

[Mathew82]

Mine has been truncated even more I think. I don’t understand since the messages all come from the same number as a client. If that’s what they are going to do, just send a text that says to check your email or go on the website. Worthless to even have it otherwise. My 2 cents…

[Mathew82]

Sorry for being over 140 characters too😉

[Lucian8]

I just had something similar happen to a review that I left.

Last weekend I had my best Airbnb stay to date and left a glowing (and long-ish review). I re-read it just prior to submitting, felt it was good and accurate, and hit submit.

The review that posted was cut to: "I can't say enough about what a great host Kate is, and what a perfect place this is for a large family (we are family of 6, with four young kids). From first" 

The original first sentence that said "If I could give this stay 10 stars I would." was gone. As was the rest of the review, describing an exceptional host, house and location.   

Any reason that Airbnb would edit a glowing review? I'd like to write to Airbnb to find out why the original was edited, but can't find a way to do this.

[Rich68]

 I've found that my messages were truncated because I was using the "less than" sign in the text (The character above the comma). I'm figuring that because the airbnb messaging platform doesn't not allow HTML elements to protect users from SPAM messages (and HTML heavily relies on the angle brackets, the "less than" and "greater than" characters). So there must exist some logic to strip out that text - but certainly the logic isn't that smart.

[Heather653]

Still happening.  We are guests, and only get a cut off message, and nothing is showing up on the Airbnb app.  I can only contact the host by calling them.  It is so frustrating. After this trip I’m going back to Homeaway.