Censoring messages is out of control

[Ian20]

I understand and appreciate the need to remove telephone numbers from messages prior to a booking, but the system is recognising years and dates as telephone numbers and deleting them.
Recently sent a message including years 2019 and 2020, these were removed - who has a four digit telephone number?!! Have also experienced this with dates, e.g. 01/03/18, even with / they were removed.
This is frustrating, especially for new users who don’t understand the policy or know it is used.
PLEASE teach the system to recognise and differentiate between actual telephone numbers and other necessary numerical information.

[Ryan636]

I'd imagine that it's recognising the years as the end of a telephone number (e.g. 555-555-####) and of course removing or censoring them.

Still not an excuse though, they do need to tweak the system to solve this.

[Ralf5]

@Ian20, try to use words instead of numbers, e.g.this year  instead of 2019  - or from March 01 to March 11 instead of using the date figures, this should work!

[Ian20]

I do that Ralf, but this issue needs to be addressed and resolved by Airbnb.

[JJ48]

Yes!  I have had several guests inquire to the walking times of nearby restaurants and such.  It makes me look like a buffon in my reply message with all the "blocked by airbnb" inserted everywhere I said 10 - 15 minutes, etc.  Kind of ridiculous.  

[Ian20]

Yes, frustratiing as it backfires on us.

[Ian20]

Can I ask everyone's thoughts on another topic regarding the calendar? Have another thread open for this but would appreciate any feedback here too. Here's the issue:

I have just had yet another guest confused by Airbnb's calendar design. He wrote:

''I'm looking at your cottage and wanted to check if it's available on the dates I selected. am a little confused because the dates in between the 3rd and 10th appear to be crossed out.''

The days he refers to are available, but they are crossed out because they are not available as check-in days. This design is misleading and confusing.

Just looking at the calendar, i.e. if guests do not interact with it, they think the days are booked but the dates are simply not available as check-in days. The difference between the booked dates and the dates available - but not as check-in days - should be made clear.

I would suggest an obvious colour code system with explanatory symbols below the calendar alongside the minimum stay information.

Many people contact me because of this, but many don’t bother, they simply move on and we have lost bookings because of this problem. After seeing the Airbnb calendar looking 'booked' some of my previous guests have then gone to TripAdvisor to check dates and booked there - so the design flaw is losing Airbnb business too. I would much rather they booked at Airbnb!

AIRBNB: PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do something about the calendar design to make it clearer: differentiate between booked days and days simply not available as check-in days - not every potential guest interacts with the calendar if they think the days are unavailable!

[Peter2603]

They also blank out any mention of social media websites!!