Check in guide glitches

[Mary419]

I use the check in guide. I have over 100 rentals to manage and Airbnb is not set up to do automated template emails etc. so the check in guide is fabulous for me but it really needs to be tweaked. Most of my guests cannot find it on their own (even though I say it should be in My Trips some say they can never find it, others say wow it was so hidden...) and then complain that they have not "received" it yet. Typically I send them a shortcut link through the app which I thought was a sure thing. A few lately have told me "link doesn't work" which I thought was just people being difficult. Yesterday a guest kept telling me the link does not work. It did not open anything. Meanwhile the link pops right up with the guide on my iphone 8, I thought this must be user error again but I was close the house so I went there to let her in and asked to see it on her phone. She had an android. Sure enough the link was flat text and did not work at all like it does on my iPhone. Since copying and pasting selected text from the app is also impossible (this bothers me when I want to copy a reservation ID number) that means the link would have to be hand typed into a browser to be useful. Or possibly the work around is to send the link separately without any other message and then the user can copy it alone and paste into a new browser window. This is absurd. Is Airbnb aware of this? I wish they would fix both of these issues: make it easier to find independently and make it work on all phones, and while they are at it add the shortcut link button to the desktop host dashboard. I can only send the shortcut link on the app.

[Emilia42]

@Mary419, from stories I have read on this forum, the check in guide does not seem reliable. Also, keep in mind that if the guest does not have a smartphone, then the check in guide does not exist.

[Mary419]

Hey @Emilia42 the check in guide can actually be viewed easily on a computer browser, it looks a little different (better actually since the steps all show on the large screen) but it works well. The big difference is the host cannot push a shortcut link out on the browser. But once the link is pushed out it can definitely be put into a browser window. And supposedly the guide is viewable without the host ever pushing out the shortcut link. I wish I could show you but the links require log in to see the information. Anyway if it is a known issue they need to fix it! It is so close to perfection. To be honest it is the one thing Airbnb does that is unique compared to other platforms and helpful enough when it works that makes me feel good about losing the service fees on these bookings.

[Emilia42]

@Mary419 can you point me in the direction of the check in guide on a desktop please? I have never been able to access it.

[Mary419]

To edit the check in guide you go to Guest Resources, the same place you enter the wifi code. On my screen the option to edit my check in guide is above the wifi blanks. The browser only allows me to edit the text (the intro part where the WORDS and the code are). To create the guide with the photo slide show steps you as the host may indeed need to be using a smart phone. You press the key emblem on the message screen and it prompts you to create the guide.

[Mary419]

This is how the guide looks if opened on the browser version of Airbnb

[Daniel2230]

I manage 8 listings and recently two of them have given me the problem you describe. 

I send guests the check-in link instructions using the little key emblem in the app which Airbnb provide.

When I click on the link through my app, I am taken to a set of instructions. However a few guests recently say when they click on the link it just takes them to the Airbnb homepage.

i assumed they weren’t logged into to the app or the website, but they were. I saw the problem on my guest’s phone as I went to have a look myself. She had an Android phone, but I’ve also had guests with  IPhones that have had the same problem.

Its clearly a bug that Airbnb need to fix, but when I contacted customer service they denied there was any problem.