How important is responding quickly?

[Mike418]

Hello Hosts,

we have heard from hosts that getting back to guests quickly is super important. We are building a messaging app that gives one place to receive and send messages from popular services like FB, WeChat and texting. And translate on the fly.

With that in mind, how important is responding quickly to potential guests to your success as an AirBnB Host? And how important would a service, like the one described above, be to becoming successfull?

We would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Thank you!

[JB6]

I have a (self-imposed) requirement to respond in an hour (unless it simply isn't possible, like requests that come in at 2 in the morning or when we are in a movie).  However, we both have the AirBnB apps on our phones and tablets, and when a request comes in we each receive 3 notifications (text, AirBnB app, email), so they are hard to miss.  And we can respond in one of those 3 ways, although it is easier on the app.  I don't see how another app is going to make response time even faster, but I'm willing to give anything a go.  Translation would be interesting, but not a problem we have run into in the past.  And we do not take reservations over anything but AirBnB.

[Ben205]

@Mike418

Bit of an aside, but Airbnb guidelines say you should put a photo that identifies you on your profile. Helps guests and hosts know who they are dealing with. I'd like to politely suggest you add a pic of yourself to your listing.