Initial Communication from Guests when Booking

[Suzanne302]

I've been away from hosting for over a year and I'm reading that guests have gotten, let's say, not as nice? I've had my listing open a week and so far the 3 guests I've had have been nothing but lovely. (I'm not naive, I know I'm bound to have a lemon sooner or later.)

I have 8 bookings so far and every single one of them has written me a detailed intro about why they're coming and how my home looks nice. Even the IB guests! And I DON'T have that "pre-booking" message activated like I did with my last listing.

Is Airbnb giving instructions/prompts to guests on what to say?? I haven't booked an Airbnb in awhile, so I don't know what the guest is seeing when they hit that "request" or "book" button. Just curious because the initial booking messages I've been getting are better than the ones I've had in the past.

I'm a homeshare host, so my experience is different than those who are listing an entire home rental, of course.

[Robin4]

@Suzanne302 

Hey, welcome back stranger!

It's almost 8 months since I booked as a guest and I don't recall getting message prompts when I made that last booking. But Suzanne, we have been hosting right through this pandemic because in my state it had been almost nonexistent until our government opened the borders last December....and by that stage of the piece more than 90% of us were fully vaccinated.

Since December all the inter-staters have started coming back and I have found no deterioration in the quality of guest over that time. If anything I think they have got nicer, they appreciate being able to travel again, and we tend to get more little gifts left for us when they leave......this from guests just 2 nights ago......

 

I don't have a problem with the guests, they are all lovely, I just have a problem with the way Airbnb tells them to review us........but as you know, that's an old chestnut!

Hope all is good for you over there in North Carolina, all the best!

Cheers........Rob

[Emilia42]

@Suzanne302 This is what guests are seeing before they click "Confirm and Pay":

Just curious, why no pre-booking message?

[Suzanne302]

@Emilia42  Ah, okay. That makes sense. I don't remember being "required" to send a message prior to booking before.

I've been slowly working on fine-tuning my new listing (wording and pics) and haven't set up a pre-booking message simply because I haven't gotten around to it yet, lol.

[Suzanne302]

@Robin4  Good to know there are hosts still having positive experiences out there! I really did miss hosting! And you're right, I've never had a big issue with guests either, just Airbnb.

[John5097]

@Suzanne302 

I've also had excellent guest who are very positive influence. We almost always communicate through the ABB message and it being their own private apartment usually don't even see most of them unless we happen to be headed out at the same time, and are always very friendly. I put that in the host interaction that I park in a different drive and just say hi from across the yard. 🙂

You are also an experienced host and already know its best to simply avoid any potential situations that can be trouble, like something little that can escalate. 

I've tried things that just didn't work out. It was tempting to try to be everything to everyone but I'd rather have a stress free experience. So the only situations that cause concern is when a guest wants to cancel the day before, and cite covid, or medical emergency. If I don't let them cancel sometimes they will keep the reservation anyway which for me is a situation that could escalate and against my entire approach to hosting. 

Also Airbnb used to require a first message from guest with IB, but changed about a year ago. I suddenly got 9 guest in a row with no message at all, so had to update settings to require a first message. For me that's all I need. Last night I also put in there to update profile before booking.

Glad you are off to a great start and staying positive is so important!