Potential return guests

[Todd157]

Hi All,

I am a host in a ski town and we have return customers from time to time.  I would like to be able to contact past guests and invite them to come stay again when they are considering coming back to our area and town.  I would like to be able to in essence, send a mass email to all of them at once, inviting them back AND offer them perks for doing so including but not limited to a discount of 10-20% on their stay, wave a cleaning fee if they previously left the accommodation in tip top shape, etc.  Or, other perk ideas?  We have had dozens of guests over the past 4 ski seasons and it would sure be nice to be able to stay in touch them.  Thoughts?  Todd

[Sarah977]

@Todd157   I've exchanged personal email addresses with most of my guests during their stay.  They've all been quite open to it. A few have become friends and we keep in touch. I keep all those email addresses on file, so if you started doing something similar, you could send out mass emailings. Of course, you'd want to send them as BCC, so guests wouldn't see everyone else's email address or have theirs visible to others.

To do it through the Airbnb messaging system, you'd have to compose a saved message and send it to each previous guest individually.

[Todd157]

HI Sarah, thank for the reply. I have a couple of return guests (4 years in a row) that I have done  personal email with, but it wouldn't be practical to get everyone's email, especially since the majority of my guests I never meet (I live 2 hours away from the accommodation).  Once a few weeks pass, airbnb closes down the email link between you and the prior guest, so it is almost impossible to contact them directly via airbnb.  This is what I would like to see modified; the ability to send an email, through airbnb, that can contact and make special offers to all previous guests.  Airbnb suggested I start the conversation since they too thought it was a good idea.  They said feedback through this platform would help them think about it and possibly address it and make it easier for folks to stay in touch.

[Sarah977]

@Todd157   Because I've not yet had repeat guests, I don't know if the coded email address that Airbnb assigns to them is one that is always used for their account, or whether a new one gets generated for them with each booking. But their phone number would usually stay the same, and I always make a note of guests' phone numbers that are visible to me until their booking is over, as well. If you did this, you could text or phone the guests, saying you wanted to send them an email with a special offer for future bookings, and ask if they would mind giving you their email address (if you give them yours as well, they'd be more likely to be open to it, I think).

Yes, it would be great if that guest info didn't disappear when their booking was over.

[Mikelle0]

@Todd157  I have this exact same question as I do mostly summer seasonal bookings and would love to see return guests this year.  Did you ever have any luck finding a good way of doing this through AirBnB?

[Todd157]

Hi Mikelle

No, I never got very far with my request.  Several people wrote in and said that they would load their guests phone numbers into their cell phones and contact them that way, but I wanted a way to send out a discount offer in a mass airbnb email to all of my previous guests-  book now for 20% off, or something.  But it never got off the ground.  Here's to hoping!  That said, I have had several return guests.  They always find me.

Todd

[Ann783]

As part of the booking, I request a cell number and personal email - I use it to send a lease and the their entry code for the smart lock.