Sending Attachments to Guests

[Christopher187]

What is the best way to send things like maps and images to confirmed guests?  If I send them an email using the obscured email address provided by airbnb, will an attachment survive?

I want to send my guests a small map showing the entry door and various parking arrangements.  This is not something I would want to post among the publicly viewable photos, for security reasons.

[Marie405]

Hi @Christopher187, It will go through safely by email. I use it all the time.

[Marit-Anne0]

@Christopher187

I use that feature for every single guest for my arrival document and ask the guests to confirm receipt on the airbnb platform.  Also remind them that the message sometimes goes into the spam-folder.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Christopher187

I send map jpeg files thru ABB messenger using the app on my phone. For some unknown reason you can send attachments by messenger using the app but not when on the page using a laptop. 

[Sarah977]

I also send my guests a map via the coded email address. However I have had the attachment not come through when someone is accessing their email through their phone. if it doesn't attach, I ask the guest for their personal email address and send it that way. None of my guests has balked at giving me their email address.

[Fred13]

Well cool, good information folks. Wasn't aware attachments going through.

[Christopher187]

Thanks everyone for confirming! 

I'll start sending more detailed check-in instructions with images and see how it goes.  I'm having problems with guests arriving at the wrong door and bothering my upstairs tenants.  I specifically tell them to use the side door with the keypad lock and NOT the front door, but a good portion of guests still go to the front door and ring the doorbell.  Only when someone doesn't answer does the guest whip out their phone and start reading my check-in instructions and figure it out.  I'm thinking of having a big photo of the proper door as the first image in my instructions.

When you guys send attachments are you using pdf or what?  I do everything on my PC and am never a guest so I'm very unfamiliar with how guests see things on their end.

[Sarah977]

I use a PDF of my map to attach to the emails. Also use PC.

Sending a photo of the door sounds like a good idea. Seems like people have forgotten how to read these days if it's more than a 2 line tweet, but they all like images.

[Kelly149]

@Christopher187 another good solution would be to do something memorable to the correct door/entry way. So, the door is blue or there is a statute of a frog/dog/mermaid or there is a wreath on the door. That way guest knows before they start knocking that they have/haven't arrived to the right place.

[Brent-and-Sara0]

This is the exact problem we are having!!! We live in a city where flights arrive very late (around midnight) and it is ually between -25 C and -40 C. In my email I say it is a basement apartment, you should be walking down a set of stairs to the right of the house, blue door. Every dang time- up the stairs to the left, white door. Waking my whole family up!! And often my husband will have to literally walk them around the house in the freezing cold because they were too lazy to read where they are supposed to be. We even have a sign on the house with an arrow. *SIGH* 

I am planning to use a series of pictures- because clearly people donn't read. I hope this worked for you.

[Sarah977]

@Brent-and-Sara0  Yes, a photo of the entrance with a big arrow drawn on it pointing to the guest entrance should work. Assume one is dealing with a 5-year old and you should be okay 🙂  

[Brent-and-Sara0]

We have had two guests who called us in the middle of the night because they couldn't open the door. My husband goes down to see what is happening. They punch in the code correctly and then never tried to actually open the door. Just stood there expecting it to magically open because they had unlocked it.  I have never visited a country where doors don't work the same way- you either push or pull depanding on the side the hinges are on. So while they aren't five year olds I really don't know how they managed to get themselves on a plane, let alone to a foriegn country!

PS Sayulita is so pretty. What a lovely place to live. 

[Sarah977]

@Brent-and-Sara0  Yes, it's a wonder people like that manage to get through life at all, let alone travel. I can't imagine what it would be like to be so inept and have so little common sense, it must make life so unnecessarily difficult.

I live in the countryside a few minutes out of town, and it is very pretty here. Downtown is crazy busy with tourists, I avoid it as much as possible 🙂

[Janine3]

Hilarious.  I have had at least 2 guests who, letting themselves out via leaving the key in a lockbox on the door handle, have neglected to actually lock the door with said key, first!

[Karolina83]

How about you put a sign by the front door saying Airbnb guests please use other door with arrow, sometimes we need to hold their hand all the way 🙂