Simulation in App

[Veer0]

As a new host, I would love a feature for me to simulate a booking, cancellation, check out, feedback, etc. for my listing. I want to see how certain information appears to guests, and when they receive what information.

Just a preview of my listing is not enough. Knowing the whole cycle will allow me to provide better information at each step and give me more confidence.

Do others think this would be valuable?

[Clare0]

@Veer0 Oh, Yes!! It would be very helpful to hosts to have this feature.  One of the hosts who has been a big contributor to this Community, and wrote most of the Community Help Guides, includs screen shots of how to do some things. Coincidentally, he and I just collaborated this morning on a help guide for Special Offers which includes screen shots from the host side and what the guest sees at their end.  Check it out: 

https://community.airbnb.com/t5/Community-Help/Special-Offers-A-Community-Help-Guide/m-p/282581#M341...

One of the problems with doing this, though, is that Airbnb tinkers with things so much it is difficult to keep things updated.  Plus, with Airbnb's Mobile App, things will appear differently. 

If you run into problems, be sure to check out the Community Help Guides....they are very good, and in some cases, better than some of Airbnb's help articles. 

https://community.airbnb.com/t5/Community-Help/Community-Help-Guides/m-p/23100#M311

Hope this helps! 🙂

[Veer0]

I'd say this is a good beginning. I'd really like to 'pretend' to be a guest and search for my listing (which we can all already do)...

Then go on to 'pretend' to send an enquiry, 'actually' respond to the pretend enquiry as a host, make a 'pretend' payment and booking, 'actually' accept or cancel (in case of instabook) a booking, write reviews for both parties...

There is a LOT of communication that needs to happen between guests and hosts to calibrate expectations correctly and make sure guests are happy. If I could actually see this information exchange happen, I'd be able to improve it.

I understand that 'appearance' will be different on different devices and software, but the _content_ and _timing_ (i.e., which messages are sent on which event) will remain more or less the same.

Thanks.

[The-Mansion1]

I would like to be able to make a test booking so I can see if my booking aggregator is actually working or not. Don't want to waste time and effort having to make an actual payment just to test this before guests book and maybe I miss the booking because it doesn't forward to my aggregator software.