Automated Questions for Instant Booking function removed

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

For those of you who relied on the automated questions being prompted to guests who Instant Booked, Airbnb has removed this function.  Therefore, none of your guests are being prompted to respond to, well, anything.  And the space for a "welcome message" in the booking settings section, has a character limit less than a Tweet - so you can't ask them there. 

You could try using the "saved messages" section, which is what we've done.  We've also made our "greeting" say: "Within the next 24 hours you will receive a message that will require your response and attention.  We look forward to hearing from you."   There wasn't even room to tell them to make sure they have message notifications turned on.  

Once again, @Airbnb2 pulls a function and does not communicate it to ANYONE!!!! @Lizzy0 @Quincy0 @Admin0 @anyonewhowilllistentothehostsinanyway

[Kelly149]

@Alice-and-Jeff0 absurd but then again 99% of my guests ignored the prompt anyway

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Kelly149 - almost all of our guests sent initial messages with responses to most of the questions.  The last couple of bookings we did not get any message from the guest so I wanted to make sure the function was still on. We almost cancelled both of those reservations due to "not being comfortable" especially since they took DAYS to respond to our first message sent to them within 24 hours. 

Begs the question  - if there are NO automated messages being sent prompted by the Instant Book, what does the response rate and response time look like for hosts who use Instant Book?  

Again, amazes me that what's good for the goose is not good for the gander.  How desperate are they for guests to book at this rate?!  

[Rebecca181]

Wow. I mean, just wow. For me, these questions mattered more than the profile pic. It let me know what the purpose of the guest's trip was; did they read and agree to my house rules, etc. So that's gone now as well, and we weren't even notified? 

Airbnb, there are more humane ways to treat your traditional / home-sharing hosts (aka 'community members'). If you are intent on arranging for our collective demise (and really, based on everything that's happened this past year, it appears that you are), then let us all pass out of your machine-like, corporate hands with dignity, versus allowing us to suffer a withering, prolonged death...

[JJ48]

Hi Rebecca, 

For some reason I couldn't send you another message, always something not working 🙂

This was the original post.  To sum up the solution:  

Go to the app:  

Listing -> Booking Settings -> Guest Requirements -> Guest Trip Information.

You can even preview what the guest sees, which I thought was kind of cool. 

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@JJ48  - thank you for point this out.  Does this mean that only guests booking through the app see the questions? They are still not showing on the desktop even though when I changed the greeting message, it changed on the desktop too.  

[JJ48]

The guests are definitely seeing the questions - I had that confirmed by CS, they sent me a screen shot and everything.  I also asked a recent guest and they said they definitely got them too. CS couldn't figure out why I couldn't see them or edit the welcome message.  I've found that we are able to (see and) edit them and edit the Welcome Message through the app.  I guess some kind of glitch, but a relatively simple solution (compared to some of the glitches).  You can also "preview" in the app to see how the guests are seeing your welcome message and questions. 

edit:  The guests are seeing it that also book through the website on a PC.  The screenshot the CS sent me was from a PC and my guest that said they got the questions confirms they booked on a PC (and have never used the app).

[Nicole2223]

I know this post is old but I was psyched to see that you believe there's a way to preview what a guest sees.  I'm looking for that feature now and can't find it. Any idea if it has moved or been removed altogether?

My real issue is that I set a message to send automatically with an instant booking and I'm not seeing it in the message thread, so have no idea if it has actually sent. Based on the original post from @Alice-and-Jeff0 It would seem that feature isn't available, yet the field is still visible on my instant booking settings.  Again, this is 2022....that was 2019.  IDK how much the platform has changed during that time. I've only been hosting since August 2020.

[Oad0]

This is about safe and secure hosting. Airbnb would not do that, as it is not good for business. When there are conflict between business and wellbeing government has to put its foot down. Would you leave food safety to the manufacturer. Nope, by law they need to list the ingridients and get FDA approval. You may choose to continue talking to the wind (aka Lizy) or send a note to your congressman. It is a safety issue, and lawmakers need to slap Airbnb wrist. Facebook was plagued by fake news and hate groop, and only because of Congress has started to pay attention. A business. Any & Every business must be regulated. This country would be left without forestry, and national treasures and Over pulled - do the right thing. Call your congressman

[Lizzie]

Hello @Oad0,

I'm not sure if you have read to the end of this discussion here, but I've been posting updates on this and the Product Team are looking into it. As I say at the end, it doesn't look like this function has been removed–but I will keep you updated. 

Thanks,

Lizzie

[Oad0]

I saw your earlier response, thank you. Airbnb programmers makes updates often, but as often fail to fully disclose or fully test them. My point was that this line of business is not regulated, not as yet. And does not need to answer anyone. Had it was regulated and open to litigation by law - each and every update by programmers would go thru legal and quality scrutiny. This will help IMO Airbnb to become the better business it can be, and more resilient in the long run

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Lizzie - This conversation just popped up in another thread about the questions being retired.  So which is it - it's a glitch or it's being retired? 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Has-anyone-else-received-this-email/m-p/985026#M246366

And again, not everyone received this message.  

So if it is being retired, the character limit on the message MUST be bigger than it is now to replace the information we are currently getting with the questions. 

[Jenny-and-Tom0]

@Alice-and-Jeff0 have you thought about using an automated messaging tool in place of that feature?  You could have it send the guest a message after they book asking them the questions.  I wouldn't be surprised if would work better anyway.  I think all the automated messaging tools would be able to do...****

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[Susan653]

Whaaaat?! Well, that explains why, when I was reviewing one of my listings the other day, I saw that the questions had disappeared. This is really bad, as the questions were a screening function that's become even more important for me since guest photos were eliminated. So now basic questions about a potential guest's trip are too invasive? What's next? (I don't want to know).

[Alice491]

So they eliminated the questions  and the photos