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

[Lizzie]

Hello @Alice & Jeff, @Allison, @Oomesh Kumarsingh, @Susan, @Ruthie, @Kelly, @Jenny & Tom, @Emilia, @Ben, @Huma, @Mark , @Alice, @Oad0,

I've looked into this a little more with the Product Team and the good news is that guests are still seeing your questions, which are being prompted before they go ahead an book. This is what it looks like:

The difficulty here, looks as though the questions are not visible on the host side. The team is aware of this and are looking into it. 

Hopefully this aligns with what you are experiencing. Do let me know, if you can.

Speak to you soon.

Thanks,

Lizzie

[Susan653]

@Lizzie, thank you so much for following up on this. It's a relief to know the questions still exist, even if we can't see them at the moment.  It really is strange how "Guest Trip Information" is still there as one of [my] requirements for Instant Book, but in the editing window, it's gone. There's the option to change the welcome message, but there's no mention of the security questions/trip information at all once you go into "edit."

Thanks again for alerting the team and hopefully they can fix this soon so that hosts can edit/update their questions--or at least know they're there. 🙂

[Lizzie]

No problem @Susan653 , I am glad this is helpful. It's good to hear a little more about what you are seeing. 

I too hope this will be fixed soon. 🙂

Thank you,

Lizzie

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Lizzie, tthis is not true. Anyone using an incognito page booking my property will not be fed these questions as I have tried to do this myself. More and more I am convinced that the product managers and software testers have their heads up their A$$ES. I've been here more than 4 years and have complained over and over and over about situations exactly like this. If I can't see it as a host, like they claim, then someone DIDN'T DO ALL THE FARCKING TESTING.  That's just the biggest pile of dog dookie that's been shoveled on us. I'm sorry, but you are being made a shill.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

And on top of that, the EXPERTS who responded to my question say the functionality has been removed in the last 90days. So which is it? It's removed and we're to believe that person who responded to my inquiry or we're to believe the product person who wasn't even aware until you emailed him?

I'm sorry but I'm pissed and so tired of doing this for Airbnb. How many times have I announced product issues like this? Seems to me I'm coming close to being an employee with all the defects I've uncovered . 

[Susan653]

@Lizzie , another question:

I just tried to edit my welcome message, and after clicking "save", there's no evidence of my changes. Basically, I added a parenthetical  line regarding trip information questions, "(please also answer if making an inquiry)."

Can you check and see whether or not it's showing up for guests? I tried, but it's not visible for me at all when I pretend to be a guest, probably because I can't fake-book my own place. 🙂

Thanks!

[Lizzie]

Hello @Susan653 ,

Sure! 

This is what I can see, when going to book your listing (Entire home):

It doesn't look like it has been added. It could be that it is still updating.

Lizzie

[Susan653]

Okay, thanks very much for checking. I hope you're right and the edit's just in process.

[Mark116]

@Lizzie   I appreciate your work here on the forum, I only wish that more of your colleagues were as pro active and consciencious as you seem to be.  Best.

[Jeff89]

Hi @Lizzie 

The "product team" are perpetually making changes and taking features away without prior notice to or consultation with hosts. We all like improvement but features should not be removed or replaced - especially without prior notice.  I also provide significant feedback of these annoyances via the platform but as no response is provided via the feedback option, the status of issues raised is never known even though we are "ensured" by case managers that all feedback is reviewed by relevant departments. 

Generally speaking there is insufficient quality control and acceptance testing on platform changes and Abnb continue to alienate hosts by implementing many absurd "features".

Amongst the only item Abnb give prior notice on are changes to their terms and conditions of business that are usually in Abnb's favour. 

It is a pity that Abnb continue to alienate hosts by platform and policy changes they believe are improvements but on  brighter side for hosts it's great that we have alternate platfoms to use.

[JJ48]

I found a solution!!  I was having the same troubles mentioned on here with both the Automated Questions and my Welcome Message.   The Automated Questions seemed to have disappeared and yet I was still having guests tell me what time they were going to arrive (I wanted so badly to remove this question because it seems to imply to the guest that it's up to them, e.g. they were not taking my check-in time into account when responding).  Also, I wanted to update my Welcome Message but when I would type in a new message and save it, the old one would just come back - I could not get rid of it or edit it.  So, I just spent the last couple of hours on a casual chat with CS and they couldn't help me and would get back to me, yada, yada. I had already tried other browsers as well as turning IB off and back on again.  And since there was no way to just unplug or kick the airbnb system to make it work, I tried the app.  And on the app, I was able to update my Welcome Questions as well as see and update the Automated Questions!  Maybe I'm the last to know but was really frustrated and hope this helps someone.  

Edit:  And, I just found, you can "preview" the questions and message to see what the guest is going to see! That's pretty cool, I don't remember having that before.  Anyways, it's a bit of hassle but at least a workaround.  I'm excited anyways 🙂

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

[Tim546]

ditto

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

Tnx @JJ48  it's good to know 🙂

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Lizzie - There are now multiple threads where hosts have received messages regarding the removal of the automated questions.  

It's problematic because it's unclear what they are doing exactly and that we are getting mixed messages - it's going away or it's not. Plus, if the solution is to change our welcome message, the limit on the text characters is way too small.  We don't even understand WHY this is happening when so many of us use it. 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/An-update-about-pre-booking-questions/m-p/985849

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Airbnb-retiring-pre-booking-questions/m-p/985474

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Pre-booking-questions/m-p/984877

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Pre-booking-message/m-p/985462

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Pre-approval-questions-going-away/m-p/984852

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/quot-An-update-about-pre-booking-questions-quot-Emails/m...

[JJ48]

I haven't gotten the message yet but will look for it.  As of now,  through the app I am still able to use the questions as well as edit and update my welcome message. There are more characters available for the welcome message than before.  I'm not sure exactly but at least 5O or so additional.  I noticed it because I tend to be verbose and was able to type all I wanted and have some left over.  I'm curious about other users experience.

Edit:  I just checked it out and the welcome message on the app allows 300 characters total.  A good paragraph's worth, so definitely more than we used to have.  Hopefully this helps!