I want to respond to a potential guest's question, but have been stopped by airbnb. Help please

[Dean703]

Airbnb keeps telling me I can't send a message until they book with me.  They will not know if they want to book if I can't answer their question.

[Sarah977]

@Dean703  What question and what answer? You cannot exchange personal info like phone numbers or email addresses with a guest before a booking is confirmed, nor add links to anything.

I'm having a hard time imagining what info the guest might require that couldn't be answered without anything like that.

[Brian2036]

@Dean703 

I just sent you a message through “contact host” on your listing.

 You should be able to respond by clicking on the message, typing your response, and clicking “send.”

If that doesn’t work something is wrong and, although I hate to suggest it, you will have to contact CS.

Other people may be having the same problem.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Dean703 @Brian2036 @Sarah977 

There is a new "upgrade" on Airbnb ... if the guest sends an inquiry and in his message is a telephone number or something Airbnb considers "suspicious" then you can't reply to the message before you decline or accept Airbnb's question which is " .... do you want to report this guest to Airbnb? " When you decline to report him you are able to message the guest again.

[Sarah977]

@Branka-and-Silvia0  Thanks for the heads-up. That's one reason I've been staying active on the forum even though I'm still closed for Covid- best to keep up with all the latest Airbnb changes so  I won't get caught out by surprise.

[Emiel1]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

I do not always like the new features, but this one i appreciate.

I simply gives you a warning to check if the booking request or inquiry is OK.

The main advantage is you can decline a booking request without it is affecting your ratings.

i already used it frequently, guests starting violating Airbnb rules in their initial message are not my favourite ones.

[Brian2036]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 @Dean703 @Sarah977 

I just downloaded the NEW AND IMPROVED APP UPDATE with the sinking feeling that it would contain unpleasant surprises.

 I guess this was one of them. What a wonderful improvement.

So if a guest tries to send a message that somehow offends the Great Computer, the host gets penalized by being unable to respond.

Isn’t that special.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Brian2036  Fortunately no 🙂  The host has two options - to report the guest to Airbnb... or... to decline to report the guest by clicking one of these two options.  If the host decline to report the guest then they can continue to message and to book.

Btw, I don't know if that was the problem with @Dean703 or it was something else.