Is it OK to reach out to a non-responding guest on FB

[Susan1188]

My guest arriving next week is not answering airbnb messages and gave an invalid phone number.

I need to reach her to clarify Covid travel rules, get ID's, plan her check in.

I found her on FB, is it ok to reach out thru facebook messenger?  Is that weird or invasive?

I also contacted client support, extremely disappointing - got a series of bots and even an answer to somebody else's question with personal info of somebody else's guest.

What would you do?

[Cathie19]

@Quincy , @Lizzie 

Hi @Susan1188.

My advise for contacting a guest when they are not communicating to you, is stay on the AIrbnb message board. It’s frustrating but anything else, IMO, is unprofessional. In fact, it’s an invasion of their privacy to contact them via Facebook etc.

Let’s imagine you booked accommodation through Agoda, Booking.com or similar,  and the hotel concierge or manager contacted you via your personal Facebook or Messenger account. It’s inappropriate and never going to happen..... It think it would feel like being stalked! 

I totally feel your frustration, but you can only keep trying to contact the guest and AIrbnb. 

If the guest makes no effort, it could be they are not AIrbnb savvy, maybe they have not downloaded the App or maybe don’t have notifications turned on! I had a similar guest a while ago, till I explained the communication requirements.

Just remember an old saying: “Better an empty house than a bad tenant”.

You need to have all your Covid19 requirements visible within  your listing, and also send a message via AIrbnb site.

Maybe you need to say to them, as a matter of safety, if they don’t respond by “x” date, then you will have no option but to ask AIrbnb to make direct contact with them, to clarify the Covid19 guest requirements re confirmed, to avoid jeopardising the booking. 

If they are deliberately avoiding your questions, then they may not be great “house rule” keepers......

[Susan1188]

thanks @Cathie19 , that's good advice I'm glad I didn't reach out on facebook.

This is a savvy guest with dozens of trips and several bad reviews.  I let the older bad reviews slide and booked her anyway because of the more recent seemingly good reviews.

In any other season I would have gotten cs to cancel.

In this case, she booked my 10 day high season Xmas and new year and I wanted some contact to make sure she wasn't going to cancel on me last minute.

Which is what she is now trying to do.

Yes I asked Airbnb to contact her.  Which they couldn't do of course, because her "verified" phone was disconnected.  Perhaps it worked when she set up her profile but they don't re-verify each time.

[Susan1188]

@Cathie19 

---

Let’s imagine you booked accommodation through Agoda, Booking.com or similar,  and the hotel concierge or manager contacted you via your personal Facebook or Messenger account. It’s inappropriate and never going to happen..... It think it would feel like being stalked! 

---

Your comment about Booking and Agoda got me thinking, something didn't feel right - why is this a false equivalency?

Because on Booking or Agoda, if the guest agrees to a strict cancellation policy, the website doesn't go in and give them extenuating circumstances for a 10 day high season stay two days before arrival!

Only on Airbnb can guests back out on their commitments with no compensation, agreement, or proof to the host.  

Having said that I agree with you it is not appropriate to use FB and I didn't do it.  But the equivalency to other booking platforms is not correct.

[Emiel1]

@Susan1188 

Not a good idea to contact via Facebook. Use only by Airbnb provided communication features. The phone number mentioned in the reservation useally needs to be confirmed when setting up the account, so how can it be invalid ?

As reservation is starting next week, there is still time. But if no response upto 1 day before start of reservation, contact Airbnb again (i know it is hard dealing with the bots....), but behind the Twitter account  (AirbnbHelp) are still humans !

[Susan1188]

@Emie1 

After hosting +- 150 stays I have encountered invalid phones several times.
Reasons are:
- people putting land lines instead of mobiles in their profile
- people changing numbers (when profile was set up years ago)
- people using someone else's phone to set up their profile
- people using someone else's account

This is the first time I got a completely disconnected number.

[Anonymous]

@Susan1188  I agree with the others that it is not a good idea to contact your guest on F***book.

But it shouldn't be necessary to contact Airbnb either. You can handle this yourself as the host. For example, if you've given the guest an opportunity to schedule the check-in around their arrival time, and they've failed to respond, you can move from Asking Mode to Telling Mode:  state the more limited time window that you're now able to accommodate the check-in, and any other requirements you have, and make it abundantly clear that you're only able to grant access to the property under those terms.

In my experience, this tends to get a much faster response. But if it still gets no response, at least you have a record of the conditions of entry being transmitted to the guests, so you're not at fault if they fail to meet them.

[Susan1188]

@Anonymous 

Hi Andrew I always love your responses they are always so constructive and good advice.

It is super stressful to have a pending arrival and not know what time or if they are coming.  So inconsiderate of the guest as well.

You are right we have no choice but to just sit and wait for the guest to decide they need to get the check-in information, and go on their Airbnb account.

I like the way you put it, to switch from "asking" to "telling".  That's a good way to think about it I'll use that in the future - saying since I haven't heard from you, I have planned check in for 6pm, and check out is 10am on departure day.  

[Susan1188]

---

state the more limited time window that you're now able to accommodate the check-in, and any other requirements you have, and make it abundantly clear that you're only able to grant access to the property under those terms.

---

So what if you say:  since I haven't heard from you, check in is between 4pm and 6pm, that is the only time my team has free to welcome you tomorrow.

and then they arrive outside that time and complain to airbnb they can't get access to the property?  That is like the number one cardinal sin right?  What do you suggest about that.

[Anonymous]

@Susan1188 I've done this quite a few times before, and honestly what usually happens is that the guest finally responds minutes later.

But the situation where the guest shows up on the check-in day after repeatedly failing to correspond, and then ignores the instructions and time window, is still plausible. It's not a cardinal sin if an Airbnb agent can look at your message thread and see that you've made every effort, but in the event that the guest calls them to cancel the booking, they'll probably get a full refund. 

This is an unlikely outcome, but it could happen! And just the same, if a guest misbehaves during the stay and you need to kick them out, you won't be penalized but you have to give them back the money for the unused nights. 

[Helen3]

When I have issues contacting a guest I call Airbnb and ask them to contact the guest pointing out info is required as part of my IN questions/house rules and they follow up with the guest @Susan1188 

[Susan1188]

@Helen3 Yes of course that is what I did, and of course Airbnb could also not get in touch with the guest because..... the phone was disconnected.

And yes it's a great idea to put in your house rules that the guest must respond to messages.  I also have that in my house rules.

Having that in your house rules allows you to cancel the guest if they don't respond.

In this case I really didn't want to cancel because the booking was for 10 day high season Xmas and New Year for 5 people, a huge booking I really needed and for which I refused a number of other requests.

[Helen3]

I suggested asking Airbnb  @Susan1188 because they often have other contact details for guests that we don't have.

I actually have it as part of my IB questions that guests are required to provide check in time, confirmation of where they are travelling from etc.

A difficult time for all sadly;  in the UK we have been unable to take bookings for months because of our lockdowns because of our rising Covid levels. 

[Susan1188]

Yes, it is also in my IB questions that they must provide flight details and check in time, ID and answer messages.

This has worked for me 95% of the time, indeed.

[Sarah977]

I've had guests not respond to messages and thought they were just ignoring them, but in one case they were on a camping trip with no internet or cell reception, and another was at a retreat where they weren't allowed to use any devices.

I've also had guests with invalid phone umbers, but it was just because they had forgotten to change the number when they got a new one or moved. But those were guests who had a substantial history as Airbnb guests- if it was a new profile with o reviews, I'd be suspicious that the invalid number was purposeful.

And Airbnb support has always been good about getting in touch with non-responsive guests for me, but I know that currently CS seems to be useless.

@Susan1188