Letter to Airbnb

[Robin4]

I would ask the company to consider something.

I am never going to be able to host more than one booking per night, I do not have that corporate structure that the company’s philosophy and strategy appears to be driven towards…

I am a core host, one of the few million who got you going, and where you are today!

My desire is to welcome every guest in the best way I can, and make them feel at easy and comfortable with their decision to book, not only with me, but with Airbnb. I welcome every guest in a different way....... sometimes efficiently, sometimes with humour, sometimes as a host, sometimes as a hotelier.

I can only do this if I can see who I am dealing with. I can’t do this when I am only provided with a name. I open a conversation stream with a guest couple in their 50-60’s entirely differently than I would with a pair of friends in their early 20’s, or a young family. A photo tells me how my contact should be opened, a blank sentence does not!

A photo does not influence whether I host a guest or not, it tells me how to get this hosting off to a good start…

And surely, isn’t that what Airbnb wants?

Please allow me to do my job to the best of my ability and give me back those profile photos that I need to be able to do that!

Cheers.....Rob

[Huma0]

I feel like I should whisper this very quietly, for the fear that Airbnb might take it away, but you CAN see guest profile photos prior to a booking (providing they have uploaded one) when using the App. I can't see them using a browser on my laptop or iPad, but I can see them no problem on my phone on the App. 

Also, someone mentioned you can no longer see the reviews. Not true. I can see them on both the App and from a browser. If you can't see any reviews, that means they probably don't have one. As metioned by others, if they do have reviews, you can click on the host's profile to see an image of the guest, providing they also left a review for the host. If you are using the AirReview extension on Chrome, you can see straight away on the guest profile page which hosts they did or didn't leave reviews for so that speeds up the process.

As Airbnb has announced this new policy, I don't know why I am still able to see the profile photos on the App and I assume they are still rolling this out, so maybe the photos will disappear from there too soon, but I hope this info is helpful to other hosts in the meantime.

Also, I have often asked newbie guests to upload a profile photo and some info and none have ever objected. None. They usually do it as soon as I ask. 

[Alon1]

@Huma0

re. your last paragraph. 

My experience is to the contrary. I don't recall a single person taking my advice, suggestion or request to load a profile photo and add some info..

Since I don't do Instant Book, info in the Inquiry usually suffices, as Guest states I'm going to do this or that, and would like to stay in your place. -- On the odd occasion that I've felt the need to inquire when sent a Reservation Request, there's normally no response and the inquiry ends there.

re. Photo.

No request has ever been met. 

Normally the Inquirer doesn't reply at all, just disappears. i'm left with the feeling they take it as an imposition and don't want to be told what to do.

I've taken very few without profile photo, those I've felt comfortable with their info in inquiry. But loading photo, no, they either don't respond to the prompt or say they'll do it, but don't. 

[Huma0]

@Alon1

That's interesting. I have asked guests to upload a photo many times and they have always done it and very quickly. I guess it depends on how serious they are about booking the space.

Maybe it's because I don't ask them this if they just send a very vague enquiry asking a question to which the answer is obvious if they had looked at my listng, e.g. "Are you near a tube?". Those kinds of guests I think are mass mailing hosts, so I'm not going to invest too much time in them at this stage and yes, sometimes they just disappear.

Also, I often get enquiries and booking requests with the most basic of info, e.g. no hello, no info on the person they are travelling with, just "I land at Heathrow." So, I frequently have to do follow up rather than just rely on the limited info they've given and it's at this point that I ask them to upload a photo if they don't have one already (and sometimes a description too if they have no reviews and haven't told me anything about themselves). They always do it.

I've probably done this at least four or five times in the last couple of weeks alone.

[Alon1]

@Huma0

I very rarely get 'vague' requests or just 'landing at...' by itself. It's coz 80% of my Guests are not tourists, but have a specific reason to be in my area which is stated at the beginning of the message: 

My personal request for photo will no longer be necessary as I've clicked the mandatory request (to be seen post-booking) with the new policy. Therefore, I expect only those willing to load will contact me.

[Susan1028]

Thanks @Huma.  I'll look into that.

@Alon0  Maybe it's a blessing in disguise? 

It would also be very nice to be able to make that choice ourselves, like most responsible grown-ups.

[Alon1]

@Susan1028 in Oregon,

re: 'Maybe it's a blessing in disguies?'

I would say it's exactly the opposite. Because in my experience over 6 years, most Guests volunatarily load a Profile photo when setting up their account. Moreover, occasionally I've taken a booking from someone without a profile photo, because I felt comfortable with the Inquiry and / or previous Reviews. Consequently, I very rarily felt the need to make this request. 

Now, in view of the new rule, I've felt obliged to make it mandatory by way of activating this option for Hosts. In other words, I've followed the guidelines to introduce a new rule into my booking process where none existed.

In sum, the new rule has had the opposite effect of it's intention because where before I felt it was a much more tactile, intuitive, fluid process, whereby I would rarely exercise my discretion; now it's set in stone, with the unequivocal message that you can't book without following this procedure. 

[Susan1028]

 @Alon0 What I was referring to is, if someone isn't willing to share thier photo and you reject them on that basis, perhaps you've avoided a problem.  Perhaps not.