Looking for a honest opinion...

[Samuel-And-Chiara0]

Are hosts so untrustworthy of guest information?

Airbnb's privacy policy, combined with the level of freedom given to guests to withhold relevant information, ends up being unrealistic and unbalanced for those who are responsible for welcoming and taking care of them.

We are now seeing bookings from guests whose phone numbers are not visible, and it's not even possible to know which city or country they are coming from. If they are not the ones to make first contact, we may not even know what language they speak.

This approach reflects a complete lack of trust from Airbnb towards its hosts — the very people who ensure the quality and safety of the experience offered on the platform every single day.

There’s so much more to say on this topic... Airbnb Customer Support’s response was that I should disable “Instant Book” — even though most of my apartments are connected to a PMS, which means that “Instant Book” is the only available option.

The suggestions didn’t stop there:

“We suggest asking for the phone number directly from the guest through the message thread or any other contact information.”

So, there are guests who get annoyed the moment we ask what time they plan to arrive — and yet Airbnb suggests we directly ask for information the guest deliberately chose to withhold?

And what “other contact information” even exists on Airbnb apart from the message thread and phone number?

More suggestions followed… once again, they told me to activate “Request to Book” and claimed the following — which is simply not true:

“Before confirming a reservation, you have the option to carefully review the potential guest’s account by checking reviews or the phone number linked to the account.”

And also:

“This gives you up to 24 hours to review a guest's profile information, such as their reviews and phone number. If you find that their profile does not have a shared phone number, you can simply decline their booking request.”

Decline the booking request? Based on what, I asked. Because the guest doesn’t display their phone number? That’s absurd.

How can someone giving this kind of advice truly be supporting Airbnb hosts?

[Shelley159]

Thank you for the confirmation @Samuel-And-Chiara0 

I also noticed last week for the first time that a booking came through without a phone number. I wondered whether it's perhaps some setting that's now available to the guest ...

[Joan2709]

@Samuel-And-Chiara0 @Shelley159 

Hmmm...that is not good. I had seen that Airbnb was removing the guest phone number a few days after check-out, but we are still seeing the phone number when guests book?

Hosts need the guest phone number in case of emergency, many guests do NOT have the App on their phone and many Hosts use the last 4 numbers of the phone number to create a door code. 

[Shelley159]

I'm also still seeing phone numbers on new bookings @Joan2709 , so far I've just had one without a phone number (and thereafter back to phone numbers in the regular place).

The one booking had a line "phone number not available" where it would usually be.

[Joan2709]

@Shelley159 

Hmmm...Airbnb does have a program (says only those in US) where a guest can request a temporary phone number be used to protect privacy. Haven't seen anything about it being offered in other countries? 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/3764

[Joan2709]

@Shelley159, @Samuel-And-Chiara0 

Sure enough...got a new booking today and the phone number said "unavailable" What in the world? I did confirm with the guest there is NOT a new option under Account Settings on their profile and they sent me a screen shot showing their phone number WAS appearing in their Account Settings. 

@Rebecca 

Could you be kind enough to check with Airbnb and find out if this is a glitch/bug? it certainly poses major issues for Hosts, as not only do we need the booking guest phone number in case of emergencies, many of us use the guest phone number to create door codes. 😯

[Samuel-And-Chiara0]

This is what I was told in this last customer support:

"Their phone number is not displayed because they chose not to show it on their profile, as some guests are uncomfortable sharing personal information publicly. This is why some hosts ask for a phone number directly by communicating with them through messages on our platform."

"Airbnb gives users more discretion over the information they share. Guests can choose to share personal information in the message thread if they wish."

[Joan2709]

@Samuel-And-Chiara0 

Well...the guest told me there was no such "box" to indicate he wanted to withhold his phone number in his Account Settings and even sent me a screen shot of the page on his profile. It could be that there is something elsewhere (on the reservation page?). He indicated to me he never asked for his phone number to be hidden at any time and promptly sent me his number via Airbnb msg. I also checked my own Traveling profile and saw no such option to withhold or hide my phone number.

@Rebecca could you pass what @Samuel-And-Chiara0 said above to Airbnb? Something is not adding up here. Airbnb should NOT be witholding guest phone numbers (for the reasons we already mentioned). If this is an attempt by Airbnb to prevent hosts from communicating with guests via text/phone, it is a very bad idea. The guest was really annoyed by this as well and he had over 20 trips on Airbnb. 

[Lorina14]

@Joan2709 

I just had it for a guest’s reservation as we were trying to create the door code and the phone number was unavailable. She showed me a screenshot that it was listed on her profile (but it starred out most of her number for privacy I assume) and then gave me the number in the messages. She was an international guest and I mentioned that we’ve had international guests and have not encountered this issue before. 

I think you may be correct it is a way to prevent the exchange of phone numbers for direct bookings that maybe they are trying out without letting hosts know?

[Shelley159]

Do you want to share what country @Lorina14?

One possibility is that mobile networks from certain countries may not display due to issues not controlled by Airbnb.

[Joan2709]

@Shelley159 

Don't think that is the issue...

We have had guests from other countries and their phone number displays correctly with a country code in front? 🤔

[Shelley159]

I know @Joan2709 , I'm just thinking there may be geopolitical issues blocking a specific country.or countries. 

[Lorina14]

@Shelley159 The guest was from Brazil.

[Shelley159]

Thanks @Lorina14 , mine wasn't so we haven't solved the puzzle yet!

Here's the most useful bit I can find when I ask what the likely cause of a "phone number unavailable" may be on Airbnb:

A guest's number may appear unavailable because the platform's system or the phone service is unable to properly verify or connect with that specific international carrier.

[Lorina14]

@Shelley159 

That is correct as my next guest said his phone number doesn’t work in the US but gave it to me when I asked. It also said phone number not available. It sure would be nice to have an Airbnb updates banner at the top for hosts tab when we log into our app or website account to alert us to things such as this. @Rebecca @Elisa @Quincy is this a possibility as @Joan2709 has suggested and asked for - for a while?