New 4,000 Character Limit to Messages is VERY Inconvenient. AirBnB Needs to do away with that recent change ASAP

[Emilio455]

Hiya. Anyone else find the new 4,000 character limit AirBnB has imposed on host-to-guest messages inconvenient? I write for a living and in my experiences guests need VERY clear and repetitive instructions for everything from check in and out to house rules. As such, my instructions are very, very detailed and precise and include a lot of information about the neighborhood, city, attractions, shopping, and getting around... and all the rest.

My standard welcome message I send to a guest when they've just booked now exceeds the 4,000 character limit by about 19,000 characters and so I know have to send it as a series of FOUR messages rather than just one simple message. This is HUGELY inconvenient to me and it's such an necessary restriction from AirBnB. I'm guessing all of my other saved standard messages will now exceed this rdiciulous limit.

Anyone else find this inconvenient?

Cheers.

[Dora676]

Hey, We are exactly in the same position. We've been hosting guests for 5 years now, and figured over time that clear instructions about getting there (with and without a car), details about the appliances of our listing, especially fireplace-related, but also garden, neighbourhood, etc is vital for guests. They are vital for us too, as we are working full time far from the listing, and cannot trouble shoot immediately. Providing our detailed house manual really helped us and guests prevent problems, technical and communicational. We also like to personalise our manual, this is also why ours is about 15k characters. It took us months to write and adjust it the way it has proven to be effective, now we have to come up with a new solution without advance warning. Thanks airbnb.

[William1254]

Very inconvenient. And the absolute least airbnb could do is give hosts some advance warning of changes like this.

My rental is an off-grid cabin (no electricity or running water) and guests need a lot more info than just a lockbox code and wifi password. It's pretty far from civilisation, so it's super important they know what they're getting into. I message the house manual directly, so I can answer any questions in advance.

P.S. Airbnb support suggested that we can still send out long texts as scheduled messages. Thought this way, there's no way to really personalise messages (beyond first name, last name). And I think they still just send out broken across several shorter messages. 🙈

[Joan2709]

@Emilio455 , @Dora676 , @William1254 

Yes...Airbnb continues to make major software changes to the platform that affect 1000's of Hosts without notifying the Host community. This creates chaos for Hosts and negatively impacts guest. If I had to guess, the character limitation may have something to do with all the changes to the messaging system recently. They may have to do that in order to allow it to function properly. Be glad it's 4,000 characters...it was 3.000 until many Hosts recently complained.

That said....ok, you need to make a platform change that will affect many Hosts. Please let Hosts know so they can prepare and come up with other solutions proactively. I have advocated for a Host Bulletin Board secction on the main landing page, but alas, to no avail. Airbnb could use this to alert Hosts to major changes there and provide a feedback button for Hosts to use. At least Hosts will be prepared to deal with changes then:

In the mean time, many Hosts create a document on Drobox or Google docs and put the link in the Airbnb Check-in message. This will help reduce the characters of the message. It may appear as the link is not functioning when creating the Scheduled Message, but it actually does work when the message is sent; I have done this for several Hosts and tested it. I like the Dropbox version as the document you create is "searchable" by keyword which is great for guests. Some Hosts also create their House Manual and post on Dropbox and do the same thing. 

[Emilio455]

Thanks for the tips. AirBnB support are calling this a "bug" and are allegedly working to address it. So we'll see. I have little faith. 

[Helen427]

@Emilio455 

Who did the Customer Support person get there information from?

Or was it just so they could close the case, yet again?

Ask what there own Registered address for service is because there's a lot flying around about Telus International who have endless Sub Contracted Agents who rely on AI and inefficiency, and misleading advertising to investors that's currently in process with SEC.

Re less characters available, That's Telcos who are doing that and simply spin doctoring and has been going on since at least the 1800's when Telcos started.

Did you know a single Text message is to this day exactly the same number of Characters for billing purposes as a Telephone/ Hand delivered Paper Telegram from pre 1980's when they phased out the use of them?

A little lateral thinking goes a long way in life.

The powers that be all shuffle papers for want of better expression to suit themselves.

[Joan2709]

@Helen427 

Huh?

What do paper telegrams have to do with Airbnb reducing the number of characters in messaging on their platform?

[Helen427]

Good Afternoon @Joan2709 

Thanks for your question.

It relates back to how much Bandwidth / Advertising Space ABB pay for with there own Platform Provider,  just like when advertising was and still is in Print Media.

There's always different sizes available for advertisers and providers alongside different costings for the placing and costings  associated with production and availability.

As the number of listings has either increased, or gone down, ABB  may well be looking at Cost Efficiencies, albeit without consulting us end users as so oft happens everywhere.

ABB may be looking at the wider picture with there own providers, and may have also had increased costs so have reduced our character numbers accordingly.

The joys of like with Marketing and Economics amongst other things!

[Sarah4367]

Yeah I do. Same as you - need to give clear instructions for location and access details etc. - this has really f****d me off !!!

[Joan2709]

@Emilio455 

**UPDATE

So I just created a scheduled message that was quite long as it included the House Manual. The first message was 7998 characters, but my House Manual is pretty long. Airbnb automatically created a second message and sent that after the first message of 7998 and the second was 3,045 characters so the entire manual was sent but in two messages, so at least that is working ok.