SMS notifications have stopped working.

[Marcin65]

Hello dear hosts, administrators and moderators of the forum. When I have a problem and can't get help from cs , I ask a question here. I usually get more attention and support from users of this forum. Our collective knowledge through experience is a power that should be used by the AirBnB platform to help each other. @Joan2709 , @Helen3 , @Joelle43 , @Shelley159 

Sorry for the long introduction, now to the point. As in the title: SMS notifications are not working for me. All SMS notification settings were not changed. I received the last SMS notification on 03.03.2025. I had such situations a few times before, it seems to me that after AirBnB application updates. Then after updating on my mobile device + logging out / logging in the problem disappeared, unfortunately now it doesn't. The support department is working on ....
Has anyone had a similar problem, or can someone help me? 

I found a similar topic, unfortunately without a solution.

Notifications - Airbnb Community

Best

[Joelle43]

Hello @Marcin65 

Always nice to hear from you😊  You're right Marcin, I too didn't receive an SMS notification yesterday from a guest who messaged me - only a notification via E-mail.  

I've received a notification via WhatsApp (new) before but nothing there either.  I didn't think to check until I saw your post so thank you for detecting the problem.

Are you using an iPhone by any chance?  It seems that you've told CS that you have this problem, is that correct?

[Andrea6232]

Buongiorno @Joelle43 and @Shelley159 ,

just to let you know that here in Italy the WhatsApp notifications are not available yet (at least in my account).

Unfortunately I did not have the chance lately to check the SMS notifications (which I have ON for Listing Activity).

Andrea

[Guy991]

Hello @Marcin65 ,

I received a message from Airbnb stating that, due to some excuse I don’t recall, they will change the default setting so I will no longer receive SMS messages. I actually like those messages because the app notifications aren’t very reliable.

I went to Main Menu > Profile > Settings > Notifications > Account, where you can choose your preferred notification method. I turned all SMS notifications back on.

[Joelle43]

Hello @Guy991 

I've double checked and my SMS, Push and Email notifications are all ticked on my notifications between guest and host so I do think it's a new bug.  

[Shelley159]

Hi @Marcin65 

Like @Joelle43, I didn't notice that I wasn't receiving SMSs anymore, but now I see I haven't received them in quite a while. I looked at my notification settings as @Guy991 explained, and I still have both Email and SMS turned on for all of my Account notifications. 

In my region we're not receiving the new WhatsApp messages yet, so at the moment I'm only being notified of bookings and messages in the App and by Email.

I'm using Android, so if there's a technical issue it's not just with iPhones ...

[Marcin65]

Thank you all for your willingness to help. For me, SMS notifications are a very important way of communication, I have no other way to check that the guest wrote me a message. This makes work very difficult.

@Guy991  I was also in the account settings, despite the fact that I had all the notification settings enabled e-mail + SMS, the SMS messages did not come. I turned them all off and on again, but it did not change anything.

edit : I'm using an Android on a mobile device, but that doesn't matter because text messages come via mobile networks. Unless AirBnB is saving money and collecting for "greater American prosperity" (sorry if I offended anyone)

[Joelle43]

I agree @Marcin65 - we really need to be notified by SMS.  And then we'll wonder why our response rate is lower!

I've sent a message via my account to CS and have detailed the problem.  Waiting to hear back so will let you know of couse what they say..

[Guy991]

Hello @Marcin65 @Joelle43 @Andrea6232 @Shelley159 

You are absolutely right. I double-checked, and it has been a while since I received a message notification. However, I do remember receiving a note that they would no longer send SMS messages by default, so I’m not sure if this is a bug anymore. I do recall that, several times, it was useful—just as mentioned.

[Marcin65]

Thank you for your response. I just got this information from customer service:

"I am working to get this situation resolved for you. However, I am going to need a little more time. Your patience is highly appreciated. In the meantime if you need any help reply to me here on this message thread and I will do my best to get it resolved."

There seem to be more reports of this issue. It's hard for me to imagine that SMS messages will be sent via WhatsApp, btw.

[Marcin65]

I wanted to let you know that SMS notifications have started coming in. I haven't changed anything on my end.

We will probably never know what the reason was.

I wish everyone serenity, patience and perseverance . 

Take care!

[Joelle43]

Hello @Marcin65 

Good to hear!  I sent a message to CS to let them know of the issue and because I told them that I had received a notification via SMS of their previous message telling me that they were looking into it, the next message said that they were closing my case!  What a wonderful world they live in!

Haven't received any guest message since so I hope it's fixed as you say. It's so nice to know that we can at least count on the support of other fellow hosts here😊 

[Joan2709]

@Marcin65 

I'm not currently Co-Hosting, but consulting for other Hosts (optimizing listings and creating new listings) at the moment, so not sure if this is a problem system-wide or not? If this is happening throughout the platform world-wide its a big issue as many Hosts rely on the text messages. 

This could be a response to the unsecure, unencrypted nature of SMS texts that has been in the media lately and why WhatsApp appears to be something Airbnb is testing to replace SMS texts (without notifying Hosts yet again). 😥

[Marcin65]

Hi @Joan2709 . I don't know what might be necessary to hide in the text "you have a new message from ...". Do messages of this type need to be encrypted? and what is the risk that someone unauthorized will read them?

This issue affected multiple hosts. My co-host wasn't receiving all SMS notifications either.

[Joan2709]

@Marcin65 

Agree...I guess the only thing that would be of concern is the guest name? Perhaps they have found a security issue with the SMS texts that we are not aware of? 

Not sure if this is a bug, or something Airbnb has decided to eliminate long term?