We can no longer ask guests questions before accepting a guest's booking request? Is this true?

[Donald28]

I got this email from airbnb today and I don't think I like it.  Usually people don't read the few pre-booking questions I have for them in my listing as it is. I ask basic things like how many in your group, how many kids and what are their ages, any dog/s coming, what is the breed and are they friendly with other dogs. Very basic stuff that I NEED TO KNOW.

How many times has a host had a guest book for 1 person and then many more show up? It happens to me weekly and sometimes daily. I've had people try to book with kids under 6 years old. I don't host kids under 6. I've had guests say NOTHING about dogs accompanying them and then they show up with a dog. One guy even showed up with 3 BIG dogs! I need to know beforehand if the dogs I'm allowing on to my property (to be near my) dog are friendly. 

Early on the day of the reservation I always use a saved message and ask the guest when they plan to arrive today. Sometimes people forget they even have a reservation or forget the check in time. 

This message airbnb sent me today makes it seem that we can no longer ask any question BEFORE either accepting or denying the booking?! So, if I blindly accept the guest request to book for 1 person and he shows up with his family of 6 (two of the kids are under 6 years old) and his 3 dogs (who don't get along with other dogs), I'm stuck?! I cancel the reservation & lose my superhost status. Airbnb expects the guest to read and respond to questions  in the welcome message AFTER BOOKING?! That's just not going to happen. I just think this is a bad bad bad idea. 

For Tiny House & Huge Arcade just 5 miles To Six Flags, we noticed that you use a feature to ask guests questions about their trip before they book.

On October 02, 2019, we’re consolidating this feature with the welcome message. This will streamline the experience for hosts by offering one place to set your greeting and ask all your questions.

What you can do

If you want to keep asking guests for their trip details, you can copy and paste your original questions over to your welcome message, or add new ones. We’re increasing the character count of that message to fit the questions and everything else you want to say. Nothing will change for guests—they’ll still have the opportunity to respond to your questions before confirming their reservation.

[Rebecca181]

If what you say is true, then I am done with Airbnb. 

This is really nuts. These are our HOMES we are sharing. Yeesh.

[Suzanne302]

I think some of you are panicking for no reason and jumping to conclusions! If you read the subject line of the email it says:

"A new way for you to ask guests questions before they book."

It doesn't say anything about eliminating the message function or taking away your ability to ask questions prior to booking. They are simply consolidating what used to be two separate messages into one message.

They are streamlining the experience for hosts by "offering one place to set your greeting and ask all your questions."

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Suzanne302@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 

English is not my first language but I also understand it the way Suzanne did. They simply increased the number of characters in an existing welcoming message (until now it was just a few lines ) and they are giving the guest the opportunity to answer our questions DURING the booking process.

This way when we receive Instant booking or a booking request we don't have to ask questions and then wait until our guest answers them. They should/can answer immediately in their first message.

Of course, there is always a possibility someone will book without reading our welcome message or answer just partially....

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

There is one message being removed and there is one message which will consolidate two messages.

Where in the booking process do you think this consolidated message will be (or is)?

If you read Suzanne's response, your stage 3 won't exist anymore and the single message is elsewhere in order to reduce those 'clicks before confirming the reservation'.

@Suzanne302 

I don't think this is anything to cause alarm. As mentioned above, they are just consolidating the messages. Instead of two separate messages (and more clicks before confirming the reservation) there is only one.

The only place the consolidated message can be is after the booking is made, which is after the stage4 of booking you did not visit.

I have no problem with that as I don't rely on any automated welcome message requiring a reply, I do ask specific details based on the group size, information provided in the booking and the experience and reviews of the guest.

Thats why I say the consolidated (welcome) message will be after booking confirmation is made. Any message which might instill doubt in a guests progress to book - as the message in your stage 3 - is a hurdle to booking and Airbnb are avoiding that. The onus then will be on the host to identify any anomaly in the booking which they would need to question and resolve as they previously would have done.

Time will tell.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0  AAAA ok ok... it makes sense...

the link in Airbnb email directed me to my old welcoming message to edit it. When I did and clicked on the "save" button the all "welcome message" part disappeared, who knows where it is now...?

[John1574]

-

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

 Yes that is supposed to be my greeting message and I edited yesterday after receiving the same message the rest you did.  But there were not extra character spaces so I still had to tightly edit my message which makes it read rather unwieldy.

 How did you get my message?   Did you do a partial  Instant booking? 

 I said before I have never received a response from any  guest,  from an automated greeting,  Who  Instant  booked.

 That's why am wondering if this is really just a tempest in a teapot and they launched the idea before they incorporated the technique. 

 I don't see much change for me, but I will be watching closely.

 If anything the greeting message will help me handle the guests who are trying to book for one and bring three -  they will be greeted by that message and I will ask them to confirm that they received it and confirm the number of guests. 

[Donald28]

Branka ..."

 If anything the greeting message will help me handle the guests who are trying to book for one and bring three -  they will be greeted by that message and I will ask them to confirm that they received it and confirm the number of guests."

Yes, and the guest will ignore the message and there won't be anything you can do about it because the booking is already confirmed and the guest has paid airbnb. The guest will book for 1 (by mistake usually) and show up with 5 people and 3 dogs. What do u do? Argue with them in your driveway? Call airbnb while they wait? Cancel? Even if airbnb agrees to change the reservation to the correct number of people, this really starts a stay off in a negative way for both host and guest. Bad reviews are sure to follow. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@John1574 

yes, I've seen and still see your welcome message in the third step of the booking process.

1. I chose the dates and number of people and click the "reserve" button
2. Then I see the dates I have chosen and your house rules and click "agree and continue"
3. Then I see the number of people I book for and  your welcome message. Bellow is a text area where I can type my answer or message to you... I didn't go further

Unfortunatelly people don't read, they just click "next" so I also think nothing will change

[John1574]

-

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 @Branka-and-Silvia0 @Donald28 

 Somehow, I thought I read that this will be rolled out on October 3.  Did anyone else get that impression?

 When they do roll it out there will be an expanded text box so you can write much more detail and coherent messages.  That is my understanding, please correct me if I'm wrong. 

-

[Donald28]

the way I read it is that on 10/2 this starts. It's unknown when they will allow for more text in the welcome message for a hosts questions. We shall all see in less than a month! 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@John1574 

I got an email from Airbnb, clicked on the link provided and was able to edit my welcoming message and add much more text in it. When I clicked on the "save" button the whole thing (title, my text, and guest's text area) disappeared from that page. To edit it again I had to open my email and click again on the link provided by Airbnb.

Strange

[John1574]

-

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

 You are sooooo right.

 And you're super investigative skills are much appreciated. 

You might consider a part-time job as a private investigator.  (;>)

I will wait until they roll it out in October and then see if I can make a longer, little more friendly message. 

 But I predict not much will change. 

-

[Suzanne302]

Some of y'all are reading WAY too into this.

@Donald28 

You do realize that guests were NEVER REQUIRED to answer your booking questions, right? The scenario you described above can happen with the booking process now.

[Donald28]

I do not use instant book so ...not with MY booking process. Potential guests are ALWAYS required to answer my booking questions. If potential guests do not respond to the basic questions in the listings, I message them immediately because I only have 24 hours to either accept or decline their inquiry. If they still do not respond within the 24 hours of their inquiry, I simply decline them.

Yes, I like money but I like knowing what type of people are coming to stay on my property a lot more. One bad guest can do so much more damage in one night that totally eats up the little bit they paid to stay for the night and then trying to get airbnb to compensate me for the broken things is a nightmare/time-drain. And, I never can recoup or get reimbursed for my time dealing with the situation the bad guest has left me with. 

[John1574]

-

@Suzanne302 @Donald28 

That's the voice of reason in the wilderness.  

I agree, a bit of an overreaction by many people.

 But what about instant booking?   By instant booking a guest agrees to your house rules.  If I message them asking if they have read the house rules are they required to respond? 

I'd guess not, but then I'd have grounds for a penalty free cancellation  based on their non-response.  It would be in a guest's best interest to answer any questions a host asks them. 

 To repeat myself, I don't think much will change except that it will be a net positive for hosts:  hosts will have more room in the text box to write a more nuanced greeting message.   At least I hope that's what I'm understanding. 

 No reason to get overwrought about this upcoming change. 

-