References: A Community Help Guide

[Dave-and-Deb0]

-----------------Updated June 2017--------------------

An updated version of this Community Guide is now available, click here to view.

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Whether you are new to Airbnb or an experienced host, I recommend getting recommendations from friends, family, colleagues or past guests who might not have booked through Airbnb.  All you need is the person's email address or if you have your Facebook account attached to your Airbnb account, you can send requests via Facebook.

Here is a "How To" guide for getting references.  It is important to understand that in order to get a reference, the person referring you will need to already have or sign up for an Airbnb account.  When a person provides a reference, you have an opportunity to accept or decline the reference.

To get to your "References" section of your profile, go to "Profile" and then choose "References" from the left hand side menu.

Adding References Using Email Addresses

To send emails to friends, enter the email address(es) into the box and select request.  You can also import your contacts as well but you will need to have a .csv file ready to import.

When you send the request, the person providing a reference will get an email in which they will click on a link and then be required to sign up on Airbnb to provide a reference.  The email they receive looks like the one below.

Adding References Using Facebook

When adding Facebook friends, you can add them by selecting "Create Request" which will load a window where you can choose your Facbook friends and type in a message.  Once again, they will then need to sign up for an Airbnb account.  

You will also see a list of friends, and their Facebook profile photo, who already have Airbnb accounts.  For those friends, you just need to choose "Request" under their profile photo and they will receive a request for a reference. 

 Happy hosting!

Dave

[Lucille-and-Alan0]

Awesome job!!!!

[Eleanor5]

Thank you so much.

[Marko4]

Dear Dave and Deb,

I'am having such a frustration with a Reference upon request.

I did receive a request from a recent guest (who at the time was only accompanying his wife who booked, but he now has a AirBnB Profile), but when I click on Write a Reference,

the page that opens doesn't give me any room for entering text (Reference). What is going on, any thoughts?

[Dan34]

Hello...can u please advise how i revoke a reference that was previously issued.

tx

Dan

[Karen109]

Hi.  I did exactly as you suggested, my friend wrote a reference, she has an account, but the review has never made it to my reference inbox.  And since I already sent her a request, i can't send her another one.  Very frustrating not to be able to contact Airbnb as it doesn't show up in the "help center" issues.  Can you help with this?

[Lizzie]

Hello @Karen109,

Lovely to meet you. 

It is great you are finding this guide useful. Just to let you know this is just one of many fantastic guides created by @Dave-and-Deb0 in the CC, here is the full list of Community Guides (so far) 🙂

Also, in terms of your reference, how long has it been since she sent it? Also, do you know if your friend has a profile pic on her account as without this her reference won't appear on your profile. You may also find this Help Center article useful. 

Thanks,

Lizzie

[Colin16]

Hey Dave and Deb. I have a question.  I've done quite a lot of work creating a series of pdf's that describe favourite features of my neighbourhood in Toronto.  I was wondering if you had thoughts about how I might share those docs with other hosts in my 'hood. Ideally the docs would be community-editable (updates, additional recommends) though my first thought after that is that I would then need to curate them to make sure that (g)host/trolls didn't mess up the information.

In any case I think that they might be useful. I could set up a generic website I guess.  Thoughts?

Colin

[Tara22]

I did not see the option to use Email to request a reference. My acount is not linked to Facebook and I need to use email.

It seems like the AirBnB interface may have been changed since your VERY HELPFUL screenshots....

Help!

[Charles-and-Chantal0]

Hi everyone, 

I can't seem to add emails for people to write a reference only through Facebook. How can I change this?

Thank you, 

[Daria20]

I have just checked it and I also seem to have only the facebook option.. Perhaps they have changed it since then. Having facebook-only references is very limiting.

[Jan177]

Hi Dave & Deb,

Thank you for your wisdom!!

This is a second posting of yours that has helped tremendously. 🙂

Jan

[Lizzie]

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for your participation here. I just wanted to let you know that there is now an updated version of this Community Guide, click here to view.

I will now close this topic for new posts. 

Thank you,

Lizzie