Your feedback inspired the 2024 Summer Release

[Airbnb]

 

The 2024 Summer Release includes upgrades you’ve asked for to help you:

• Simplify communication with guests.
• Get a better look at your earnings.
• Know more about who you’re hosting.
• Reorder photos in your photo tour. 

Communication: The Messages tab totally redesigns the inbox, putting all your hosting, traveling, and support messages in one place. You’ll be able to filter and search across messages, have a group conversation with every guest who joins a trip, react to messages with emojis, and answer guests’ questions more efficiently with AI-suggested quick replies.

 

Earnings: The enhanced earnings dashboard includes interactive charts that show your earnings by month, year, and listing, and offers more details on prior years and future projections. A new reporting hub makes it easy to download monthly and yearly reports, including breakdowns by listing or payout method. 

 

Guest profiles: Guests who book or join a trip will be prompted to create a more complete profile. Our new profile setup includes guided photo capture for better profile photos. It also prompts guests to add more details about themselves, so you get a better sense of who’s coming to stay.

 

Photo tour: The Listings tab now includes the ability to reorder listing photos within rooms. This was the top request from Hosts for the photo tour.

 

The Messages tab and enhanced earnings dashboard are available when you enroll in Early Access. The photo tour upgrade is out now, and guest profiles are available to all guests. 

Find out how Early Access works and how to share feedback

Which upgrade will be most helpful for your hosting business? 

Learn more about what’s in the 2024 Summer Release:

• The Messages tab is your new inbox
• Earnings dashboard: A better look at your bottom line
• Know more about your guests with profile upgrades
• More control in the Listings tab

[Bhumika]

That's a very interesting observation you've shared about bookings @John5097 ! I'm so glad to hear that it works out nicely for you. 

I like your idea of AI offering answers to some of the most commonly asked questions prior to guest sending an inquiry eg : whether host offer discounts , listing specialities. That would be so intriguing!😉

[John5097]

@Bhumika 

Yes specifically with guest asking for additional discounts in the inquiry. 

Many of us host around the world just have a set rate. We aren't scammers and actually care about other people and already offer good value.  

Hopefully Airbnb will use AI to help both host and guest, and not just create more problems and conflicts.  If they can't even have a clear smoking policy. 

However I'm always able to adjust. I put no discounts in my Other Things to Note. 

We are also rated by each guest. So far I do have 5 stars in communication. We just get inquiries at all hours and some claim they have a reservation but don't, or ask about things that are easily found in the listing.

 

[John5097]

PS.. please don't move this. 

A simple solution would be to include an update with both the "indoor and outdoor" option when host select NO SMOKING and display that with the NO SMOKING in the listing description. "No Smoking, vaping, e-cigs, anywhere on the property" 

If host wants to let guest smoke they can have the option of choosing indoors or outdoors. 


This would also be much more considerate to neighbors. 

[Matt4914]

@John5097 @Bhumika

I wholeheartedly agree that the wording in these sections could use some improvement and clarification!

Another area that really needs improvement is the little message shown when booking that should prompt guests to add pets to their reservation. Right now it says:

"This place has a maximum of [#] guests, not including infants. If you're bringing more than [#] pets, please let your host know."

This implies that guests only need to inform hosts of pets if they're bringing more than the maximum amount allowed by the listing!

It would also be great if hosts could confirm that guests have actually read their house rules! House rules can be exceptionally important to a listing and are critical information that guests need to see and understand prior to confirming a reservation.

As of right now, the only listing section where we can really put this information is buried under several sub-sections at the very bottom of the listing page. Guests need to scroll all the way down, click into the "House Rules" section, and then likely click on the barely visible "show more" button to view any information a host might need them to read.

This information absolutely needs to be made more prominently available to all guests and, just like the procedure for accepting any modern platform's Terms of Service, there should be an option for hosts to require guests to fully read and confirm acceptance of the house rules prior to booking.

As of right now, the only way around these issues is to turn off instant book (which can severely hurt the marketability of a listing) and interrogate guests prior to confirming a reservation.

We've actually had to resort to making this the very first line in every one of our listing descriptions:

"Every Airbnb is unique, so please carefully read our house rules and this entire listing before booking!"

Many guests still don't read our house rules or understand the specifics of our listings! That's just not how it should be.

[John5097]

@Matt4914 

Great suggestions. Hiding the House Rules down at the bottom and making guest click "more" has been one of the top complaints by other host. 

Airbnb does include that now with the check in guide they send to guest. 

I put anything important in the Other Things To Note. And try to make it as clear as possible. 

It's very common for guest to have not looked at any of the listing and ask questions that is literally in the very part of the listing description such as how far it is to the beach. The guest who smoked also asked this question.




I get inquiries that ask same question that in the very part of the listing and pics. 

Here is a recent one at 11:30 pm, great is also in same time zone. That day the closest beach and county park where I supply a parking pass was also closed. I also have detailed information about beach traffic. It's crazy in the summer. 


This is pretty common for guest to expect me know the exact time it will take them to drive to a destination in a major urban area. 

All the other listings in my area host all say is 5 minutes to get to both Downtown and the Beach, when its actually 20 to get to each, and they have bad traffic in rest of area. Mine is actually a great location but guest like to mark me down. 

So far only two guest have requested discounts, both host, so they find my listing with the best value, then expect additional discounts. One host sent reservation request with asking for a free night and said I wouldn't need to clean for the next guest. Then reported  my listing and me when I decline with a polite but brief message. 




Over 99% of my guest love it, and I'm only sharing to illustrate how problematic the less than 1% become vindictive, don't bother to read any part of the listing, or use both the inquiry and reviews as a means of bartering and not following basic ground rules

(Airbnb has loopholes for pretty much anything mentioned already)   

[Joan2709]

Just a few quick thoughts...

Messages

While it might seem to be a good idea, allowing those who are in a group reservation (those that have Airbnb profiles I'm assuming), it could lead to alot more work for a host responding to multiple messages from different persons on the reservation. For those with smaller properties, probably not an issue. For those Hosts with large properties capable of hosting 10+ guests, or with multiple properties, this could become difficult to manage. For example, think about 8 people in a group of 12 all trying to ask questions about the door code, location, etc. This could become a real headache. Probably would have been better to make this an optional choice for Hosts. AI is not always a good option for direct communication with guests. Most Hosts already have Scheduled Messages and Quick Replies created to handle the most common questions. 

It might have been better to allow the Host to send messages to everyone in a group, but only allow the person booking to send messages to the Host. That said, the Host may not want everyone in the group to be aware of their communications with the person booking. I foresee some potential privacy issues on this one. Perhaps that functionality has been built-in to this feature? It's not clear from the Release notes?

Photo Tour

It is definitely nice to be able to re-order photos within a room! That said, most Hosts would like the ability to re-order the rooms themselves. Many do not want the living room to be the first room shown; especially if they have a fantastic view or other amenity they would like to highlight first. Please consider allowing Hosts to control the order that rooms appear in the photo tour. 

Guest Profile Upgrades

While it's nice to have additional information, it is still optional for guests. Many guests simple won't use it.

Earnings Dashboard

Thank you for correcting some of the issues many Hosts experienced after the last update. This will make it easier to find information. A definite improvement.

Suggestions

I echo the comments of other Hosts regarding:

- Please bring back the at-a-glance feature for notes on the calendar

- Please bring back the previous tone for Airbnb messages (or use a new tone that is easy to recognize and much louder)

Addl Suggestions

- Add a date/time stamp to the "Read by" read receipts after messages. While it's nice to know a guest read a message, it's very important to know when they read the message; especially for time-critical situations.

Add a date/time stamp to read receipts:

- Add a short code for # of pets to be used for Quick Replies & Scheduled Messages (similar to short code for # of guests). This will make it easier for Hosts to confirm with guests the number of pets they have indicated they are bringing. Right now it has to be done manually by the Host.

[Bhumika]

Hi @Joan2709 , it is always interesting to read your insightful comments and perspective. I'll be sure to pass it over for Airbnb team. (Please be sure to share these wonderful insights and recommendations to Airbnb directly through the Feedback Form as well).

Regarding your mention of the new suggested quick replies, I also wanted to share that the new feature uses AI to understand a guest’s question and automatically suggest one of your quick replies as an answer. The suggested quick reply appears in your conversation with the guest, where only Hosts can see it. Hosts can review and edit these replies before they send the message, or can dismiss the suggestion and write a reply from scratch.

Appreciate your constructive feedback and suggestions regarding the update. I see how it can benefit our Hosts.

[Joan2709]

Thanks Bhumika! That clarifies it!

[Matt4914]

@Bhumika @Joan2709

That date/time stamp for read receipts right there in the message thread is a great idea, but I can see how it might get complicated displaying that information for group threads.

Maybe there's a better solution, but for now you can still get that information detail by clicking on the "..." bubble next to each already read message and selecting the "message read by" option.

I absolutely think it should be mandatory for guests to fill out at least certain parts of their profile information and have a picture that clearly shows their face. Guests should also be required to have the name and home town on their profile match the information on whatever form of ID was used to verify their account.

It would also be great if we could have an option to require all adult guests on a reservation have their own Airbnb profiles attached to that reservation.

Hosts deserve to know who is going to be in their homes.

[Matt4914]

The new messages tab has some great improvements but there are several issues that really need to be addressed:

1) Message threads used to identify guests by both first and last names, which helped to easily distinguish between threads. Now, it's just the first names of guests, hosts, and co-hosts. It's pretty much a given that the hosts and co-hosts will be party to any messages with a guest, so it would be great to have a feature that toggles thread identification back to only a guest's full name. This would reduce visual clutter and simplify identifying threads.

2) Message threads used to identify the listing to which they pertain but now they just show the city in which that listing is located. This is an issue for hosts with multiple listings in the same city.

3) We now have the ability to group chat with hosts, co-hosts, and multiple guests in a single message thread, but this feature needs to be extended to support threads as well. Hosts and co-hosts should be able to invite each other to join any ongoing threads with Airbnb support so that communication regarding issues can be easily shared with all relevant parties.

4) I have an iPhone 15 Pro Max with the most up to date versions of both iOS and the Airbnb app, but I’m experiencing some serious lag when trying to type out messages to our guests. Characters will enter multiple times or not at all and it’s almost impossible to type out a clear message. I don’t experience this in any other app and, while I can’t speak for all devices, this really isn’t something that should be happening on the top model of the current generation of iPhones.

5) The new shading bubble around messages splits into arbitrary multiple sections for longer messages which is visually confusing.

6) Like seemingly everyone else, I'd love the old Airbnb notification sound to be reinstated!

[Bhumika]

Hi @Matt4914 , It's admirable how much constructive feedback and product suggestions we've received in this thread from experienced members like yourself! I've noted your points to share with Airbnb teams. Please feel free to add your pointers and product ideas for Airbnb via the Feedback Form as well.

I recall you'd shared an interesting post about Earnings dashboard last year, where you'd shared some thoughtful suggestions. How do you find the latest dashboard with the upgrades? We would love to hear your insights 💡 on it!

[Matt4914]

Hi @Bhumika!

Thanks for the response! I've definitely submitted my thoughts via the feedback form, but always feel like it's good to get it out there publicly as well!

The new earnings dashboard is a definite improvement, but I'd still like to see a few changes:

1) It would be great if it was easier to compare monthly earnings to previous years and have an option to set a custom date range for the bar graph. As of right now, there's a "Flexible 12 Month" option, but it doesn't actually seem to offer much flexibility. We used to be able to scroll the bar graph through different years and months and I'd love to see that functionality return.

2) The current view for monthly/yearly payouts shows paid and upcoming amounts separately, without a total. We can all do the math on our own, but a third metric that shows a projected total would be a great addition to the dashboard.

3) Paid transactions need to have the Payout ID included in both the sidebar information and the downloadable spreadsheets. That's an important data point that can be crucial for bookeeping, especially when using bank statements for reconciliation. As of right now, the only place this information seems to be available is within the payout emails sent by Airbnb.

4) The payout reports should be cleaned up by consolidating payout information into the reservation rows. This could be done easily by including columns for the payout ID, payout date, payout total, and number of transactions per payout. This would allow for much easier data manipulation within the .csv files and simpler translation into other spreadsheets. Individual transactions should be tagged with a unique key for simplified sort operations. I'm sure there are data folks out there with better ideas, but this could be in the format of something like [date + payout number + transaction number] or "2024/05/04-002-003" for the 3rd transaction of the 2nd payout on May 5th, 2024.

[Matt4914]

I'd also like a better understanding of the different transaction categories and how they affect the numbers for gross earnings. For example, I think the difference between "adjustment" and "resolution adjustment" could use clarification. I keep a spreadsheet tracking the numbers for every single transaction and Airbnb's calculations are consistently different from my own.

Also, is there a way to get more information on where exactly any occupancy taxes collected by Airbnb are actually being remitted? Is there some sort of statement from state or city authorities we can access that confirms proper remittance?

This seems to be a hot button topic with a number of municipalities in the United States. Our ability to continue hosting a listing we own in Columbia, Missouri is actually in jeopardy because of new city legislation to regulate short-term rentals that was passed in part due to a need to ensure proper taxation. Additional transparency on this issue would likely not only help to alleviate some of that concern, but also give hosts the information they need to ensure they're correctly filing their taxes.

[Matt4914]

Hi @Bhumika & @Airbnb!

Is there any way we could get some additional response to all of our feedback?

Hosts spend a lot of time and energy to fill out feedback forms and write thoughtful forum posts as to how Airbnb can improve the platform, but we only ever really get told things like our suggestions are "being shared" with Airbnb's teams.

I can't speak for everyone on here, but I never really know if anyone is actually considering my feedback, so it often feels like I'm just shouting into the void and left blindly hoping that any issues might be addressed in a future release.

For all of the considerable effort we put into hosting, making sure our guests have the best possible experiences, and providing feedback to Airbnb, it seems like we would deserve access to a bit more information regarding if, when, and how our voices are being heard.

It would be great if Airbnb could provide hosts and guests with a bit more transparency, either in the form of direct responses to feedback or a public and continuously updated list of bug fixes, requested changes, and features in development!

I'm not sure if this already exists somewhere, but I certainly haven't found it!

[Matt4914]

Looking at this screenshot of the messages in our default hosting tab, you can really tell that almost none of the top-level information that host's need to access quickly is readily available.

Only first names are shown, profile pictures are minimized, cities are shown instead of listing names, and my hosting partner is redundantly listed as a participant in every single conversation.

This design is cluttered with unnecessary details but also missing vital information, so it's almost impossible to quickly find the thread I'm looking for unless I go through a number of extra steps to use the filter function – and even then it's difficult.