Phone app Kaput!

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

Phone app Kaput!

This afternoon I went to respond to a reservation message, and as I was away from my computer I was instructed on the screen to log-on via my phone App.

When I went to log on I was presented with a 4 digit code for verification but when I went to insert that code into the 4 numerical boxes provided, I could not insert the required code, the boxes would not accept anything.

I got onto support (thank God they are still contactable quickly) and told support of my problem. She said to me ..."You need to uninstall the phone App and then re-install it from Google Playstore."

So I did, I uninstalled my existing Airbnb App and went to Google Playstore and this is what I was confronted with.....

Screenshot_2021-04-05-18-16-09-23.png

 

Yep, that's right, my 3 year old Oppo R9s 120gig smartphone which operates just fine for every other site including VRBO, Booking.Com, Homeaway Stayz, Agoda, Trivago, Holiday Rentals, Home to go......is not suitable for Airbnb!

 

I got onto support yet again and over the next 90 minutes tried to work a solution to my problem by installing the original app from another site without success. 

It appears when Airbnb updated the phone App last year they removed their existing mobile app so anyone using anything other than a latest version smartphone will not be able to reinstall the mobile app if they un-install it....as I was instructed to do by good old CX.

 

This company just gets more stupid by the day.

 

I do not have the phone app now, all I can do now is get text notifications and then go into Google Chrome, access the Airbnb log-in site, and go to my phone dashboard to access my Inbox or my calendar to address any business.

 

I am at my wits end right now, I am right on the edge with Airbnb at this moment, I really can't see a future here, this company becomes more belligerent to hosts by the day, and I can't see it improving.

 

Cheers........Rob

11 Replies 11
Pat271
Level 10
Greenville, SC

I read an analysis recently of the different categories of Airbnb hosts, and the associated revenue Airbnb receives from them. The vast majority of revenue comes from full-time, multiple-unit hosts. Even if you added up all the full and part-time single-unit hosts, the total doesn’t even begin to approach the revenue from hosts that manage hundreds of units on a full-time basis.

 

Clearly (and obviously) the multi-unit hosts are going to get special treatment. I would even go so far as to guess that when you call CS, you get routed accordingly, with the expertise of the CS agent directly proportional to the amount of revenue the host generates.

 

Therefore, I am not surprised to read the CS complaints here, as my impression is that most of us who post tend to be those caring souls who have a smaller number of total units.

 

I breathe a sad sigh when someone here says “They better be careful, they need us hosts!” They do, but the need is definitely relative.

Paul1255
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

You’re absolutely right @Pat271  !

 

I believe the larger hosts (well, property  management companies) have ‘handlers’ at Airbnb-  essentially client managers who help and support them as required.

 

It’s probably why we don’t see them pop up on the community centre wondering how to get in touch with Airbnb when they have a problem 🙂

 

Airbnb will always need home-share hosts and part time single unit hosts to maintain their PR image, it’s unfortunate that they often end up as cannon fodder.

Laurelle3
Level 10
Huskisson, Australia

@Pat271 yes I am sure they like the people who have gone with arbatidge with more than 50 places but they often emply staff, office workers,  cleaners maintence handyman. But these places are now opening up their own websites and doing their own direct bookings. As well as being with different booking sites. There for the Arbitage companies are not locked into one place.

 

This is why Airbnb is promoting the shared homes for guests to stay with hosts because of the economic times. Small amount of money coming in is better than nothing is Airbnb's motto is the moment. Along with looking at Airbnb's prices in your neighbourhood and seeing a price war happening. My answer is block the dates and have a holiday myself and wait till the weather warms up.

@Laurelle3  Yes, and another thing is government regulation happening all over the world, especially in cities for whole house listings. Another reason they are promoting shared homes and 1 month or longer stays.

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Robin4  This is what you get when a company is run by a generation that runs out to buy the latest iphone every year and can't relate to the notion that everyone doesn't.

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

@Robin4 

 

A time for me to use my tech chops! Can you please ensure your version of Google Playstore is fully updated to the latest? The latest update to the Airbnb has not discluded your OS firmware version so there is something else going on here. The firmware your phone came with at 3 years ago makes it above the minimum requirement (7.0) 

 

Problem with android phones is there are SO many with slightly different chipsets and processors, it can be a minefield to check every single one works with an app update. Let's try this first bit and if we get no luck, there's some other bits we can try. 

 

Oh, and can you confirm you OS firmware is updated to at least 7.0 (nougat)? And do you mind sharing what your device is - a screenshot of Settings>about this phone would be ace!

 

Thanks for your patience Rob!

 

Steph

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Please follow the Community Guidelines 

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Stephanie 

Hey thanks for your input Steph, I have discovered a work around for my issue. If I go to Google Chrome and type in 'Airbnb.com'  one of the page options says Log-in/Sign-up Airbnb, and if I open that page this will automatically come up.....

Screenshot_2021-04-07-21-07-29-76.png

 

From there if I click  profile, bottom right, one of the options is 'Manage Listing > Dashboard and from the 3 bars right of screen I can access my inbox and calendar.  So I can at least still do something from my phone.

But Steph  why is this necessary? Computer programs generally build onto what is already offered....not totally obliterate the past. 

The issue I find with Airbnb is, they hire programmers! Now programmers are a particular breed, almost all of them are on the spectrum. They did not mix well socially as children and they found their world and their friendships in the computer. I do have intimate knowledge of this because I have a grand daughter on the spectrum. They gravitate to gaming, become so engrossed and good at it they move on to programming. They are given a design brief and their soul desire is to satisfy that design brief! They are not the slightest bit interested in the consequences of that design brief, all they are interested in is doing their job designing a program. They have a disjointed outlook on life because they don't care about the consequences of what they do.....that's not their job!

 

Steph, my Oppo R9s is quite capable of downloading and using mobile Apps from almost all of the worlds app suppliers.......it just doesn't work with Airbnb!

Doesn't  that tell you something? 

 

Cheers........Rob

 

Dan18425
Level 1
Tauranga, New Zealand

Brilliant Rob. I don't know why I didn't try that because couldn't get the app to work on my phone. Came with moments of wasting a couple of grand on a new one and the sales Guy said it may not work on that either. Simple solution that numerous attempts from Air B@B didn't tell me about. Cheers Dan

 

 

Laurelle3
Level 10
Huskisson, Australia

@Robin4 yes I do this on my old I pad as well by going to google forAirbnb as if looking for somewhere to stay. Then in right corner it says switch to hosting which I do and it says login. I have been doing this for about 12 months with the summer update 2022. In the last Christmas up dates it effected my phone. Now have a new phone since this April . All working well now.Sadly I thought I am a dinosaur and being an environmentally sustainable just kept using what I had the old phone and I pad

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Laurelle3  Yeah Laurelle you will appreciate this is an old thread and this problem happened to me back 2 years ago. I went and bought a new phone and sorted it out, but I was cross that Airbnb did not give a d*mn in their programming about users who didn't have current technology. We don't all rush out a buy a new IPhone every year for God sake, but that wasn't Airbnb's issue, that was ours! There was absolutely nothing wrong with my old phone, it worked just fine yesterday but suddenly today, if you don't have Android color 7 or higher, stuff you, you can't use the platform any more.

How's that for looking after your bread and butter hey!!!

 

Generally when companies bring out operating system upgrades they are still compatible with past programs. This computer I am writing this on is a Windows 7 operating system. There have been a number of system updates since I purchased this computer but, it still works fine. I am continually prompted that updates are no longer available for Windows 7 but I know my way around it and it still works just fine!

I have up in the mancave  the forerunner of a tablet that has Windows XP on it from around 1998......I can fire it up and it still works, a bit slow and some things you can't access on it but Microsoft haven't shut the door on their users the way Airbnb does!

Just another example of how Airbnb treat their hosting community with contempt I am afraid  Laurelle!

 

Cheers..........Rob

Laurelle3
Level 10
Huskisson, Australia

@Robin4 this happened with my I pad saying to old. What I do is go to my emails and they are there. I can open and send them a message from there. When the text comes on the phone there is only half a message so I have to open email. I hope this works for you too.