Thursday morning, 5 Nov 2026. ~20 minutes.
I wanted to book a place for the same afternoon. I had one quick question for the host. A 30-second phone call would have fixed it.
Airbnb disagreed.
attempt 1 phone number, raw -> blocked attempt 2 "0 four 7 eight ..." -> blocked attempt 3 "0 four 787 four 1911" -> blocked
Fine. If I can't send my number, I'll send a website with my number on it.
So I shipped corvus.gent/airbnb-call-me-pls (number redacted here, sorry internet): one page, one big "call me" button, available in all 7 languages I speak. Pushed to production in under 10 minutes.
attempt 4 a link to my site -> blocked attempt 5 the link, spelled out -> blocked attempt 6 "just google it" -> blocked
"Links and contact info can't be shared until after a reservation is confirmed."
Score: Airbnb 6, Gabriel 1. One message did slip through to a host.
What I learned
- their filter is good. not perfect. - shipping a page is faster than arguing with a chatbox - sometimes the hack is just: book, then call
The page is still live. A monument to stubbornness.
Need a website faster than Airbnb can block it?
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