A message from Brian

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

I hope you are having a great day.

I just wanted to let you know that Brian Chesky, Airbnb's CEO and Head of Community, has sent out an email to hosts outlining some exciting updates on what the team is working on.

In his message, shown below, Brian has provided a lot of information, nearly all of which is directly related to what we talk about on a daily basis here in the Community Center and so I also wanted to share this here with you. I do hope you will find it an interesting read.

"Dear Hosts, 

From the very first days of Airbnb, hosts have been the heart of this community. You’ve welcomed strangers into your homes, and made deep, meaningful connections. You’ve housed victims of natural disasters—and refugees from war-torn nations. And in doing so, you’ve transformed what it means to travel and have enabled tens of millions of people to find a sense of belonging in places they’ve never visited before.

Without you, Airbnb would still be a couple of guys renting out air mattresses in our living rooms.

That’s why every step we have taken as a company has been informed by the experiences—and opinions—of our host community. Listening to you has always been, and will always be, one of our top priorities.

To that end, earlier this year, I met with hosts in eight cities across the world—from New York City to Cape Town; London to Delhi. At the beginning of the trip, I made a series of commitments to the host community: we pledged to create 1,000 Host Clubs worldwide; announced the expansion of the Host Advisory Council; committed to quarterly live chats with hosts; pledged to invite several hosts to a portion of one board meeting a year to make sure they have a seat at the table; and changed my title to CEO and Head of Community.

Each and every one of these changes was meant to increase the voice of our host community—and in just a short time, I have already seen some of the positive impact it is having.

Even so, as I made my way from country to country, I continued hearing feedback from you all. And I knew there was more we could do to make the hosting experience with Airbnb as seamless and hassle-free as possible. Based on your feedback, we made some changes:

• You can make your listing stand out by being able to more clearly describe your home with new categories and a more detailed amenities list.
• Our new dashboard makes it easier to track your earnings, ratings, reviews, and more in one place.
• We redesigned the Airbnb website to make it easier to navigate. Learn how your feedback helped lead the way.

Of course, there’s more to do and going forward, we’re making even more improvements. In the year ahead we are:

• Launching upwards of a dozen feedback panels with community members from around the world. This way, we’ll get more of the type of invaluable feedback I received during my world tour on a regular basis—and ensure that hosts from every corner of the globe will have their voices heard. We’ll keep doing these panels each year.

• Improving calendars so you can update your calendar availability and custom minimum night limits in the same place and designate which days of the week guests can and can’t check-in to your listing.

• Enhancing accessibility. We’re currently building systems that will ensure that hosts and guests can easily reach our Customer Experience team. Those efforts include making our phone number, other contact information and messaging easier for everyone to find.

Every single one of these changes were inspired by you—and, as always, we are nowhere near done yet. So keep sending us your ideas, sharing your feedback, and helping us figure out how to make Airbnb work even better.

When I was on my tour, the hosts I met made me feel at home wherever I was in the world. So it’s the least I can do to make you feel at home in the Airbnb community.

Talk soon,

Brian"

If you have any thoughts on this, please feel free to share these here.

Thank you for your time.

Lizzie

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Lizzie - How does someone get assigned/hired/volunteer to the panels? 

• Launching upwards of a dozen feedback panels with community members from around the world. This way, we’ll get more of the type of invaluable feedback I received during my world tour on a regular basis—and ensure that hosts from every corner of the globe will have their voices heard. We’ll keep doing these panels each year.

[Abby19]

As a host, I'd like to make three suggestions for improvements to your website:

1 - under Guidebooks, Portland should be designate Portland, OR. Those of us in Portland, ME would appreciate that, especially if we start a guibebook here....

2 -   children age designations need you to free form the ages you want to allow (- 0-2 and 2-12 doesn't cut it). We live on a farm near a river and would be happy to welcome children 7 and above - you do not provide the flexibility we need in that info field, and we have to hope people see it in the descrition fields.

3 - please make direct contact with your company's customer service through phone and email MUCH more readily accessible - frustrating, especially for new people/older people who may initially need help setting up their listings.

Thanks for listening -

Abby Ingraham, host as of 6/17

[Trish59]

Hi,

In general, airbnb have a very user friendly website for host and guest.

However, last weekend a change appeared which makes no sense. 

When a request begins, a mini calendar used to be visible on the page with the selectd dates appearing in grey. This allowed me, as the host, see exactly where the new booking would fit with regards other bookings on my calendar. 

In the new syetem, no calendar appears on the page, so, as a host, I need another calendar open to visualise the dates being discussed. 

I can see no advantage to anyone for this change. Why not leave well enough alone? 

Can we please have this calendar back in the message stream? 

Trish

[Anna736]

I am a host in Gulfport Fl

The winter season in Florida brings many "snowbirds" to our area. To secure a good place many guests will book at least 6 months in advance. Seniors experience medical issus which may prevent them from traveling therefore I have been asked if we provide cancellation insurance.  In addition some of the seniors have asked if they can pay half of the cost upon booking and half later on;

for instance 30 to 60 days prior to arrival.

Thanks, Anna

[David126]

@Anna736

Actually you do sort of provide cancellation insurance, please review the AirBnB Extenuating Circumstances Policy, now you might not want to be effectively the Insurer but that is how it operates.

AirBnB have not announced how it works, well to my knowledge, but guests have reported being aboe to pay half now half later.

[Monica4]

Frankly, I cannot see any concrete changes or solutions to problems that hosts have had concerns about. New website features? Fix what you have first. All important concerns have not been addressed.

[Amina1]

Hi Lizzy,

Does Airbnb have a group of host that serve as beta testers.  Before a new functionality is released to all hosts on the Airbnb website, beta testers could work closely with Airbnb staff to provide feedback on how the new changes are working, likes, dislikes and provide general feedback.  Just a thought!

Amina 

[Stacie8]

Yes, consider hiring remote manual / usability testers from the field. 

[Webizz0]

ok,remote control and usability is the right way for test

[Anthony291]

The new multicalendar is indeed a nightmare!  You can't see your notes, only one day is visable from one week before...how can anyone work with these changes?  Why is it every new update this platform gets worse.  Is anyone trying out these system changes first or is this just a bunch of kids poking at keyboards and eating pizzas?  Really, WTF!!!

I've been with airbnb 6  years, and been a superhost with 7 places but the GLITCHES never stop.................but get worse and worse, as if someone is intentionally trying to sabotage airbnb. 

I talked with Airbnb folks and they said they will fix it (3 weeks and still nothing) but this is typical, just a bot email and never any real help!!

You need to talk with your host and beta test these changes first, before rollin them out.

[Gill0]

Great site... but I notice as of TODAY some of my messages in the Inbox DO NOT include the Check In and Check Out dates on the summary. I find this very useful for Archiving messages after guests have left. Any rationale why this has happened?

[Webizz0]

I think it's spam messages

[Gillian15]

The new dash board...I really do not like! How do I find my `reservations`, `reviews by me`, why do companies always have to change what works??? 

PLEASE do something about guests who do not submit reviews, even though they have had  fantastic stay and have received  5 star reviews from a host. It`s just not fair! Hosting is hard work and dedication. I am waiting for 2 couples from France to submit their reviews.............WAITING! 

[Marzena4]

Yes, like others said before me, these are the most important address:

1. Work out ways to increase the number of guests leaving reviews. Relying on (aka forcing) hosts to virtually beg for reviews is not a solution in something that claims to be 'a global community'. My proposal is to even make it impossible to book further for guests who have failed to reach a certain rate of reviews per number of stays (just like the requirements for SH) or af, ter a number of stays without any reviews left - a bummer, no more bookings.
2. Recruit beta testers. Airbnb is growing and some "improvements" should be tested on a smaller number number of hosts. 
3. Split the age groups of children/minors (0-1, 1-7, 7-12, 12-18 years of age) - here is justification: 0-1 might require some facilities like evn accessability for baby carriages; 1-7 - the most important here is safety issues because toddlers may be nosey, and hosts may not be aware of all the hazards for them (takes a lot of experience to gain that knowledge); 7-12/12-18 - bed size, safety issues, rsponsibility for the children's behaviour.

Also, there are other issues to be addressed. I have received inquiries from potential underage guests. Airbnb should update their policy on that to stay in compliance with laws in other countries, especially in Europe. In my country, minors might not have all the rights enjoyed by adults.