After considering so many relevant and valuable points offered in this thread and my own concerns, I’ve sent detailed feedback to Air BnB.
Heres the link to provide feedback:
https://www.airbnb.com/help/feedback
If we want create what we believe in and keep it safe to do business in this forum, it’s in our best interests to speak up and continue to until we are heard and these valid concerns are effectively remedied in ways that benefit all.
Its also been shared in these forums that Tweets get a better response, so please consider that as well.
The more of us that speak up and provide feedback, the more likely it is that we will make some progress.
These new policies , which we had no input in creating, violate our trust, safety, and rights as property owners.
Heres what I wrote:
I love what I do and have been 100% loyal to Air BnB.
I am very concerned about the new policy culling the requirements for completed profiles, government issued photo ID’s, verified methods of payment, and guest photos before booking.
I am not a racist, as proven by my diverse guest list and reviews. I’m a 5-star superhost who appreciates and offers excellent hospitality to all races, gender preferences, and ethnicities.
I have a right to know and approve of who will be coming onto my property and staying in my home. Taking away that right is not only a violation of the rights of millions of hosts, it’s an affront to our personal safety and homes.
Since this policy was implemented all but one request to stay has been from prospective guests who had incomplete profiles, and some without verified payment methods.
This is unacceptable.
My property is private and remote and I am a single woman living alone. It is prudent for me to screen my guests. Right now I’m feeling discriminated against by this policy, and by the looks of things in the forums, many other hosts of all genders, races, and ethnicities are as well. Is it really worth it to punish all of your hosts for the alleged actions of a few?
Is that the best management can do?
I have to post my photo and complete my host profile. So do other hosts who are women and men of color. What’s to keep some anarchist skin head from booking one of their homes and showing up with an attitude to do some damage?
With no consistency, photos, or verifications required, we are all at risk...including ABB. If corporate has been spooked by the recent bad press, damages, and mayhem in LA Air BnBs and a handful of alleged racial profiling, imagine the chaos that will result after your recent policy changes have some time to simmer and that demographic finds out Air BnB invites them in with no questions asked!
It makes no sense to make things less safe, and with all due respect the risks this policy change creates makes me question the creativity, acumen, and overall future Air BnB envisions for itself.
By limiting our ability to screen our guests, you are directly compromising our safety...and your reputation.
By limiting our access to features only allowed for “instant booking” hosts, you are practicing discrimination against many hosts who need to prescreen every guest, and superhosts who don’t want to be penalized for cancelling instant bookings that don’t bode well, and also guests who are new to this platform...while you make it easier for frauds, pimps, drug dealers, and human traffickers to make Air BnB thier go-to.
The feedback from respectful vetted guests is that the process has become increasingly cumbersome, confusing, and tiresome with regard to searches, pricing transparency, the increasingly complicated review process.
It is commonplace in the hospitality industry to require positive goverment photo ID and matching credit/debit card to confirm that the person booking is who shows up and stays. People expect that, and anyone who opposes that likely has something to hide.
Another concern is, if the guest who shows up isn’t the one who booked (even due to outright fraud) the host loses Air BnBs advertised million dollar liability coverage for damages based on the “3rd party” rule, which is also very disturbing.
I love what I do, and most of all love meeting the great people who’ve walked into my home as guests.
Independent hosts have been the backbone of Air BnBs pioneering rise to the top.
For the first time, I feel anxiety and concern over who’s going ask to book, and who’s actually going to be driving up the hill expecting to stay in my remote, quiet sanctuary.
This new policy does not protect anyone from discrimination. It opens the doorway to fraud and mayhem, and inspires me to look to the competition for my own safety, comfort, and piece of mind.
We should be creating more safety for everyone, not less, and far more creative and sensitive responses to racism than this, and I’m asking for that before I take my business elsewhere.
I offer my gratitude for the opportunity that drew me here, respect for the principles that attracted me and millions of other 5-star super hosts that helped make Air BnB great, and hope this will be a point of transformation rather than parting of ways.
I ask that you consider how this and other discriminatory and short-sighted policy and internal processes effect this community’s host and guest safety and sustainability and fix this and other growing concerns with win-win solutions before it explodes in everyone’s face.
Thank you.