Building and Improving the Superhost Program

Airbnb
Official Account

Building and Improving the Superhost Program

Superhost Criteria.jpg

 

As our global host community grows and becomes increasingly diverse, Airbnb’s programmes and policies need to grow and adapt as well – both to ensure the success of people from all over the world, and to show our appreciation for hosts’ hard work and amazing hospitality. That’s why we’re updating the Superhost programme to make it more fair, inclusive, and valuable to hosts everywhere.

 

 

Review rates

Great reviews are essential to earning Superhost status. They also help create a community where trust and transparency is shared between guests and hosts. But, hosts can’t control whether or not their guests choose to leave a review. After examining global data and speaking with Superhosts in a number of countries, we discovered that review rates aren’t consistent worldwide – some travellers always leave reviews, while others rarely do. This discrepancy can put some hosts at a disadvantage when it comes to consideration for Superhost status. In order to make the evaluation process more fair for everyone in our global community, we’ll no longer require that hosts have at least a 50% review rate in order to become Superhosts (or retain their existing status).

 

 

Cancellation policy

As part of our effort to make sure Airbnb programmes are built to meet the needs of all hosts, we’re also updating our cancellation requirement. Previously, we required that Superhosts have zero cancellations, but for hosts with an extremely high volume of bookings across multiple listings, that standard is impractical. To make the programme more fair for high-volume hosts, we’re now allowing one cancellation per 100 trips booked over the past year, which means a cancellation rate of less than 1% across all of your listings. It’s important to note that we still take cancellation as seriously as ever. Over the past five years, the Superhost community has worked hard to earn the trust of their guests and we will continue to reward that trust by recognising the most reliable hosts with Superhost status.

 

Both the changes to our cancellation and review requirements will take effect on the 1 July quarterly Superhost assessment. We’ll also be updating hosting dashboards at this time to reflect this new criteria.

 

 

Stay tuned 

We’re committed to continually improving the Superhost programme so that it works for the entire host community. That includes using clear, fair qualification criteria and making it valuable for every Superhost. From the overall design of the programme to how it rewards the community, we’re looking at different ways to not only make your hosting experience more positive, but also help you be more successful. So, please stay tuned, there’s a lot of exciting news to come.

674 Replies 674
Anna2498
Level 2
Southend-on-Sea, United Kingdom

Airbnb should disregard the best and worst review to arrive at the rating for super host and work.

That way the one unfair 2 stars when all the rest are 5 stars would not reduce your average rating. Totally unfair when a guest has bad personal knews leaves early and then states what is provably wrong like being overlooked and noisy. Especially when a guest at same premises states how quiet it was just 1 week  later! 

Airbnb does not care about hosts or super hosts and allows guests to post malicious lies with no consideration to the veracity of the review 

YES Retaliation from guest who don't stay, arrive a day late, want a full refund, and allowing that guest to write a review.

I FINALLY got them to remove one ridiculous 3 star review. Air BNBs policy NEEDS to include LYING. I’ve been able to prove it multiple times and they don’t care

100 % right , I just got a horrible review because the guest's flight was cancelled by airline and changed to early flight due to hurricane Dorian. Not only unfair but also totally out of our control. 

Airbnb depends from our support as much as the guest Policies must be fair to every one.

 

yes , I think they should "remove" 1 per quarter or year of a retailiatory / mean review. Some guests just cant help it. We are opening our homes and are not the Ritz Carlton. 

 

Most definitely!

If they would just throw out the lowest review when calculating superhost.  I had a guest let their child use permanent marker on BOTH my tables--kitchen and dining room!  I had to submit the request for the damage BEFORE the next guest checked-in is what AirBnB told me.  THAT immediate request allowed the guest to know to submit a poor review and give me one star on everything.  That made me lose my Superhost status.

That would be nice - wouldn't it.  A guest did that to me a year ago and still trying to get the Superhost status back as the review tanked my rating.  So that also puts me ineligible for any Airbnb assistance during the COVID-19 crisis... 

Jo56
Level 10
Darlinghurst, Australia

@Emilia42 Of course they won't, because while that would be one clear, sensible and fair thing Airbnb could do to support hosts....it would require them to stand up to guests (even if only the rogue ones).

 

Rogue guests aren't stupid - in fact, they are the ones who know very well how to play the system and hit hosts where it will hurt most, with 1/2 star reviews when they are called out on bad behaviour or Government health breaches, with no risk to themselves. As we know, they'll just go off and start a new account to wipe clear any negative reviews hosts leave them. Hosts don't have the same luxury, and Airbnb won't afford them minimal support against retaliatory reviews in any instance.

Jo56
Level 10
Darlinghurst, Australia

@Emilia42  

Of course they won't, because while that would be one clear, sensible and fair thing Airbnb could do to support hosts....it would require them to stand up to guests (even if only the rogue ones).

 

We hosts seem to know something Airbnb won't accept - rogue guests aren't stupid. In fact, they are the ones who know very well how to play the system and hit hosts where it will hurt most, with 1/2 star reviews when they are called out on bad behaviour or Government health breaches, with no risk to themselves. As we know, they'll just go off and start a new account to wipe clear any negative reviews hosts leave them. Hosts don't have the same luxury, and Airbnb won't afford them minimal support against retaliatory reviews in any instance.

One off retaliatory or stupid reviews is my biggest complaint about the system.  If you call AirBnB they just say “too bad”.

Mark116
Level 10
Jersey City, NJ

LOL, still nothing on reviews. 

 

The 1/100 cancellation helps airbnb's new category of hotel/resort/corporate listings, not the people with one or two listings.

 

I would much prefer to have kept the old no cancellation policy and gotten the company to omit reviews when there is a disagreement over a claim, when the guest has never entered the property, and to give hosts a 1/100 option to cancel an outlier review.

I totally agree Mark

Well put, I fully agree.