Building and Improving the Superhost Program

[Airbnb]

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.

[Bez8]

@William1246 

I'm sorry you feel this way. This is a community and I'm simply stating that almost every post I see it involves you and your negative experience. 

We get it. This is a community. I'm simply saying please try to contribute in a manner that is constructive and brings positivity to your fellow community members. I have seen you bully other members and use language that is appalling. Is that how you think we can improve the super host program? 

I genuinely care for you. 

I'm new and I'm reading all relevant threads to catch up. Improving the super host program is such an important topic. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@William1246 I am afraid if you post on a public forum you cannot expect to dictate who is or is not allowed to respond.

If you don't want to read responses to your posts then I suggest you stop posting. Simples as the Meerkats would say.

[Margo12]

Airbnb REMOVED POSITIVE REVIEWS from my account - without even consulting me.  Why?  All I can tell is that each Guest visit was at a very discounted rate.  Why?  Because I was trying to be a good person and let people in need (especially fire victims) have comfortable housing.  NOW, years later, Airbnb recognizes the importance of providing free or discounted stays ... but since I did it 3-4 years ago Airbnb removes those reviews????

[Margo12]

When leaving a negative Guest review, WAIT until the absolute last minute.  The closer you get to the end of the 14 day period, the less likely the Guest will be able to change their positive review to negative or to submit one if they have not already.

But I feel like Airbnb purposefully makes it difficult to know when exactly that cut-off is ... the time is not necessarily compatible with the time zone of the Host or property.

[Faizan9]

I had a guest check-in & the next day asks for a week booking on cash at near to half the rate. I told him that it would not be possible. he acted all gud.. told me he loved the stay.. etc etc.

and i am a 5 star super host .. after i published his review. he messaged me a smiley face on my phone.

Rest u can imagine.

[Tim467]

@Airbnb I wonder if anyone has thought about how much harder it is to attain Super-host status if managing multiple listings on Airbnb? A single poor review for 1 of our apartments in 8 listings affects the cumulative performance across all & the likelihood of something happening is much higher when grouped together. But - in theory, if we'd registered them under different users, we could have been Super-host 7 times while still "missing the mark" for the 8th one due to a questionable review. It'd be appreciated if the effort to attain Super-host status was the same for everyone (i.e. a single, level playing field) whereas now I feel the system is stacked against me. Personally, I'd like to see the status expanded to cater for those with more than one listing & perhaps a slightly different moniker to indicate a simple fraction like 7/8 to indicate Super-host for 7 out of 8 listings.

[Sarah977]

@Tim467  Actually, I don't see that it works like that- it isn't any easier for a single listing to maintain Superhost. Why? Because if you have hundreds of bookings a year, one or two low ratings doesn't have that much impact on your total score. If a host has one listing, and only has 30 bookings in a year, one 1* revenge review can totally tank that host's rating.

[Elizabeth1903]

This may not be exactly relevant but when I'm leaving a review and I am asked "would you host this guest again?", sometimes the truth is that I would like to check "no". But what is the point? I want the advantage of "instant book" but I would like it to include the option to block a guest from future bookings when I check "no" . Unfortunately, I have no choice but to host them again. Leaving an honest review for them is too risky, also. I find myself lying about how great they were.

[Sarah977]

@Elizabeth1903  I don't understand your attitude at all. Guests don't know you said you wouldn't host them again and I think it prevents them from IBing with you again. Nor can guests see the star ratings you give them. And hosts who leave written reviews that make it sound like a bad guest was a good guest are the bane of your fellow hosts. You need to be honest in your reviews or hosts you led astray with your dishonest review get saddled with the same bad guests.

What are you afraid of? How is leaving an honest review risky?

[Elizabeth1903]

Sara877, From what I understand, if I use instant book, ANYONE can book instantly. The only way to stop them is to turn off instant book which is a disadvantage which can result in fewer booking. I will research this to be sure. I am unaware that guests can't see their star ratings, as a host I can certainly see mine. I guess what I am afraid of is hosting a guest in the future who will retaliate for a previous bad review by me. I do understand that they cannot see my review until they leave one and vice versa, so I do get your point that there is nothing immediate to be afraid of. I do hear a lot on Airbnb from hosts about "retaliatory reviews". They must come from somewhere. I am still learning.

[Sarah977]

@Elizabeth1903  When hosts refer to retaliatory or revenge reviews, that means that a guest who is taken to task during their stay for violating house rules, sneaking in extra guests, throwing a party and getting evicted, etc., then goes on to leave a bad review- they "get even" for being held responsible for their unacceptable behavior by leaving a bad review and low stars, usually full of lies. 

There's very little a host can do about this- if they let the guest get away with the behavior during the stay, in fear of a bad review, the host can end up with expensive damages or a huge filthy mess.

If a guest is entitled and demanding, and the host is afraid to say no to their demands, and bends over backwards to try to please this type of guest, who always has more complaints, and more demands, in hopes the guest won't leave a bad review, that never works. Those types of guests always leave bad reviews, so hosts need to stand up to them politely but firmly, otherwise not only does the host get a bad review, they end up feeling like a doormat and a fool. And a pushy guest will many times stop acting like that when they realize you won't allow yourself to be treated like their servant or make apologies for not catering to them as if they were some sort of royalty.

You can always leave a public response to a review, and usually those sorts of revenge or complaint-filled reviews won't be taken seriously by future guests anyway, if the host has a lot of good reviews- it's so obviously an outlier. Guests aren't all gullible or stupid, believing everything they read.

I'm pretty sure that if you say that you wouldn't host the guest again, they can't IB with you again- they may be blocked from contacting you again at all.

Yes, hosts can see the star ratings they are left by guests. IB hosts can see the guests' star ratings. But guests cannot see their own star ratings, nor can non-IB hosts see star ratings of guests.

Don't be intimidated into using IB if you find it is bringing you bad guests or you would like the opportunity to communicate with guests before accepting their booking. 

Not using IB does lower your search ranking, but there are plenty of hosts who don't use IB, get plenty of bookings, and have successful rental businesses. I know there are areas with heavy competition where hosts say they would be relegated to page 300 if they didn't use IB. But I have never used IB myself and some hosts who used to have turned it off. 

The thing is, none of your Airbnb settings are written in stone- you can turn IB on or off whenever you want. A host who's afraid they won't get any bookings if they don't use it can turn it off for a month and see if it seriously impacts business, and turn it back on if it resulted in hardly any hits.

Also you have to weigh quality versus quantity. I only have a private room home-share listing. Enough guests still manage to find my listing, and I have never had a bad guest, or damages, never had to contact Airbnb about a guest. All my guests have left 5*reviews. I don't always get full occupancy, but I also don't have any hassles and hosting for me has been stress-free.

The most important thing is to run your str business in a way that works for you- don't be intimidated by all the things Airbnb wants you to do. They don't care about you or your business- they care about what brings them the most service fees.

[Elizabeth1903]

Sarah977, Thank you for your kind, thoughtful post, I have learned so much from you!

[Elizabeth1903]

Sarah977, I contacted Airbnb Support about whether or not a guest could book after a host chooses "no" regarding if they would host this guest again. Here's what I learned:

"The answer to your question is that yes they can book again with you. In order to stop them from booking with you again you need to formally block them. "

"When you say NO that you wouldn't host them again this info is used for the recommendation feature on Instant Book and means that this guest would be excluded from using Instant Book with fellow Hosts who require that a guest has positive reviews and recommendations fro other Hosts."

[Sarah977]

@Elizabeth1903  That makes little sense and CS often gives erroneous info. If saying you wouldn't host them again prevents them from IBing with other hosts, it also prevents them from IBing with you as long as you require recommendations.

I'm going to tag another poster here who uses IB and is quite knowledgable about these things, so she can hopefully clarify. 

@Emilia42 

[Elizabeth1903]

Sarah977,  Yes and not only that, CS will not let you know if the guests have been blocked or not. They say it is a matter of "confidentiality". Also you have to request to have the guests blocked and go through a process of basically proving that your reasons are justified. It looked like only extremes like discrimination, verbal abuse, etc. were qualifiers.