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.

[Patti120]

I agree the customer has rights but the customer is not always right. The customer does not have the right to use and abuse property and the hotels make them pay too. Hotels keep a large deposit on the guest credit cards in addition to the room charges and and they do charge them for missing and damaged items. I appreciate Airbnb has helped with guests that have caused damage to my new home. THANK YOU AIRBNB! The  customer service department has been very helpfu and I am gratefull.

[Lori-And-Tim0]

I remedied the refund for shortened stays by allowing a 10% discount for booking a no-refund non cancel-able option.  Recently had one that wanted to check in one day later, I informed them they had book for the full 6 days if they stayed only 5 their reservation was non- refundable and would still have to pay for the 6 days.  They decided to stay the 6 days.  Did not get a bad review either.

[Justin271]

I would love to see a housing swap feature between superhosts.

[Mike780]

We live in Richmond VA near the James River and the name of our unit is A Place Of Peace...we can simply block off a few days and not charge you in exchange for an equal number of days in San Fran...Richmond is becoming a foodie destination, great brewpubs, and good indie music scene.

[Devon24]

good stuff 

[Gary-and-Michelle0]

How about putting in place a  ’Super Guest’ program so that we as host know what we are getting? Then set it up so that we have an option to allow a Super Guest to insta-book! 

[Michael1392]

After reading dozen of comments I have to say, celebrating 27 years in the lodging business today, times have changed......I was defrocked a Superhost for 1 cancellation then they made me wait several more months because of the 50% nonsense. Thanks for the change, I guess......doesn't help now.

What I find about reviews, happy guests don't take the time, why should they. It's the miserable, want something for free, social media junkies that take the time to lash out...........I could write a book. Now that Hawaii will be shutting down 5000-8000 illegal rentals, just on Oahu, we will see what airbnb's approach will be. I do believe your Hawaii inventory will be changing with fines of $1000 per day.  Perhaps those of us who have worked years to provide clean, decent, memorable experiences will be noticed and treated differently. Reality.......airbnb controls the algorithms........

Customer service......does it even exist? I can never get a real person. Someone called 12 times!!!  Who has that much time?

On to happy guests!!

[Dara28]

AirBnB - I am disappointed that you have failed to mention any action in relation to preventing guests from giving below par reviews in error. I have had instances where guests have assured me on check out they were delighted with their stays, written glowing reviews, given me 5 star ratings in every category, but somehow clicked on 4 star for the general rating i.e. the only rating that counts for Superhost status. For a host like me who works hard to mostly get 5 star ratings it is frustrating to think that these reviews are dragging down my overall rating, perhaps inadvertently by either not understanding the relatively damaging effect of mistakenly, or perhaps unthinkingly giving a 4 star overall rating despite being entirely satisfied with their experience. I would appreciate it if a warning or “are you sure?” message would appear advising guests of the potential relatively negative impact a 4 star rating may have on a host’s status, thereby offering the guest a chance to make a better informed choice that may lead them to reconsider and/or revise their rating armed with the knowledge of the potential implications for hosts.

[Althea17]

I am very, very disappointed that I worked very hard for after a crazy bad review. I canceled a reservation that didnt feel right to me...the cancelation happened 15 minutes after the reservation was made. On my listing Iask that people have to have provided a government ID, but people with no ID and bo photo are able to book my home. As A woman with a young child, I am not comfortable letting people with no ID into my home. ...Yet I cancelled 1 reservation out of 60...did it within minutes of the reservation being made and now I have to wait a year to get my Superhost status back.  That person shouldn't have been able to make a reservation with me in the first place!!!  This doesn't seem fair to the hosts who work really hard!!!

[Kathleen173]

As a super host I take my job seriously. I have great reviews but I did have a recent incident where the guests were from Indiana, had never been to Florida or seen a gecko. They flipped out after checking in and using the guest house and demanded a cancyand a refund and wrote me a very nasty review. They had never used air bnb previously. I did let them check out the next day and refunded part of their stay even though I require a 2 night minimum. They did not follow house rules but I was afraid to leave a review while they might still be in town. Very unsavory characters no one would want in their home. I wish I could have the option of removing their review. They were terrible guests and should be banned from using Airbnb 

[Kathleen173]

Guests without photo I’d should not be allowed to instant book

[Jessica1441]

We had a guest book as 1 person and showed up with his wife, kid, and dog. After informing guest of the additional cost for the guest and the fee for pet cleaning, i also informed him of the house rule requiring pets to be crated when guest leave. After blowing off my additional funds request and ignoring 2 request from airbnb, i returned home from work to find the dog home alone sitting on my couch. When i inquired as to why the dog wasnt crated and he ignored the request for funds, the guest became so irate and threatening that i had to have him removed by police. After all that he still was allowed to leave a review despite breaking house rules and fraudulently booking

[Mike780]

Question...have any of you had a poor Air BnB experience? We stayed with 5 other people in a $500/day house in New Orleans this past year for Jazz Fest. The house had 5 bedrooms and slept 10 yet they only had dishware and cutlery for 7, a lack of usable pots & pans, 6 glasses, a dishwasher that was broken, No DISHDRAIN to hand clean and dry the few dishes we did have (we went out and purchased one). No soap for bathing but gobs of cheap shampoo.

A/C that only worked on the 2nd floor and an absolute ditz for a property manager who lacked any timely responses to our requests for help. The large TV did not work and the ceiling fan in our bedroom on the first floor because the batteries in the controller were dead. In week two, we got a box of dishes left of the porch for us to put away, the A/C was finally fixed by day 8, and in spite of promising to have the dishwasher fixed, he took it off the amenities. 

When asked for some reparations Air BnB supported the owner who had plenty of mediocre reviews. And he lied in his response to our carefully worded and honest review.  I think CS sucks both ways!

[Amanda468]

There is also the issue of guests who will never leave a review above four stars, no matter what. One guest told him he was delighted with the room (which is gorgeous, and a bargain too).

His review literally said 'The place was absolutely perfect, so was the host and so kind! Highly recommend!'. On private comments on what to improve, 'Nothing, everything was perfect'...then only four stars in every category. 😞 

Now I can't book the listing out, because that's the second 4-star review this year (the first was a revenge review), despite all five-star reviews last year. It's obviously been pushed down in search results, and I keep getting a pop-up on dashboard telling me to 'bring my listing up to a minimum standard'... 😞 

Airbnb really needs to address the review issue, perhaps setting the superhost bar at 4 stars, and being more open to tackling rogue reviews, which even the world's top hotels get. It's not a disaster when it's one per 2,000 reviews...but some listings only book five times per year.

[Mike780]

We have had our unit running for a little over a year and have had 98 5 stars in all categories. One of the ways we create positive reviews is we leave a notebook asking for suggestions on how to improve, and this serves as a reading list of all the amazing comments going back for a year. Extra amenities are fresh flowers, high-end cookies, and chocolates; meeting and greeting our guests whenever we can, and letting any guests know we followed up on their suggestions for improvements (ie. hand bars in the tub and near the toilet).

As a result, we have had a lot of repeat clients who are raving fans. We had only one 4 stars on communication one time with a newbie to Air BnB who showed up with a wife and 12-year-old son. We brought them a blowup mattress and everything was cool.

I learned early in marketing to under-promise and go overboard on delivery.

Of course, we only have the one unit and that opinion may change once we aquire more.