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

@Trudy29  Yes, that's what I said. None of the individual ratings are counted towards Superhost. The only rating that is taken into account is the Overall rating. It says that clearly on the list of criteria for Superhost.

Wrong it does affect your overall rating!

 

@Todd109  Please don't post misinformation. The Overall rating is a completely separate rating which guests are given to rate, not an amalgam of the individual star ratings.

Not happy with Airbnb. Period.

 

April70
Level 2
Santa Cruz, CA

Airbnb MUST CHANGE THEIR POLICY ASAP for retaliatory and false reviews.  Airbnb must do the following in order to retain its host base and  conduct good and fair business:

 

1.  Any guest that breaks house rules should loose their right to leave a review....   period.  Reviews from guests who sneak in more people, steal, etc. should not be trusted with how they explain their "experience".

 

2.  False reviews should be banned promptly.  If a host is able to prove that what the guests says is untrue with messages, emails, video camera, pictures, text messages, phone logs, etc., then that review should be removed.  Airbnb should NOT support guests that lie.  Those lies damage hardworking hosts. 

 

If Airbnb does not change this policy, they will be shooting their own foot.  There will be more platforms that will come out that will better protect hosts and believe me, hosts are chopping at the bit to get to more protection because we certainly do not get it here with Airbnb.

April70
Level 2
Santa Cruz, CA

Airbnb MUST CHANGE THEIR POLICY ASAP for retaliatory and false reviews.  Airbnb must do the following in order to retain its host base and  conduct good and fair business:

 

-Any guest that breaks house rules should loose their right to leave a review....   period.  Reviews from guests who sneak in more people, steal, etc. should not be trusted with how they explain their "experience".

 

-False reviews should be banned promptly.  If a host is able to prove that what the guests says is untrue with messages, emails, video camera, pictures, text messages, phone logs, etc., then that review should be removed.  Airbnb should NOT support guests that lie.  Those lies damage hardworking hosts. 

 

If Airbnb does not change this policy, they will be shooting their own foot.  There will be more platforms that will come out that will better protect hosts and believe me, hosts are chopping at the bit to get to more protection because we certainly do not get it here with Airbnb.

Hello6
Level 10
Canary Islands, Spain

Could you cancel the ability for guests who cancel, especially who receive full refund, their ability to leave a review?  Booked guests who cancel not only hold space closed on our Calender's from the time their booking made up till their cancellation - they get to leave a review if they cancel close to their arrival time.  Alternative too is increase the discount for no-refund amount.  We would happily offer 10-25% off booking price if it meant the remainder was paid regardless if guest arrived or not. In our case majority of guests seem to book within 3 weeks of arrival and in a highly competitive city for prices people do change their minds last minute if they find better deals.  Airbnb could offer a program of refund based on re-occupancy.   Anyway food for thought.  Thank you for ideas comments.  🙂

Fofey0
Level 2
Marcus Beach, Australia

Thats great.

However more needs to be done with negative reviews. For example when a host/superhost has has had 4 and 5 star ratings over a 1 or 2year period, they have no recourse if a guest decides ( for unjustified reasons) to give  a 1 or 2 star rating.

I think the history of a host needs to be taken into account b4 superhost status is taken away on the basis of one indescrepant review. 

Maria568
Level 5
Stanthorpe, Australia

Fofey I agree.

Jim-and-Mary1
Level 2
Pennsylvania, United States

Great information, thank you so much. Glad to see that Airbnb is continually evaluating and changing their policy for the betterment of everyone.

Philip15
Level 1
Exeter, United Kingdom

Most punters see through the "Superhost" programme and realise that it buys nothing. The AirBnB review scoring itself is flawed, as others have observed - anything other then a 5 is worthless. We're grateful for the bookings we do get through AirBnB but most of our guests book direct on our own website. Booking engines like Airbnb etc only help to bring international traffic - but ironically if anything goes wrong they are never of any help!

 

The way to guest satisfaction is to communicate quickly and efficiently before arrival, personally meet and greet, make it easy for any questions/problems to be addressed while the guest is onsite and follow up afterwards. In other words the service that is delivered is as important as the accommodation itself. 

@Philip15  Which is why listings are non-transferable, which I think is one of Airbnb's better policies. The reviews reflect the quality of the hosting as much as the accommodation itself, so wouldn't make sense for a new home owner who may or may not be an attentive host to inherit the good reviews of the past host.

Todd109
Level 2
Phoenix, AZ

I have been a superhost every since I started with Airbnb.   Then this past assessment I have had a slew of bad luck with Airbnb guest.   I had a guest that wanted to check out early that booked during my most busiest season.   I explained to the guest that I had strict cancel policy and he can call airbnb to cancel.   I let the guest know if anyone books in his space that I would refund him any difference.  This guest gave me a bad review.  Then I had a guest that Stolen a huge bottle of Tito's Vodka and they also had someone in my home that they were not suppose to and they gave me a bad review because I confronted them.  I also did not accept a guest reservation inquiry because a host report this guest stealing food and liquor.  Because I have liquor cabinet I felt it would not be a good fit but yet I got ding on refusing this reservation. Because of this 2 bad review and a declined reservation I dropped below the 4.8 needed to remain a Superhost.   I wrote and complained to Airbnb guest support regarding these reviews but apparently its ok for these guest to be allowed to destroy your reputation and loose your Superhost status.   So I am not happy with how Airbnb Platform handled these complaints and now I have lost my Superhost Status.  So believe me it can be taken form you in a blink of an eye.   I am very disappointed with Airbnb and feel unprotected  in how they handle host complaints when it comes to bad guest.  

Todd109,

Your situation is what I am facing. At ~ 4.74,  I'm in danger of losing Superhost.  Reading all these remarks saddens me.  I was hopeful that, once the inequity of this rating was conveyed to and studied by Airbnb, it would get addressed and improved.  They need to support their front line!  "The customer is always right"!?!?  Their system needs tweaking! There should be methods of mitigation on our ratings. 

Airbnb is offering such high payments for new hosts but not supporting in their already tried and true partners!?!?   Not a good business decision.  I know I don't intend to keep doting over guests on their behalf if our Superhost Status is taken away for unfounded ratings dings. 

Todd109
Level 2
Phoenix, AZ

Well if they are so much in favor for the GUEST then maybe we all need to stop hosting and see how many guest they have?  Hmmm I guess that would be none.