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.

[William1246]

It is happening. We are signing up for every option that we find in our area on Facebook and Google, plus doing "old school" marketing like flyers in lobbies and on counters of stores and restaurants in our area. Every time that we get a booking that DOESN'T come through AirBnB, I fell wonderful! The day is coming when we won't need them any more at all!

[Maria2288]

I has a guest that took the keys with  him,  and I had to call a key maker in orden to open his room?

[Sarah977]

@Maria2288  You only have one key to the room? I should think that all hosts would have a spare key, or even a couple, not give guests the one and only key. What would happen if there was an emergency and you couldn't get in? 

[Maria2288]

Thank you for  the observation... it only happens once, now I  have more than one!!!

[Heather415]

Sarah977,  

Let's not be so hard on one another. Your point is well taken. However, your tone is accusatory.

I certainly try to maintain extra keys but from one day to the next, due to a necessary lock change or another reason we could find getting to the duplicate a major hassle.  

We have had guests misplace the keys and WE ARE IN JEPOARDY OF GETTING A BAD RATING IF WE DON'T FIX THEIR NEGLIGENCE QUICKLY AND AT NO CHARGE!?!?

I say WWHD?  = What Would a Hotel Do?  Their years, of perfecting such, shows us what our guest might reasonably expect. That would be, some relatively efficient cure to a common accident.  (That being said, I do hold out that not all conveniences of a Hotel can be expected!)

[Sarah977]

@Heather415  You just joined the forum and you have found it necessary to chastise me for 2 of my posts in the last hour. Are you the tone police? Everyone has a different style of speech and writing. And you are going to run across many different ones on a public forum. I can assure you I have been very kind and helpful to many others on this forum.

[Marianne394]

Think Airbnb should look after host concerns and issues better. I had a booking for 2 weeks from an Italian chef who looked around 45 so all ok- until he turned up with 2 Italian lads who come to work in his restaurant in our town. They were a nightmare, really untidy, did not stick to house rules at all, rude and worst of all broke our shower, amongst other small things. Airbnb would not pay out as we had another guest stay 1 night at the beginning of their stay !!!! They had the bathroom to themselves the remaining 2 weeks and constantly bashed the shower head in the bath which asked them not to do. Discovered morning they left it was gushing water and had call emergency services to stop the water as electric shower. Cost us over £200 for new shower but Airbnb refused to contribute to cost. By the time we tried to resolve this too late for a review 

[K-R1]

It so happened with us, we didn't accept the guest's request for discount on food bill, wrote negative review. No fault of ours yet V were at the receiving end. V have been getting constant good reviews, but one adverse review has brought our rating down. Do V have any recourse?

[Jason1228]

The ridiculous thing about the review process is that a high number of guests have zero respect for the home, and want everything on the cheap. When they try to use something not for their use, or that they declined to pay for, and are refused, they take out their ire in a revenge review.

That is without including the guests who mark you as 3 stars because the local Walmart is in fact a 7 minute drive and not a 5 minute drive as per your listing.

Then there are the hosts who mark you a 4 star 'by mistake' who thought they marked 5 star, but are not allowed change their review because you also submitted your review..

Its crazy stuff - THE REVIEW SYSTEM DOES NOT WORK !!

[Carol595]

I received a “one-off” review last March. Recently I was rewarded with a super customer service rep that completely sided with me. He truly understood my stress and anxiety I was facing as each day I’d go in to update my listing to have to be bombarded with “here is your complete failure as a host and Airbnb doesn’t care about you”. Ok, it wasn’t exactly that but there was always a message telling me I had high ratings but along with that message was “what you need to improve”.

I was constant in my communicating through the site always referring to my five star ratings and the fact Airbnb stated my high ratings, hoping that someone would read my requests to remove the one bad review.

It took nearly six months of sending feedback and questioning one offs, and a final desperate plea to have a phone conversation with a rep who clearly stated after I asked how long I’d have to endure my one “bad review”.  The reps answer, “forever”. Both myself and husband (speaker was on) repeated the answer but with it sounding like a question. There was a moment of silence. I felt I was the failure. That my one bad review was about to follow me for the rest of my days as a host.

Then, in what seemed like an eternity he mouthed the words I had longed to hear for so very long. “Carol, we are honored you have worked so hard for Airbnb and here’s what I’m going to do for you”. 

I have been released of undue stress and anxiety....of having to constantly be reminded of what was deemed my failure.

I am thankful for that rep who took a moment and decided to remove that one review. In an instant my overall rating went up and my days spent updating my listing continually give me joy.

Don’t give up. 

[Marianne368]

I also asked for that but yet they have not done that for me.Thanks for sharing, I

am going to try that again.

[Mary742]

Good improvements, thank you!

[Marianne368]

I think there is a  pattern of inconsistency of reviews.I think Airbnb must listen.In South Africa we have a lot of guests that are not every experienced travellers and for some reason they think a 4 start review is ok, whilst Airbnb expects Super Hosts to have an average 4.8.I also got a revenge review of 2 stars because a guest lost her passport and took the frustration out on me.I pleaded with Airbnb that they must not allow the rating, but in case of a revenge review just leave the comment,because we can at least respond to that.This sends your rating right back.After 23 reviews I finally got to 4.7,but I paid the price in having to drop my price.Totally unfair.

[Marianne368]

I think the Super Host rating must be brought down to 4.5 AND revenge review ratings should not be taken into account.4.8 is almost impossible to maintain.They should look for a pattern in the reviews.E.g my apartment is very central in the City yet some guests describe it as noisy but that is only 1 out of 15 guests.I cannot change anything about it- guest love the close proximity to everything and the convenience and cannot expect a rural tranquility.

[Patrick568]

@Airbnb  And next you'll tackle those one off retaliatory reviews, yes? Waiting for an answer...