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.

[AlAnn0]

Totally agree. We small hosts, made Airbnb. Our high standards easily compete with the “best” hotels , I am proud to say.

[Jeffrey297]

Why does Airbnb all any revenge reviews? That are obviously out of line with all other reviews?   This is a very poor policy on their behalf.

[Song6]

How about allowing a guest to rate, star, and write a review who never showed up!!! Well airbnb said they paid so they can review. It makes no sense that this person can  rate my home and my hosting WHEN THEY HAVE NEVER SET FOOT ON THE PROPERTY.

[Khem0]

Exactly  how will he know house is clean or not ???

[Cherie63]

same happened to me!  totally unfair and the starring is obviously bogus

[Khem0]

How can a guest put review when he never lived in the house, he cancled the booking  2 hours before as I told him to as he did not want to follow the house rules... still surprised  by Airbnb  sytem.they did allow  him to put review and 1 start in cleaness   let's forget  about other 1 star in communication  and value... how guest can put 1 star in cleaness when he never lived in house it's the Airbnb  sytem who allowed him.to review  is it fare?

[Linda881]

I agree with other hosts here. Nasty reviews  when the guests themselves cancel. What will you do about those? Damage to property - where are you when that happens. Nowhere.  Just a call centre in the Philippines to help you out - some young person with no life experience to support you. Utterly shocking.

[Richard-and-Sarah0]

When you know you have had a bad guest who asks for compensation for everything out of your control like weather for example  it makes no sense to leave a review to say they should be avoided as you know they will give you a review you can’t recover from. This is a major flaw of the current process. Needing a high percentage of good reviews allowed me to be honest about my worst guests to help other hosts avoid them.

[Leigh71]

Seems to be a lot of support for guest, not so much for hosts! We put EVERYTHING out there and get nothing a far as a a detailed profile of a guest . Rather one sided.

[Kimberly406]

I have had so many wonderful experiences until this year. I was hit with what I refer to as the hotel guest who rents my extra bedroom thinking it’s a hotel and does not read house rules or description. These guests usually are not pleased with what they find or refuse to follow rules. Instant bookings is pushed, cancellations are not allowed and sometimes I leave my home and stay elsewhere due to guests behavior or safety concerns. I would love to see a a shared home division with some different policies for those sharing rooms where we live with our families.  A screening questionnaire that outlines our rules, and clearly states it’s a shared home may be helpful. 

[Karen1627]

I LOVE this idea! I too live in my house (with 1 or two kids depending on the time of year) ... my guests AREN'T renting an entire house or apartment. I like your idea of a separate category, or some kind of 'flag' for the guests to clearly see it's a host-occupied listing. 

[Neil-and-Ellen0]

---

@Kimberly406 wrote:

 I would love to see a a shared home division with some different policies for those sharing rooms where we live with our families.  A screening questionnaire that outlines our rules, and clearly states it’s a shared home may be helpful. 

---

It may come to that in the future. There is a growing wave of pushback against STRs in many cities and areas for a variety of reasons, both valid and less so. Shared homes with only 1 room rented with a maximum of 2 guests seem to be the default allowable Airbnb usage in those areas, as it has the most minimal impact on infrastructure, on-street parking, area long-term rental availability for local residents, etc. 

I expect to see a split in the Airbnb platform between the classic Homeshare hosts and everything else. 

I read the posts in two different Airbnb forums, “Professional Hosts” and “Homeshare Hosts” and it’s as if it was TWO SEPARATE REALITIES!

On the “PRO” forum it’s all nightmares, damage, police called, horrible guests, etc., with many multiple units, zoning problems putting them out of business, etc. People are fed-up with all the hassles or bragging about how smart they are with 12 properties and a high 6-figure Income. 

The “Homeshare” people love their guests and are an almost uniformly positive, appreciative welcoming group. 

[Anne1055]

All public reviews as comments should show up on both profiles. Air is supposed to be based on trust. If a guest breeches that trust with a bad review then Hosts need the opportunity to flag that broken trust for other hosts. It’s that simple. This reply from host needs to be public on the guest profile. Otherwise AirBnb is, in fact, just a cheap hotel, where Guests can crap all over the host, leave a bad review, don’t clean their messes, and get away with nothing showing on their profile. 

Airbnb hop to it. We’re not going to wait forever. There is no business without units to rent. 

[Paul502]

@Airbnb Perhaps the lowest review rating hosts receive should be discounted from the Superhost calculation to avoid revenge reviews having an impact on our status. 

[Lea-And-Jeff0]

Had one guest call and leave a message an hour before check in to say that he had somewhere else to stay and asked if I would refund him. In the 8 minutes it took me to receive, review and respond, this guy had entered my place, written a review that said there were less beds than he thought and called Airbnb support to get him out of the booking. 

Needless to say I was all good with refunding and I was very kind at every turn. He left us a 5 star review for all but accuracy for which he gave a 4 star. 

It was uncomfortable and staff from Airbnb help line were really great and kind. Left an honest review of the guest. Did not bash or blame. Didn't give him 5 stars though. ....