With the new airbnb superhost criteria I expect the following things to happen:
1. Many hosts will realise that the new criteria are almost unachievable and they may decide that they will not even strive for obtaining the badge. So instead that the overall hosting-performance goes up, it may go down.
2. Hosts who still want the superhost badge will fight against negative reviews like a lion and call airbnb 15 times to take a negative review down, no matter if the case is closed or not. Incoming phonecalls at airbnb may go up considerably.
3. The relationship between hosts and guests will change. The focus will no more be to provide a great stay but to get a great review no matter what the costs may be. Hosts will talk about this review-system to their guests no matter if they are interested to hear about it, some may beg them on their knees to rate with 5* and some may offer cash money in exchange.
4. A certain group of guests will soon find out how much damage they can cause with their ratings under the new requirements, they will become more and more demanding and their behaviour will get worse. There already are guests who know how to use the existing system to their benefit, supported by airbnb who lets guests that have requested a refund or never stayed at the property write reviews.
Instad of hosts looking foreward to meet a new and interesting guest from somewhere in the world, they will be anxious about any new arrival. I'm getting a new guest, good lord, pls let him give me a 5*. The „live like a local“ feeling will be gone, replaced by anxiety.
@Rebecca181, I can't reply to Your posts directely either.
Dear airbnb,
there are 2 statements in Your message that I cannot believe.
The first statement is:
„One of the top pieces of feedback we received about the old program criteria was that guests couldn’t intuitively understand what it took to be a Superhost“
I am relatively new to airbnb and have only started to read posts in the community center in february. But ever since I read the english and german CC every day and I have red more than a thousand posts on all kind of subjects. I have never red a post from a guest saying: „uh, i wonder how this superhost thing works and how the hosts get their badge.“ Not a single post like this. Has anyone else ever red such thing? The only group of people who cares how to become a superhost are the hosts, the guests simply don't care. And therefore I cannot believe that this is a „top piece of feedback“.
The second statement ist:
„In looking at recent data, we estimate that between 90% to 95% of our Superhosts are going to have no problem qualifying for the Superhost program under the new criteria“
What is the overall average rating of the 4 Million + listings that airbnb has? We don't know that but we do know it for the London market. If You are looking for a place to stay in London You will find a line on the airbnb page that says: „Over 1,500,000 guest reviews in London, with an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars.“ Let's assume this is the average worldwide. I think we can forget about listings that have a 3.x rating or below, because these places will be delisted by airbnb. I believe the overall situation looks like this:
While there are almost no listings with an average rating of below 4.0, 95% of the listings have an average rating from 4.0 to 5.0 If You now move the requirements for being a superhost from a 4.2 average to a 4.8 average, You can see in this chart how many listings will be affected by this change, we are talking hundreds of thousands. It is impossible that 90% to 95% of the existing superhosts will remain superhosts, my guess is that two thirds of the existing superhosts will lose their badges.
Does anyone of You reading this believe these two statements?
Airbnb, come on!