Hosting Update: Superhost news, travel trends, and more

Hosting Update: Superhost news, travel trends, and more

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Hi everyone,

 

I’m pleased to be sharing this Host update with you, which has some exciting news and resources for our community including changes to the 2021 Superhost assessments, guest insights, and hosting tools updates. 

 

As people’s wanderlust begins to return, a top goal is to help you, our Hosts, prepare for travel’s return. As CEO Brian Chesky noted, “People can’t wait to travel again and when they’re able to, we anticipate significant pent-up demand, which will be directed to you.” 

 

This is an exciting time, but also a time where we still need to consider our own and our guests’ safety, and adjust to the new normals of work, travel, and play. I hope the information in this update gives you some useful tools and peace of mind as you begin to revisit your listings.

 

I’ll be back in touch again soon with more news! 

 

Take care of yourselves, 

Catherine

55 Replies 55
Cathie19
Level 10
Darwin, Australia

Pet friendly? AIrbnb can’t have it both ways from the same host.

I remember when business friendly meant NO pets (host or otherwise) allowed,  to ensure a safe and allergen free environment. This was a basic standard to get the briefcase icon.

 

Now with the subtle push to wanting hosts to have pet friendly spaces, are you wanting us to choose, by rejecting guest with hyper sensitivity or allergens? 

Cathie19
Level 10
Darwin, Australia

A big thank you for this 2021 waiver. Appreciated beyond belief!  I feel I can breathe again.

 

Thank you @Catherine-Powell  & HAB members who advocated for this Covid19 exemption. Some of the best bit of common sense approve seen for a long while........

 

“Superhost announcement:

I’m excited to announce that we’ll be extending Superhost status  through 2021 for Superhosts who continue to meet response rate and overall rating criteria. We know how valuable Superhost status is, especially as we prepare to welcome guests as travel starts to recover. These changes will apply to the next three Superhost assessments, happening in April, July, and October of 2021. This means that if you’re a current Superhost, we’ll extend your status through December 31, 2021 as long as you continue to uphold at least a 90 percent response rate and a 4.8 overall rating.”

Mary996
Level 10
Swansea, United Kingdom

Many thanks @Cathie19 for bringing this up! Much appreciated. A policy was needed xx

Emilia42
Level 10
Orono, ME

I would love a "NO PETS" search filter. Can we please recognize the fact that not everyone likes dogs?

Kelly752
Level 2
Greenville, NC

Okay @Catherine-Powell this is SUPPER Petty but I'm hoping because it's small it'll be doable. Also I'm probably in the minority of Hosts actually hosting rooms in my Home as AB&B was designed originally- and I feel this is 100% a shared-spaces exclusive problem. Anyway! Can we PLEASE not make the "oil salt and pepper" part of "cooking essentials?" I am totally keen to share my kitchenware with my guests and I even provide a **bleep** good snack bar for someone who is only hosting some guest bedrooms (it has K cups! and oatmeal! I don't even have a coffee maker in my own kitchen because I put it in the guest loft 😂) but the second I put an ingredient on offer (Especially the cooking oil don't even get me started) SUDDENLY guests feel they can just HELP THEMSELVES to every item in my GD pantry!! And I know guests be stealing my food anyway even though I send a check in letter reminding them not to because the app keeps telling me that guests have been indicating I offer this amenity but please can we make it a clearer delineation? It makes sense for whole house listings but in shared spaces it just makes for blurred boundaries. I hope this rant makes sense. 

Not to mention that technically as a business, the Health Department forbids you to leave open food items. We leave a spice rack and nothing else. Spoiled oil could make someone sick (and is SO expensive to provide to each guest). All other food items provided are sealed.

Mary996
Level 10
Swansea, United Kingdom

It makes complete sense @Kelly752 

Thank you for raising this. I had the exact same experience and know exactly what you mean. My exquisite and inordinantly expensive truffle oil... used to fry bubble and squeak ...haha!!!

Boundaries. Yes please lets refine boundaries. Thank you xx

There is not much support for us old school, in-home hosts. I haven't hosted in a year now, due to covid, and I'm reading up on changes anticipating re-opening soon. I do not offer my guests the ability to cook in my home. I have a light continental style breakfast bar set up in the dining room. I'm not here for them to cook. I'm sharing my home and offering breakfast. 

---> That's how I look at most guests, like cousins. And you know, some of those cousins are kooks.
Kelly752
Level 2
Greenville, NC

ALSO @Catherine-Powell  I think it would be RAD if hosts (and guests tbqh) could submit photos of our CDC vaccine card and get a cute little "Vaccinated!" badge to go next to our super host badges! As long as my hands are bleeding from mandatory cleaning with bleach I might as well get some extra credit for doing my part for heard immunity! 

We would have loved for Airbnb to put more onus on the guests who were choosing to travel during a pandemic. We are in a remote location where everyone suddenly wanted to travel to and were considered essential by the state. Most of ours were clearly NOT business travelers, yet only hosts were required to submit a commitment to our cleaning practices. Guests were not vetted and Airbnb continued to allow out of state guests to leisure travel against state regulations, and we finally had to threaten fines because so many were not doing their own dishes. Since it's guests choosing to travel, putting hosts, housekeepers and often small communities at risk, it really should have been the guests that had to sign cleaning commitment contracts and now show they are cleared for leisure travel. Also, thanks so much for doing your part to keep everyone safe! 

Very good point @Bud-and-Beth0  about need for Guests to respect self isolation and do their own dishes for goodness sake. That's appalling that they didn't. I'm sorry!!

Big Agree, @Bud-and-Beth0 !  Though I didn't have many problems with guests not cleaning, I did switch my listing to 28 night minimums for a while.  Because of that, I had more guests thinking of me as a roommate in their "bubble" and not as someone they had to follow precautions around. It wasn't a huge deal personally as most of my guests were professionals I knew to be safe in the community and were staying for months at a time. But it was frustrating that I basically had to do a virtual learning module on cleaning & Covid procedures when it was clear Airbnb never even asked guests to be pandemic safe. My guests had no idea we'd been told to wear masks at all times and stay 6 feet away from them (I can't stay 6 feet away from someone making no effort to stay 6 feet away from me!)

@Kelly752  vaccine is active just for about 6 months

@Branka-and-Silvia0 source please?

Bud-and-Beth0
Level 3
Skykomish, WA

According to this article, “Pet-friendly” is the most searched-for amenity by guests".

I JUST SPENT THE LAST FOUR HOURS COLLECTING AND FOLLOWING UP ON PET FEES!  (we manage multiple pet friendly properties).

ADD A PET FEE OPTION ALREADY!

I can't stress enough how infuriating it is that Airbnb has not yet added something as basic as this. EACH guest wants to bring a pet, EACH time I have to follow up with the pet request, 90% of the time I CAN'T because it is not fully paid yet so we have to AGAIN follow up with the request. Many guests don't see the request or have trouble finding it and when I involved Airbnb, my guest was threatened with cancelation if they didn't pay! So, we spent thousands of dollars creating a custom app so guests could just add the pet themselves and pay through the app. Airbnb, then in their infinite wisdom, spent their time creating the "off platform policy" making my app illegal or else I get my account banned from Airbnb- time they could have spent JUST ADDING THE OPTION TO THEIR PLATFORM. It was a real slap in the face, just as this article which clearly shows that Airbnb knows how important it is (again, MOST SEARCHED FOR) but still do nothing about it.

I truly only read this article in the hopes that it would say this was one of the changes. SO disappointed.