100+ new tools, features, and upgrades based on feedback from our Host community

[Airbnb]

We believe that the biggest travel rebound in a century is coming, and we want to help you get ready for it! We’ve introduced more than 100 changes to the app, website, and Community Support to help you take advantage of this unique opportunity—and manage your day-to-day tasks more easily. 

Here are some of the most important changes:

• A more intuitive and consistent experience across the app and website
• A new homepage for Hosts called the Today tab 
• A faster, searchable inbox featuring new time-saving tools and features 
• An up-leveled Community Support team, as well as Dedicated Superhost Support 
• Automated Arrival Guides for guests 

You can read more details about what’s new here.

Have you already noticed changes in your tools? Which improvements are you most looking forward to?

Posted on Monday 24th May 2021

[Bill1080]

Lots of good things in the newest updates, but I searched in vain for the one thing that so many of us have been asking for a long time...when will pet fees be added to the reservation process?

At this point I would love for some simple answer to the question...why not? Other reservation sites can manage to handle collection of pet fees, why not Airbnb?

[Delia6]

@Bill1080 Why not simply note in your listing that a pet fee will be an additional cost? Not everyone will bring a pet, but those who would like to will easily be charged by you.

[Stone43]

Yes i agree ! thank you My place is pet free and some may look for a pet free place because of heath reasons. does any one ever think of that ? Also they have HOUSE RULES doesn't ANYONE know how to ADD things to there HOUSE RULES ??????   Thats why they have HOUSE RULES for GUEST to follow !

[Bill1080]

@Delia6 The pet fee is already noted in my listing. And guests with pets have been very willing to pay the additional fee. The problem is that I  have to collect the actual fee outside of the reservation process. It should be included in the total fee from the beginning, just as it is done on VRBO.

Many of us have been asking for this for a long time, and we still don't have a good answer on why it hasn't been done. Search the community center for pet fees and you will see many, many others asking for an answer.

[Delia6]

@Bill1080  I see. Well, it seems easy enough to request an additional fee if it isn’t too often. I could see how the fees might change depending upon the number and type of pet, the size etc.  I just scroll to the bottom of the page where all the fees are noted for both host and guest and send a “request for money “ for special services to my guests. It seems easy enough to me. 
But if you have to do it multiple times a week that could be laborious. Good luck.

[Gail33]

Almost everyone of the stays for the property I cohost includes pets.  So it is a bit of a pain.  Not sure why you seem so opposed to a simple pet fee.  

[Sarah977]

@Airbnb  When hosts contact Airbnb CS, they are not looking for "empathy". They are looking for on-point answers and solutions to their issues, given by competent CS reps who are well-versed in Airbnb policy and will go to their superiors if they don't know the answer to a question rather than give out whatever incorrect information pops into their head at the moment.

We aren't interested in being told "I hear you", we are interested in being heard.

Doubling the size of an incompetent, ill-trained workforce simply means there will be twice as many incompetent, ill-trained workers, which is beneficial to whom, exactly?  So we'll only have to wait half the time now to get poor service?

And while it's great that more languages will be supported in CS, are you planning to replace the current outsourced CS staff that deal with English speaking users, but whose spoken English can barely be understood, whose written communication reads like a bad Goggle translate, and who need an issue explained to them 5 times because they don't understand?

[Helen427]

Thanks @Airbnb  & @Brian 

Now let's get the show back on the road with some positive media releases and our Freedoms to travel internationally back!

[Adriano78]

@Airbnb  changes that have been demanding many times -  the possibility of seeing if travelers read messages that we send to them, it is still not done. !!

Same for cancellation conditions by date!. On booking.com  it is flexible, for example :  next week which is a quiet week I can decide to put flexible or moderate cancellation conditions.

In June with  Euro football matches I can decide to put some dates with strict cancellation conditions!. After many years it is still not possible on Airbnb !!. 

[Luisa889]

Thank you for bringing up the point that host can’t see if guests are reading messages. I don’t think half of the guests ever even read the house rules. Many show up at the main house and try to use the cottage code to open the door.  It’s quite obvious they didn’t read much less  look at check in instructions with pictures I might add.  Very frustrating.  Also where it says 2 guests and 5 end up staying overnight.  

[Rae541]

I wonder if Airbnb could make it a requirement for guests to read the house rules before they  are able to book?  In any case, I require guests communicate with me before I preapprove them and will often communicate multiple times with them to make sure we are on the same page before I pre-approve them.  One of the suggestions I usually make is that they review the house rules and let me know if they have any questions.   That seems to work most of the time.  I rent a room not a whole place and am there most of the time.  I've been hosting for many years and I've rarely had a problem.

[Gillian166]

@Adriano78  (yes old thread, kudos to the   forum  upgrade for bringing this back up)

WOW, i've been wanting this too. how many have hosts been asking for this? 

I read through the 100 "new features" that were rolled out, but somehow the most obvious ones we want keep getting ignored. 

I'd love to have a stricter cancellation policy for the Xmas week, the NYE week, and other major holidays, but happy to have a more flexible policy at other times. 

we often get told that we are being heard, but it's sad to see an older thread with the same issues, and sadder still to see SO many hosts who were active a year ago who no longer bother. (perhaps they are in other forums now?)

[Adriano78]

Hola @Gillian166  I do not understand why Airbnb can not make this change and I am sure that for every very  requested date many hosts who are flexible or moderate they close their Airbnb calendars!

For example here in Seville in April we have a holy week, this week is very important and the price are very high.

The hosts that are flexible and moderate are forced to close their Calendars on Airbnb and they change the  Booking.com  calendar by putting cancellation conditions  from moderate/flexible to by non -refundable!.

If you leave your  Airbnb calendar with flexible or moderate conditions for Holy Week and you have a last-minute cancellation, the host will lose thousands of euros because at the last minute he will not be able to find a new customer!

Holy Week is just an example but there are other dozens of examples with very requested dates and I have to close the Airbnb calendar to avoid last-minute cancellations.

This problem we have talked about it for years with  Airbnb !!, what did they do to change this situation?  NOTHING.

I think that before changing the design of the community center that it is really useless thing, there would be a lot of things to improve for the hosts

[Tyler-And-Jill0]

@Airbnb When we, Superhosts, contact Airbnb Host Support, we are looking for answers, solutions, reps who know and understand the Airbnb policy and will go to their supervisors if they don't know the answer or can't help with a solution to the issue. Instead they charge us with a violation to the policy, of which there is no policy.

The following was posted by Sarah977 in Sayulita, Mexico and couldn't more more true or on-point. 

Doubling the size of an incompetent, ill-trained workforce simply means there will be twice as many incompetent, ill-trained workers, which is beneficial to whom, exactly?  So we'll only have to wait half the time now to get poor service?

And while it's great that more languages will be supported in CS, are you planning to replace the current outsourced CS staff that deal with English speaking users, but whose spoken English can barely be understood, whose written communication reads like a bad Goggle translate, and who need an issue explained to them 5 times because they don't understand? All this only to not receive a resolution.

We are very seriously considering separating from Airbnb as hosts and guests.

[Beulah1]

What listing service would you go to?  Before the pandemic Air used to have articulate, trained CS but they scaled down enormously so I could never get anyone.  Even back then my problem with a low review on the heels of my claiming damages never got any support and the situation occurred 3x in a row pushing me out of being a SH.  They were just bad guests with problems I had no way of knowing about. NO help ever from Air but to do better next time!  Finally that period is over but I will be loathe to claim damages in the future.  It's all slanted in one direction.  I've wanted to find an alternative listing agency, so thank you in advance.