Community Spotlight: Catherine Powell

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

Hopefully by now, you have all heard we have a new Global Head of Hosting at Airbnb. 

@Catherine-Powell  will be regularly posting updates in the Community Center and sharing more about what her and the team are up to. I know she will be keen to hear from you on those updates, so do keep an eye out for them! Outside of the updates, Catherine has also asked us Community Managers to help gather any additional questions or feedback you have.

 

To get the ball rolling and in true Community Center spotlight style, (plus many of you wanted to know more about her in our recent announcement), we asked her a few questions:

Can you tell us a little more about yourself?

I joined Airbnb six months ago to head our Experiences business. Prior to Airbnb I spent 15 years at Disney with the last three years in the Parks business, where I managed Walt Disney World, Disneyland  and Disneyland Paris. I oversaw the theme parks, restaurants, retail boutiques and hotels. I’m a mother of three boys and a 14 month old, 90 pound “puppy” called Ozzy. I grew up in England, but have lived in Hong Kong, France, Germany, Australia, and now the USA. As a family we love to travel and explore new cultures. Which is just as well - my youngest son has been educated in four different school systems! I seem to spend my time on Zoom at the moment, but when I am free, I love to hike (with Ozzy), do yoga and have Airbnb experiences with friends and family I can’t see. 

Why did you join Airbnb and why did this role attract you?

I’ve always had a deep appreciation for the Airbnb brand, and its mission to connect people and create a sense of belonging. Something that is more needed than ever at the moment. I was so excited to head Airbnb Experiences and help real people share their passions, personal perspectives, culture and histories. Now, as head of Hosting, it’s an honour to be able to amplify this responsibility and champion work that will empower all of our hosts, who are the engine of our brand. I’m humbled by the incredible teams of people who work day and night to build solutions in a very challenging landscape. This is a momentous time for the world; the travel and tourism industry, which represented about 10% of world GDP, has been shaken to its core. Our host community is also suffering. My job is to focus on repairing, rebuilding and coming out stronger on the other side. 

Do you stay in Airbnbs or host? What are your biggest learnings using the product?

I don’t host yet, but I am excited to start when I don’t have a full house, with my boys at home. I love staying in Airbnbs. Once you have stayed somewhere where you feel noticed and cared for, it is difficult to imagine wanting to travel any other way. I had a particularly enjoyable stay with Linda in San Francisco. I was there on business, and coming home in the evenings and chatting to Linda about her travel stories, and love of film (I even gate-crashed her book club one night) was a truly unique and memorable experience.

I firmly believe that what makes Airbnb different is the personal touch: leaving fresh flowers, a welcome beverage, local recommendations. These things connect the host and their guest, many times without even having to meet in person. 

I also love our experiences. My favourite in-person include fire-eating and discovering the speak-easies in LA. And since our launch of Online Experiences I have become an avid guest and traveled the world: meeting the dogs of Chernobyl; making Ricotta with a host in Sonoma; learning about Sake with ‘Wasabi’ in Tokyo; and preparing Sangria with Pedro in Lisbon.

What do you think is amazing about our hosts? 

I’m amazed by the entrepreneurial spirit of our hosts and their commitment to offer the best level of hospitality in all its forms: from sharing a room in their primary homes, to teaching skill or sharing a passion; to setting up a small business venture like a bed and breakfast or boutique hotel. The care and personal attention that they put into making each guest experience so special is inspiring. And the fact that we are a community of individuals is what makes Airbnb, and what we can offer the world, so unique. No two hosts are the same. 

I have also been struck by the resilience and resourcefulness of our hosts, especially now. When travel disruption was most acute, and guests uncertain, our hosts were already asking what they could do to help create safe and healthy environments when travel recovered. And as quickly as we could roll out the Enhanced Cleaning Protocol, hosts rushed to this resource. We already have over 1 million listings on Airbnb where hosts have attested to this rigorous upgraded cleaning routine. 

I’m humbled and honored to be working with such a committed host community, especially at such a critical time for the world and for our company.

Can you share one of your most meaningful moments so far at Airbnb?

I’ve been here six months, and have only been in the Global Hosting role for a couple of weeks.  There have been a great number of inspiring and positive moments, but a significant one that comes to mind was the incredibly difficult decision to temporarily suspend our Experiences globally, for health and safety reasons. I had joined Airbnb to run this business, and two months in I had to tell our hosts they had to stop hosting. Following this, we set up global listening sessions. Our founders, Brian and Joe, participated in these sessions as well. There is something profound about a crisis that brings people together. We were all frustrated, and many people were very upset and angry which was understandable. But the sessions became constructive discussions exploring options together. It was here that I heard from hosts that they wanted to offer online experiences. I loved their creative thinking and determination to continue to offer their experiences to our guests. We mobilized and built that product in 14 business days. It is now the fastest growing Airbnb product. 

This will always be a milestone for me, because it proves the value of directly connecting with our hosts and power of building things together. I know Homes hosts are struggling, some are seeing a spike in demand, but most are still hurting and facing uncertainty. I am committed to making meaningful connections and bringing about positive changes for the entire host community.

What are you focusing on this year? 

My first priority this year is to recenter the Airbnb business around hosts and hosting. We have a clear mandate from Brian Chesky to go back to our roots, and put hosts at the heart of Airbnb in the same way we did in the early days. We have been reflecting on the fact that Airbnb was born during a crisis in 2008, and we have come full circle to a new global crisis. The path we need and choose is to refocus on our hosts. Travel is changing, home sharing is changing, and our commitment is to help hosts succeed in this new world of travel. I’m focused on delivering tools and communicating information that will help our hosts rebuild their business and drive more bookings. Hosts are our partners, the true source of what makes Airbnb special, unique and amazing. This is my focus.

It wouldn’t be a community spotlight without a fun fact. What’s yours?

When I ran Disneyland Paris I had to give a speech, in French, in front of the President of France (President Hollande) and the world’s media. As I stepped up on stage my heels got caught in my skirt and I was stuck in a squat with my back to a thousand people, and the media. I considered pretending to faint. But then I sat down, took my shoes off, and walked barefoot to the lectern and gave my speech. When I was finished and went to walk down the steps the President and his accompanying Guards rushed to help me. And Disneyland Castmembers still call me Cinderella…..  

Thank you so much for sharing more about yourself.

As always, please do share your comments and thoughts here, I’m sure @Catherine-Powell would love to hear from you.

Lizzie

[Jane563]

@Catherine-Powell

It would be great if you could sort out the issue of guest photos.  Hosts have the option of asking guests to post a photo on their profile, which can’t be seen by them until the booking is accepted.

Fair enough you might think. However, once I have accepted a booking, I am constantly having to chase my guests to put up a recognizable photo of their face. They post photos of sunsets, their pets and their legs to enable them to get around this requirement and book.

For the third time in a row I am having to deal with this myself. It’s impossible to get through to airbnb to ask a customer service rep to help.  Would we be able to have the option to cancel the booking penalty free, if the guest refuses to comply with this request say within 12 hours? 

Thanks for reading.

[Jane563]

Also instant book is not something I’d consider allowing guests to do. I live here.

I am very well travelled and I want to provide a place for lone women to feel safe and secure in, and specify that I’ll only host females in my home. I’m not breaking any rules, as I am hosting in my home.

I still get men ignoring my header stating women only and  trying to book. I also state this in the first few sentences and in my house rules. The only way I can stop this, is by going over to instant book so that I can turn on the gender filter button. It would be great for hosts who prefer guests to request to book to have this filter too.

I have accepted a male by mistake in the past (because I am no longer allowed to see a photo before taking a booking!) and had to call CS to cancel.  I was threatened with a penalty charge being deducted from my next payment until I said I leave Airbnb and told the case manager to cancel my upcoming bookings!

No live in host of either gender should be forced to take a guest of the opposite gender if they don’t want to!

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @Jane563,

Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback here. I'm sorry to hear that you have had a hard time verifying your guests pre booking. We are working on the guest verification process, to try to ensure that guests are properly vetted before being able to book, so your insight is really helpful.

I also appreciate your concerns around the gender filter. I have heard from other hosts that guests do not always read the full listing or house rules before booking, so this is also something we are working on in the months ahead. I look forward to sharing some updates on this soon.

Thanks,

Catherine

[Lucy9]

@Catherine-Powell 

Hello Catherine,
My name is Lucy, I am a host and artist, I was born and live in the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. I love that you are there to chat with us Airbnb hosts!
Argentina is very affected, like the whole world, by Covit, it has radically changed our lives and particularly the hosts, it affects us a lot, international guests do not arrive, for reasons of force majeure; Argentine guests are very limited by high taxes if they pay for stays in dollars. We know that a new wave of infections is expected in the northern hemisphere, that is terrible for everyone!
In my house I receive people from many parts of the world, especially from the north and since March I have not had guests.
My question is: is there any way that Airbnb, only in these circumstances, charges Argentine guests in $ AR.
Thank you very much for this beautiful opportunity, dear Catherine !!

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @Lucy9,

Thank you for your message. I really appreciate your positivity, even under the challenging hosting circumstances we are seeing currently, and it is great to be able to communicate with you, too. I have seen how the people of Argentina have been affected by Covid and I want to thank you for sharing your story with me and for being a part of our community.

Unfortunately, I am not sure it is possible to update our payout currencies in Argentina currently, but I will note this with the team and come back to you if anything changes. I am going to have someone on our team reach out to you directly as I want you to keep us posted, please. We want to know how things are progressing where you are and help you in whatever way we can.

Thanks again, Catherine

[Lucy9]

Hi Catherine,
I hope you are fine!.
I don't see the answer to this message, so I want to thank you very much for joining me and answering me so kindly.
Very Merry Christmas and New Year with your family and friends !!
With love Lucy

[Christine615]

Welcome @Catherine-Powell 

You have your work cut out for you. Airbnb has so much potential, but only if the founders give more credit to host's professionalism (and our intelligence). 

Someone mentioned that it took three hours to get help. Let me amend that it took me 2 weeks to get help after giving up. No one answers the phone. The "someone will be with you in 5 minutes" chat function was still "pending" after 30 minutes when I finally logged off. By the time I got a call the event had passed. My colleagues in other cities report the same experience. To add insult to injury - Airbnb claimed they "found" information that made both guests unsuitable but couldn't tell me what it was because it was private. Also couldn't explain why unsuitable guests are allowed to request to book if not suitable. It was a colossal waste of time answering questions. Although I did book directly with one of the "unsuitable" guests after we discovered we had a mutual friend. She was lovely to host.

Also - you absolutely have to change the policy that hides guest data before we approve. I think that is the most dangerous trend Airbnb has created. I point out a local host who booked a known felon who harassed her and days later was in a 12-hour stand-off with a SWAT Team and found to have meth and guns in his possession.

Meet the Airbnb guest that was sent to a host (and scared her):

https://www.plattecountycitizen.com/theplattecountycitizen/price20112019

So why wouldn't hosts be concerned about the lack of vetting going on at Airbnb beyond age?

If Airbnb is going to be successful, it has to start by returning to the notion that hosts control the inventory and  create the personal experiences/touches that is part of the brand. We are partners, not an inconveinent means to generate a booking fee.

Looking forward to seeing positive, proactive changes to help the platform grow.

If Airbnb wants its IPO to be successful, it needs to start by making sure the hosts are successful.

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @Christine615 ,

Thank you for reaching out to me and for your honest and candid comments. I am sorry that you had a difficult time getting through to our CS team. We've made a significant increase in our number of support staff and while this should ease the delay issue, it will take a little time.

We are definitely working hard on this. I believe you mentioned the issue you had with the Party Policy previously, and the team came back to you with an update, but if you are still having problems in that regard, please do send me a message directly.

As I have said to others, the safety of our hosts and guest is of utmost importance, so I'm really sorry to hear about your fellow host's experience in Kansas. Whilst this policy was designed to reduce discrimination, we understand that it needs to evolve in order to protect our hosts as well. To that end, we are actively working on an update to address guest verification and education. I hope to be able to share an update with you soon.

Your sentiment about how our success goes hand-in-hand is spot on. We always strive to give our hosts the tools they need to help them succeed, and we value the feedback we receive from hosts like yourself to show us where we can improve.

Thank you again for reaching out.

Best,

Catherine

[Brux0]

@Catherine-Powell  I wanted to welcome you to the community and thank you for all you have been doing so far.  I have been following all your recent activity, and I participated to a workshop with Dorothy Kilroy and other community leaders in Latin America, and since I am a long time host who has seen lot's of people passing through your role, promising, and not doing much, I feel this is the first time in 10 years that I notice a real involvement.

I would like to give you a feedback and share with you an idea of mine to solve some of the review process problematics:

When I started on airbnb, guests would see the review of hosts before posting theirs.  From them to now, there have been lots of improvement in the review process, which is good, however, the big issues that makes hosts angry is that the system still have big flaws and is, in some specific cases, not fair, and, at the contrary, is prejudicial.

In the past Donna Boyle, then in the Q/A of October 2019, and as well in the new review policy of December 2019, Laura chambers (former head of housing) outlined all this problems, confirming that Airbnb is aware of them, however nothing has been yet done to correct.

The three main problems I see are:

1. The system is not logic: 

• 4 stars is labelled as good, but in terms of ranking, and super host, it is considered bad.  If you get 3 times 4-stars-review you get an email from airbnb saying your listing can be suspended since you are doing something wrong.  How can 4 be good???

1. The system is open to vingative reviews:

• you do not allow late check out because you have a guest checking in, you get a 3 stars, you open a claim for damage, you get a 3 stars, and so on…

1. The system is open to inconsistent review:

• in consequence of not being logic, and not being understandable by the guest, guest do not know that by giving you 4 they are giving you a bad note (it is written good isn't it?), also sometimes they simply do mistakes, and although they give you 5 stars in all areas, you get 4 in the general, etc…

1. The super host status is granted by a score of 4.8, however for the guest is not clear that by giving you 4 stars is basically saying that you do not deserve Super Host status, and by giving you 5 stars is saying you deserve.

The main problems I see are: 

a) super host review is joint with apt review

b) 4 is labelled as “good”

c) review cannot be altered

d) there isn’t a system to eliminate the subjectivity of reviews.

SOLUTION

1. Make it clear to the guest that by giving 4 stars he is saying HE DOES NOT THINK HIS HOST DESERVE TO BE SUPER HOST.  An alternative is to use the first rating to rate only THE HOST.  The following stars will be for the apartment and the general review will be an average of the other review.  

1. change the label of the stars:  5 Great , 4 Normal/bad (you do not think your host can be considered a super host), 3 Bad. Or change the entire airbnb ecosystem where you as a matter of fact interpret the 4 as negative.

1. Each Quarter (or another chosen period) a host can (or not at his choice) remove 1 worst/best review for each apartment listed.  This is a standard scoring practice in all sport competition worldwide where there is a subjectivity factor.

1. Allow change.  Guest or Host can improve review when is agreed by both parties, and this should be done by a tool and not by CX.  This will help a lot when the guest misstype, etc…

It is not easy to discuss such an important topic via written text here; but the problems are there.  There are many possible solutions to solve them, not necessarily the ones I have outlined above.  

As a community leader in Brasil, I have been listening to host complaining about unfair review for the last 5 years at least, almost every day.  I read them in each group I am participating throughout the world, and as a Designer I must say the core of the review system is still the same of 10 years ago.

Hope you can really improve this, and send you all my thanks for all you are doing for the community.

cheers

Brunello

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @Brux0,

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback here. I really appreciate the detail and thought you have put into this. You have a lot of great feedback on the review process, as well as ideas about how to fix it, which is really terrific. This is the kind of constructive criticism that I love to discover in the Community Center!

Many hosts have shared similar thoughts with me in the past few months, and we are indeed working on changes to the review system to improve these issues. I will take your suggestions to the team.

I look forward to sharing updates with you soon.

Best,
Catherine

[Brux0]

Thanks @Catherine-Powell,

I apreciate your answer and feedback.  You are doing a great job.

Together with your SP office, I have done a survey o the top  issues suggested by all the leaders of communities of all the Brazilian hosts clubs.  We came out with 16 issues that can be improved.  The first round of survey ended yesterday to select the top 6.  Next week I will sen to the entire community  in brasil through all our whats app and facebook groups, which include more than 200.000 members.  When the survey in Brasil will be done, I am planning with the help of your Sao Paulo office to replicate the survey in LATAM.  Then we will plan to present to you.

cheers

Brunello

[Francesco1366]

Hi @Brux0 ,

please note that the standard scoring practices of all competitors of Airbnb, not sport competition, are very different.

Do you see hotels or houses, in even more popular site than Airbnb, forced to maintain an average of 4.8 out of 5 (=9.6 out of 10)? Do you see sites where 4 out of 5 (=8 out of 10) is considered bad? More than looking at sports competitions, I would look at the same market of Airbnb. I see 5-star hotels that continue to be considered excellent without an average of 9.6 out of 10. We are mostly not professionally workers like the 5-star hotel staff, in many cases we rent houses (very different thing than to sell a hotel room) and are we subject to higher standards? Absurd.

I don't think useful to give further explanations or warnings to the guests during the review process. It will complicate more making the system more absurd. How can you tell a guest that 4 (8) is a bad vote and the only positive is 5 (10)? Then, many here have 10/20 reviews per year and even less are enough to become Super Host. In my opinion is unacceptable to throw one away: disrespectful towards the guests.

I think we have to realize that Super Host is a very, very strict system based on reviews that of course cannot be always fair: the high standard, not the review method, necessarily make us subject to many errors.

If we want to really change, we have to ask for more reasonable standards.

[Brux0]

@Francesco1366 , I understand your point, and in some parts I agree: however, as a former head of design of couple of big luxury corporation, I understand that when you have a design problem, it is much easier to solve it by applying changes to the existing system rather than scrap the entire system.

The airbnb review system is at the base of the company design since the very beginning, and I doubt they will took it apart. So, if we want solutions, we need to provide help and feedback that is constructive, can fit in the airbnb reality, and is possible to be made.

I have had almost 2500 reservation and have more than 1000 review, and as community leader in Rio, I hear daily the review problems of hundreds of hosts. The solutions I have suggested, will not make the airbnb review system perfect, but will limit the damages of the current review system to almost Zero. If I analyse the number of reviews I have and the ones that were not fair, the percentage is already extremely low. Probably 2 or 3 per year out of 400. So.... in reality, the system works in most of the cases. The problem is that ONE single unfair review is enough to make a host mad, and question the airbnb relationship.

By implementing something that can remove those few unfair review, the system will still not be perfect, but will not cause damages. And if you want to know what the real solution would be, you do not need to look at the review system, but mostly and the ranking algorithm and its algorithm. You remove that, you change, you improve that, and the errors in the review system, or couple of unfair reviews won't really matter anymore.

Also, worth to mention that all competitors of airbnb have more serious design problems to be solved than the scoring system.  I would not take them as bench mark to compare.

[Marcela509]

Dear @Catherine-Powell 

I’m so sorry to bother you but this matter is really important to me and I have no answer throught Contact Center. Since I became host at Airbnb community I have always been recognized as Superhost, at first offering my urban home (one of the first 10 Buenos Aires Airbnb Plus, invited by Airbnb) and since 2019, also with my childhood home, both listings currently with “100% response, less than an hour”. Last week, I was surprised by my Low Average Response Rate, when I always reply in less than an hour and Approve/Reject within the first 24 hours. The quarantine lockdown and Airbnb payments exclusively in dollars in Argentina, added to the government restrictions on the purchase of foreign currency, have caused an infinity of contacts offering agreements outside the platform, which I have diplomatically rejected in a timely manner, explaining my interest to be my guests, confirming your identity (I have "instant booking" at both listings) and only through Airbnb.

I don’t know if the algorithm considers negatively these rejections of fraudulent proposals or if I have been penalized for one case of a pre-approved request, withdrawn by the potential guest for not being able to make the payment (Luis Carlos, from Colombia). My Response Rate was above 90% at last October assessment and now this listing is 75%, lowering my average for Superhost to 85%, losing my current status.

There is a time difference between Argentina and Colombia. Luis Carlos made his first contact during the night but I NEVER received this mail (It was the second time this situation happened to me this year). Later Airbnb sent me a Reiteration and we started our chat. After having suffered a 5-week blockage in my calendar for 24 hours and losing another potential booking, I was also surprised by receiving an email from Airbnb telling me that the Request had been withdrawn and I WOULD NOT BE PUNISHED FOR NOT BEING MY RESPONSIBILITY. I‘VE NEVER RECEIVED an email in these terms and I have already experienced this kind of situation by daily checking my calendars, with bookings that are not completed.

I have defended the community, not only working on local legislation and collaborating with many Airbnb Argentina programs, but also keeping empty my apartments during the quarantine, both due to the blockdown requested by the local government who blocked Airbnb calendars, even prevented “Approve/Reject” queries made between blockout extensions announcements passing to status “Not possible”, such as rejecting all proposals from outside Airbnb system.

Today my only two listings are occupied for several months, so requests during December will be minimal to improve my Response Rate. I only have 5 stars reviews at both listings this year and I consider sincerely unfair that a system error punishes my Airbnb performance.

I hope you could check this failure and I’m available to provide any other information requested

Warm regards

Marcela

[Francesco1366]

@Brux0, thank you for yuor comment!

I have no doubt that some of your proposals could improve the system.

However.

Airbnb has already lowered Super Host standards in the past, why shouldn't it do it again? This is a clear anomaly compared to the competitors in the same sector, one in particular is much bigger and has already been on the stock exchange for a long time.

We should ask ourselves why Airbnb has this anomaly. I have my ideas: however it would be foolish to think that it is not a precise choice of a big company in order to obtain precise advantages. Are these advantages only for Airbnb or for us too?

I'm not talking about algorithms or design but about stress and injustices caused by an extremely excessive program existing only here. This we should solve. That we are subject to higher standards than our competitors who offer 5-star hotel rooms!

The base of the company design is the review system: not Super Host. But even if Super Host were the base, the important aspect is the word and how it is offered: not the standards that guests often do not know and that have already been changed. The standards are wrong: in this market, how could a standard be sustainable and correct if consider bad the vote just below the maximum?

I don't believe in the concept of "unfair reviews". They certainly exist, but it is very difficult to identify them in an acceptable sense for all. Guests, as hosts, sometimes are wrong, sometimes they are wrong for me but not for you. In the review they judge not only your personal figure as Super Host, or Host, but the house. We can continue indefinitely: sometimes they also judge the price, the neighborhood, the noisy neighbor, the weather etc. etc. etc. Or at least they are influenced by these aspects, sometimes much more and sometimes less, as well as by their mood at time of rental and by infinite other factors. This is the inevitable reality.