Host Advisory Board Spotlight - Peter Kwan’s advice on LGBTQ+ guests

[Stephanie]

Hiya everyone!

We’ve heard from lots of Host advisory board members recently and today I want to share a Spotlight on Superhost @Peter1 . Peter has hosted for over 10 years and has been advocating for the hosting community—including groups that are often overlooked in society, like seniors and members of the LGBTQ+ community. 

Take a look at this article in the Airbnb Resource Center for more details about all his amazing work.

What communities or groups are you involved with which have impacted your Hosting?

Many thanks,

Stephanie

[Helen427]

Thanks @Stephanie and @Peter1 

Love the concept of including a Group for Seniors as Golden Hosts.

How about Golden Guests who are also seniors?

Those entering a new phase in life as life progresses need to be much better looked after and included in society in general terms.

Have you included any Historic places visits as outings for your Senior Group?

What is the name of your dog @Peter1 ?

[Laurelle3]

@Helen427  I like your support of @Peter seniors Golden Hosts and your suggestion of Golden Guests as I fit in this mould.

When we were allowed to travel overseas and around Australia, I found as a guest that the senior  hosts were interested in communicating with their guests by sharing information of their community, environment and places of interest nearby. They also try to cater for guest needs when sharing their homes. 

My philosophy in hosting is try to give what or standard that you would like to receive. Maybe, it is my experience from my past career of nursing and life. Thanks @Stephanie  for introducing Peter.

[Barbara779]

@Stephanie Thanks Stephanie and Peter for sharing these great ideas.  I love the idea of the rainbow and the Golden Hosts. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have 3 suggestions to the advisory board.

We have been hosting for 5 years now and love it and are superhosts on the mid north coast of NSW, Australia.    The whole upstairs of our house is for our guests and we have also installed a barn door to the area to give even more privacy.  It has a bedroom, a loungeroom with table and chairs, fridge, microwave toaster, kettle and TV.
A full bathroom, a separate double vanity and a their own toilet.

1.  Could their be section rather than just "private room in a house" as we offer so much more.  It is like their own suite.
2. Could we ask the guests to post a decent photo of themselves.  We have received photos of a dog or a cat and when I am letting in people late at night on my own I really like to have an idea of what they look like.
3. Because we host in our own home I like to know the full name of the other guest.  For the first 2 years we did not ask this in our messages and we have no idea who is upstairs other than the person who made the booking.  I know there is an area for the guest to post this but 95% of them do not.  If you could stress the courtesy to us the host who is in the house this would give me a little more security.  Thanks so much Barbara 

[Till-and-Jutta0]

Hi @Barbara779 , thank you for your suggestions.

1. With the 2022 summer release Airbnb introduced 55 more categories, see https://news.airbnb.com/2022-summer-release/. I know, not all hosts are happy with it, but the idea is to provide a new way of searching for the guest.
   
   
2. You can ask for real profile photos, see https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/airbnb-answers-guest-profile-photos-77, which says: 
   If you choose to require that your guests have a profile photo and one of your potential guests uploads an image that doesn’t show their face—a photo of a sunset or their dog, for instance—then you can call Airbnb’s Community Support. They’ll work with you to address the issue, and if you feel uncomfortable hosting someone without a photo that shows their face, you can request to cancel the reservation penalty-free.
   
   
3. Name of other guests: Personally I can understand very well that it’s an issue, especially for hosts who are sharing their homes. What I do is: I ask in the Airbnb chat for the names.

Please feel free to share any feedback in the designated feedback section at https://www.airbnb.com/help/feedback

Happy Hosting!

[Huma0]

@Barbara779 

You can also ask if the additional guests have airbnb profiles of their own, in which case these can be linked to the booking. At least, that used to be the case. I am not 100% sure if it still is as I only host solo travellers now.

However, I do agree that there should be a better, automated system for this. I have no idea why Airbnb does not REQUIRE this information from all guests that book. Hosts need to know who is staying in their properties, especially a homeshare. It's not a big ask.

[Mark116]

@Huma0 @Till-and-Jutta0   Exactly.  It would be easy for Airbnb to make the system only accept the reservation when the number of names of guests=the number of guests listed on the reservation.  It should be a no brainer, but Airbnb isn't interested in anything that might cause the guest not to book....they don't care about local regulations requiring the names of guests, or the issues of forcing hosts to either chase the details [possibly poisoning the stay before it ever starts], or not following the rules or not knowing really who is staying at their property.

[Huma0]

@Mark116 

Yes, I believe you are right. Airbnb wants the booking process to be as swift and simple as possible to get as many bookings as possible and therefore as much commission as possible. Who cares if it causes problems for the hosts down the line?

However, it's not great for guests. It would not be an unreasonable assumption for a guest to wonder why, if this information was as important as the host claims it to be, they were not just asked for it upfront. Or, maybe they stayed in other listings where the host didn't ask. Then they are left with the impression that this latest host is just being annoying and doesn't trust them.

I hate having to nag guests for information, but I've found it often be necessary. Because it's been such a challenge in the past, I've turned off IB and now will not even accept a booking until I get that information. If that means my acceptance rate suffers (and therefore maybe also my position in search results), then so be it. I don't want to take unnecessary risks just because Airbnb pressurises hosts to accept bookings regardless of what information is provided.