How we’re giving hosts a seat at the table

[Airbnb]

 

You may have seen a letter from our CEO Brian Chesky this week with some important announcements for our community. In case you missed it, we’re launching a formal program to give hosts a seat at the table, and an opportunity to take part in our company’s success.

It’s made up of two equally important parts:

• Airbnb Host Advisory Board: A diverse group of hosts on Airbnb who meet regularly with Airbnb executives to represent the host community's voice and make sure that hosts’ ideas are heard
• Airbnb Host Endowment: A fund that is intended to provide support to our host community now and in the future, which we expect will be initially funded with 9.2 million shares of Airbnb stock 

You can read much more about the programs here.

We’re looking forward to introducing the Advisory Board before the end of the year.

[Francesco1366]

There is no doubt that I have to thank Airbnb and Brian for the opportunity it has given me when I discovered this business in Airbnb years ago. Thanks, thanks and thanks! Thanks also for the continuos updates, like this one that, despite what I write later, I like.

I don't think an "Airbnb Host Advisory Board" can be necessarily a good idea for us. I certainly notice that the majority of people are excellent here. I have read extraordinary comments, honestly some awful. Then, it seems to me that the criticisms that drive a large part of the community are "bombastic" but really impossible to carry out concretely, eg because they clearly represent only a small part of hosts or because they are just unacceptable.

What will "Airbnb Host Advisory Board" follow? Sometimes the community is unaware of real problems of all of us, almost giving Airbnb permission to forget about them. I am also convinced that it is very far from representing everyone's interests, at least for how many people actually participate. More than an "Airbnb Host Advisory Board", we should expect Airbnb to choose better for our interests. And in some cases, it can just do it.

For example, in Italy to regularly rent our homes on Airbnb is very simple. Just self-certify some basilar security characteristics, be subject to any subsequent checks at home, provide almost no documents and usually in a short time, even a few hours, you are in order. It seems like a dream to me compared to other countries. Despite this, there was a period in which we were full of illegal houses, so much so that in the newspapers it was often mentioned. Legal hosts were very unhappy because they seemed guilty by staying here. It also seems that these mass of illegals have favored some proposals for restrictive laws for all of us, some in part approved and others under discussion. At that time the Italian community spoke almost exclusively of reviews, as indeed now. That was the driving argument, the most "voted". This gave more strength to Airbnb to take care of other things, almost giving it permission to forget something else more important to us.

[Katie]

Hi @Francesco1366, thanks for sharing your feedback here - much appreciated and we will pass this onto the team 😊

In terms of the Host Advisory Board, it is designed to help determine our priorities and how the funding is allocated—and one of their biggest priorities will be developing a formal process for gathering ideas from the host community.

To share a little more info on the Board: hosts on the Advisory Board will be members of our Host Leaders program or active hosts in our Community Center, which you can read more about here if you’re not familiar. 

While all hosts in the group will be Host Leaders or active in the Community Center, our intention was to create an Advisory Board as diverse as the community itself. That means they’ll represent a range of tenures (though all will have hosted for over a year), hosting types, and backgrounds.

Our community is overwhelmingly diverse—85% of hosts live outside the United States, 55% of you are women, and you host everything from private rooms to multiple properties. We took care to consider that when making selections. 

Of course, if you feel an important issue isn't getting enough attention and needs to be raised, then you can always raise it yourself here within the Community Center, and where relevant, members of the Advisory Board can then consider this. 

[Francesco1366]

@Katie thank you very much for your answer. I really appreciate, I have no time now, I'll check better and eventually reply later or tomorrow. Thank you again! 

[Francesco1366]

Dear @Katie, 

I just don't think this community can correctly intercede between hosts and Airbnb. I believe in many people who write here, they are better than me, and you find wonderful advices. However the community doesn't realize what we really need from Airbnb. And no wonder as it is created by Airbnb.

Here the important issues do not exist or are submerged in discussions about reviews, absurdities and incredible exaggerations. They confuse everything by offering Airnbnb only alibis not to do. I follow the community !!! Hurray !! 

[Super47]

@Francesco1366

The thing is, we've been here before, and heard it all a hundred times over. Host Voice. Host Committee. Host Global Advisory Panel. Host Leadership Panel. Host Workshops. Host Thinktanks. Host Listening Sessions etc etc.. 

They've all been done to death. And literally nothing positive for hosts ever came of any of them. They just fizzled away into nothingness. Mr Chesky must think we all have Alzheimers.

The 'seat at the table' carrot has been dangled every time Airbnb desperately needs their 'core hosts' hosts onside - such as now, on the cusp of the IPO. Here's what they were saying back in 2017, when they needed us to engage with local officials, to fight their regulatory battles for them. Deja vu. They've barely even bothered to change the wording... 

MARCH 07, 2017

In an event at Airbnb's San Francisco headquarters on Tuesday, attended by dozens of Airbnb hosts from across the world, CEO Brian Chesky announced that he will have more direct communication with hosts through periodic emails and quarterly Facebook Live events. He added that Airbnb will create an advisory board made up of hosts, and will invite certain hosts to one board meeting a year"

MAR 07 2017 Airbnb CEO offers hosts bigger role in company | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airbnb-meeting-ceo-idUSKBN16E2QH

MAR 08 2017 Airbnb says it wants to give hosts a bigger seat at the table - Axios
https://www.axios.com/airbnb-says-it-wants-to-give-hosts-a-bigger-seat-at-the-table-1513300802-2871f...

[Katie]

Hi @Super47, thanks for your sharing your thoughts here. 

You're right that we’ve launched a number of initiatives to incorporate hosts’ feedback into our decision making, including recent listening sessions and workshops. These continue to guide our plans, and over 20 product and policy updates have gone into development since we began our workshops this summer. 

Still, we needed a more formal program—with a standalone fund to invest in new ideas and more transparency on the progress we’re making against your feedback.

These initiatives are structured differently, and we’re making a long-term investment to enable us to have the resources to act on your feedback. Plus, the program’s design was directly shaped by host feedback.

[Sharon1014]

Spare us the patronising spin doctor management please.  Tell Lehane for us we know what he's doing, it's as transparent as it gets.   Phantom Advisory Board (toothless).  Phantom Endowment Fund (imaginary).  All on the cusp of the IPO.

Just one thing Airbnb needs to do for hosts.  STOP SPENDING HOST'S MONEY ON OPERATIONAL EXPENSES.  Live within your means, that is, your 18% take on bookings and that alone.  Put host funds for future bookings into escrow accounts and don't pilfer it, play with it, or patronise us ever again.

Lehane and Powell = Brian's spin doctors.  

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/airbnbs-spin-master

[Super47]

With all due respect, @Katie, those of us who have been around long enough have heard all those promises about 'product and policy updates in development' many times before too. And quite frankly, any updates that have been announced so far are mostly cosmetic, and barely scratch the surface of the fundamental restructuring that the entire platform and operating environment for hosts, so desperately need. 

It's been three and a half years since the last 'Host Advisory Panel' was announced - in a similar blaze of global publicity - and that seat at the board meetings we were promised back then has still never materialised. And after the year we've all just had - and the treatment we've been subjected to - how on earth are we meant to believe that Airbnb suddenly has our backs..? 

As for the 'Host Endowment Fund'..

"If and when it reaches $1 billion in value, we plan to begin using amounts in excess of $1 billion to fund programs and proposals that support hosts on Airbnb..."

We could be in for a long wait. 

[Katie]

Thanks for your comments @Super47. We can’t make forecasts or predictions, but we’ve designed the endowment to last as long as Airbnb does. A key element of that design is waiting until it reaches $1 billion in value before we draw from it for investments in the host community and limiting distributions to the excess above $1 billion. Allowing the endowment to grow to an initial $1 billion is intended to give us more opportunities to draw from it for new proposals and programs in the future. This is designed to help us protect the long-term future of the endowment, so we have the opportunity to fund hosts’ proposals over an extended period of time. 

We’ll keep you regularly informed on what the value of the fund is, and we’ll continue to gather feedback and proposals from the community prior to reaching the $1 billion threshold. 

[Super47]

Thanks @Katie, but I know exactly what it means, and see it for exactly what it is. As will most hosts. 

[Dawn298]

Maybe, Katie, Airbnb should have used some of those funds to fight for the Airbnb Hosts in Toronto, Ontario, Canada when the BIG hotels were complaining and looking for ways to restrict hosting in our homes. Toronto has closed down most of the Hosts restricting them to long-term rentals only.  Places bought for investment and used for hosting Airbnb guests are no longer viable. So sad! I am a Super Host and I will be taking my place off the market! 

[BenkaandKeith0]

@Katie Quit telling us what this community needs. We are wrong address. We need nothing more, no more programs, no more funds, all we need is RESPECT for the start plus some willingness afterwards to fix what must be fixed. At the moment we have zero interest from the corporation, no understanding from this same corporation. All they still have is their ab-use of our willingness to share our homes and put up with poor performance of Airbnb. 

[Katie]

Thanks for your feedback @BenkaandKeith0. Do you have any suggestions on what might work better for you?

[Maire36]

As Airbnb are going public, is there any chance we hosts can buy Airbnb shares pre market? Maybe you're already doing this, if so where can we buy them?