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]

@Cathie19 

I agree, thanks for your comment. I would point out that a voice for us should exist elsewhere, to be more independent. In Italy there are very serious associations of real estate owners, not connected to multinationals like Airbnb, and in particular the largest protects us a lot, it would be better for everyone if Airbnb followed it, more than follow CC. It's very dangerous commercially to rely on a defense tool created from whom you have to defend yourself, a multinational.

[Inna22]

@Cathie19 One point particularly stuck with me:  Those who can be most productive in advisory most likely will not have the time to run a Facebook group and get togethers. 
And I do agree our mods are fabulous @Nick @Katie @Lizzie 

[Emiel1]

No "a seat at the table". Just read the community and you know what is ON the table.

[Francesco1366]

In Italy nothing. And here? Reviews, reviews and reviews. Unfair competition? Almost nothing. Adding value to our homes by avoiding a system based on low prices? Almost nothing. Don't want to wear the mask? Full. Don't want to disinfect? Full. Etc.

[Rebecca181]

I have to agree with @Super47 (who I am unable to tag for some reason) and some others here. Honestly, if our voices mattered, then meaningful change would have happened long ago. Certainly there have been astute and wonderful suggestions from many capable hosts these past few years. And for the most part, it has all been "just pissing in the wind" (Neil Young song, for those that don't know).

I can't speak for others, but my 'partnership' with Airbnb began to feel like an unhealthy, even (at times) 'toxic' relationship around January 2018, when the big push to sign up commercial property managers was rolled out. This included my sense that hosts were often being "gaslighted" and were regularly subjected to cheap Orwellian-inspired psychological manipulations and underhanded tactics - something I have not experienced on other listing platforms, where I am treated like an adult and a professional, not as a dependent child or some Stanford Psychology Experiment. 

I de-listed last year after the Orinda Murder-Shootings following Mr. Chesky throwing hosts under the bus for a Public Relations score. It was a loss, of sorts, as I actually loved hosting Airbnb guests and appreciated that we were booked year-round and were always paid on time (not true for all hosts, I have learned, especially lately). This sort of thing has happened far too many times as far as I'm concerned - this sense of being betrayed by upper management at Airbnb. As the saying goes, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." Some of us won't be fooled again.

[Super47]

@Rebecca181

When the company spin doctor (a former political consultant/fxer, and the person by whom the CEO is said to be most influenced by, above all others) once wrote a screenplay whose oddly reminiscent main character (also a political consultant/fixer) is described by a reviewer below - the potential source of all those cheap psychological manipulations becomes rather clear.. 😉

"Soulless and two-dimensional, Knife Fight is a black hole of disillusion and spin. Unable to decide if Paul deserves our contempt or admiration, the writers turn him into a smooth-talking cipher whose successes are presented as both laudable and deplorable. He's a shark who freezes midbite to ask, "What would Machiavelli do?" even as Kant is tugging at his perfectly tailored sleeve"

[Martin280]

I'm on board with this comment. I've been a host for 7 years with over 1600 reservations and I think the problem with Airbnb comes down to Mr. Chesky. I get a strong sense watching his interviews and presentations to us over the years that he has a rather Mark Zuckerburg leadership style in believing that if so many people use his platform then his decisions must be right. But from down here, as a host, looking up, you see the riddled problems with the platform that have remained.

Examples: Guests leaving disgruntled reviews from cancelling and not getting a full refund. The removal of the text message system allowing us to rapidly answer questions without having to load the app. The firing of the customer service staff when covid hit and the months long return to any semblance of competence. The website quality of life issue from  poor UI setup to slow performance. Allowing obvious bad actors to continue operating because every listing was a cash opportunity for ABB. 

I've love the economic opportunities the platform has given me but I don't have any true loyalty to the company. I don't believe they have any for us. I think this is a publicity stunt to gin up more financial support for the company rather than truly reward hosts with a chance to be a part of the company and make it better.

And to many of the other commenters here, if ABB had really respected our voices they would have been monitoring, engaging, implementing and cultivating the ideas here that have been share by a multitude of great hosts and the platform would have been approved.

When I come to this site I don't think I can ever recall reading posts that said, "Thanks for implementing this change as we requested! Things are better now!"

[Stephanie365]

Well, it's pretty clear this is all about getting us to help sell your shares of your IPO. We'd like a commission for doing so.

That being said, as long as AirBNB allows anyone with a shingle to join, your advisory committee will probably wind up alienating more hosts than helping.

I will use my area as an example. When you pull up listings, you have professionals who have multiple listings, actual chain hotels (why are they even allowed on here?), and small fry like me who have one space, be it shared or private. You have people advertising campers, tents, tree houses.  And then there are regional and national variations with what are allowed and what are not. How will your "Advisory Committee" address the needs of everyone without biasing policies to the biggest players in the game? Corporations typically hire "professionals" who can't think outside the cubicle to be advisors. They have no idea what it's like for most of us with our small, private spaces.

Your COVID policies show that you really can't or won't think through how your policies will work for one demographic but not the other. I can see having stand alone spaces "sanitize and seal" until the guest arrives, and wearing masks around guests when they do walk-throughs, etc. But this policy is absurd for someone who is renting 1-3 rooms within their own home where they live. 

It's also been clear lately that you've been employing arbitrage to pad your coffers to make the company look good for the IPO. For years, payouts hit the morning after check in. Now they're taking 5 days+ to hit. The vast majority of payments are electronic, so the COVID excuse as to why it's taking longer is pretty lame. But holding on to host's payments for those extra 5 days and getting that extra interest really adds up. 

Finally, if you really want the hosts to support you, you need to treat us better. You have become excessively guest-centric. On various social media pages, it's a daily occurrence to read about dozens of hosts getting screwed. A guest can make a ridiculous false claim and without ever consulting the host to get their side, you arbitrarily side with the guest and offer a full refund. But if a host provides irrefutable proof that a guest destroyed their property, the host is lucky if you cover even 25% of the cost when the guest gives them the middle finger and won't pay for damages.

And the idea of transferring the full cost of the platform to the hosts is completely absurd. Remember, without hosts you have NOTHING. 

[Simon2782]

AirBnB (and now MisterBnB, FairBnB) have, as @Fred13 in Belize says, enabled Internet users to "individually offer [accommodation in spare rooms in their private homes] for such a fortunately small fee and to such numbers". It changed the hospitality industry and made a dent in wasted space, which in an ever increasingly crowded planet is an efficiency the environment sorely needs. So thank you Brian Chesky and the AirBnB team.
Personally, my experience as a householder in Brisbane, Australia, making my 4 spare rooms available to short termers when I don't have tenants, has been a great experience. I've found the website good on the whole, sometimes a bit too complex and difficult to keep track of. I know of a neighbour in a similar situation to me who has given up on it and just uses Gumtree. I've only had one negative review from a very difficult customer and I paid the consequences while the guest got off scot-free for some reason.
I welcome Brian's announcement of a Host Advisory Board and Host Endowment Fund as initiatives to improve his company and reward hosts. I seek to provide a helpful contribution in writing this.
Personally, rather than a Board and Fund, I would like to see AirBnB return to its founding principles of helping people host guests in their spare rooms. Hosts are more often than not property owners and as such in an already advantageous position. AirBnB guests are (or used to be) people who like people. But AirBnB has become a vehicle for property hoarders - speculators renting out multiple investment properties like tinpot tycoons.
Hosts don't need an Endowment Fund. (And by the way, why would that need to reach $1 billion before it's used? At a fraction of that amount, it should be generating it's own income.) Hosts need to feel they're part of a community of people helping each other out; guests, hosts paying off mortgages, and hosts making better use of their space, diversifying their income streams.
As another host here suggested, rather than an Advisory Board, management can simply read the Community Centre to get a feel for what matters to hosts.
Keep it simple, Mr Chesky, and ask yourself what the purpose of 'growing' your business is. Bigger isn't always better. There are others out there doing it differently, like MisterBnB, and I am grateful that your calendar enables syncronization with those complimentary platforms. Return to what really matters: people and the planet, and your business will be more secure.

[Maarten10]

1. I've tried to calculate a current value for the Endowment initiative.

Based on this

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-25/airbnb-tells-shareholder-group-board-has-approved...

9.2M shares at $34.88 would be $320M. That is sizeable. Shares have to triple their value to reach the $1B mark to activate the Endowment so, whilst not impossible, it may take some time under the current circumstances...

2. Now the important question is: how is what the Endowment is spent on different from the operational expenses Airbnb would spend anyhow to grow its business and maintain its customer and host base?

Given the comments I see that past actions giving hosts influence lacked substance, if Airbnb is serious about this, the Host Advisory Board should have a decisive vote, not just "influence". And the appointment of the Advisory Board members should be transparent, e.g. by election, random selection or other objective criteria.

[Mikki0]

This host could care less about advisory boards. How about a simple place where we can voice our issues and complaints that will be read, reviewed, and considered? 

[Sharon1014]

Clause 16 in the new ToS is effectively a trap door underneath that "seat at the table".  Airbnb "in its sole discretion" still gets to make all the rules, decisions, and basically do whatever it wants.  Hopefully this will change with the class action lawsuit.  Tend to think the only way AIRB will begin treating hosts as proper partners instead of servants is through legal challenges in the courts.  Hosts can read about the class action suit here 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Host-initiates-class-action-lawsuit-over-COVID-19-cancel...

As for the endowment fund.... 9.2 million shares of nothing, is still nothing and pretty much meaningless unfortunately.   Just a pie in the sky PR exercise and imo, a poor excuse to hosts.  AIRB will still have 100% control of this illusory fund if or when it ever materialises with the magical $1b.  And why the company might want such a thing when it seems many of the basic needs of hosts should be automatically covered in ordinary operating expenses and systems applications is a mystery.

As for the IPO - there won't be any share offer directly to hosts.  AIRB (the NASDAQ ticker/symbol when it launches) is expected late November to mid December (possibly next week, see Bloomberg link below).  FYI the company is hoping to raise $3b in the IPO and has high interest debt of $2b to pay off immediately.  Funny how Booking got their loans @ 4% but AIRB had to cough up 10% - that speaks to the level of risk investing in the company.    

Here's the latest info on IPO launch date

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-10/airbnb-is-said-to-push-back-ipo-filing-to-avoid-e...

It is a considerable concern that the company doesn't currently hold host/guest money in escrow accounts, but instead seems to use these funds for its own operational and (some rather crazy)  project purposes.  Rather like a giant Ponzi scheme, spending today based on projected cash flow (that isn't actually your own money, but guest/host money) from future bookings.  Not even from future fees that would rightfully be within AIRB's gift.    Not exactly an ethical business practice and one that needs to stop pdq.  That's something of a worry for all hosts if the company is in fact strapped for cash, unable to live within its own means (18% take on bookings) and you as a host have reasonable expectation of getting paid for services you have provided.

And something else to keep in mind

It would indeed be a wonderful thing for authentic local hosts to have some meaningful equity in that seat at the table and for the company to be well grounded in good business practices.  Let's hope it does actually happen.

[Sarah977]

@Airbnb  test

[Sharon1014]

Looks like "Saint Brian" has been talking to his personal tax accountant.  Alas another PR stunt that has zero meaning for hosts.

https://news.airbnb.com/update-on-the-airbnb-host-endowment-and-our-commitment-to-communities/

And as for the Endowment Fund itself, low and behold, Airbnb's Irish corporate tax avoidance scheme runs out in December 2020.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/double-irish-with-a-dutch-sandwich.asp

Can't speak for all of course, but as a host, I'd just settle for a

a) a platform that works consistently well

b) a customer service facility that has staff trained in and dedicated to supporting hosts

c) guest-host funds being held in escrow, without Airbnb putting their hand in that cookie jar to fund their own operational expenses

d) guaranteed payment for services provided

e) a host guarantee and damages deposit that has teeth

@Sarah977 @Robin4 @Ute42 @Mikki0 @Maire36 @Maarten10 @Simon2782 @Inna22 @Ann72  @Fred13  @Francesco1366 @BenkaandKeith0 @Maire36 @Jeffrey434 

[Emilia42]

@Sharon1014 It's simple things. One can only dream.