Introducing Airbnb Updates, a new blog for hosts from Airbnb

[Airbnb]

Hi everyone,

Welcome to Airbnb Updates! This new blog within the Community Center is where you can find product updates, host stories, company news, inspiration and tips to help you grow your business, and other important messages from Airbnb.

We’ve posted in the Community Center for many years, but now you’ll be able to find all of our updates in one place. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to stay up to date, so as soon as we have news to share with you and the rest of the hosting community, we’ll be posting it here.

And as always, we’d love to hear from you. Teams across Airbnb use your feedback in the Community Center to help improve and develop products. Click on “Join the Conversation” in the individual thread to comment, or if you’d like to discuss anything further with other hosts, you can start a new conversation in a different Discussion Room.

We look forward to being in touch with you through this new blog.

Thanks for hosting,

The Airbnb Team

[Chloë0]

Peace all;

Thought-provoking article and I appreciate Airbnb addressing hosts’ concerns. 

I have a property in an area that has some challenges, but it is an excellent location and a great fit for most of my guests. I grew up in the neighborhood and ran a business here so I know it to be safe, but I have had a few guests come and see that it is a predominantly African-American neighborhood and immediately focus on any sign of poverty and then deem the area unsafe. Some of these people are outright mean. I had a couple arrive on 4th of July, while the fireworks of multiple cities were occurring and they complained that it was like a war-zone and attempted to cancel the booking without penalty. They said such judgmental and ugly things in their quest through the resolution platform,  and they were wholly unaware of their bias. There is an anger that I have seen and that emotion trumps reason when it comes to the review process.

Is there assistance in writing an accurate location description that can possibly speak to the biases that exist? When dealing with the miseducation of these few guests, as well as biases that have nothing to do with the listing, I wonder if I should attempt to dissuade some potential guests from booking—a type of profiling which would be difficult to execute with accuracy and ethically I haven’t embraced— to make sure that the budget-seeking guest doesn’t get in and I get a review for location that hurts me. And, equally, I want happy guests who feel comfortable in my place! The comfort, safety and happiness of my guests is my focus as a host. 

The objective location description cannot address the great divide in experiences that humans have lived. I was one of the hosts who so long ago offered feedback on the reviewing on location. I still feel it disproportionately impacts negatively hosts who have rentals in areas that trigger deep personal or societal bias and it allows the continuation of power of that bias over the livelihood of these hosts as it still impacts our ability to be Superhosts, and the perks of Superhost status are more easily lost to us.

I appreciate greatly this change by AirBnb—that location is judged by accuracy of description—but deeply rooted biases are not going to be unearthed because I precisely describe the location. 

Peace,

Chloë

[Cherie2]

I am heading into year eight of hosting and I have noticed a shift. As the public becomes more familiar with airbnb the guests have become more varied. Early on, it was individuals travelling. This year I have had guests staying who had someone else "make the reservation". It has lead to some interesting surprises. A company owner who is bringing in workers for a temporary job and attempting to change the actual individuals or bringing in an extra one creates a problem for the host. I have stood my ground when the just one more shows up at the door. Also, I have appreciated the ease with which the airbnb help agent has dealt with the situation.

The one thing I wish to emphasize to new hosts is that we are a community. If a guest is problematic, please be responsible to the rest of us and make the call to report them to the airbnb help or complaint agent. By reporting them, you save the rest of us a difficult situation.

It has been rare in the past but this year I have had more cases where my home is seen as a hostel. I have stood up to correct the situation with the help of the airbnb company.

Cherie

[Debbie80]

I agree with the above posts that AirBnb Plus needs to be FIXED!  I was invited to join PLUS and had the professional photographer come out to take photos.  When I received my new and improved AirBnb listing and photos I was greatly disappointed.  Our home is so charming on the exterior and the only photo was the front door and doormat?  It seems that everything that gave it character was left out and when I confronted AirBnb about these concerns I was told it was the look that Plus was going for and can not send out another photographer or use photos from the last AirBnb photographer that was sent out as part of another program that took phenomenal photos.  I was sad I had to decline Plus due to the fact I was sure to lose future listings.  It's small things like this that I think AirBnb needs to listen to their hosts and try to work with them on their individual homes.  No 2 homes are alike and that is what makes vacation rentals so desirable!

On the flip side, I also agree with the others that AirBnb is the BEST platform for vacation rentals out there!

[Brenda248]

Hello, I agree with Ollie (below) in his idea about host and guest reviews.  I have been disappointed twice that a guest did not leave a review.  I felt like the experiences were good on both sides but no review.  I was very disappointed.

[Paul1673]

What do the levels next to our names mean?

[Angela903]

I am Angela from St Lucia.  I've  enjoyed the the experiences of meeting many wonderful and interesting  people.So far so good

[Hannah444]

Hello! 

My my husband and I have been doing Air bnb for over a year now and we have loved it. We have over 50 5 star reviews from our guests. We live in the home we are air bnbing and the city we live in in Virginia is trying to force us to stop hosting. Is there any suggestions or assistance for those fighting city regulations with in home air bnbs? 

Thanks! 

-Hannah

[Marie-Fellenstein0]

Aloha all!

I am hosting on the Big Island (Hawaii Island). I just attended an Airbnb meeting for Hosts about Accessibility. I think this was a great idea and it was a lot of fun to be there with other hosts and get to have some interesting conversations. I hope you will continue to have these meetings for Hosts. It would be great to get to know others who are hosting in our community so that we could do referrals if a friend has relatives coming into town and asks about booking our space & we are already booked, then we could refer to another Airbnb host that we've gotten to know a little bit.

Thanks,

Marie

[Lisa1480]

Someone mentioned pet fees and cleaning fees. I hope these are on a high priority to clean up and create a more useful tool for hosts-and guests. Almost all my short term guests have pets but when I started charging, they book and get notifications, but my reviews have suffered. They try to “forget” to pay, but I catch them as they leave. The last 3 didn’t even leave a review and that’s never happened. I’m going to start leaving a decorated envelope for collection and see how that goes but I shouldn’t have to do that. I don’t charge a cleaning fee for short stays, but would like to for longer stays, there can easily be drop down choices so we can pick how we want to charge. Let me know if you need more staff to brainstorm and expedite this upgrade. 

[Renatha0]

I started hosting 7 months ago and thanks to Airbnb’s good support and service I’ve had the opportunity of meeting so many interesting people from abroad and locally. My aim is that every guest leaves happy and satisfied. So far so good. Thanks Airbnb

[Dan182]

The Plus program is more of a downgrade rather than an upgrade. Why isn't then called Minus instead of Plus? Would make much more sense. They invited me to "upgrade" to Plus and they sent me a photographer to take photos of my house. But even my grandmother could have take better photos than that girl did.  I tried to explain Airbnb that just because she had a camera that doesn't make her a photographer... that nowadays, since the technology advanced so much, and photo cameras have so many options, all of a sudden everyone is a photographer.. But Airbnb don't care much. they just said there's a guideline for photographers to shoot all the homes in the same style. From the start this is a very stupid idea. Because every house is different. They all have their particularities, their best angles and corners. A home is such a personal thing. How can one shoot them all the same? It is stupid to think so. For the sake of having a linear and neat platform Airbnb takes from the personality of our homes. It should be our call as hosts, what photos we should represent our homes with. Airbnb doesn't give a **bleep** how our homes look. They only care about how their platform looks. Airbnb is trying to bite more than it can chew when offering photo services to hosts. Epic fail!

[Loreen0]

Test

[Meredith100]

Anyone had a GOOD experience with PLUS? and seen significant, quantifiable results to justify going through the process?

[Allen93]

Just qualified as a super host...

[Paul1673]

Good luck with that. I was superhost with just under 5.0 rating with 76 stays. Had one guest give me a one star rating because I caught her sneaking 4 family members onto property. Now.....not super host. It is not worth the effort to strive for that