Introducing Catherine Powell, our new Global Head of Hosting

[Airbnb]

At Airbnb, we started out with a close working relationship between our employees and hosts. Lots of our best ideas came directly from you, and we’re returning to that type of collaborative partnership that can help make each other better. 

Today, we’re excited to share a video featuring our new Global Head of Hosting Catherine Powell, who outlines her plan to rebuild our business around hosts like you. Her main focus: more transparency. 

Once you’ve watched the video, we’d really love to hear from you. Please let us know what you’d like us to cover in future Host Updates with Catherine. 

Thank you. 

[Kevin472]

@Catherine Powell @Airbnb 

To offer my guests peace of mind during their stay & for our "Collective Health & Safety" the following steps were added (in addition to enhanced clean procedures):

1. Outdoor Sanitizing station (prior to entering home)
2. At the entry (indoors) a framed copy of the Airbnb  5 Step Cleaning Process
3. Personal Pillows (new in their original wrapping) + pillow covers on the side with a note informing the guests of my "Pillow Love Project". After guests depart, pillows are washed and donated to the homeless.

Wishing you all healthy and safe hosting : Kevin (Airbnb : Sivana Enlightened Living)

[Catherine-Powell]

@Kevin472 

this is great Kevin! thank you for sharing, 

all the best to you, Catherine

[Kevin472]

 @Catherine-Powell @Airbnb 

Dear Catherine. 

Thank you for your kind message. 

Wishing you great success always. 

stay safe & well. 

🦋from Sivana 🙏 •• Kevin

[Julie203]

VRBO at least still pays hosts!

[Robert-And-Ilze0]

It is great to have some new leadership coming in. However, the main take away is that AirBnB made mistakes in reduction of support infrastructure. It took two weeks to get a response to a basic question for a guest...of course by the time the response came in the guest was gone. While I think it is great that they are seeking out new ideas, if they want to protect the brand, they should have never sacrificed the airbnb support.

The last three times I have contacted airbnb support, the responses come at 3-5am in the morning. As I am a host I assume it is a guest emergency, jump out of bed worried, then cannot get back to sleep. So first suggestion--your support team should be cognizant of the time zone of hosts they are connecting with, and aware that the notification sound from airbnb is the same as from guest. Start with a little request (and respect). 

[Catherine-Powell]

Hello @Robert-And-Ilze0,

Thank you for taking the time to comment. I agree with you. The time it is currently taking to get through to our Support Team isn't quick enough. Over the past few months, as many countries have started to open up and more local travel is happening we have seen a massive and unexpected rebound in bookings which is so nice to see. However, with this we have seen a huge jump in the amount of people contacting our Support Team, much higher than we anticipated. Our support team is working extremely hard to hire more agents, even with remote working still in place in many areas. But you will have heard this in my video. I know what is more important for you is that we get these improvements in place quickly.

You may have seen previously in the CC we are providing regular updates from our Head of Community Support on the status of contacting our Support Team. This communication will continue as we want to keep you updated on the progress being made.

Thanks, Catherine

[Ugo613]

Hello Catherine, I would like to welcome you to Airbnb! I'm excited to have you join the company and the opportunity in learning new things to help facilitate and grow my business.  

Warm regards,

Ugo

[Jeanne546]

I'd just like to know who to contact to improve the page building options.  I would like to charge a pet fee but that is not an option for guests when they are booking...

thank you, Jeanne

[Stephanie946]

Agreed. They have been "working on this" for years.

[Austin30]

Yes, absolutely!  Why is this so hard to create?  Besides that, airbnb currently makes zero money from payment requests, which is how pet fees are handled.  What sense does that make on airbnb's side?  How many pet fees are paid every single day all over the world via payment requests?  Just add that as an option on the site and then you can add your fee to it too!  This should be a brainless obvious change.  For years now they have said they were considering it and then never do it.  No sense.

[David7060]

Catherine,

The policy of requiring face masks for outdoor experiences where there is appropriate social distancing and microphones can be used needs to be revised. I have carried out risk assessments and cannot see how it can be justified.

[Forrest1]

I sincerely wish you all the best Catherine.

However, based on over two years as a host, and reading of the many frustrations and lack of trust toward Airbnb expressed over and over by hosts in the community forums, I have to be brutally honest and tell you I have high hopes but low expectations.

The point is, the best hosts already strive to meet guest's expectations ...it is Airbnb who have consistently failed to meet hosts expectations of them. I suggest that if you want to understand how the Airbnb brand is perceived by HOSTS, (and truly rebuild trust) you set aside some time to personally read through a few of the threads in the community forums. This is hugely valuable feedback that many companies pay big bucks to receive.

However, the perception of the majority of hosts who have been with Airbnb for any length of time seems overwhelmingly to be that Airbnb IS SIMPLY NOT LISTENING, despite the platitudes and spin.  You have a lovely smile and refreshing English accent, so I hope you have been hired not because you present well on-camera, but because of your abilities to listen and get sh*t done!

By the way - not disclosing a tag upfront, @catherinepowell (?) is hardly a reassuring start, but personally RESPONDING in this thread would certainly help. 🙂

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @Forrest1,

Thanks for your feedback and welcome. I completely understand your sentiment and it is up to us to work on gaining your trust back and meeting your expectations.

The Community Managers like Lizzie, Quincy, Liv, and others have been summarizing weekly reports on the sentiment, feedback, and conversations here on the Community Center and we have a lot of work to do.

I will continue to leverage our amazing Community Managers to share the feedback from you and our fellow hosts and work towards a path to deliver. I will also continue to post updates more frequently to share what we heard, what we're doing as a result, and some more visibility to our roadmap. This will help keep us accountable and aligned with our hosts on working on the things that are most important to you.

I'm excited to jump in!

Also - please forgive my tardiness in setting up my tag - it's been a wild first couple of weeks, but I am here!

Thanks again for your feedback,

Catherine

[Forrest1]

Thanks for your response @Catherine-Powell. I look forward to some positive changes! All the best.

Forrest Smyth

[Geoff7]

Great outline - well done. I think we all need to look at how to deal with the second waves that are now traveling around the world. Here in Victoria Australia, the Stage 4 restrictions brought in to combat the second wave is far more restrictive than before across both metro and regional areas. And just about all accommodation is now closed until at least mid-September.