Hello Catherine,
I had mixed feelings watching your video introduction. On one hand, I am glad that airbnb is admitting their issues with hosts and I like the idea of returning to the roots of what made the company good. You seem well-intentioned and nice and I wish you well. However, like many others that have posted here, I was also dismayed to hear your background. It is certainly prestigious and admirable and I have no doubt that you are highly capable in your field. That said, I would far rather airbnb have hired someone with extensive experience as a host. That is what we care about.
I don't care and am not impressed with the online experiences thing. You have 700 some online experiences now. Yeehaw. None of us care about that. I have no clue who these random hosts are that you heard from, but they certainly don't seem reflective of the "real" hosts out there. All we want is for you all to LISTEN to us! I am a 25 time awarded superhost. I have hosted around 2500 people from 30 some countries. I have over 350 5-star reviews at my property alone. Furthermore, I have designed, cohosted, and cleaned for multiple other airbnbs. I am an extremely experienced host. Cleaning is important too -- you can't just host a property and hire a cleaner and expect to have the same experience as many of us that do live with guests, clean up after them, etc. Do that and then you will understand what so many of us have been saying for so long. Many people have already shared examples here; I will add a few of mine to the mix.
First, stop focusing so much on the guests. That's largely our (hosts) job, believe it or not, and we are pretty good at it. Instead, focus on your hosts. We are the ones that create positive experiences for your brand. Here is an example: every time I log into my airbnb account, I get a suggestion that I eliminate the extra fee per guest. Do you have any idea how much more work it is to clean up after a party of 8 vs. a party of 2? That's 4 to 5 times as much laundry, way more energy/water/toiletries use/ etc. Cleaning takes waaay longer after a big group. Not only were more people there, but they also tend to have get-togethers and make a mess in the kitchen. Suggestions like this come up constantly: Provide a monthly discount, eliminate your cleaning fee, provide a weekly discount, use the suggested pricing tool (which is always too low), go to flexible cancellation policies, allow kids and pets, on and on... Okay. We get it. We understand all the ways that we can increase our bookings. Some of those are just not worth it and we made our decisions for a reason. I never struggle for bookings anyway, so I find it doubly annoying. Not to mention self-defeating -- you all end up making less money too and dealing with more damage claims, etc.
Next, you really need to do more to cut back on bad guests. I am really stunned at how little you all do in this regard. Here is an example and true story from less than a year ago: I get an inquiry from a guest I will call "Jim J" to protect his/her identity. Jim J sends me an inquiry for 1 guest for 1 night and a message asking if "we can check in early." I check his reviews/profile and see that he has 1 review -- 1 star from a previous host that says he/she had a massive party and trashed the house. I message him back and politely inform him that I don't generally accept guests with bad reviews. I also asked how many guests would be accompanying him on the trip since he said "we" but the reservation was only for 1 person. I did not get a response and I disregarded it. A couple of hours later I get a new request for the same day, also from someone named Jim J (from the same city, state) but with a brand new profile without any reviews. Clearly, Jim J was trying to avoid the negative review on his/her account, so he/she created a new one. It wasn't even a clever trick -- this was obvious -- they didn't even try and change their name or city. So the "new" Jim J sends me a reservation request for the same day. I reply that I don't accept reservation requests from guests with bad reviews, so Jim J sends me a message "F**k you". I report both his profiles to airbnb, take the time to explain exactly what happened in my online messages, AND called airbnb and spoke with a "specialist" about it. I explained that the guest is almost certainly a bad news party guest and they needed to investigate the profiles. The specialist informed me that they took it very seriously and it would be forwarded to the fraud team. They also said they (airbnb) has a policy against guests using bad language towards hosts and "Jim J" would likely be removed. Great. I felt good that I had taken the time to help out my fellow hosts and prevent a trashed house. I didn't need to worry about my own property -- I had already declined him/her. I did it to try and save another host from a party disaster guest. I figure it is what I would want a host to do to save my property if roles were reversed. I forgot all about it until a couple weeks later when I get a message from Jim J that only says "F**k you again". I clicked on his/her profile and Boom! -- a new review from a short time after I called airbnb and warned them about this guest. 1 star review, guest destroyed the house, lengthy airbnb dispute over damages, massive party. This was EXACTLY what I warned airbnb about using every available option there is, yet they did NOTHING. In fact, when I clicked on the previous messages, BOTH of Jim J's profiles were still up and running! I was livid! Is this really how little you care about our properties? Is the fraud investigation/fake profile team even real? How could they have missed this? The guy/girl literally had the same exact name in the same exact (small) town, inquiring for the same exact day, 2 hours apart! his should not have been hard to solve. Furthermore, why would you allow a guest to stay on the platform ANYWAY after he/she sends messages to hosts telling them to go F**k themselves?! I walked away from that experience really ticked off and I felt betrayed by airbnb and so should all the other hosts out there. I tried to do the right thing and save a fellow host -- but airbnb 100% threw us under the bus. This user is STILL on the platform, for the record.
Next stop creating new programs and focus on fixing what you have. That's all fine down the road if you want, but right now you need to work on fixing the fundamentals. The website is slow and cumbersome. The dashboard is too hard to find since your last update. The pricing assistance tool is a joke. You DESPERATELY need to make it more obvious to guests to select how many guests are staying at the property. To be fair, it isn't always guests' fault. Many of them don't see the guests option or don't consider it. Then they end up booking. Then either they show up with extra people they didn't pay for and piss off the host and cleaner, or the host figures it out from correspondence beforehand and then is in the awkward position of having to demand more money (sometimes a lot more) from a guest by modifying their reservation. This all creates unnecessary friction, even in the best-case scenarios when guests just make an innocent mistake and don't realize more guests cost more. In cases where guests intentionally bring more people, it also makes it too easy for them to feign ignorance and airbnb ALWAYS sides with the guests anyway. You all need to make this part of the reservation booking process VERY OBVIOUS -- have a series of different screens that guests click through or something that when reserving or have a final series of questions that pop up before they complete the reservation. The questions could ask them to verify guest amount, ask if they read the house rules, ask if they are bringing any pets, etc. Many hosts have had to create those themselves. Why? That's stupid and makes it easy for guests or hosts to overlook which leads to conflict. Plus it makes it easy for the guest to deny. Just create a few questions that guests have to answer and you solve 90% of these problems!
Here's another thing. The city I am (one of the biggest airbnb markets in the US) recently had a city council decision that really hurts STVR owners in the area. It basically bans any new STVRs unless they are owner occupied. I went to city hall meetings, wrote the mayors, wrote all the council members, posted on online forums, and even reached out to the Goldwater Institute to help hosts. When I called airbnb and asked what they were doing, the representative literally said they had "no idea." This is happening in cities all over the world! Would it kill airbnb to at least send us a message here and there saying, "Hey we are aware of recent changes in the city. We assure you that we are working to ensure the rights of hosts are not infringed and have a dedicated legal team, blah blah." Even that would at least reassure us nervous hosts that you all are at least paying SOME attention. Instead, we get silence and "no idea" and that makes it feel like we are foolish fighting for a company that doesn't care about us. You'd think airbnb would care about losing one of the top 50 airbnb markets in the US...
On a similar note...why do so few new guests nowadays have profile information?!? As a host, I like to click on those and see what people write about themselves. Sure, it could be made up, but it's still nice to have some idea about the guest/s that will be staying in your home. If nothing else, it gives you something to initiate a conversation with when meeting them. I LIKE profile information. Most hosts do. I understand why you all got rid of profile photos. That made sense to me because of the potential for racist hosts. No problem. Now though, it's like you are intentionally trying to eliminate all the personal stuff -- the human stuff and make it this cold corporate booking process. Furthermore, it makes the jobs of hosts so much more annoying. Literally every single week, sometimes multiple times per week, I get an inquiry from a new airbnb user. I open the request and click on their profile. No profile. No reviews. 1 verification. So then I have to write the guest and explain the following: (I literally write this over and over and over again). "Hello and thanks for the inquiry! I see you are new to airbnb. Welcome! I love airbnb both as a host and a guest and I am sure you will too. That said, I do not accept reservation requests from guests without reviews, less than 3 verifications, and no profile information. I see you have one verification. If you can add two more and write at least a sentence or two about yourself under your profile, I would be happy to get you booked! Thanks!" Then I have to wait (and my time in responding to the guest continue ticking here for some reason since I have neither approved or declined the request -- which sucks and also needs to change, for the record. If I respond to a guest via message, the clock should stop there regardless of whether or not I approve them.) for the guest to either blow me off (and then I eventually decline them, suffering a reduced clock time response because I gave them time to respond) or keep rechecking their profile until they do the verifications, add the profile info, etc, and THEN approve them. Seriously? That is a giant pain in the neck to go through over and over and over again. Why are 90% of the new users on airbnb not aware they need to fill out their profile information? Why has that become the responsibility of hosts to to explain over and over again?
Finally, don't forget that hosts ARE airbnb. We create the magic. Streamline the website and booking process to best support your hosts. Trust me -- if you get that right, the guest side will follow. Happy hosts make for happy guests. On more practical notes, you also need to create pet fee options built-in instead of having to send out separate payment requests. Fix the clock counting down from when you approve/decline to the reservation to when you respond to the reservation request. If I ask a guest to clarify how many guests will be staying and it takes them 12 hours to reply, that shouldn't count against MY response time! As many people here have noted, your customer service phone line is a joke -- and that was before the virus. Sometimes I have had exceptional service -- especially in the first few years that I was with airbnb. However, for at least the past 3 years, service is just not very helpful. On several occasions, the customer service representative has commented that they learned something new from me while troubleshooting an issue. Seriously? You all are supposed to be the expert, not me! The insurance for hosts is a joke, the extenuating circumstances exception is being abused, and the damages claim process is so cumbersome and time-consuming as to not even be worth it. The airbnb Plus idea sounded exciting and I was stoked when I was invited to join, but once I realized how completely airbnb takes over the property, description, even photos, I had to pass. Airbnb experiences? Okay, cool. Fine side thing --- IF everything else is running right already. You need to fix the holes in your roof before trying to build new outbuilding outside.
For the record, understand that I am writing all this from my heart. I am passionate about airbnb. You all literally helped me save my house from foreclosure back during the recession after I converted it into an airbnb. I turned that into a business cohosting other properties and helping others become successful. I read the airbnb book you all sent as a superhost gift. I have the golden key you all sent too. I even made a video on youtube a few years ago sharing my experience and beaming about how great airbnb was as a company. Unfortunately, times have changed. You all need to seriously modify how your company treats hosts or you will lose us. Hosts all over the place are creating their own websites, moving to other platforms, and finding different ways of marketing their STVRs without you. I still remember when MySpace thought they'd never be overtaken by silly upstarts like Facebook. You all may very quickly find yourselves in that same boat if you don't get your act together. Start listening to your hosts. Read all the comments on these pages. Watch the youtube videos from hosts talking about their experiences. Perhaps most importantly, set up an airbnb from the ground up. Not a million dollar home, but an average "normal" airbnb. Clean it. Answer guests. Deal with their questions. Call airbnb on the support line and see what sort of help you get. Then check back with us and let us know what you've learned.
