Introducing Superhost Week

[Laura_C]

Hi everyone,

Let me take a second to introduce myself: I’m Laura Chambers, and I lead the team at Airbnb that’s dedicated to helping hosts like you succeed. (You might remember me from the most recent Host Q&A.) I’ve been a fan and engaged user of Airbnb for a long time, but since I officially joined the team here in July, one thing has become even more clear to me: It’s the wonderful community of hosts that makes Airbnb so special.

Within the Airbnb hosting community, we’re particularly appreciative of Superhosts. As 2018 draws to a close, we wanted to do something special to celebrate them. So today,  I’m thrilled to announce that we’re kicking off an exciting new event for the first time ever: Superhost Week!

Congratulations to those of you who are Superhosts. It’s such a huge achievement. Airbnb’s community is powered by great hospitality and trust, and you exemplify that spirit and excellence. It should be no surprise that Superhosts earn about 22% more on average*—guests really value your hospitality.

This week will be full of celebrations and recognition. Here’s what Superhosts can expect:

• A personalized gift: If you’re a Superhost, check your inbox. We hope you’ll enjoy the custom map you just received, highlighting your own journey as a host with Airbnb.
  
  
• Marketing to guests: This week, Superhosts will be featured at the top of Airbnb’s home page, giving Superhosts more visibility to the millions of people who visit Airbnb each day. Here’s what they’ll see:

If guests are curious and click to learn more, they’ll go to a brand new web page where we’re showcasing Superhosts. This page will help them better understand the Superhost badge icon on your listing, as a symbol of the amazing hospitality you provide.

• Social celebration: Throughout the week, we’ll be highlighting some extraordinary Superhosts on social media channels. Check it out and follow along here:
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube

I hope you enjoy this week of celebration! We’re committed to continually improving the Superhost program, and some changes are already underway. For example, we just introduced new criteria to ensure that hosts who host longer stays have fair access to becoming Superhosts. I’d love to hear your ideas for what we can do to make the program even better. Let me know your suggestions in the comments below. I’ll be checking in throughout the week.

Congratulations again to those of you who are Superhosts. Thanks for everything you do— and happy hosting!

Laura

*Based on internal Airbnb data comparing median aggregate revenue earned by Superhosts to other hosts (with 10+ bookings) on the platform worldwide during 2017.

[Lizzie]

Hello @Susan17,

I hope you are having a good start to the week. 

I am really sorry to hear your bookings are down. One of things I think is useful to do, is to take a look around your Airbnb profile and make sure you have uploaded information that may be useful in search. In your case for verification, you could update Government ID, which might help. 

Aside from this,  it does sounds a little stange from what you have mentioned here, I would recommend contacting our Support Team, as they will be able to take a closer look and check everything is fine on your account. 

I hope this is a useful first step and I hope your bookings will pick up soon. 

Thanks,
Lizzie

[Sharon428]

Hi @Laura_C Checking back in as I never got a reply to my question above? Thanks in advance and hope to hear from you. 

[Chris1537]

Laura, if you lead the team at Airbnb that’s dedicated to helping hosts then I must inform you that you have let me down greatly.

I have been a superhost for two years running and until a few weeks ago I have not a single bad review until I hosted Walter. Walter was a nice enough fellow but he had a real issue paying a fair fee for cleaning. The result of this, was that he left me a poor review that was unfair and inaccurate.

Of the airbnb staff I have spoken to in regard to this:

One has told me, she would like to remove the review but wouldn't as she would risk losing her job.

One has agreed with me that the guests statement was incorrect, but still she wouldnt remove it.

And one has told me not to take the content policy literally!!

I have 75 reviews in total over the whole time I have been listing with Airbnb.

60 - 5 star review

13 - 4 star reviews

1 - 3 star review.

Most anyone would tell you that this single one star review in all 75 reviews is an outlier and should be ignored, but not Airbnb. When people see my listing, THIS 3 star review is that one that Airbnb used to promote my apartment!!! This review which is the least accurate, the least indicative of the service I provide! but when you search my reviews by 'Most relevant', this is the one Airbnb shows.

This is the 'Leaset Relevant' but this is the one you use. You do me a huge disservice by doing this.

To make matters worse, This last superhost review, I recieved an email stating that I have lost my superhost status! (Thanks Walter, and thanks Airbnb!)

When I view my progress, my overall rating is 4.8. This is what it shows on my main page and for my having achieved Family an Business Collection. How can it show that my rating is 4.8 everywhere  except where it concerns my superhost status, where it shows 4.7.

I asked your staff but they were confused by this and couldn't give me an answer!!  Perhaps you can?

Airbnb's review system is broken! Guests can leave false and negative reviews and you do nothing about it. You try to promote superhost status but do nothing for those that strive to provide that level of service only to be pulled down by false reviews.

I have disabled instant booking for my listing now and I will do my own checking of potential guests. I will not only be checking reviews written by hosts, but checking the reviews that the guests have written as well. I will not approve bookings of those who are contantly negative.

I have to do this to protect myself because Airbnb will not.

[Carlo278]

Hi Chris, i was a superhost for two years, i had similiar cases to yours, airbnb will do what ever they think is accurate and right according to their policy, they will never follow your demand. I was superhos from 2017 till last october, i had over 120 revies from which one was removed and two were negative from 122 5 stars,I had a personal dispute with my last guest korean who stayed 2 nights, after he left mi a horrible reviw in Kirean which could not understa, ui answer in private ( not public) and i touch his country of origen by mistaske, Today airbnb suspended my account for good with no Merci because i went against their police. Airbnb  is tuff and no secon chance has being given to me. Very disappointed.  Carlo

[Carlo278]

Laura, i am very disappointed with you. You are suppose to lead the airbnb team to help host to improve our performance. In my case you did nothing for me, you let me down to be told by the upper team that my account will not be reactivated. Thank you Laura for your great splash in my face.

[Carolyn150]

I'm sorry that happened.  It happened to me as well.  Hopefully they will put the two Superhosts on the same program.

[Robert-and-Elizabeth0]

Hello. We appreciate AirBnB and are happy to earn SuperHost status! Please tell me when the AirBnB magazine subscription will begin. I'm curious as to what it contains. Thank you for the excellent custormer service you provide!

[Susan--Susi-0]

Thanks of the letter .... just saw the Italian Sabbatical and love that idea ... can't take off 3 months yet but maybe next year. Keep up the good work.  Thanks Susi Knight

[Carolyn150]

Hello from Pine Mountain Club, CA where we have sunshine and/or snow anytime during the year.  Congratulations to all the Superhosts.

[Laura2273]

Congratulations to all superhosts out there. Keep up the great work

Greetings from Saltspring Island,BC, Canada

[Suzanne469]

Working toward Superhost status..... 

[Robin-and-Mami0]

Please change the Super Host criteria to make it goal-consistent and inspiring.

Delete: "a minimum of 10 stays or 100 nights over at least 3 stays"

Add: "Be on Instant Book 100% of the evaluation period and have at least an 85% occupancy rate"

Add: an algorithm that requires consistency between guest communications prior to checking out with review comments in order to be counted toward or against a hosts review.  In today’s world of algoritms and AI (artificial intelligence), this is practical. Do it.

Currently, your Super Host minimums tell hosts they should not be on Instant Book, cherry pick guests and it's ok to have occupancy rates as low as 13.7% to 27.4%.

My 2018 occupancy rate was above 97% including bookings from all platforms. How does Airbnb prefer hosts operate ? If the majority of us continually strive for Super Host status, it increases the chances hosts occupancy rates will fall, they will lose money and go out of business. Airbnb will also make less money. And fewer guests will be satisfied with great places to stay.

"a minimum of 100 nights over at least 3 stays"

that would be either (100 / 365) = 27.4%

or "a minimum of 10 stays"

( 10 stays x 5 nights average stay ) / 365 = 13.7%

My average stay is 5 nights.

Hosts on Instant Book Trust Airbnb to send them good guests.  Then our trust is betrayed when we get the bad apples that arbitrarily want free things that are outside of the rental agreement or just have a negative view on life.  I find ~ 1 out of 8 guests to be unreasonable, making it very difficult to get to or stay at or above 4.8. For example one guest never complained about anything during her stay but she gave us a 1 star review and called us "passive aggressive" in her essay because we referred her to specific paragraphs in our house manual to answer her questions. And because we used the Resolution process to get reimbursed for damages that she initially refused to pay. We are not mind readers. If a guest doesn't say there's a problem during their stay there is nothing we can do to make their stay better.

If you have 18 five star ratings and 1 one star rating your average is 4.7

average of (18 x 5) + 1 ) = 4.7

It only takes the one lulu-bird in a quarter to make it impossible for you to have Super Host status even when all other reviews in the quarter were 5 stars.

My average stay is 5 nights x 18 reviews = 90 days.

Most guests don't mention what they don't like until they check out. And when they do mention what they don't like after they check out it's something entirely unreasonable such as "the place was too small" -- when our listing has a floorplan with dimensions and square footages and suggests that if they don't know what that means to measure it off in their own home or in a public area prior to booking.

It's not fair or inspiring to be competing with hosts that are not on Instant book, have occupancy rates between 13.7% and 27.4% and obviously cherry pick bookings with average 5 star rated guests. That rewards guest booking request rejections ! That is not good for Airbnb's brand or bottom line.

[Dawn172]

I do disagree with your instant book suggestion. Why would you penalize me because I don't use Instant Book? Since my guest house in on my farm, where I live, I need to ensure that guests fully understand what they are signing up for. When I tried Instant Book for six months, I got all sorts of, "oh, I can bring my dog, right? Oh, this is okay to bring my 5 year old, right?" kind of stuff. They clearly didn't read all me info. Thus, it makes for a happier host (me) and happier guests when we have a slowed down interaction. I have a 66% occupancy rate, and in summer a 90% rate. 

I agree with your metrics on ratings. Thanks!

Disagree: Add: "Be on Instant Book 100% of the evaluation period and have at least an 85% occupancy rate"

[Pamela325]

Hi I am very confussed with how AirBnB is caculating their ratings. I have been a Superhost on and off and hosting for 6 years. Currently I am a Superhost, my overall rating is 4.8, I have 2 listings; the single guest room overall is 4.9. The whole house is 4.8. My current review says I have a 4.4, but yet all of my previous reviews in the last  10 months have been 5 stars. I had one woman who gave me an unfair review last July 2018, she trashed my house, was rude and complained about everything, her wedding was cancelled not my fault. She gave me an overall of 3 stars and one stars on value, and location. Basically tanking my future ratings. But I have recieved excellent reviews since and have Superhost status, this review period it yanked and not because of lack of 5 star reviews. I work my butt off to clean and have decorated stylishly, amenities and excellent communication. What’s going on AirBnB and why are we not being recognized for being an outstanding host??????

[Carlos-Ernesto1]

Hello Laura, is this Superhost event done yearly?