Laura's Letter: Superhost Week 2018 recap

[Laura_C]

February 7, 2019

Hi everyone,

Congratulations to all of you who achieved or maintained your Superhost status in the January assessment. It’s an awesome accomplishment. Thank you for continuing to set a wonderful standard for hospitality in our community.

Your commitment to excellence inspires me, and that’s why it was such a thrill to help create and launch Airbnb’s first ever Superhost Week in December. It was a chance to highlight all of you to our guests and to celebrate and recognize everything you do. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Here are a few highlights:

• Social spotlight: We filled Airbnb’s social-media channels for the week with Superhost stories and profiles, and the response was fantastic. More than 7 million people engaged with the content on Facebook, including this video of Superhosts James and In Ja, of Hollywood, California. Dan, of "Danville," Florida was featured in our most-watched video on YouTube. And on Twitter, Superhost story tweets were seen by more than a million users.
• Marketing to guests: Superhosts were featured in a banner at the top of Airbnb’s home page to give Superhosts more visibility. More than 8.8 million people saw the banner, and more than 160,000 people saw our brand new guest-facing web page. The page gives guests a better understanding of what the Superhost badge icon on your listing represents: the amazing hospitality you provide!
• Updated Superhost page: We also made changes to our Superhost page, to make it easier for you to learn about and take advantage of your rewards.
• New long-term hosting policy: We introduced new criteria to ensure that those of you who host longer stays have fair access to the program. Before, hosting 10 stays was the only way hosts could qualify for Superhost status; now, hosts can qualify if they host 10 stays or if they host 100 nights with a 3-stay minimum. These changes seemed to resonate well with hosts. I was pleased to see responses like this one, from host Gilles, of France, in the Community Center: “Thank you for taking into account the requests of long-term hosts to allow them to access Superhost status. Thanks to Airbnb for listening to the needs of the hosts and coming back with new strategies to meet their needs.”
• Community Center interaction: That brings me to my own favorite part of the week: getting to interact with hosts from around the work in our Community Center! I wrote a letter in our Community Center at the start of Superhost Week, and more than 45,000 hosts read it, and there were more than 1,400 comments. We’ve read each and every one, and during Superhost Week, I had the chance to respond and chat with many of you. Thanks to all of you who sent suggestions and ideas. We’ll be looking to you for inspiration as we continue to improve the Superhost program.

Congratulations again to those of you who are Superhosts. We appreciate all you do— and so do Airbnb guests. In fact, over one of Airbnb’s busiest nights of 2018, one out of every three Airbnb guests were staying with Superhosts! That’s a testament to how much Superhosts help power the Airbnb community. Thank you.

Happy hosting!
Laura

[Linda37]

Greetings Superhosts - from Linda on the edge of the New Forest and South Coast of England.  

[Bonnie95]

Hi Laura,

Thank you and the Airbnb staff for all you do for us!  I love Airbnb.  In the nineties I ran my farm as a bed and breakfast.  It was much more difficult, expensive and time consuming to attract guests.  Airbnb makes it so easy.  Because of your company I am back in the game.  As of 2016.  Thank you so much for all you do!!!  I have just added house number 5 to my listings. 

[Laura_C]

Wow congrats on number 5 Bonnie!!!! What a great story. ~Laura

[Betsy88]

Thank you, Laura! I love reading the comments from our Airbnb Superhost family from around the world! Come see us in the Black Hills of South Dakota, USA this year, friends. 🙂

[Barbara1437]

Thank you AirBnB for your support and encouragement and to all the superhosts worldwide who have comitted to and make this such a wonderful experience.  

[Anna-And-Dean0]

Hello Laura,

Thank you for your letter and being we are new to Airbnb, we look forward to enjoying the benefits of a Superhost let alone being recognized for our hard work!

HOWEVER, we are worried and are having doubts of being part of the Airbnb Family.  We have 2 listings with Airbnb.  We had a problem with our downtown location listing, was brand new in November, with our very first and only Airbnb guest so far.    This guest broke the house and building rules as well as city bylaws  by smoking in our apartment, in addition to soiling our brand new duvet and duvet cover with blood plus being negligent and burning our quartz counter top with hot pots (yes, we supplied pot holders!).  We have a Host Guarantee claim underway but don’t have much faith that this will be resolved to our satisfaction for 2 reasons:

1. We are not happy on how the assigned specialist is handlings our claim because from our email conversations he appears to be very incompetent.   There is much detail to explain his incompetency but we will spare it on this conversation.

2. Very worried about the the reimbursement of the cost of this damage which is estimated over $8,500.  

We have doubts about continuing to host with Airbnb especially after reading this on the Community Forum about someone seeking reimbursement for their damage:

“.....you are on your own.  Sad to say, but airbnb is not a company worthy of respect in marketing tactics, spin, not a company of their word”.

Laura, will be be reimbursed for our damage?  Is it true that Airbnb is not a company of their word?

We kindly appreciate your response to this matter.

[Nicole1109]

Hello everyone! it’s Nicole from Atlanta Georgia. Take care and best of luck. 

[Rose69]

How did I miss the Superhost Week? I can’t recall reading about it? What do the Level 1-5 represent? 

[Keoki0]

Aloha my fellow Superhosts,

Congratulations to all Superhosts!  I'm so grateful to be part of Airbnb community and a Superhost.  I'm loving every part of it.  Meeting and welcoming people around the world.  We invite you all here in Ewa Beach,  HI. 

Regards,

Keoki & Kikay

[Claudine-and-Kika0]

Thank you so much, Laura! We are so proud to be Superhosts! We have a Log House in Roberts Creek, Sunshine Coast, BC CANADA and we live and host in Claudine’s house in North Vancouver BC as well! It’s been a wonderful adventure 💕 We look forward to many more years as Superhosts!

Cheers,

Claudine and Kika

[Daf0]

Dear Laura, Thanks for keeping the letter short, I never have time to read long meandering emails.

My first ever airbnb guest contacted me today, to ask about getting started as a host herself .  She invited me over to discuss. So thank you that you at Airbnb have given me Super Host status. Looking forward to another busy year on Airbnb.

Daf

North Chingford

London

UK

[Laura_C]

Thank you for the feedback on the lenght of the letter, @Daf0 - I totally get it. It was a nice letter to write, full of many great results to share, and also gives me the opportunity to engage here in the Communtiy Center again 😉 It is wonderful to hear that tips are being passed on from an experience host to a new host — you must be very proud and I hope they will then pass on their experience! Thanks for sharing your story and happy hosting! Laura.

[Nuku0]

Hello all wonderful Superhost! Congratulations! My name is Nuku from Nepal.  The girl from Himalaya the Mt Everest if someone doesn’t know the beautiful small country Nepal. I’m thrilled to meet all the guest from around the world. Happy Hosting all!

[Marlene179]

Hello superhost, congratulation. From N Y and St Lucia. 

[Bree-With-Maui-Beach-Pro0]

Warmest Mahalo to all superhost, keep up the good work! 

Aloha from Bree Maui, Hawaii