Listening Session: Kindness Cards, May 5th

[Airbnb]

Hello,

Many of you have had questions around the Kindness Cards program. We will be hosting a listening session on May 5th at 6:00PM GMT (London time) to share some more information about how this program works and gather some questions and further feedback about the program. 

Register in advance for this meeting here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

We hope to see you there. 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

(posted elsewhere too) Related to this "kindness card"

After switching 'off' the Guest Contributions under my account settings:

ACCOUNT > Payments & payouts > GUEST CONTRIBUTIONS

as informed previously by @Robin4 , this action worries me.

This is not an opt out for this "kindness card" fiasco.

I want to make it quite clear and I want it registered somewhere that I/We do not want our personal details of any description being sent by email to guests in association with this promotion in any way.

With the complete lack of an opt out to this promotion anywhere I am making our request as clear as possible in the place where this promotion is being handled.

Furthermore, I would request @Airbnb @Lizzie @Stephanie that failing a preferred specific opt-in button being provided that a specific opt out button is provided and all hosts are informed of its whereabouts before sending emails on this matter.

Thank You.

[Lizzie]

Hey @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0,

Just replied to your other post in the main Kindness Card topic. 

Thanks,

Lizzie

[Alba160]

Hey Lizzie, i  am not interested to be part of the Kidness Card listening. Thank you.

RE Susan's ban. I sincerly wish  whatever explanation/comment been provided was enough to easy my gut. But actually what i read it did the opposite. There is a way to censor someone and that is "shutting them down". I do agree with Stephanie's that Susan's situation is a personal matter, but for different reasons. One of them is that i am part of the CC, just like all of you. And i am deeply worry by the way Airbnb is poorly handeling a major contributer to it's CC. If that happens to her it could easily happens to any of us. This is a public forum! Airbnb knows what we know  since all the post are open to the public. We do deserve to know what happpened. And/or to give  an opportunity to Susan to speak.  "It's  extremelly rare to remove someone from the Comunitu Center. This phrase makes  Susan look pretty bad. Like she's a some low moral character. We only get one a very blurry side of the story. I personally know that the note she received it was "I've noticed the majority of your post are negative".  I don't think there is anything transparent or truthful about this ban.  You can't  cover the sun with one finger, let's  stop this paternalistic stuff and be truthful. At least i have to say this before i get more  nauseated. 

[Anonymous]

@Stephanie  @Lizzie  @Robin4 @Jennifer1421 @Melodie-And-John0 @Sarah977 

One thing that we could always rely upon @Susan17  for is to provide helpful insight and context into decisions made by Airbnb which affect all of us whose livelihoods are staked to the company's success. No matter whether you agreed with her criticisms of the company, you won't meet a single host who doubts her earnest dedication to the host community. We all know Susan as a no-nonsense, eloquently  plain-spoken person who would never stand for the notion of censorship being done "out of respect" to her or to the hundreds of people whom she has helped make sense of the Airbnb chaos over the years. I'm sorry to the moderators who are backed into the corner of being corporate messengers without the freedom to express their own point of view here, but you can report back to your bosses that it's extremely obvious to everyone here that the only reason you can't comment on what specific Community Guideline was violated is that there wasn't one. Susan has been censored because, unlike most of the countless people venting on the forums about how they feel mistreated by Airbnb, she was prepared to share hard facts and an amount of knowledge that you guys considered dangerous enough that you apparently also wanted to block her DMs. 

I suppose I might be among the next to go.

But today it is reported that Airbnb is laying off 25% of its staff: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/05/airbnb-to-lay-off-nearly-1900-people-25percent-of-company.html

I think it's safe to assume that the 1900 people who are now unemployed did not get a "listening session" in which their concerns about how they might be able to keep their housing and healthcare and feed their families might reach their CEO. The decision to terminate their jobs was made weeks ago, and I can tell you for a fact that some of them found out about it first from the press, and not from the employer who insists on being the Good Guy that helps you send Virtual Kindness Cards to donate money to its clients as it quietly throws a quarter of its staff and thousands of its hosts under the bus.

There was one member of the community who consistently warned everyone that this was about to happen. Raise your hand if you think it's a coincidence that she's the first one to get banned.

[Sarah977]

@Anonymous  My hand is raised. I'd also like to point out that Susan's contributions here did not solely consist of exposés and criticisms. She also posted helpful responses to other hosts on various topics, as we all do, often filled with empathy and kindness, and her sense of humor was always appreciated by many.

[Christine615]

I think we should bring Susan back. I'm now sorry I didn't get to catch up with her when I was in Ireland last year. I enjoy her ability to be straight forward. Don't always have to agree, but she's the real deal and you always know where she stands.

[Alba160]

@Anonymous my hand is raised. 

@Robin4 I am new to CC and all the post i came across from @Susan17 were to benefit other hosts or to share helpful information facts-based. I disagree with your comment "she has taken her cause to her heart". No, she took everyone's cause to her heart. No one put themselves in the fire and risked being banned by posting the kind of information she posted. Perhaps in the hopes that hosts would eventually pull their heads out and start standing together and fighting for our rights and for a better treatment by Airbnb. We all believe is what we want to believe. But i believe blindness is of the reasons that Airbnb gets away with becoming more and more oppressive, abusive and exploitative with every passing year. If you or someone believe they are going to have a  sudden moral awakening?  You better wait sitting down then.   

There are many reasons that don't lead to the growth of this "healthy community", but Susan is not of them  and it's not right to blame her for the failures of the CC when she spend so much time trying to help other  hosts and telling the truth. That's why she's the Top Contributor of the leader board of the forum. I been learning a lot from posts in this CC (including from yourself) saying that a while ago they would have not agreed with her (read negative/toxic information) but now admitted all of that is true. Now that "something" is hitting the fan pretty bad. Although in your case I am a bit confused of you changed of heart -considering your recent post.   

Airbnb it's one way street.  Many here we won't deliver the "Hallmark card" kind-of-message that Airbnb wish to hear.  I am doable raising my hand. 

[Jennifer1421]

@Alba160 

I absolutely agree with your point that Susan's many posts trying to reveal the darker side of some of Airbnb's policies (particularly the bizarre dissonance of the "pro mega host" tools gifted by the platform to hosts, which were denied smaller operators...whilst publicly suggesting that rental arbitrage management was *not* allowed) were made not for her benefit, or as some sort of personal crusade, but to serve as a tool for raising awareness among the membership, as a warning for us all, and as a plea to all of us to raise our own voices in protest.

I very much doubt I've read everything that Susan has posted to the forum, given how prolific a poster she has been. However, I've had a look at the Guidelines article, and what is not allowed. Beyond some "colourful" language (which was deleted pretty quickly, and which many of us have had happen occasionally) I can't see where she has run afoul of these rules in the posts of hers that I have read. How will any of us ever know, like  @Anonymous ponders above, when our necks are on the chopping block. If the guidelines are open to such a wide interpretation of wrongdoing, none of us can feel totally comfortable voicing any opposition.

I am very concerned that banning Susan is to the detriment of the Community Centre. Not only does it silence a very knowledgeable and helpful member, but the lasting effect of it may be to muzzle many of us. Doing so makes the forum less useful overall, since we collectively do the job of Support personnel for free for the company, and definitely makes those of us who use it feel less like "community members". I, too, worry that the forum will become an echo chamber of endless praise for the platform, without criticism. This, of course, will lead to a less effective and popular platform, as experts on hosting no longer contribute, both out of disgust for the sycophantic slavishness on display here, should my concern be true, and for fear that speaking out in criticism will result in being banned as Susan has been. In such a way, Airbnb will lose out on important feedback meant to improve its platform, thereby eroding its popularity and our collective businesses.

While the brand has certainly been tarnished by exposes such as Alli Conti's Vice article, imagine the unseen erosion in both traveler's faith in the company and in hosting standards that could happen if such articles (and the awareness of them, brought to us here by intrepid members like Susan) didn't exist.

Of course, being banned in the manner that Susan has been also allows for a great deal of "shade" to be thrown without that banned member having the ability to defend him/her/them selves. Such is the case here for Susan, I think, with Stephanie being able to say whatever she's presumably being directed to say by Airbnb (i.e. there were "many conversations" with Susan "over many months" {which many of us know is patently untrue}) to justify this ban (NOTE: please don't read this as a dig at Stephanie - we should all realize that she and the other mods have zero autonomy to say what they may personally think or believe).

In effect, Airbnb, through the mods, have the ability to "whitewash" their own actions and ruin any of our reputations here without allowing the us the right of reply.  Imagine, again, if you were a new, dewy-eyed host coming here, breathless in anticipation of belonging to a community of fellow hosts, only to read that a long time, and highly respected member is able to be arbitrarily banned and slammed by the same company that ends it's communications with "sent with love". I think such is every bit as damaging as reading  some healthy (and deserved!) criticism of the company by its "partners". Banning Susan and silencing her voice here in the Community Centre runs absolutely contrary to the company's "everyone belongs" mantra, and serves to amplify the hypocrisy of it. "Everyone belongs, so long as everyone toes the line", is the message being amplified here.

I think it would very much behoove the company to have a fulsome, open discussion about banning in general, and the ban of Susan in particular. Hushing us on this subject, citing "respect" as a reason not to have these discussions, while no longer even using Susan's name is wrong, and very dangerous to the platform for the reasons outlined above. I'm 100% certain that Susan would have no qualms about this discussion taking place. In case it's needed, I have received express permission from Susan to discuss this matter publicly and privately and am able to provide such proof should it be requested.

I believe Susan's ban should be reconsidered and rescinded post-haste.

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0@Sarah977 @Robin4 @Christine615 @Airbnb @Lizzie @Stephanie 

[Rebecca181]

Susan knew a vast amount about Airbnb's past. In detail. This allowed her to capably and vigorously challenge the company 'narrative'; specifically, the often revised and at times grossly distorted version of reality presented by Airbnb regarding past and current events, both here and in the media (the 'Orinda Shootings' come to mind, whereby hosts were scapegoated and thrown under the bus).

As George Orwell wrote in his dystopian novel 1984, "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.' It seems to me that Susan threatened the intended narrative of those holding the power within Airbnb via her rigorously researched and informative posts and comments. And so she had to go.

She will be sorely missed by those here who appreciated reading her well-supported accounts of various unseemly events that in many cases ultimately impacted the entire Airbnb community, including hosts, as well as various other entities.

I also raise my hand for Susan's reinstatement to the CC. (But not holding my breath it will happen). 

[Alex1485]

@Lizzie @Airbnb

Wanted to mention, we've noticed a trend in the past two years that  95% of our guests no longer use their primary email address in their profile, instead use use "arbitrary/dead email" addresses they never check,  for data privacy/hacking issues. 

Great idea, but would not expect my guests to receive this email campaign, as they do not regularly check the email addresses listed on their profiles. 

Not sure if others hosts had had the  same experience. 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

What a fat lot of no good that listening session was!

Despite listening that an opt-out button was required, they plainly ignored hosts and just went and did it anyway. Welcome to the unwanted kindness cards being rolled out in your names.

@Stephanie @Lizzie  What is the point of you wasting our time with Listening Sessions if you don't listen ?

A deletion button was requested and is required for this crazy stunt rolling out since Tuesday..

@Lawrene0 @Eileen0 @Joan23 @Robbie54 @Sarah977 @Mike-And-Helen0 @Robin4 @Susan17 @Louise0 @Donald28 @Katrina79 @Juan63 @Colleen253 @Ute42 @Helen3 @Andrew0 @Jennifer1421 @Helen350 @Jean-François73 @Yadira22 @Jessica-and-Henry0 @Melodie-And-John0 @Sandra126 @Trace386 @Brisas-Kukulcan0 @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 @Alba160 @Gordon0 @Paul60 @Alex1425 

Apologies for tagging hosts twice. This subject was active in two threads which many of you contributed to.

[Gordon0]

Poorly managed. And toe-curlingly embarrassing (for this host).