May Release: Q&A with Catherine Powell

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi everyone,

I am so excited to connect with all of you today.

I have recently started Hosting and I absolutely love it. Meeting with guests and sharing my home has been an incredible experience and also given me a deep appreciation of all that being a great Host involves. Coming to the Community Centre and reading all the comments and suggestions from you, I can see clearly what a powerful resource this forum is for Hosts across the world. 

Last week, Airbnb CEO, Brian Chesky, announced the 2023 Airbnb May release with many exciting updates to our platform, including features for Hosts designed to enhance your overall experience on and off the app.

I wanted to take a moment to thank you for all the feedback across our forums and channels including here in the Community Centre. Your feedback guides how we prioritize the updates we make across our service, our policies, and our product.  

And the feedback doesn’t stop at the release. I’m inviting all of you to our very first Community Centre Q&A session. This is a moment for us to have an open conversation to answer questions you have about our May release. 

Our wonderful team of Community Managers will help coordinate the Q&A and ensure we have an environment where everyone is respected and feels comfortable to ask questions and share their thoughts. One request of you for this Q&A, is to keep your questions related to the 2023 May Release. I know you will not be short of questions and I promise we will have more opportunities to discuss other hosting matters in the future.

Please submit your questions before the end of this week – Friday the 12th of May. The Community Managers will gather the most relevant and popular questions and I’ll make sure to write back to your top questions here in the Community Center by the end of this month. 

Thank you all and have a wonderful day!

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👉 Make sure to read and follow the Q&A Guidelines. Click "read more" below.

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• Remain respectful in your interactions with other Hosts and the Airbnb team. Let's make sure our communication remains meaningful and constructive. 
• Kindly keep your questions focused on the 2023 product release and provide relevant feedback on the topic.
• You may  use the comment section to ask questions related to the release and the like button to upvote a question that you would like to see addressed.
• Be as clear as possible regarding your question, describing what you want to know and why you think it’s relevant for Airbnb’s Host Community. 
• All questions  will be reviewed. We’ll prioritize the most relevant and popular questions – those concerning our global  Host Community and directly linked to the May release.
• Kindly focus your questions on the features and enhancements included as part of the May updates rather than what’s not included. 
• We reserve the right to remove replies that do not follow the above guidelines
• We will do our best to ensure that critical concerns about Airbnb’s 2023 Summer Release are addressed.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Daniel1651 @Catherine-Powell 

Could we please have the passport for guests too? So many guests have nothing on their profiles, which is sad. Perhaps more options might inspire them?

[Daniel1651]

@Kitty-and-Creek0 Right now, guests can update their profiles  including more information.

Not sure if it is available in all markets but in my case I am receiving guests with the new profile and it is great because I can know in advance their preferences and think about a personalized welcome 🙂

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Daniel1651 

With newbies I often ask them to put up profile info, for the same reason you do. As a home-share host I have so many opportunities to personalize their stay here. If they give us clues as to their interests and goals, we can do so much more to give them every opportunity to have an excellent time, both on the ranch, and off. If someone's profile is lacking, I make sure to ask them about their interests in the message thread. I've taken care to be explicit in our listing information about what is - and is not - here, hoping it would be helpful in guests choices. 

[Felicity11]

I agree @Daniel1651  if guests have host passports you can easily personalise the property.  When we know a little bit more about the guest you can easily make guests feel right at home by putting out little things!  

When I have a family coming to stay with young children I will leave out a basket of toys so the children walk in and instantly feel at home and be kept busy while the parents unpack!    

I think the passport feature is great and we can go on to do so much more with passports! 

[Daniel1651]

@Felicity11  Passports for all!

I remember a guest that visited me a few years ago. Her nickname was "Meencantaelqueso" (I love cheese) and she was happy-shocked when found a table with different Canarian cheeses on the fridge!

This kind of small details makes that people really feel at home ‌❤️‌

[Felicity11]

@Daniel1651  there is much talk about using AI  these days. This might be the perfect place to help hosts personalise the hosting experience for guests. What sort of tea do they drink or do they drink coffee, did they book a surfing experience at their last place they stayed ? What experience can we suggest?, what feedback have they previously left for other hosts that we can build on?  Did they appreciate the compost bin and getting a read out of the solar and power usage??  the list goes on and on and on.. the possibilities are endless - Passports! 

[Daniel1651]

When I say "include passport for all listings", I mean the ability to see them at first glance like now with private room listings, where the host's (passport) photo is placed next to the first listing photo 🙂

[Christian2086]

Hi @Catherine-Powell ,  I love the new updates, some more than others but each one has contributed with a grain of sand in improving our experience as hosts ! . By the way, Congratulations fellow Host, welcome to the team and Happy Hosting  😂😀🙌🏽 !

For my part, I would ask you the  following question: Why have you removed the option to edit Custom Promotions from the Calendar? (the ones that Airbnb lets us create occasionally). 

Previously we could from there edit the discount percentage, for example go from 10 to 20%, or any we wanted, on the same dates already selected for the promotion we had created, after the new update we now lose more time since If we want to vary this discount, we must remove the promotion and create a new one. Being able to edit the discount percentage was easier, faster and more efficient.

Thank you ! 

And Best Regards from Canary Islands, Spain  ! 😎☀️🌊

Christian R. 

[Bhumika]

Hi @Christian2086 ,

Thank you so much for the lovely feedback and asking your question!

I assume this question would be important for many Hosts.

Further, I would like to invite other Hosts going through this thread to keep upvoting the questions they would like to see addressed by hitting the like button or responding to a comment.

[Delphine348]

Hello @Catherine-Powell  and thank you for all these new upgrades very useful for us hosts !

Airbnb Rooms

I love that Airbnb has reimagined what private rooms look like on Airbnb's platform. Along with the new Passport that introduces the Host, it will be easier for guests and hosts to find the perfect match.

In that spirit, Private rooms Hosts have recently received an email to update their listing information and define the spaces they rent in their home.

One of the new criteria is that one common space must be shared with the guest. The exemples given are the kitchen or the living room.

Do you think a space composed of

• a private bedroom with equipment such as kettle, teacups, bottle of water and glasses,
• A private bathroom,
• a shared terrace or garden

Would qualified as Private room without sharing the kitchen or the living room?

Thank you for you answer!

[Tamara682]

@Catherine-Powell 

Hello!

I signed up for the early access but because I have pro tools on, I see absolutely nothing new. I would turn it off in order to check it out, but it will delete hours worth of work setting up rates and discounts for the rest of the year.

I had to go to pro tools because we didn't have the option of setting all those up in the regular calendar.

Can you fix this please?

Thanks,

Tamara

[Laurelle3]

@Catherine-Powell thank you for the opportunity to reply to the new Airbnb tool.

I have concerns with the new pricing tool to "Compare similar listings nearby". 

Yes, a good tool to use for a quick look and see. But what is happenning is that there is a "Little or Big" CUT THROAT market happening in our patch by the beach.

I have to say Airbnb new tool is starting to changed the market not for the good as I see it.

Yes, most people around here do change their prices for winter. But I have to say "How low do you have to go".

One has to consider;

What does it cost to run your Airbnb?

Is it at a lost or profit?

Is it an investment or being self employyed or a hobby?

Is it to change your well being from being Happy and Caring for Others or Worrying about Who is getting more of the Airbnb market than those around me.?

Yes, the other Hosts may have more commitments like morgage payments, greater monetry outlay commitments that I and others don't know about. But that is for them to decide as to how they manage their money.

Yes, I have to say Guests maybe are getting a better deal.

Yes, the times are changing with our counties economy and around the world.

But for me, I consider what I consider what is a fair price, what is the value of my Airbnb to me. By not changing what I consider the market price to low to become more competitive.

I am already hearing that different clientele are booking these places and respecting these propertires and leaving more mess, more people than booked, damage to the properties.

For me I say, What can I do with my spare time if my Airbnb is not booked?

Go on a holiday and shut up shop until the market changes. Do the things I have put off, visiting family and friends, more time for outdoor activities, gardening and making changes that don't effect guests, maintence on the property such as repainting, doing all the crafts I want to do.

But, the bottom line I have my principles that I give what I consider a fair price and I have a life to live that is better for me.

Lastly, what it means with this new tool is the person who is still on top is: Airbnb and its share holders who will gain the proffit and not the Hosts who care and look after their properties themselves other than put it on a plate for others to deal with as an agent.

[Sybe]

Hi @Laurelle3 ! Thank you so much for sharing your concerns about this, it's always great to hear from you.

The price comparison tool serves as an easier way for Hosts to see how similar listings in their area are priced. Hosts can choose to use this tool to make a decision about their nightly price, but in the end they themselves remain in charge of deciding the nightly price they're comfortable with. 

Do you have a question for Catherine as well or did you only want to share your concern?🙂

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Laurelle3 My experience with the comparison tool was much better. We are not getting as many bookings as last year so I compared our pricing with booked and unbooked properties nearby. What the new tool told me was that our price was appropriate (already lower than most) and that any further reductions would be futile. In an overcrowded market we will just have to wait until people realise STR is saturated at present and either sell up or convert to LTR. 

[Laurelle3]

@Mike-And-Jane0 yes I do like the comparrison tool rather than going through the switch to travel and type in my area.

Yes we had an influx of new start up Airbnb this last year mostly were holiday homes owned by families and put through realestates that put them on Vrbo, bdc, Stayes. With the payout of cleaners and linen, agents commission and low prices, I can see the forecast of people not making a profit that they thought they can make over the next 6 months. 

In Australia we are experiencing not enough properties for rent long term and different states are changing the rules eg, land rates being increased for STR and shortening the number of nights allowed. 90 to 180.

Some local councils are also changing the rules too. If there are complaints about noise or disruptive. The host gets 3 strikes rule and they are not allowed to STR  for 3 years.

I can see that we will be expecting NSW state changes for STR as we don't have enough LTR.

As for Airbnb bookings I am still being booked. So my price must be right and what I have to offer and good reviews. I happy with what I do.