May Release: Q&A with Catherine Powell

May Release: Q&A with 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.

Read more
  • 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.

 

101 Replies 101
Jennifer3225
Host Advisory Board Member
Port Severn, Canada

Hi Catherine. Feeding the Cows in Bali IndonesiaFeeding the Cows in Bali IndonesiaChickens in FranceChickens in France6E953D82-C4B3-420C-B2E0-AE992E0F3397.jpeg

 

Thank you so much for posting. I am so very delighted that you have opened up the Q and A for the launch of May release. 

 

I absolutely love the read message feature. Thank you, this helps in so many ways. 

 

Quick question. In the Check out options, can we please add recycling and food waste on the list of "What to do?" for check out.

 

Some countries use Food Waste to feed the cow and others, like our dear Mariella use the waste to feed the chickens. In Canada, we collect Food Waste at the municipal level and compost gets delivered back for residents. 

 

It would be super amazing if we could include this along side 'Throw Trash away' to be 'What to do with Food Waste and Recycling' in the amazing feature of Check out instructions. 

 

Thanks

 

Jennifer

Jennifer Schnier
Rachel1200
Host Advisory Board Member
England, United Kingdom

I think that’s an amazing idea Jennifer; I also feed many of our animals with my guests’ leftover food; meat for the chickens, farm cats and pet dog, bread, cake, biscuits and fruit for the chickens.  

Bhumika
Community Manager
Community Manager
Toronto, Canada

Hi @Jennifer3225  @Rachel1200 ,

 

Indeed some interesting suggestions! I so much love and appreciate your thoughts on Sustainability and how we can accommodate it through the App features as well.

 

Thank you so much for sharing these awesome ideas!

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Please follow the Community Guidelines

@Jennifer3225  @Catherine-Powell 

 

Sustainability:  This is an important topic for us in California, where food waste recycling is a requirement. We also are in the midst of phasing out single use plastics on every level in California. I love that you brought this up. 

 

 

Felicity11
Host Advisory Board Member
Manly, Australia

Brilliant @Jennifer3225 

 

Can we please have the ability to give instructions for what to do with food waste!  Not all guests will be interested however food waste collection services around the world are growing as many regions look to reduce their waste and lower emissions. 

Mike-And-Jane0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

@Catherine-Powell How does Airbnb decide what improvements to work on ? There appear to be some good features here but other things people have asked for don't seem to be being worked on.

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

@Mike-And-Jane0 great question!

 

If others reading have the same question don't forget to leave a 👍 on their post and/or reply with a +1️⃣ comment!

 

Thanks

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Please follow the Community Guidelines 

This is terrific! 

First - the Read Receipts are excellent. I communicate with guests before arrival, ask questions and stress things that are important. Now I don't have to guess whether or not they have read them Thank you!

 

We're wondering about the Interests section of the host passport: why only 7 things that we are passionate about? We are older, educated, always curious and can connect with our guests on so many more topics. Also some of the topics we are passionate about could be added to "sports."  Maybe we could manually add things to these sections that are not on the lists?  (eg for me, mushroom hunting, hiking, travel, photography & more are sports!)

Looking forward to reading  your responses, and hearing what others contribute. This is truly a community!

Kitty

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Thanks @Kitty-and-Creek0  - read receipts have been a Host favourite! 

 

I just read your Host passport - after 5 years knowing you on the CC it's so great that I can still learn something new and interesting about you. 

 

What a wonderful question - I wonder if others are thinking the same? 

 

Thanks,

Steph

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Please follow the Community Guidelines 

@Stephanie 

I really love that home-share hosts are getting "Rooms" recognition in the ocean of listings. It means a lot. As you know, we are personally involved, hands-on hosts, and we offer a very personal hospitality skill set to our guests. We love what we do, we adore our guests, and would not have it any other way!

Daniel1651
Host Advisory Board Member
Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain

I really love it @Kitty-and-Creek0 !

 

I also imagine some tags as "lovers", for instance:

Cat/Pet Lover, Cafe/Tea Lover, Book, Nature, Hospitality, Education, Movies/Cinema lovers, etc.!

 

And more, as Video game Lover, Style and trend (fashionvictim),  Automobile/Bike, Desserts/Drink Lover (Ñam, ñam). 

Comedy, Gardening or Design Lover, among others!

 

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Video game lover @Daniel1651 I think I just heard my name mentioned 😎🎮

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Please follow the Community Guidelines 

@Daniel1651 @Catherine-Powell 

I love these ideas - the host passport formula we're so enjoying is pretty narrow for most people, imho.  It is a great start! We struggled with what to check when it became obvious we could only check 7 out of the many choices we eagerly selected. I love your suggestions, yes, please! 

Daniel1651
Host Advisory Board Member
Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain

Hi @Catherine, hi everyone!

 

Seeing the incorporation of Passports for private rooms's hosts at first sight, I can understand that there is a great return to the roots of Airbnb where the space and the host are equally relevant when choosing an accommodation.

 

I really love the idea of ​​personalizing my profile and sharing my interests and hobbies, as well as learning a little more about my guests. I'm glad Airbnb continues to create opportunities to connect with other people!

 

Given this and the growing value of our community's sense of hospitality, could we (entire place's hosts) expect that Passports were included at first sight next to our main listing'g photo, too?I

 

would like to hear a big Yes!

 

Thanks!Daniel, from Tenerife, Canary Islands.

 

P.D. When I started in 2012, the photo of host were also next to the main photo of the listing. I love if it come back as a Passport!