News about the co-hosting split payout feature

[Airbnb]

We recently shared that as of August 1, 2018 we’ll no longer offer the co-hosting split payout feature. Many of you use and appreciate this feature, and we understand that this change has implications for the way that you do business as hosts. It’s always our intention to improve your experience in any way we can, and we’re sorry for the inconvenience this change will pose for you. We’d like to give you some background on why we’re making it and offer some alternatives for paying your co-hosts.

It’s important to note that we are not removing co-hosting. We’re invested in helping you succeed, and co-hosting overall has been a valuable tool for many of you. So why are we removing the split payout feature? When we added the ability to pay co-hosts through this special feature, the number of co-hosts was rather small and we built a system that handled the volume well. But in order for this feature to meet the needs of a much larger community of hosts and work seamlessly with Airbnb’s evolving platform, we would need to completely rebuild the feature so that it grows with your needs and meets our internal reliability standards. We’re not building a feature to replace this one yet, but we know it’s important to certain hosts and co-hosts and will continue to evaluate ways we can improve and grow the co-hosting program.

The good news is we’re exploring the best way to introduce a new and improved feature. We can’t give you a date yet, but will keep you informed. In the meantime, you can still pay co-hosts through the Airbnb platform by changing your Payout Preferences to split your payment with your co-host. To do this, with your co-host’s permission, enter their payout information in your Payout Preferences tab, and set the percentage you would like to share. If your co-host is not comfortable sharing their account details or ever withdraws their authorization, you can pay them outside of Airbnb through secure online payment apps, bank deposits, cash, or checks.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, and we’re grateful for each and every one of you who host and co-host—and support local businesses while you’re at it! We look forward to building a feature that will be useful to you and better meet the needs of this growing community.

[Paul325]

This is such an accounting nightmare -- I'm just finding out about this the day before it starts???

I co-host on 5 listings -- as if it wasn't hard enough juggling and scheduling cleaning and messaging, I now have to start micro-managing the accounting from all these different listings.  Why??? It could so easily be handled automatically as it has been -- it's a freaking computer, not a bunch of Oompa Loompas running around with calculators... I don't understand Airbnb's whack decisionmaking process.

It also has real implications for your hosts and co-hosts - it's always been a joke to us when Airbnb talks about how "valuable" hosts are and what a "family" we are, when the reality is that 90% of the company decisions favor the guests and make things harder for hosts.  

I need a system that is easy and makes sense for me, and unfortunately that means I now have to take another look at Booking.com.   We want to love you, Airbnb -- but the relationship is borderline abusive.

[James35]

I can only echo the previous comments and genuinely hope that Airbnb have a rethink on this one. I am the biggest fan of Airbnb and can also speak as someone with experience on both sides of this (I have a co-host on my own property and also co-host for some other hosts myself), the whole co-hosting process has been great so far.  It all works so beautifully at the moment and the payments being taken care of by Airbnb is an integral part of this.

I can see that from the 1st of August, what was previously so simple will potentially become a nightmare..... on the co-host side, so many invoices to send and then chase for payment (even with the best relationships in the world, not everyone pays their invoices on time)..... on the host side, having to check emails and make payments.

This change creates a huge amount of additional work on both sides of the equation..... everyone loses.

[Carina87]

Hello everyone. 

Just wanted to express my views about split payments situation. 

Normally all changes made to simplify process or product. 

This change makes everything much more complicated. 

Ironically Airbnb directly encourages its own community to make payments outside of Airbnb platform and also look for another platforms as an alternative solution. 

Trying to find logical explanations. Can not find. ( unless person who came with this idea secretly working for competitors) 

Kind regards. 

[Ac3]

Dear AirBnB !

You do not know this, but AirBnB has been my best friend the last year!!

Because you have good systems, I am, as a co-host, able to help people who, for different reasons, cannot manage to rent out themselves or use the Airbnb platform.

Some are elderly, some are handicapped, and others do not understand computers at all.   

They asked me to help rent out their place, because they have heard from family and friends, that I help people this way, i.e. as a co-host on AirBnB.

I do everything for the; from refurnishing, decorating, taking photos, putting up their AirBnB profile and page.  I have also made a personal guide of my city, Oslo. 

Then I take bookings for them, answering the guests, meet the guests, clean the place (with the help of a crew).

At this time, I have about 30 units to take care of.   

Needless to say,  I work at least 16 hours a day for my owners and guests. I am proud to help people this way.  

It gives me pleasure to have satisfied guests and unit owners; and I also make some money out of it.  

All this I can do, because you have a good system,  both for owners and for co-hosts, like myself. 

Therefore, AirBnB is a “winning team,”  and I am proud to be part of it. 

Then I received a mail, saying you will change the good system you have, for a no split-system of payment for co-hosts, like me. 

Your co-host system has grown and been successful, because it works for us, and it is good. Please, let it stay that way !

I play soccer, and in sport we say: "Never change a winning team !”

But that is just what you are doing.   You are changing, and destroying a winning team.   Please do not do this to us, hosts and co-hosts !

Others will pick up, what you are throwing away, and will gain from it.

From August, if you change your already well functioning and effective system, I will not be able to handle 30 units anymore.

I will have to divide my time with practical issues (like meeting guests and seeing to it that the units are in order) with administrative issues (such as billing owners).  

I will have to reduce to 16 - 18 units to be able to keep up with the level of service I am able to provide both guests and property owners. 

I have informed the people concerned about this, and they are all asking me to continue helping them with their place. What shall I do ?

Shall I say NO to the old lady that has the AirBnB rental as her main income, or the two in wheelchairs that cannot handel their rent out without me? 

Shall I say NO to those who are retired and living abroad from their rental income, with my help?

Or say NO to the single mother of 3, that support her family by the income from AirBnB, from the condo she inherited from her parents? 

I am helping all these people, and others.  But unless you can let us stay in the “old system,” that functioned so well, I have no capacity to continue. 

You will loose more than ⅓ of my clients, and their business.     

On behalf of these owners, and myself, as co-host, please let us have things the way they are now !!! 

At least until you have solved the technical side of this, and made a platform, built on the system you already have.

For AirBnB, for us co-hosts, owners, guests and the future, let us keep the system as it is. 

Do not "change a winning team” !!

Hoping for the best, 

with best regards,

AC Wichstrøm

[Eric174]

This is so not 2018!! 

If you as a modern platform and IT architectural webbsite and business claims that it is because of the succes than there are more and other reasons. Almost every host who is doing business with help of a co-host and visa versa are very serious to treat the guest to there best. This was just a very assest to the co-host program. I'm co-host and B&B owner myself and thinking to leave this platform and looking for booking.com or something.

RETHINK agsain and fire the person who came up with this stupid idea!!!

[Beau17]

We need to be able to allocate the cleaning fees also. The new setup doesn’t do this. Extremely frustrating

[Leigh30]

What's really going on here?  This doesn't make sense and your explanation is insufficient.

Airbnb process thousands and thousands of transactions between guests and hosts every day - how can payments to co-hosts suddenly pose a problem.  

You have compromised us by not offering a working alternative at such short notice. 

Please, at least, make a plan in terms of processing cleaning fees

[Dan372]

Dear sirs, 

Your response sounds like a task given to someone to fill three to four paragraphs with a lot of words and commit to nothing and take responsability for nothing.  WHOS IN CHARGE OVER THERE, cuz they need to be fired.

[Michael-Davey0]

This is blantantly the stupidest idea that is clearly not in the best interest of Airbnbs growth. Accounting headaches for every host and co-host. 

There's no direction for the cleaning fees? Are we going to split those are we? 

Let's go ahead and make a seamless payment system a chaotic one and expect better results!?

Well done Airbnb! 

[Walter124]

The split payment feature doesn't do anything for things like the cleaning fee paid to a co-host since it is a fixed amount, not a percentage. This is no help at all.

[Thomas978]

Airbnb's decision to do away with the co-host split out feature in my opinion is a bad business decision.  Especially since your current platform attracted us to Airbnb.  By eliminating this feature, hosts and co-hosts are left having to create alternative ways to keep their businesses going.  As a owner of Airbnb properties in California, this decision effects us dramatrically. First, now we'll need to issue 1099's to co-hosts, and cohosts may not be willing to wait for cleaning payments and payouts from hosts.  As a retired IT engineer, I believe your upper management decision to eliminate payouts to co-hosts is a feature that attracted not only us to Airbnb, but many thousands of other clients to Airbnb.  Work arounds can be difficult for many Airbnb clients, and why eliminate a working feature without developing and implementing a more robust feature.  We all have options, such as bookings.com, flipkey, VRBO especially if this system change breaks our confidence in Airbnb's system.  Again, why change when your system was working.  It does not make rational sense.  We have no alternative giving that works well.  We are required now to explore all of our options, especially since Airbnb gave little notice to this major system change and with no real viable system solution.  

[Lary1]

This really makes no sense to stop this without having something else already in place.It takes time to set every up all of this and now we have to come up with a new sytem that is going to create more work for everyone having to go through each listing and resetting it up with less than a month.  This doesn't seem how a business this size should operate and treat their entire sales force that has made them  one of the largest company in the world.  Like others have mentioned, there are other plateforms we could use but Airbnb has treated us well provided great features like this one they are taking away with not  other option in place. This is going to create a big mess for a lot of really great host.

I don't understand why now. You give no real, valid, reason for this change other than you're too big but what does that have to do with this?

Please reconsider having something in place before you are taking something away with no neccesary reason.

[Matt254]

Airbnb, this is unwelcome news! You’re maiking operations easier for you and your technical team, and MUCH more difficult for hosts and cohosts. #fail

[Dave328]

Airbnb please at least continue the co-host system for existing co-hosts and hosts that you have in place already until you have something better to replace it with.

[Kelly541]

I'm confused. I tried to call the helpline and the connection is so bad I can't understand a thing the airbnb help agent is saying. Is the new split payout before or after the cleaning fee? Also - it says here "After Aug 1" but then in the payout banking section it says for new reservations only, so does this mean that reservations that were already made prior to Aug 1st, but that are getting paid out after Aug first are sort of in limbo and will have no split payment? This is frustrating. The cohost program was working great for us and now it feels overly complicated and if we cannot separate out the cleaning fee then I will have to pay the cohost outside of airbnb which ads a layer of tax reporting issues for me and the cohost.