Say hello to the Host Advisory Board members

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

When we announced the Host Advisory in December, we said we'd look to this group of hosts to represent you and help highlight the things that really matter to hosts within Airbnb.

To make sure they understand the needs and perspectives of our global community, the Advisory Board members are active in different ways: from contributing here in the Community Center to leading local hosting groups, to participating in product and policy feedback sessions.  

All of the Advisory Board members are active hosts and represent hosting from countries all around the world. They all have different stories and reasons for why they host. They are excited to get to know you, and we hope you will get to know them. 

Introducing...... 

 @Anna1403 , @Bez8,  @Antonella78, @Susan208, @Till-and-Jutta0,  @Nutth0, @Norma17, @Peter1, @Merrydith0, @Pascale144, @Omar202, @Pooja30, @Tiffany204, @Vinícius0, @Shinya0, @Ningyi0, @Samuel604 

Many of you have already been speaking with Till, Nutth, Bez and Peter, here in the EN CC. 

I ask you to support the Advisory Board members by continuing to surface the great knowledge and insights we see here everyday. Make them feel welcome here and get to know them, they want to hear your ideas and make a difference for all of our community. They need your support to do this. You can also use the tag #HostAdvisoryBoard to highlight topics to them.

What’s next?

Each month a different Advisory Board member will be representing the group and providing an update in the Resource Center and we’ll be carrying on the conversation here on the CC. In the meantime, @Susan208 is our first spotlight of the year, please take a look here.  You can also meet Susan at our Community Center meetup on Tuesday February, 23rd 1PM (PST)–to join view this post here. 

@Omar202 will be providing a February update, so do look out for that in a couple of weeks. 🙂

Thank you,

Lizzie (and all of the EN CC team) 

[Bez8]

@Debra300 

Well said Debra. Thank you for being so awesome and believing in us. 

[David122]

I have been more and more frustrated how it takes sometimes 5 Air b n b  reps to solve an obvious situation  or problem  Generally the fist rep makes it sound like it will be resolved easily. Then they say that they have the next day off.  The following day they do not get back or resolve the issue.  Then subsequent calls are needed.  Each call usually take around 20 to 30 minutes.  The last extortion effort of a guest to claim his cleaning fee with no pictures or evidence  took 6 calls into Air b n b.  When I keep hearing apologies from Air b n b  I am knowing in the next breath that they will say there is nothing they can do about it.

i am willing to take my hits if the guest is honest and I made some kind of error in cleaning, or my staff did.  They seldom leave a place nothing but tidy for the guest.  I find it particularly  irritating when the obvious facts are clear and it is a hands down guest trying to steal or leave a revenge one star review to get feel somehow that they are getting even.  How can this be avoided?

[Regina114]

Thank you for more one way to help us in the field.  I love AIRBVB

[Susan208]

Please reach out as needed Regina.  Happy weekend to you. 

[Jennifer1673]

Thanks to all of those volunteers! Appreciate your efforts. 

[Veronica-Of-Excel-Proper0]

Thank you @Stephanie for your update on the hosts you have volunteered to take on the extra work to be the conduit between other hosts and Airbnb. 
Well done and welcome to everyone.

Best wishes to you @Susan208  in leading this month's work.

[Susan208]

Thanks so much.  Appreciate your support.

[Sandi14]

Hi! I'm Sandi and my husband and I host a two bedroom oceanfront apartment in Surf City, NC. We host in an area that is definately dominated by Rental Management Companies, so we are competing for guests against big fish with big budgets. I'd love to hear about how other hosts market their spaces. I'd really love the option to email guests, even thru Airbnb, myself with specials and to wish them happy holidays throughout the year. We don't have this option now - unless i've missed it somewhere.

I agree with an earlier responder that this is a large part of my livelihood and some of the restrictions during Covid - requiring a vacant day between bookings - were too burdensome to implement therefore we were unable to take advantage of the enhanced cleaning call out opportunities. 

I am proud to say that even during these Covid times, we've experienced our best year to date and it shows me that people are open to travel, especially within an easy drive from their primary residence. 

[David122]

My year has been a complete loss.  i did have the summer to fix up the outside to be styling with the times.  The harder I make it nice the more  it feels like guests try to steal and extort the cleaning fees with no verification.  What is worse is that Air b n b  reps seem to site with the guests more these days.  somewhat frustrated here in Santa Fe.  We just opened up so  likely it will get better.

[Andrew90]

Thanks to @Susan208 and the others volunteering to help provide the voice of your fellow hosts. 

From my perspective the number one challenge right now is quality and level of official support and the ability escalate for time critical issues.  Things are improving from the height of the pandemic but still not close to where it needs to be. The community expert network and chat have helped a lot with simple how too questions (example enabling option for 3rd party tools and the ability to get and copy Airbnb email alias). However, in my experience if it needs to go to formal support it takes days at best resolve.  (Example,  recent issue where the price adjustment tool was clearly NOT working and I could not even get agent to acknowledge there was an issue and had no path to escalate to level 2, manager or other experts) 

im happy to provide additional details or perspective if required.  

In general I love Airbnb platform and it works well most of the time. I was lucky enough to score some stock in the IPO which in a way helped me overcome my dissolution around the bait and switch on the commitment to cover losses associated with covid cancellations.  

Andrew

[Kevin-s0]

I agree. At times dealing with support is quite frustrating.  As well, I am a super host and very serious about doing a fantastic job, but I feel at times that support is so biased in favour of guests.  I definitely think guests need a voice, but to disregard your hosts at times really hurts, especially when we are the onese

 driving the success of Airbnb.  

I have at times asked if the support person was actually a robot.  Not to be a jerk, but I actually felt I was dealing with some kind of AI that was not reading my emails properly.  If that is the case for me, I bet it is the case for others, and Airbnb needs better support for hosts and guests moving forward.

[Susan208]

I agree Andrew.  Have had similar experiences myself in the last two months.  We have also communicated this as a key priority.  We will work it. 

[Debi1]

Thank you for the opportunity to connect with you all in the Advisory Board:

@Anna1403 , @Bez8,  @Antonella78, @Susan208, @Till-and-Jutta0,  @Nutth0, @Norma17, @Peter1, @Merredith0, @Pascale144, @Omar202, @Pooja30, @Tiffany204, @Vinicius0, @Shinya0, @Ningyi0, @Samuel604,

I'm saying hello to you from  Pacific Northwest hosts and from Host2Host in particular.  

I'm hoping  that your group will be a conduit from leadership to the hosting communities, to help us understand the changes we can expect from the Airbnb platform, and help our communities thrive.   So grateful to have you all there!

[George123]

Hello from Athens,Greece! Thank you @Stephanie for your invitation and we really appreciate the good job of HAB.Good luck to all of you!

[Shinya0]

Hi everyone !!😄
I just wanted to say hi to all .👋
I'm @Shinya0 .
I was born and raised in Osaka Japan.🇯🇵
Currently hosting in Osaka.

I am one of those who are really charmed by Airbnb world.

I'm thrilled to be a member of HAB and looking forward to picture the future of hosting.
I believe all the members will try to be able to serve hosts and a broader community.

Best,
Shinya