5K Super Host Grant

[Darrell60]

Why are Superhosts with more than two properties excluded from receiving the $5K grant??  Just when I thought Airbnb was going to do something right. Most casual STR are only supplementing their income. I have 4 STR and these are my only income. I have lost over $25K just in March and April cancellations. I have 4 mortgages to pay and have zero income. Airbnb please reconsider your requirements to receive aid. You are excluding the Hosts that most need your support. 

[Helen3]

Just because someone has a home share - it doesn't mean it is a hobby.

If you provide a service and get paid for doing so it is a business whether you do it as a homeshare or as a whole listing. You still pay taxes on it.

It doesn't matter whether you rely on STRs as your whole income or for part of your income. You still rely on this income to pay your bills.

[Julie1295]

Wow, you have 4 mortgages? My home is my only home and I pay $2400 rent and the only way I can pay at least $1500 of it is constantly cleaning after strangers and taking bedding to a laundromat 4 blocks away! And no, I dont have a car or laundry in the house and I have 3 different serious injuries I have to deal with when doing this. I BARELY make ends meet.

Before I started doing airbnb it was only a huge 1 bedroom I used to use as an art studio while I was a bartender, a hostess and a waitress in 3 different places making enough money to afford rent but without having time to actually use the space. Because of this I am still not at a point in my career where I can make sure to sell 2400 a month worth of art so in order to not loose my space I had to start sharing it with strangers.

I dont think you’ll ever understand the type of sacrifice it is to share your personal space with the tiniiiiest little bathroom and the tiniest little kitchen with strangers AND make superhost 6 times in a row? While working a 9-5 only so I can afford to do what I love because airbnb is not even enough to cover full rent and much less my art supplies!

“Airbnb please reconsider your requirements to receive aid. You are excluding the Hosts that most need your support”

You lost your income like everybody else, I lost my job too. But without airbnb I loose my apartment too! Please understand why people like me come first in the relief fund. I’m sure they’ll make it up to you eventually as the economy recovers.

Trust me, 5k only covers 2 months of my rent. I still have to continue to apply to essential jobs or unemployment to survive.....

Hope nobody takes this as an attack since I respect and admire everybody out there that is killing it in the airbnb game! I can only dream to get to the income level required to take out 4 mortgages....

[Sarah977]

@Nanxing0   "My guess is that Airbnb will soon have something to make up for those hosts otherwise it would be the fact that they are pushing everyone to switch to strict policy in the future. I don't think Airbnb is willing to see that happen."

Airbnb is willing to see anything happen as long as it doesn't directly affect their profitability. They pushed hosts to try the non-refundable 10% off option, then overrode that policy as they saw fit, long before the COVID cancellations. As long as they have that EC policy, which they think gives them carte blanche to override any cancellation policy they want, hosts will always be at their mercy. 

I have always had a moderate policy , not because that's what Airbnb encourages, but for a few reasons of my own (I don't do anything Airbnb tries to pressure hosts to do, I do what works for me). First of all, if I were a guest, I wouldn't want to face losing 50% of my booking cost if I couldn't come for some reason. Secondly, in my particular market, guests aren't at all likely to cancel shortly before the 100% refund period ends or within 5 days of check-in. In 3 and a half years on the platform, I've only had one guest do that, and it was because she had a death in the immediate family (It was pretty obvious that she wasn't scamming, for a number of reasons and I got paid my 50%). Thirdly, I don't rely on Airbnb income to pay my bills. (It's not that I'm well-off- I'm not, I just don't have a lot of expenses and I have another job). I wouldn't ever use flexible, because I'd be pissed if I went to the trouble of cleaning and stocking the guest space and they cancelled last minute.

Because I home-share, you know what I miss? Yeah, the extra income was great- I used it to help out my kids and grandkids, mostly. But I miss hosting my guests- I've met some great people and they've enriched my life. I'm not reading that kind of thing much amongst all this angst about all the money people are losing. I guess most people just host for the money.

[Sarah3241]

Before I re-type my post that was just lost...checking to see if this works...

[Sarah3241]

Ugh. Ok. One more time...I recently purchased my home with the expectation that I would rent one side to help pay the mortgage (shotgun double). I am still paying off my startup costs to outfit the place. I listed in early Feb and was booked solid through mid-May. I didn't quite get through enough reservations to make "super host" status but all of the reviews I did get are 5 stars. I have invested a lot in this platform and need my rental to pay my mortgage. Yet I will not qualify because I wasn't able to complete enough reservations. I wish they would consider people like me.

[Nanxing0]

@Sarah3241 It doesn't hurt to ask though. I think if they end up with less applicants than planned they will consider cases like yours. Again you can't expect to have same revenue as normal. For your mortgage you can ask the bank for deferral, especially it's your primary residence. The 25% return on those cancelled should be more than enough to cover your utilities, given that you were booked solid till mid-May. 

[Sarah3241]

@Nanxing0 Thanks for the reply! Should I just send them a general message? I wish there was a more direct way to message about this topic specifically.

[Nanxing0]

@Sarah3241 You can contact the customer service by sending them a request on the help page of Airbnb. Then the system will assign you a representative you can message with. That's the way I contact the customer service these days. The response is not immediate but you don't need to stay on the phone for several hours. Usually they should get back to you in a few hours but there was one time the representative didn't get back to me until 2 days later because she was on a scheduled leave and Airbnb doesn't automatically direct me to other representative...

[Huma0]

@Nanxing0 

Perhaps, but application for this Superhost fund is invitation only. You can't apply for it.

Also, we will not be getting a 25% return on the cancelled bookings. We will be getting 25% of what we would have got for a cancellation under normal circumstances. That means, if you had a strict policy, you would get 12.5% of the booking value. I am not sure that you would get anything for a moderate policy (maybe depends on when the guest cancelled) and I have heard hosts who had flexible policies will get nothing.

[Nanxing0]

@Huma0 That's a big issue as well and I also heard about it. It's essentially pushing everyone not to use flexible cancellation in the future though. Things are getting crazy now. I guess they will amend it soon. But to be honest if there's a flexible cancellation policy then even if Airbnb didn't update the EC the host would still get nothing given the guests would cancel anyway. 

[Huma0]

@Nanxing0  This is true and I never would have gone for a flexible policy. I started off with moderate and switched to strict quite a while ago as I had a series of guests waiting until the cut off for a 100% refund to cancel. Someone suggested to me they had only booked to secure a visa.

However, I do feel bad for all those hosts who had a flexible policy and will now get nothing. Not that I feel adequately covered anymore by my stricter policies, but they are the ones hardest hit. Sure, they were taking on that risk (often cajoled into it by Airbnb), but how could they have foreseen this pandemic?

[Nanxing0]

@Huma0 I used to have flexible as well but I switched to strict pretty soon, not because of the loss but because some guests like to play the game by cancelling at the last minute to get full refund. Although I'm using strict I issue full refund pretty frequently, but it's a case by case decision and I feel that I have to have the final word rather than letting some sneaky guests play the game. 

Let's see. I believe Airbnb will soon amend the policy by rewarding those hosts with flexible policy. They don't want to see all of us switch to strict as well.

[Luana130]

Me too. I just finished the renovations in January. I still have payments due for that til october.

[Kevin1322]

we let a room on Airbnb purely to help ends meet, although it has also been fun meeting some great people.  But only started last summer, so my other half has not been superhost long enough to qualify.

I suppose they have to draw the line somewhere.

Couldn't have come at a worse time for us as we were literally putting food on the table from the Airbnb revenue. We'd downsized our house to pay off a VAT bill as our 25 year old business hasn't been too good in the last 2 years, and we were counting on this to get back on our feet.

I haven't seen any other booking platforms helping people out though.

One day all this will behind us all. 

[Susan17]

@Kevin1322 

Other platforms are helping people out by requiring guests to take their own responsibility for their own travel disruptions, by opting to purchase comprehensive travel insurance.

They're also helping people out by honouring their cancellation policies.

Up sh*t creek without a paddle here too at the moment, but hopefully, we'll all find ways to navigate our way through it - whatever it takes! Very best  of luck to you and Mrs Kev! ;))