@Dede0
Dede, I am officially becoming a tart! I am spreading myself around!
In addition to Homeaway/Stayz, I am putting my listing up on Booking.com, Expedia......I am taking back control of my hosting.
I long for the days when I started here where I felt Airbnb was successful because it did everything it could to get new hosts off to a good start, and once they did get proficient Airbnb offered the most contactable of support options. As a superhost I could talk with CX in less than 30 seconds, no matter what the time of day, Superhost bonuses, my hosting life was STR Nirvana, guests kept booking and Airbnb was what the travel industry needed......At the moment, the last thing the travel industry needs is Airbnb!
All Airbnb are doing is confusing the hosting community with countless rule changes, empty messages of support which end up in sandy, bone dry mirages.
Airbnb are currently a liability to the STR market.
I know full well in today's talk with the CEO, all he is going to say is he is 'putting forth a robust rescue proposal to the Washington administration' to get some financial support for the hundreds of thousands of hosts who have had their livelihoods compromised.....or in some cases obliterated! Be patient, we are here for you, this is a very fluid situation, your feedback is incredibly important to our decision making, we appreciate all you are doing for us......and on and on!
Bull.
Hosts would not see a cent of any compensation package that might be on offer. It would go into subsidising the company's bottom line.....maintaining its profitability in the face of a travel industry market that has disappeared.
I first saw the writing on the wall in Oct 2018 when no Australian hosts got paid for almost a month, We all panicked, not because we were not getting paid, but because the company 'stonewalled' us, gave us no explanation as to what was going on. Suddenly we were not worthy of being kept in the loop.....we needed to just keep on doing what we did and everything would be ok in the end. It was, but that's not the point. I ghosted my listing across to another platform and my success has been limited with that platform because Airbnb comprised about 85% of my future business, dates were just not available for guests to book on other platforms.
Airbnb have now lost that advantage, they have let all my bookings go, and from this point all those future dates are available and other platforms will now have the use of my Instant book facility, Airbnb reservations will have to submit a reservation request and as my calendar fills up, the only losers will be Airbnb.
At my age, I should not have had to do this all over again, establish myself, build up a review base, work extra hard to get those guests back. But that is the price of trusting that these guys at the top were good guys, and wouldn't tread on my toes.
Every day I learn not to trust someone!
Hey, hope you are all ok over there Dede, the figures coming from the US just now are frightening for us.
There is a possibility here in my state of South Australia we may be over the hump! Four days ago we had 38 new cases of Covid-19, 3 days ago we had 26 new cases! Yesterday we had 12 new cases and today we have had 7.....and we have had no deaths. FINGERS CROSSED!!!!!!
Our legislature has been good and set up some really strict protocols and, hopefully, they are working!
Stay safe......Cheers......Rob