ABB are you showing home shares the door?

[Robin129]

I'm just really frustrated with ABB's focus on absentee host facilities. 

I am a home share host. I share my home with guests. I don't live off site. I am not an absentee host. I welcome my guests into my home. I feel that ABB has regulated me, and hosts like me, to the dust bin. 

I get reminders to tell guests I have a refrigerator, iron, and all kinds of things that they might need if staying in a hotel. My guests don't wash their laundry or cook their meals. 

I'm sorry. I know I am venting/ranting. I've been with ABB a long time and see them moving more and more away from the home share experience to a more corporate hotel hybrid type stay. I joined up to share a room in my home. At first it was nice. Now, not so much.

[Samantha954]

I deleted my original post because I found an answer below 🙂

[Robin129]

@Anonymous  I agree and disagree. 

I agree that they keep us for the "budget-travel-market". I agree they haven't weeded the trash from our part of the "garden" . I agree we took a hit from the pandemic. I actually kept my dated blocked for about 90 percent of it, and so lost my "super host" status FWIW. 

I disagree that there are no longer travelers seeking the home share experience. I am starting to see more activity, and have had increased bookings this month (May 2022). Well, let me qualify that. I was seeing an increase in views until this past week when that new category junk went into effect. My vies dropped 40 percent IMMEDIATELY. Straight line, down.

I am tinkering with my descriptions on my images to see if I can get the bots to see me.

[Helen744]

Helen @744 I think one of the guys said that it has become 'more of a real estate proposition' this is true and misses the mark by a long shot . Many  'real estate " gurus who run seminars about buying and flipping houses have recently gone to"buy renovate and airbnb" to super speed mortgage payments. This is not a bottomless pit of money and guests are discombobulated by all of this . So stick with your niche . A person new to Airbnb near us has recently put four houses on the Airbnb site . All dressed exactly the same . They are mimicking 'hotel dressing '. Its a quandry because these people are now coming on these sites expecting way more support than they are getting to run these businesses . They are often young inexperienced and expect to be  'hands off' in their business. they are talking big but when it comes time to do the work and pay the bills they may find themselves extremely over extended .We are just plodding along and keeping a wide open focus on the way its going  cheers Helen

[Maia29]

@Helen744 

Those hosts that you are referring to have taken over the Airbnb market.

For the US, this "bubble" is about to burst. Tons of people arbitrating and buying homes just to put on the Airbnb market.

This trend even continued through the pandemic.

Watch and wait, everything is about to crash here in the US. Lots of people have got way over their heads with mortages and lease payments in the US.

[Robin129]

@Maia29 I think you are correct. I just hope travelers keep traveling. 

[Robin129]

@Helen744  I think you are right. Those "hosts" are also responsible, I believe, for the rash of "party" disasters giving a black eye to the rest of us.

[Sarah977]

@Kitty-and-Creek0  " I believe that homeshare hosts should be in a separate search category on this platform. We are a unique and special resource."

I agree and it would be beneficial to guests looking for that experience as well as hosts. I have had many guests who told me they like the home-share model. They shouldn't have to plow through pages of entire place listings to find them. 

I would suggest a category for on-site host listings, not just specifically home-shares. While guests in some of those situations may not be sharing indoor space with a host, it's still a whole different ballgame than entire homes with off-site hosts. If the hosts live next door, they generally have much more interaction with guests, are readily available to deal with any issues, and usually have a different attitude about hosting than off-site hosts. And those type of listings attract a different type of guest. Guests who want nothing to do with a host, as if they had booked a hotel room, don't book on-site host listings, unless they neglected to read that info or the host  neglected to make that clear.

If that category was "On-site host", that would also weed out places listed as private room home-shares that are actually more like hostel situations- the guests are not sharing with the host, the host owns a multiple bedroom home they rent out to several unrelated guests. The guests are sharing with each other, not the host, which isn't at all the same. 

On-site hosts also do not cost Airbnb nearly as much money as off-site host listings, as we don't have scenarios where guests have house trashing parties, sneak in extra guests or pets, etc. So, very unusual to have to file a damage claim or take up CS time with guest issues. A separate category for our listings would be a nice ackowledgement and reward for that.

I actually would like to  see 3 categories of listings. On-site host, Off-site but hands-on hosts (those who manage their own properties and live locally), and Property-managed.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Sarah977 

Well said. I agree with you completely!

As someone who has spent years on these forums, it is obvious to me that remotely hosted properties  have the most serious issues. We've not had any strange behavior here, no problems, just great guests. Guests who cause the sorts of problems we read about daily are not likely to rent from a host who is present in the same house. 

I prefer to stay with in-home hosts when I travel.  It is downright tedious to go through pages of places that don't interest me, to find that gem with a resident host. 

[Maia29]

@Kitty-and-Creek0 

Excellent response. I am a in-home host. I'm more of an introvert, so when I first started Airbnb, I didn't let people know I lived on site. 

Remote hosts do pose more risk to the Airbnb community and the neighborhoods they own properties in. My neighbors don't have a problem with my Airbnb at all.

Over time, however, I've found that it's better to state that the owner is onsite. It weeds out of riff-raff; they don't want to check in to a space where the owner is onsite.

[Sarah977]

@Maia29  That's another good point. My neighbors wouldn't even know I Airbnbed a room if I hadn't told them (we're a friendly neighborhood). As I only host for one guest at a time and almost none of them drive here, neighbors might only catch a glimpse of them walking out my gate and down the road, and could easily assume they are just a friend or relative of mine.

Even if the neighbors were anti-Airbnb because they had lived next to disruptive whole house rentals in the past or objected to housing being bought up to str, mine wouldn't be an issue. 

The "focus on absentee-host rentals" that was the jumping-off point of the OPs post has given tons of people the impression that is what Airbnbs are all about. They don't even realize there are Airbnbs like ours.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Maia29 

Yes, of course we state clearly that we are in residence and present at all times. 

We are required by ordinance, and our license; to be home 100% of the time that guests are here. That is such an excellent precaution, for safety above all, and for preventing a nuisance situation from even being contemplated. Of course, we'd be foolish to leave this house and the off grid systems in the hands of anyone not trained, and definitely not

leaving guests alone here during fire season.

We went through a lengthy - and expensive - application process for obtaining our license, including public hearings. Inspections and sign off's were done by all the departments, to insure that we were in proper compliance with health, safety, fire, parking, and other regulations, also nuisance concerns. 

[Kelly149]

@Sarah977 a recent booking answered the why did you pick the Barn question

"the space is adorable and I can tell you're a serious host"

So, yes, the party people don't want to book with me and someone who wants to know that a real, live local with a serious investment on the line is the one they're talking to. Makes sense as something to promote.

[Helen744]

Helen@744 There is no doubt that things have changed those travelling are often 'trepidacious' if thats a word? Its important that they are re assurred that we will not give them covid just because our houses do not look like hotels . we need to work out a way of promoting ourselves as a continuingly viable and flexible way to have a break and to grasp onto the change and move forward with it . All the best we can do it .   We are still here H. 

[Christine615]

I agree. We rent one apartment in a duplex where my daughter/co-host lives. I would LOVE to have a separate category for "on-site" manager so we don't get lumped in with all the multi-unit investor hosts who have no ties to the community.

[Robin129]

@Sarah977 I agree with you. Home share hosts used to be the backbone. We should have had our own category for a long, long time.