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.

[Alexandra199]

Hey Robin, yes Airbnb have changed...a lot! I am an absentee host and they welcomed similar hosts with open arms. I understand why you would feel that their focus has changed but sadly guest focus has changed as well, especially after the Covid pandemic. Are you still getting bookings? If you are then great, there will always be a market for what you offer but you may find yourself feeling pushed out of an increasing market.

I have three UK holiday cottages on Airbnb. I am a hands on host even though I don't live at the properties. For me, what annoys me is the increasing number of big business moving onto airbnb. I mean the large companies/agents like Cottages.com who now put their properties on Airbnb. They have  logo as the host picture. To me they simply use airbnb as a advertising platform. How much they pay the owners of the properties baffles me, as I have regularly been targetted by these businesses offering to take on my cottages in return for a 20-30% cut of the earnings. I choose to go it alone but I cant see how Airbnb can keep up their ethos of host and guests when big faceless businesses are now a big part of the platform too. I am listed on numerous other sites including booking.com, VRBO and my own website. What truly scares me is that 75-85% of my bookings are via Airbnb, they have a huge chunk of the market and of course, as hosts, we know how dangerous it can be to put all our eggs in one basket. On false move by me resulting in an arbitrary Airbnb suspension would ruin my business and therefore my ability to cover my living costs. Its a scary world and one that I feel very uncomfortable with. 

[Helen3]

Yes it does sound like a risky approach to rely on Airbnb for 80% of your bookings.

Any reason you aren't investing in marketing direct bookings and using other platforms @Alexandra199?

[Alexandra199]

Oh I am Helen, I'm on VRBO, Booking.com and others. I also have my own website but to be fair its impossible to get higher up the google search than the big players. No amount of marketing will beat them. Airbnb have the worldwide majority  market share of holiday accommodation and for that reason I get 80% of my bookings through them. If the customer chooses to use airbnb to book there is very little I can do about it. 

[Maia29]

@Alexandra199  You are right about this. However, VRBO and booking.com are one in the same.

I buy advertising for my job through Google and it IS hard to get on the top of the list. It's always VRBO and Airbnb on the first page.

For some reason, VRBO has really taken off for me since the end of 2020. My only recommendation is to beef up your VRBO listing. My listing used to be just like yours; 90% of my bookings came from Airbnb, so I've been really loyal to Airbnb-but them not so much towards me.

[Alexandra199]

Thanks for the advice.....I would be really interested to hear form other UK hosts where they get the majority of their non-Airbnb bookings from? I'm not discounting what you say but there is likely to be national differences between the UK and USA. Many of my guests through Airbnb are actually UK based.

Anyone got any tips?

[Helen3]

You can invest in marketing to drive direct bookings 😁

[Robin129]

@Alexandra199 I've been away from this post for some time. I'm tempted to say, "Now you know how home share hosts feel," but I'm not going to. ABB is in business to make profit. 

However, I am now beginning to see an increase in bookings. Not because of anything ABB has done. In fact this new junk they've dumped on us immediately dropped the number of VIEWS by over 40 percent. I can see it on the graph. 

They are doing all they can, it seems, to shut us down.

[Paul1255]

@Robin129  If you search the community centre for this thread: "Back To Our Roots".. So Why Is Airbnb Promoting Hotels Over Homesharers?”

[Maia29]

Airbnb is promoting hotels over homesharers because it makes them more money. It's simply the bottom line.

[Robin129]

I agree.

[Robin129]

Thank you @Paul1255  I will look at it. I've been away from this post for some time. 

However, I am now beginning to see an increase in bookings. Not because of anything ABB has done. In fact this new junk they've dumped on us immediately dropped the number of VIEWS by over 40 percent. I can see it on the graph. 

They are doing all they can, it seems, to shut us down.

[Anonymous]

@Robin129   On the one hand, I think Airbnb needs those homestay listings in its inventory to keep its access to the budget-travel market, for the same reason that Ikea needs the $20 sofas in the showroom.  They want their search platform to be the default landing place for as many potential users as possible.

But on the other hand, homestays are tiny corner of their garden that hasn't been watered or weeded for years. They're absent from the marketing and communications from the brand, while hosts are being pushed to remove themselves from the equation at every juncture possible (e.g. self-check-in, Instant Book).

And one can hardly understate how much the pandemic has changed the public perception of this whole arrangement where you share living space with strangers. It was never more than a niche thing to begin with, but I no longer personally know anyone who is actively seeking this kind of experience when they travel. Even as activities that are riskier from a virus standpoint return to "normal," the homestay dynamic still feels gauche - I don't see myself resuming it inside of this year, whether as a guest or host.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Anonymous 

As always, you are a level headed responder to good questions. As you know, we are home share hosts, and we are high end, top dollar. Definitely not a budget location nor a low end sofa in the furniture store. We are veteran hospitality professionals, and we deliver. We are also in a very unique location, with a unique architectural treasure of a home. We are also 30 times Superhosts, which is when the program started. 

I have been traveling since I was a child, and independently traveling since I was a teen & old enough to go places on my own. I love home stays for the reasons we all know - there are so many advantages, especially in a big city or a foreign country. In this region it is to know the secret spots locals know, and with my own property it is to experience the best of the region without any crowds of tourists. 

I've barely left my property in the past two years, as my health is more important than plane tickets, for the first time in my life. When it is again safe enough for me to travel, I may be just too old to do so in the manner I have become accustomed to. I have always sought out adventure & wilderness travel, staying in homes along the way, field stations, or tents on the trail. I will always feel more comfortable in someone's home than in a hotel room. I love being able to relate to the locals as I have always done. I will avoid accommodations with remote hosts, and I will seek out home shares. I am also a host and traveler with SERVAS, and that may be my default if the current trend continues. 

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

My guests stay here for the advantages I offer them, as their host and concierge. This is much higher quality than front desk service, or an empty house with a few local guidebooks on the table. After 2 years of living in fear of strangers who could carry this virus, I am thrilled to reopen my home to fully-vaccinated travelers, and have lowered my guest count to 2 instead of 4. I've one reservation in March and one in April, both couples promise to be very fun. Yes, that word. Providing excellent hospitality is so much work that if it is not going to be fun, I'm not going to do it. 

This year has a lot of hope for us. Last year was a challenge, as was the one before. We are celebrating 50 years as a couple, and being alive and healthy, with the privilege of having a number of joint replacements holding us together! 

[Huma0]

@Anonymous I agree with your the first two paragraphs of your post, but not entirely with the last one.

@Anonymous wrote:

And one can hardly understate how much the pandemic has changed the public perception of this whole arrangement where you share living space with strangers. It was never more than a niche thing to begin with, but I no longer personally know anyone who is actively seeking this kind of experience when they travel. Even as activities that are riskier from a virus standpoint return to "normal," the homestay dynamic still feels gauche - I don't see myself resuming it inside of this year, whether as a guest or host.

---

Perhaps it depends on location, but I am not finding that to be the case at all. I started hosting private rooms in my home in 2016 and was always booked up pre-pandemic, even when I switched to long term guests. Of course, things slowed down or completely shut down during the first year and a half or so of the pandemic, but I think this was more to do with regulations/restrictions than people's reluctance to stay in a homeshare with strangers rather than another type of listing.

Since late summer 2021, my bookings started to pick up again and are now as busy as ever. In fact, I have people vying for rooms. I have guests wanting to extend stays and unable to because the rooms are already booked. I have former guests wanting to return and unable to because the rooms are already booked. I am turning away guests if I don't think they will be a great fit as there seem to be plenty of others interested. I have tried to help some of these guests to find alternative Airbnbs and the pickings are slim. Everything nice + affordable + central is booked. I am already been getting bookings for August.

Homeshares are very much still a thing and there is a strong market for them here in London, especially for young, solo females who would much rather have the safety and security of staying with a well rated host than on their own, but my guests are certainly not limited to that demographic. Perhaps it's because I host long term stays and this doesn't apply so much to shorter stays but, the one time recently when I opened one of my rooms to shorter stays to fill a gap, I was inundated.

Guests who are looking for that type of accommodation should not be hindered in their search by Airbnb and have to waste time trawling through unsuitable listings. Homeshare hosts have been calling on Airbnb to include a homeshare filter for at least as long as I have been hosting. This is such a simple thing to do but Airbnb would rather push their 'boutique' hotel offering, i.e. crappy hotels with 3* ratings.