AIRBNB is Successful Because We Opened Our Homes.....

[Michelle1588]

No, this is not a hater post. I'm pleased to know that some folks had a great idea and were able to gather the resources required to execute it and it worked out well. They took off! And now this company is perched atop the tallest, strongest oak tree in the forest - looking forward to their next adventure  -and completely overlooking and dismissing the tiny little trees (us) that helped them get there. 

Lest we not forget, Airbnb found its success because millions of people opened their homes to total strangers to be a part of this crazy, fun idea.

That's cool Brian, Joe and Nathan, but it's getting kinda hectic down here in the trenches for us. I read an article (probably a bit exaggerated) that stated, in California & the UK, the rate of live-in hosts to corporate managed properties on Airbnb dropped drastically to look something like this: 69% corporate management companies to 31% traditional hosts. Hmmmm.

https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2022/09/airbnb-hosts-are-sick-of-airbnb-too.html

Now I don't know if those numbers are real or exact, and it could just be a total exaggeration to stress us about the direction this company is going in - but it's important to consider the information anyway. Especially, when we compare the awful back office processes for hosts (& Superhosts) who are confronted with extreme difficulties trying to solve problems with their reservations through the CS system, and how it seems to be in alignment with this report. 

I'm encouraged to grow with Airbnb, and not because they are growing - but because from the very beginning I planned to develop some land I own into a homestead of tiny & tree house experiences for writers and other remote creators. I'm working on the funding 🙂

But many hosts who found a new way to make an extra income doing something they enjoy - are going to be crushed .... right out of the experience. That makes me sad. 

Do you think Airbnb will improve to show itself wanting and servicing independent hosts with one or two listings, or not?

Michelle

[Huma0]

@Basha0 

I don't want to say yet as I don't know for sure. This person told me she had received a warning message similar to the one sent to Andrew. Although she did message me the following day, I have not heard from her since, nor has she posted anything on the CC since the day she was sent the warning. 

She might just be busy with other things, but it seems like a bit of a coincidence. Yesterday, when I looked at her profile, weirdly, it was saying she had no posts and no kudos. Today, they are showing again.

I don't know what's gong on, but I really hope she is just having a break from the CC and we'll hear from her again soon.

[Fred13]

(duplicate)

[Fred13]

@Robin4  If there anything most obvious about you is your wisdom. We are not that much apart in age, I am 74 now myself but still a kid at heart in enthusiasm and believe.

    You are correct on our history;  just 'yesterday' the Mrs. and I were filling our little island by hand with clumps of grass shoveled around it for months since we had no choice. We only catered to 2 people then (at $225 a night; 1 building), today seven years later, we are up to 8 persons (at $795 a night; 5 buildings). It was Airbnb who helped us so much then (via their ad campaign) and today who continuous to book us ahead for a full year even with their new goofy search function. We will never will forget our humble journey, nor the fact that anything is possible with the right amount of effort. And yes some luck can't hurt.

[Robin4]

@Fred13 

Fred my accomplishments are minuscule compared to yours, I know you are humble and not into self promotion but, your accomplishments with Bird Island have gone all round the world on a number of sites.....

https://www.messynessychic.com/2016/02/10/robinson-crusoes-private-island-is-now-available-on-airbnb...

You started with nothing and created a little bit of heaven on earth. 

At least I had something to start with, I had a derelict old building, but I loved it's old stone walls and being retired I felt I could bring this old lady back to life again.

I made the second bedroom........

Into a bathroom......

I made a crack riddled front bedroom.....

into our Art Deco room......

I changed our house garden from this.......

to this........

The rear garden from this......

to this........

Fred, I have loved every moment of making this transformation, Our listing cottage has gone from this.....

to this.....

Like you, I have put in the hard yards, not on the scale that you have but, by God, the hard work has been worth it Fred, hasn't it.

Cheers.......Rob

[Fred13]

My goodness, I had no idea how similar our journeys have been. I think we are from a generation of can-do-dreamers. 🙂

[Michelle1588]

@Huma0 

In response to my main question: 

"Do you think Airbnb will improve to show itself wanting and servicing independent hosts with one or two listings, or not?"

I totally agree with all you wrote out below ..... 

"Only to the extent that they have to, i.e. to appease city councils etc. and avoid criticism, otherwise, I suspect they would happily get rid of us all. Another host (banned from the CC) told that the latest figures show that nearly two thirds of the listings on Airbnb are controlled directly or indirectly by only 5% of hosts."

***As a NY'er I've experienced first hand how easy it was for Airbnb to sell their hosts out to local lawmakers that appear to be more concerned with the traditional Hotel Industry clinging on for dear life & refusing to accept that the peoples' travel preferences have changed.

Initially, Airbnb funded an expensive advertisement campaign with commercials and images of ads throughout the city displaying photos of average families hosting vacationers ... but that quickly changed to an email that went something like this to all hosts.... 

"Hi hosts! We tried but failed to get your city lawmakers to understand  and agree to our new age expanded version of individual b&b hosting, and as a result, we decided to share your addresses,  info about your Airbnb earnings, and other data you might consider overbearing & invasive - to the city for a new agency they are developing to monitor and regulate your home-sharing activities... & there's more to come!"

 ****So instead of Airbnb using their resources to crack down on & remove illegal building owners from their platform who were accused of breaking housing laws by using Airbnb to rent rooms and entire apartments short-term on the platform - which destroyed the long-term apartment rental economy in the familiar spirit of opportunistic greed - everyone on the platform became a target of this scrutiny.

So yes, I get it. I am one of those hosts who opted out of short-term renting to maintain a sense of privacy for as long as I can, and now can only offer my space to guests for 30 days or more. It not only cut down the passive income I was making by more than half, it takes me more days of hosting to accomplish what I used to earn in a 10 to 14 days. 

I host guests longer for less, and it comes with a whole new set of challenges. Do you remember when Airbnb decided to remove the photograph of potential guests so we could no longer use our visual judgement to aid us in the vetting process before accepting a reservation? 

Well that was another time when Airbnb corporate sold us out to mainstream political pressures concerning racism on their platform, which I had never experienced traveling all around the world. 

It affected hosts greatly to be robbed of such an important aspect of using our intuition and gut to vet the people we were looking at... I didn't appreciate that very much. 

It's still a choice to be here, I know, but if Airbnb would have decided to fine those owners themselves, and to implement a different system for detecting discrimination - much of these gripes would not exist. You can read more about the host data sell out in the article below.

https://gizmodo.com/airbnb-agrees-to-rat-out-its-hosts-like-nyc-wants-it-to-1844017966

@Fred13 

Thanks for your response. 

It's a good thing many forms of individual hosting, bed & breakfasts, hostels, and more .. are not unique and have been around long before the internet and Airbnb. I actually still rent a space on a 100 acre farm when I visit Houston, Texas. The multi-property owner of that farm is a woman who has never been listed on Airbnb, and I found her website online back in 2014. Her spaces are always occupied with renters. And as long as the internet exists, the ability to build a website and run basic online ads, any serious host can run a hosting business on their own - or with Airbnb, if they want to... 

No one has to conform to becoming "Low Maintenance," if that includes being quiet and passive while the company a host is partnered with takes a whopping fee for bringing hosts and guests together but fails to provide the support or means to assist them when trouble arises as they agree to do - or even worst, penalize them unfairly and without due process at the same time. I consider myself low maintenance up until the moment even that position is taken for granted. It would be different if Airbnb decided to be hands off, but they can't do both and expect people to not address it. 

I agree with your business point about a company evolving, whether to wholesale or something else. But I also think (as an online business owner myself) that the capacity for creating wealth (& fast) has improved drastically in the age of the internet, and because of that reality companies have more resources to implement a functional customer / client friendly atmosphere & system to match all of that new age financial success - if they really want to do it. 

But that's just me. I'm about working toward alignment in both areas of my own business - money & culture. My thought is, let it be good for everyone, not just me - now that we have the resources & capacity to make it that way. 

I think it's bad enough that the human interaction we're used to having with one another has changed and continues to change drastically as more businesses go online or implement applications and cashless systems - the least we could do is focus on offering stellar phone support and mediation systems the help foster a healthy host / guest interaction for the individual host "niche" portion that is left of this industry. 

Together, I believe we are responsible for a large portion of the money being generated - even still 🙂

[Fred13]

@Michelle1588  It is a very simple reality where I am coming from - we hosts are charged a mere not a whopping 3% by Airbnb for what they do: bring us the guests and collect from them and to me, except for interfering at times and erroneously refunding hustlers and being too slow to tackle  bad hosts & guests situations, it is more than enough.

I have dealt with Bookings.com, VRBO and few others many times and they do not remotely compare, except for my Direct bookings (40%).

I have had 3 very different properties with Airbnb going back 9 years, same conclusion.

It works for me and probably for a few more million hosts which have been with them for years, read this forum religiously, but yet they never post because they learn a lot from reading it and may be are quite happy with what is happening with them.

So wish everyone the best and happy hosting.

/Out of this conversation since it promises once again to go into the usually endless 'host vs. the evil-empire' circle.

[Huma0]

---

@Fred13 wrote:

/Out of this conversation since it promises once again to go into the usually endless 'host vs. the evil-empire' circle.

---

@Fred13  I know you have bowed out of this conversation, so I don't expect a response. However, I wanted to say that I am in no way a conspiracy theorist and I appreciate that business is business. I also have no issue with paying my 3%. I was making the point earlier that Airbnb don't actually do that much for the rather large percentage they charge the guest.

But, let's say we forget that... What is really frustrating about Airbnb is that it talks the talk in its marketing spiel, but does not walk the walk. It says one thing, i.e. we are a touchy feely inclusive 'community' that gives people the opportunity to 'live like a local', but then does acts the complete opposite of its own branding.

Also, the total lack of transparency is something that is rare in large companies that operate in countries where there are strict regulations about how corporations are run. Maybe that is one of the reasons why Airbnb keeps running into trouble with local/national governments.

Just one random example is the lack of a complaints department/procedure. I've yet to come across any large company that operates in the UK that does not have this. Not only is there usually a complaints department, but there is an ombudsman you can appeal to if you feel the decision is unjust. In fact, there is an obligation to provide the customer with information on how to contact the relevant ombudsman.

Maybe Airbnb does have a complaints department, but I can't find any information on the website about whether it exists nor how to reach it. I have also asked that question several times now on the CC, i.e. is there a complaints department and, if so, how do we contact them? I am not the only one who has asked. However, I am yet to see anyone here able to respond to that question. No one seems to know!

It's not about accusing Airbnb of being an 'evil empire'. It's about expecting some kind of accountability, which is the norm for most other companies. How is it that Airbnb gets away with this?

[Ann33522]

I agree they treat host like poop. I had a guest that was denied a early check in and I should’ve canceled then but I didn’t want it on my history . This guest made up all kind of lies , kept calling and  saying my codes that work for everyone else and myself didn’t work, I knew it was a attitude problem, all to leave a bad review that air n b didn’t find bias or irrelevant and refuse to take it down. Long story short air n b doesn’t protect our host enough

[Michelle1588]

@Ann33522 

Greetings Ann 🙂 I'm so sorry you had a rough time with a recent guest and I was able to read her review, your response, and your other reviews. 

First, I agree, since the pandemic something has changed and some guests seem to be more demanding, needy, and definitely less tolerant of errors, or finding something that doesn't meet their expectations. They will get on the public Airbnb page and complain, at times rightfully so - and at other times without out good cause. It seems like public humiliation is the new thing.... between yelp, google reviews and so much more 😞 

So I try to make sure everything in my listing is super clean, comfortable, organized, and stocked with everything a person would need.. (from soap, to salt / pepper / oil / water, seasonings/ to blowdryers and hot irons) I I list all of those things in my listing as well (check it out). I do this to protect the guest from assuming I have something I don't have and to protect myself in the event that I am accused of not having something I promised, and so on.

It looks like you rent the entire space, a 1 bedroom condo for $150 per night, correct? I scanned through the photos and did a see a photo of an actual bedroom with the LV sheets and carpet, but I also see a separate photo of a "blow up bed." 

Is the blow up bed being used as the mattress on the wooden bed in the photo? or is it in addition to the actual bed, like a second bed for additional guests or family members? The reason I ask is I noticed a complaint or 2 about the bed being uncomfortable and dipping in the center.

Have you checked the mattress to confirm whether or not there is some noticeable wear and tear that might affect your guest sleep? 

Ben, June 2022 & Brandon April 2022 both complained about the bed. The only reason I am mentioning this is there are times we can learn something from a poor review and change it. It would be better if the guest could let us know and give us an opportunity to correct an issue, but a lot of times they don't 😞 

Also, a few months before these reviews another guest just left a brief "not impressed," as a review. Were you able to message him to find out what you could have done better? In his case we don't know if it was the bed or what could be improved...

The review from October 2022 by Pamela is pretty intense. In the future, when a guest goes that far (well hopefully that never happens again) try not to answer them in a defensive way. 

I learned through other hosts and my own bad experiences that at that point the best thing we can do is say something kind, brief, and impersonal or nothing at all. You can find some examples here on the forum.

The reason is, potential guests might read your comment and feel you are not empathetic, which you most likely are because you have opened your home to others, but they will get the wrong idea from one heated moment. It's like at that point, what's done is done and the guest chose to rag your place out in a review. Let it fly because it's your next guest that will give you a fresh slate to impress them.

In your response to Pamela you also mentioned something about them wanting to check in early and not knowing how to use the code, etc..  so you knew they would end up leaving a bad review, but they never mentioned a code. Brandon from April mentioned having trouble with the door code... so you see how that might look to someone checking out your reservation? 

Pamela also said this:

"In addition to that there was no blind in the apartment that had a wand to open the blinds which also wasn’t good bc there were multiple lights out in the bathroom."

Do you know what she's talking about here, and did someone smoke and maybe you didn't know about it? 

"The moment we walked in we were immediately hit with the smell of weed and remanence of throw up, covered up with the smell of a glade/ febreeze plug in.."

Lastly, call Airbnb over and over again - wait a few days - call again - and keep asking them to remove it. I've heard of hosts getting some results after many calls in to CS.

And you can spend the rest of your efforts making some improvements so when your next guest arrives there will be nothing to complain about and you can earn a review to thank you for all of your hard work! 

Did you end up purchasing a coffee maker for your place? I recommend it, even if no one ever uses it. I hope this helps 🙂  It really is a learning journey, but it's worth it as you might already know.

PS: this is just a personal recommendation. I would use a more neutral or simplistic style shower curtain and bedding / sheet set & carpet if some were available. Since you are renting the entire unit, it might be a good idea to preserve your personal favorites from getting messed up, over used, and possibly damaged. 

[Huma0]

---

@Michelle1588 wrote:

Do you think Airbnb will improve to show itself wanting and servicing independent hosts with one or two listings, or not?

---

Only to the extent that they have to, i.e. to appease city councils etc. and avoid criticism, otherwise, I suspect they would happily get rid of us all. Another host (banned from the CC) told that the latest figures show that nearly two thirds of the listings on Airbnb are controlled directly or indirectly by only 5% of hosts.

I suspect that, while it is happy for us to do the majority of the work in keeping guests happy and providing them with service, Airbnb would rather take the host out of the equation as far as possible. If you look at Brian Chesky's video for the Summer Release, note how 'hosting' does not factor at all. There is nothing to promote great service, 'living like a local' with advice from your friendly host etc. No, it's just a about a rich dude and his dog renting a fancy place in France, with no human interaction (be that with a host or other locals) whatsoever.

[Laurelle3]

@Michelle1588 great topic, I love the intro "Lest we not Forget" comming from a military family it means more to me as your message says the beginnings of Airbnb "Should not be forgotten" 

I believe that the little people (host that share there homes or live on site) are the mainstay of Airbnb because they give more than they take (like the big guys - money grabbers) who take and don't really spend in the local community.

The little people hosts are the ones that are really making Airbnb work with positive reviews. From my readings, a lot of people -hosts have the real issues, problems because they are remote owners or don't live within reasonable driving distance to sort out a problem.

I agree with @Fred13 with his retail level- small hosts compared to the wholesale level - big buisness.

@Michelle1588 as you have said council rules are playing a part with Airbnb's in NSW Australia, along with neighbours complaining in some areas and shortage of housing are changing the scene that we live in. 

[Robin4]

@Michelle1588 

Michelle, Airbnb does their Airbnb thing! They remind me of Volkswagen with their emission scandal thing a couple of years ago, they have got to the point where they think they don't have to abide by conventions, rules and laws any more.........they are big enough to set their own rules.

We have a decision to make, we either accept the relentless intrusion by Airbnb into what we do or we close shop and search for another way to make a buck.

I will continue to use Airbnb as long as I make a profit (and Airbnb would do well to remember that).....the moment they step over that line and turn my hosting into a loss situation I will dump them like a bucket of yesterdays prawns left in the sun.

I'm not here to support Airbnb......I am here to support myself!

Cheers.......Rob 

[Michelle1588]

@Robin4   Hahaha! I hear you! and I agree 🙂

Thank you @Fred13 for your input. I love Airbnb, too... I've been hosting for years, too. I've been in and out of this forum for years, too - not saying a word, just reading. Not until the pandemic did I begin to write on this forum because that's when I started to experience a decline ... in support and with the quality of guests. I'm not the only one, I assure you.

Long term renters pay more of that 3% fee in one shot because we're doing 30 days now, not short term. For example: My last reservation came up to about $1,950 - I paid the platform a small fee, you are correct - about $60 - my guest paid $250. 

That same week my other guest paid $305 on a reservation that totaled appx $2050, and I paid $60. So I guess that's not much, but I still would like to know I have access to decent support 🙂

Coming together in a basic online conversation with hosts from all over the world, who experience similar things about various topics, even ones that highlight a few negative concerns - can be fun, supportive and informative, that's why I initiated one - not to  "go into the usually endless 'host vs. the evil-empire' circle." LOLzzz🤣🤣

Be well.

See IMAGE of MY OPTIONS TO PAY 15%  on every reservation to AIRBNB Below: 

[Huma0]

@Michelle1588 

Sure, we are are small fry to Airbnb, but like you say, a long term reservation can bring in a LOT of money for them versus what they have put into it. I currently have a guest who booked five months with me. I can' t remember what she/I paid in fees, but it was probably over a thousand pounds. She then booked another six months and paid nearly £900, while I paid nearly £300. She will extend another three months once she knows her university timetable for the summer.

Think about that. In exchange for advertising my listing/providing a search engine for the guest/handling payments, Airbnb will get thousands of pounds just from this one guest booking with me. That's a pretty darn good return. Meanwhile, I, as the host, am the one doing most of the work, i.e. looking after this guest (and she does need quite a bit of looking after) and keeping her happy because I am a small scale live in host and therefore hands on. She left me a glowing review the first time she stayed.

I have also noticed that many of the guests who come here to complain or report about a bad host have booked with large scale, multi-property ones. Same with the majority of guests who have stayed with me and told me about a bad Airbnb experience. 

Small scale hosts go a long way to maintaining Airbnb's reputation. I wonder what that reputation will look like a few years after they drive most of us out...