Airbnb Plus

[Spencer173]

Hi everyone!

I am three months into Airbnb and am crushing it.  I definitely quality for the old Airbnb Plus program, which seemed to me as a level above Superhost.  Anyone know if Airbnb is going to bring this program back?  An Airbnb rep told me this program was put on hold because of Covid.  Also, does anyone have experience as a previous Plus host?  I would be interested what the benefits are.  Thank you!!

[Sarah977]

@Spencer173  If you do a keyword search for Plus here, you will find previous threads about it.

It was unsupported before Covid. Many hosts who tried it went back to a normal listing long before that, because it didn't help them at all and in some cases was a detriment to their business.

Complaints were: that hosts had to use the Airbnb photographers photos, which were often worse than the host's photos, and sometimes never took photos of the features the hosts felt were one of the main attractions to their listing; hosts were forced to do silly things like change the colors of throw pillows, replace perfectly nice furniture, etc.- they were forced to spend time and money to meet the "look" Airbnb wanted, sometimes only to have their Plus application rejected; hosts had no control over the description wording, which was written by Airbnb;  the Plus designation led to guests feeling entitled and complaining if it didn't meet their expectations; switching to Plus did not result in more bookings- in many cases it resulted in less, guests skipping over that section assuming they would be too expensive.

Those are some of the complaints I recall. It was one of those things that sounded good on paper, but in reality wasn't.

[Spencer173]

Awesome!! Thank you for the information @Sarah977

This is helpful and will make me think twice about the Plus program if they ever bring it back.

[Colleen253]

@Spencer173 I believe one more negative was that Plus hosts have to obtain approval from Airbnb to make any kind of change or upgrade to their listings. And if you’ve been around long enough, you’ll know it’s like pulling teeth getting anything from Airbnb.

[Sarah977]

@Colleen253  Oh yeah, wouldn't that be fun. Some guest manages  to put a rip in a curtain and the host has to send Airbnb photos of the new curtains they are planning on buying, wait 6 weeks for them to approve it, only to have them reject the new curtains as unsuitable.

[Lisa34]

We have 2 Plus properties in the mountains of North Carolina. We have been very happy in the program. Over Covid we made some improvements to our places and have already had new pictures taken of one and the other property will be re-shot next month. 

A lot of the things people disliked about Airbnb Plus are being addressed. I have been told there are improvements come (hopefully) and that soon the program will get rolling again. Covid made home inspections impossible, that is one challenge, but also I was told they had a tremendous backlog of applications. 

Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions. I am happy to help if I can. 

Cheers, 

Lisa

[Kevin-and-Adriana0]

I am a Airbnb Plus member, and have been since the program started in LA. Recently we updated the property, since after 6 years of used, the property felt a little tired. 

Airbnb Plus used to send a photographer at no extra cost, so they could make the decision of pictures, and image of the property they wanted to project. The photographer was also in charge of inspecting the property. This was the only inspection held by Airbnb, so we assume it was their responsibility. Now that I am trying to update my old pictures, I can take them myself and hope they approve them, or have to hire and cover the cost of their photographer. 

We have taken all the pics but it has been absolutely impossible to get a hold of their plus team to review and update our pictures. When you sign up for Airbnb Plus you lose total control of your listing and it is nearly impossible to get an answer from the Plus team, since they don’t have a phone line. The only way is to write or call and hope they get back to you at their convince. Maybe they don’t have a Plus team anymore to serve the host.

We have contacted Airbnb for 5 days straight with no answer from the Plus team. So probably this is the time for us to exit this very inefficient community and take back total control of our listing.
Also, I don’t think we get more bookings because we are part of this group. An article said that on average you get 2% more bookings that an Airbnb Super Host.

[Lisa34]

Thank you for your post. We have two Airbnb plus properties and went through the same confusion and trying to update our photos. What worked for us was contacting Airbnb so they could put in a request to the Airbnb Plus team. From there they reached out to me through the platform providing a link for me to upload my files. They excepted almost everything. It really was a pretty easy process. The photo they rejected was rather dark because I was trying to capture the view through the window. They discourage hosts from using HDR that’s the dark picture but we compromised with them toning that photo to brighten it up a bit and it made the cut. I hope you have a similar experience. Hopefully this will help. Feel free to reply back if you have any questions.