Airbnb's new direction.

[Robin4]

I took part in one of the hosting workshop meetings this morning, and I don't envy the job of the moderators in setting up this Host Advisory Board which is being so vigorously touted.

I would say, the reaction from the group was.....cool. We would love to see it happen, it sounds good but, we have been down this path before.

Each year since I have been associated with Airbnb the CEO comes out with one of these 'hosting path to glory' statements which seems to be designed to quell unrest amongst the ranks. We take the company at his word and wait for the promised assistance, support and benefits......and we wait.....and we wait! But each year we see our job as hosts become more difficult, less transparent, more of our hosting tools disappear and meaningful support being harder to get.

* Once upon a time I used to see a picture of every guest before they booked, even if it was simply an enquiry. To use the Airbnb platform guests had to supply an image identifiable with a current drivers licence or passport. A guest can get away with a dog on the beach, or a favourite pot plant, or even a generic grey alphabet letter in a circle these days.

* I used to be able to log-on and from the drop down menu go straight to my inbox to respond to a message. I now have to access 'Manage Listings' and from there in the toolbar, go to my inbox!

* All the information relating to a booking used to be on the message page. Payment details top left, then guest photo, address and contact details, then a calendar to see how the booking related to others in that month bottom left with the message stream on the right......no scrolling between different pages........

Oh to have the simplicity and downright user friendliness of that page again. Nobody that I am aware of asked for that format to be changed, it worked well.....that was probably its problem! 

* My statistics used to give me an accurate way of tracking my hosting progress. My 'Views' page showed me not just how many views I had in the past 30 days but, also how many bookings and on what days those bookings were  made.....

I used to be able to accurately track my star ratings. I could see how many stars I had in each category at a glance just by clicking an arrow in that category.....

These tools which were valuable to me as a host have been taken away and I am now bombarded with promotional tips on every aspect of my listing that are designed to send me bankrupt in order to satisfy Airbnb's algorithm.......

 I can see a Host Advisory Board as a good thing if it can be a place where hosts feedback can be gathered, correlated and suggestions put to the company that will be acted on instead of simply being ignored as they have been in the past. Surely management must see why we are not leaping out of our skins with enthusiasm.......This is a path well traveled!

We have had lots of words, now lets see if Mr Chesky is going to be true to his word this time!

As the Jeep ad says....'I'm in'..... but I wish the moderators luck, turning the ship around and getting hosts on board is going to be a tall order! We are going to want to see some action this time!

Cheers........Rob

[Cecilia836]

@Robin4Thank you, Rob, for articulate comments that reflect my current thoughts on AirBnb. I didn’t receive the recent “message from the founder.” A friend forwarded it to me. When my next reservation in completed in March of 2021, I will have had 12 months of continued occupancy for AirBnb, and still do not  feel part of this touted community. 

[Michelle53]

@Robin4  I think part of the problem is that tools are apparently built to satisfy larger operators, with many listings, a larger voice due to bringing in a larger share of the revenue, rather than small, homeshare hosts, who may be a squeaky wheel, but really have become a small percentage of the host base. 

Pricing models, competitiveness in the marketplace, what guests are booking in the area,  etc. etc. don't really have much relevance to the host who has one or two spaces to share.

A homeshare host has a pretty fixed cost model, has a limited occupancy, and can't change amenities on the whims of the market. 

It certainly doesn't help me to know that guests in my area apparently prefer listings that accommodate families and pets, and have hot tubs or pools (where do they get this data ??).   I don't allow children under 12, or pets, and absolutely do not have a hot tub, or a pool, or plan to install either one, if that's the flavor du jour.  And no, I'm not going to drop my prices, or remove my cleaning fee, or extra guest fee, thank you. 

That  Google Map "top local items of interest"  or whatever, was absurd (it seems to be gone now, though, and now there's an empty map that apparently I have to fill in manually) because somehow 2 - 3 miles was considered "local", which assumes everyone is driving, where, in reality,  folks who stay with me look for restaurants in walking distance.  

These are things which should be tailorable to individual host requirements, along with the amenities list, which should allow hosts themselves to determine which amenities they wish to highlight, instead of the ones Airbnb Marketing wants to promote. 

 If one is going to have a section for top local items of interest derived from a map, one should be able to plug in the radius oneself. 

I don't really have an interest in being part of a Facebook group, and already have a full time job.

The "Community Leader" (volunteer host) has apparently replaced the Airbnb outreach employees who used to have a presence in larger cities, used to do the organizing of the meetings, and regularly checked in with the local hosts. 

I feel like  initiatives are being promoted more on the basis of Airbnb's strategic alliances than on any host interest, especially not home share hosts.  

Personally, I'm very much at the "Show Me" stage.

[Emilia42]

@Michelle53 

Personally, I'm very much at the "Show Me" stage.

Agreed! When I read the announcement the first thing I thought was Okay, what does this have to do with me? Is there an improvement or a new feature ..... Nope, just more talking.

An "advisory board" of hosts can sit around a table all day long but it still doesn't mean anything will trickle down to us. Heck, we've been sitting around this forum for years and talking about the same old ** over and over again.

[Robin4]

@Michelle53 

Each year the CEO always opens his addresses with a description of how he, Joe and Nate started off in that loft in San Francisco. He impresses on us that he is a 'nickel and dime' host....he has been there, done that .....and in the process made a great company. He tells us that we individual hosts are the nuts and bolts of the company and how he will go to the ends of the earth to support us. 

He then slaps us in the face with boutique hotel categories, sets the platform up for multi-tiered host management companies, sets up categories within the hosting community to fight against each other....Select, Plus, Luxe....each one designed to make your job Michelle, and mine, and Ian's, Emilia's and Pat's harder. He then takes away our ability to make informed decisions as to how we choose those people who are the backbone of our businesses.

I remember, the 9th to the 17th February 2017 Airbnb had a purge on all multi-listing hosts who were not providing an "Authentic Airbnb experience"! ........what on earth happened to that philosophy?

We, as hosts, can't just continue to do what we do well, we have to lift our game to compete! We either have to make our listings more appealing by adding features to cater for a market we are not interested in, or lower our prices to the point where we attract the dregs of the travelling public. We are not allowed to polish our nails and just do something well any more!!!

Each year appears to be a race to the bottom for us! Each year we are being asked to take a bigger risk with less tools to minimise that risk.

Michelle, most of us are at that 'show me' stage, we desperately want to hang onto the image of that friendly company who did go out of their way to help launch my hosting career. Who I could speak to support on the phone in a matter of seconds, every time......but this past three years of statements from the top have been a disappointment for us....that glass of Koolade we are supposed to take a swig on every now and then is running on empty.

I hope this works, I hope this is more than the fanfare of a Donald Trump rally. I think all you other hosts echo my sentiments, we love Airbnb, Airbnb were great to us and if they really are serious this time maybe they can be great again....but my feeling is, the IPO is more important than we are!

They have some work to do to convince us!

Cheers..........Rob  

@Emilia42  @Pat271  @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0  @Rebecca181 

[Michelle53]

@Robin4  I still remember very clearly watching one of those videotaped events with two or three Airbnb executives on the stage, and hosts in the audience able to ask questions.  It may have been earlyish in 2017 - the years are a blur.  

One of the executives was responding to a question, maybe about house rules, and basically he said they want to move people to the booking screen as quickly as possible. Perhaps not in those exact words, but that sentiment.   One other executive looked like she was about to say something else, but zipped up pretty fast. 

So, really, nothing was more important than just getting nights booked. Apparently, at any cost. It's not like executives haven't been aware of host issues all along, but no action has been taken in case it interferes with the performance metrics.

Things can't change for hosts unless the company metrics change.

[Rebecca181]

@Robin4  I could take this all more seriously if Airbnb would be more honest and forthcoming about its prioritizing its commercial listings over home-sharing listings. Years ago, I (and several other hosts here) who saw what was happening on the commercial listing front urged Airbnb to create a dedicated platform for home-sharing hosts - but this did not happen. What happened instead were things like this: 

"On the road toward its IPO, Airbnb has engaged in nonstop publicity about its efforts to crack down on house parties. Another less-noticed part of that effort is when Airbnb blocks these bookings of whole homes, it encourages users to book hotels instead.  

— Dennis Schaal" (read full article here: https://skift.com/2020/10/23/just-in-time-for-an-ipo-airbnbs-hotel-business-is-benefiting-from-its-h...).

My sense is that these latest 'bones' being thrown out to hosts in the form of this 'Advisory Board' are nothing more than another manipulative tactic related to the upcoming IPO, and Airbnb's Public Relations need to magnify its home-sharing roots, which is so much more tolerable and palatable to the communities whose real estate it feeds on. 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Robin4 

Thanks for your input here Robin.

It must have taken you a fair while to create that post, indeed, all the posts you have contributed over the years. Amazingly, this post highlights the futility of all your yearly efforts here. When comparing objective outcomes to actual changes, here you have highlighted the futility of your (and our) efforts.

Airbnb are completely, totally, selfish, coercive and manipulative to their own ends. Nothing will come about from these new initiatives apart from a lump of corporate PR to assist selling the IPO to 'moms and pops' investors. They still believe Airbnb have morals and are a sharing community. Sadly, it's a complete sham.

[Pat271]

Robin, to go straight to your host Inbox, save a bookmark or access history with the link

https://www.airbnb.com/hosting/p/inbox/folder/all 

     (For you it might be “r” instead of “p”...try both)

That will prompt for login and take you directly to your host Inbox.

You can also save a link to go directly to your dashboard  in a similar fashion with 

https://www.airbnb.com/hosting/p/home (or https://www.airbnb.com/hosting/r/home)

I agree that there should probably be a “Host login” in addition to a “Guest login”, but the above will save you a mouse click.

[Robin4]

@Pat271 

Hi Pat, I know there are work-arounds.......I know it's just an extra mouse click, it shouldn't be though! It was an unnecessary change to the programming that achieved nothing and just made our job that bit harder.

These days I am all the time clicking from one of my listing pages to another, or leaving two versions of my page up at the same time that I can click between if I want to reference something, or leave a series of review responses. 

Changes that are well thought out and helpful are fine Pat. Changes that achieve no tangible outcome are simply a frustration we have to learn to deal with!

Cheers.......Rob

[Cathie19]

Morning Rob (@Robin4 )

I now can see Danni was at the first two sessions. She was very articulate. As I stated, the devil will be in the detail. I told them that AIrbnb have proven themselves at being very good at talking the talk, but they now have to back it up for hosts with walking the walk. I’m not a fan of going down the Facebook pages  option.... Outcomes can become blurred by personal politics and trolling can be difficult to control.

I was more for zoom meetings of the style of the social get togethers, with a paid moderator as the extended starting point, from off the CC. If they have to hire more impartial and empathetic moderators, like the ones the CC already have, just for this job, then so be it. Better than volunteers who may not be the right people for the job.

The authentic host voice does need to be heard, but our voice in the CC needs to be listened to, even retrospectively for the cynicism that has been punched into many, dissipates. If we can see some of the “much-voiced” asked for changes, for hosts... then we are getting somewhere with a partnership. Then we are actually getting to sit at the table.

BTW @Fred13  and Rob, I don’t mind if it’s a BYO do.... I’ll bring some snacks...

[Robin4]

@Cathie19 

Hope things are going okay for you and Garry up north!

This Host Leader program is nothing new, we used to have it a couple of years ago, I would like to be involved in that but I simply can't. I have organised get-togethers in my local area, and we get a lot out of that. We have been able to help each other out with hosting problems on occasions and it's nice to talk casually over a cup of coffee with 3 or 4 people rather than via a community event.

I also do some communication with local council and business but there is a limit to what I can do.

I am currently busier than a bloody one armed paper hanger what with hosting, being Ade's full time carer and trying to run a household. There is just no time left in my cup of support to embrace anything else, as much as I might like.

Cheers........Rob  

[Ute42]

.

Hi @Robin4 ,

very good thread, thanky You for the great work.

I started with airbnb 2 and a half years ago and in the beginning I was extremely motivated. I made many many many proposals how airbnb could improve their business. And I read all their guidelines, read their TOS and the host-guarantee from A to Z. I certainly was the best informed CC-member in Germany in terms of their policies.

Today, I don't read anything anymore with an airbnb logo attatched to. Because anything they put in writing, in reality they just don't care about it.

Last week in Germany we had this case: A guest booked a stay over christmas in Denmark. Then Denmark decided to close the border to Germany until Jan 2nd, 2021. The guest cancels and wants his 50% downpayment = 1500 Euro back. He gets rejected twice from airbnb-support people. He tries a 3rd time, and all of a sudden he does get his 1500 Euros back. Despite the expressively written policy that closed borders are not a reason for a free cancellation if the place was booked past march 14.

The thread in the German CC is entitled:

• Kein Geld zurück, trotz Corona = No money back, despite corona.

Well, he did get all his money back, unjustifiably. So why read all the stuff they put out if it isn't worth a dime in reality?

Everything we hosts have been asking airbnb for in the past 2 and a half years got denied, everything. But they hired Laura Chambers and her team to work for us „core hosts“. What did we get from her? Nothing, but cosmetics. It took Laura quite a while to realise what she got hired for: Not to change anything, but to make it look as if there were changes. Early this year she gave up and closed her beauty saloon down.

Airbnb has burned us too many times, they made too many promises that they've never kept, and they are coming out with ever new „initiatives“ leading nowhere. I don't fall for their tactics anymore. What would an advisory board change?

• Nothing

Right now I'm the No 1 contributor in the German community center and I'm in danger to get invited to this new board.

Should airbnb invite me to become a member of their new „host advisory board“ I wouldn't go. I don't want to become a member of a beauty saloon all of a sudden run by Laura's ex boss Brian.

Should airbnb invite me to fly to San Francisco, become a member of the advisory board, they pay for everything and, the icing on the cake, I could meet Brian Chesky in person, I would flat out reject. My answer would be

• NO

Should Brian ever want to meet me, he would have to fly to Germany and visit me at my listing, I have a place that sleeps 10. Should he ever come visit me, I would defenitely not talk about any of the current airbnb policies, bc that's in vain.

What else could Brian and I talk about? Well, he once published a paper in which he said, that he was working on airbnb as a company with an „unlimited time horizon“. That's an almost pholisiphocal approach and I as a German could certainly contribute to that. Because we once had a guy in our country who was working on a „Reich“ that should last a thousand years, he was having so much trouble to get that done and then in the end he failed. I think it's very very difficult to work on initiatives to last 1000 years or even till the end of all times.

And: People working on such projects often lose track of their current day to day business.

---------------

I'm ok with airbnb. They're sending me booking requests, I host the guests and then they pay me. Unlike Monika in Chile I always got payed by airbnb in time. That's all I want from the company. I don't want to get involved in any kind of closer relationship with the company beyond this very basic original business model

I wish airbnb all the best, I wish Brian Chesky the very best, but as far as their advisory board goes:

• Please leave me alone.

cc:  @Michelle53 @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 @Emilia42 @Rebecca181 @Super47

[Sharon1014]

@Ute42   I don't think you have too much to worry about 😁.  You won't be invited to  join an advisory group, nor will you be offered a first class all-expenses-paid jaunt to worship at the throne room in SF.  And no-one from corporate is likely to be visiting your neck of the woods anytime soon.  One needs to have a bobbing head and be willing to run interference for free when the company is under pressure.  That isn't you dear Ute, and thank heavens it isn't.

Frankly, this whole thing is straight out of the politician's playbook.  It is Lehane's work. 

1. When the little people are restless, create the illusion of stakeholder equity by holding consultation or setting up a consultative forum.
2. If they are really cranky, then dangle an illusory carrot. (Distraction - oh look over there, ain't that pretty).
3. If your major political/corporate objective has risk factors in play, identify and neutralise them (enter stage left, one Catherine Powell).
4. If there are negative public perceptions, then saturate the media with your own positive spin narrative.
5. Use your operatives to influence opinion.  Flatter them, make them feel special, keep them on-side.

@Robin4  You're a lovely man Rob, and not stupid.  You see what is going on here, you know you do.  Is ABB going to give you something in exchange for all the positive spin you have contributed?  Not likely.  And you are absolutely right, this is all and ONLY about the IPO.

[Michelle53]

@Ute42  I'm pretty much in agreement with you.  I get booking requests through Airbnb.  I host the guests I want to host, and then they pay me. 

When I first listed, late in 2015,  I kept wondering how on earth people were going to find me and book. But someone found me within the first week I was up, and, apart from this year, with the pandemic and the shutdowns, I've been booked pretty solidly ever since. 

[Melodie-And-John0]

@Robin4 

Thank you as always for your thorough depictions and well thought out responses, bless you for your copper top bunny enthusiasm and follow through (your family is blessed to have you).  I'm sorry to say I missed the sessions, I feel much like you and  @Ute42  combined,  My bandwidth is stretched to the max with 1st 40 hr per week job , 2nd variable  hrs a week job and family duties 24/7,  I'm getting bookings so deeper participation has not been number # 1 on my Johnny-do-list.

 I've been out of the loop for a few months with projects on job 1 and job 2, with covid, elections, crushed vehicles and other pressures, I tuned out and blasted through the summer like it never even happened (I did get lots of projects complete!!!!).  That's probably not good enough to be useful in change making here cause like my feelings about voting (do it or you can't complain) also should hold true here, participate with purpose consistently or keep your mouth shut and listen.  

Here's what I did get from Airbnb other than 2 of the busiest booking and project months in 3 years, concerned emails from other hosts here and every one of the moderators and lastly, a couple days ago we received a gift from our Mod Squad of 2 very nice coffee cups when they heard my truck and my wife's car was crushed by a giant tree in our yard (I was in the truck 4 minutes before it hit!!!!).   I thank you all, that was nice to hear from you and the gift was very unexpected from a company that boasts serving 4 million hosts around the world, how cool is that?

So unlike being an anonymous  number member of a giant group of private vendors for Alphabet corp. , I feel like I am actually part of the world community of people that share a passion for being business owners and host representatives of our communities, states and nations.   That's huge to me, a little fish in the boonies of upstate NY feels special and connected and I have learned much here about hosting techniques that most vendors would never share with others in the same business. 

Its not all unicorns and pixie dust and I agree with most here that Airbnb  took a wrong turn at Albuquerque (see Bug's Bunny) chasing corporate sized hoteliers and putting them ahead of @Brian 's original brainchild offerings, its time to get back to the roots, they may not be as flashy or enriching but they will sustain the entire Airbnb plant through thick and thin.   

To be honest,  @Ute42 , @Fred13  or @Robin4 are the perfect choices for the liaison's to this new (renewed) initiative even if neither would want or consider it as described.  Maybe if Airbnb put their money where their mouth is and paid consultation fees to the new committee members.  Add the prospect of those people being able to  host a visit by one of the 3 top dogs (and entourage) to host a quarterly meeting with each group.  Imagine, @Brian  or @Nate0  showing up for a weekend stay during __________ Fest (insert a local yearly event from your area).  I might be willing to send him a special offer myself if he showed up for antique week in Bouckville, 1000 dealers only 5 minutes away (he better do it quick, dates will fill soon, Ha ha).

These are ways to grow community, then invest our 4 million members with stock options in the IPO, don't give me a $100 for being "Super", issue the stock Equivalent instead, now I'm an investor and that is truly a partnership not just a wish sandwich!   Thats my 2 cents, 3, shillings, 100 yen,  10 pfennig for what thats worth today in a barber shop!   Stay well, JR

Mr lucky, thats me!   Sitting beside my "Love Gift" from the great folks that moderate our CC board and treat us all like someone special, not just one of 4 million random hosts. 

 Don't forget the big guy above Mr lucky, he gets all the credit for getting me out of that truck 4 minutes before a very large Maple tree crushed my truck and my wifes car in one second flat!!!!!

cc: @Fred13  @Michelle53 @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 @Emilia42 @Rebecca181 @Super47