You are certainly not alone in this. I submitted the following feedback to ABB:
Hi,
This is to inform you we are extremely concerned and frustrated by the detrimental changes you have made that are destroying the ABB experience and undermining the trust between hosts, guests and ABB. There are numerous serious issues, including lack of follow through on promised protections for both hosts and guests in the event of problems, seemingly false reviews and refusal to allow hosts the option of ensuring guests are a good fit with their spaccommodations. Therefore, we will NOT be doing any further rentals to new guests through ABB until you address and rectify the following issues:
1) Guest profiles with ratings, country of origin, pictures and proof of verified government IDs must be accessible to hosts BEFORE booking.
2) Hosts must have the option of declaring guest requirements EVEN WHEN NOT USING INSTANT BOOK.
For many years we have thoroughly enjoyed our ABB experiences as both hosts and guests and chose to participate in ABB even though we had been managing successfully on our own with a “home stay” BnB in our home for over a decade before the advent of ABB. Our ability to connect honestly with like-minded guests through the ABB portal helped us align with guests who would be comfortable with, and appropriate for, our rural Vermont homestead — thereby ensuring a positive and successful experience for both host and guest.
Unfortunately, ABB has continued to frustrate and destroy those critical contacts, the trust and communications with the result that the ABB experiences have declined sharply — and continue to do so — for both hosts and guests and we will no longer be part of it, except for accepting return guests or friends of previous guests.
I assume you are aware if the huge discontent and grave concerns your clientele has about your continued efforts to commercialize and monetize a model that was highly successful...until you began to change it. You have a choice now of repairing this breach and retaining your clientele or of continuing down the path to become yet another of the ubiquitous, mindless commercial operations that the internet and global economy delights in enabling these days, but we won’t be a part of it...and from reading the Community pages, talking with friends and neighbors who use ABB and reading news various international reports, we won’t be the only ones.
Thank you.
