The message Brian Chesky sent out was just massive insult on top of massive injury. You've totally screwed your hosts. We're not partners. Unless you consider getting mugged 'partnering' with the thief.
The only 'big idea' you need is: stop bankrupting your hosts by refunding 100% to travelers that accepted the terms of the rental and couldn't be bothered to take out travelers insurance. If they didn't like terms, they didn't need to book it and Airbnb shouldn't be bailing them out at the hosts expense. And of course, Airbnb isn't refunding their fees. Guests just get a travel voucher. So the hosts get screwed but Airbnb gets to keep their money.
But of course, Brian doesn't actually want to do the right thing. So he's going to 'ideate' for a few weeks and think up big ideas that kind of sort of sound like the right thing, but aren't. Well, aren't the right thing for hosts. The big ideas, of course, will either cost Airbnb nothing or make them money. And if you want the few pennies they're willing to toss to you for screwing you, you'll only get them on future bookings. So, they'll be useless to you in the short term when you need them and tie you to the platform.
Here are my predictions of the types of the 'Big Ideas' that will get presented:
(and these are just guesses from having been in the tech industry forever and having listened to many founders BS to stakeholders)
- Loans that you can repay with your Airbnb income. Except the loans come with credit card interest rates, so it's a huge money making thing for them (PayPal and others do this kind of thing). They bankrupt the hosts and then give them a predatory loan. So awesome. So socially conscious. Probably the only thing holding this up is confirming with the lawyers that this can be a 'business' loan and not subject to consumer finance legal requirements.
- Reduce the host fee to 2% instead of 3% until the end of the year. I've lost $7600 in bookings and counting. A 1% reduction in service fee would take me NINETEEN YEARS to make up what I've lost. And it costs Airbnb nothing as the rate they pay on credit cards is probably well below 2%. (although they lose a tiny bit of revenue)
- Let hosts take a couple trips without paying the service fee. I just burned through a good chunk of my savings trying to make the mortgage because of your policy. I'm not taking a trip any time soon.
So expect to see completely meaningless things like the above when they come out with their 'big ideas'. Painless for them, virtually useless for hosts. And, again, like the hypothetical service fee reduction, you only get it in the future and only if you keep using Airbnb.
(and for those of you who are like... you shouldn't rely on Airbnb for income... great, then Airbnb shouldn't accept the bookings. I'll get bookings through other sites. Don't accept the bookings and then completely disregard your hosts' well being)
Those of us that host, and especially the Superhosts and those that are close to it, go to great lengths to take care of our mutual customers. If we were actually 'partners' you would acknowledge the financial stress you're putting hosts through and back off the 100% refund policy. The fact that you're going to announce your big ideas in a few weeks, while bleeding most of us into serious financial distress in the meantime, just really illustrates how much they don't care.
btw... and, yes, my posts here seem to have gotten my listings buried in the search results. Much further back than they usually are. You call them out to do better and get punished for it.
