Financial reporting

[Sharon1014]

Heads up to hosts - 

ABNB has delayed reporting earnings to the market from Feb 6 (previously reported by WSJ) to Feb 25, which incidentally, is the last day of the 6 week  "earnings season" and even then they are reporting after market close via video conf. 

ABNB 214.83 3.17 1.50% : Airbnb, Inc. - Yahoo Finance

Educated guess - it's not going to be pretty (only question is how much of a loss the company has incurred) and if this is seriously bad, there is some risk hosts will abandon the platform.  Likely this little host chat session one week prior will be seeking to keep hosts onside ahead of what's to come.  Lehane spin doctoring  in full swing.  Magical?  Yeah, certainly will be.

Hosts should also keep in mind that ABNB as a company is now also competing against local hosts, having bought up Luckey in 2018, a property conglomerate based in France with global reach.  Guess who is going to be favoured in the search algorithms, local hosts or the company's own listings?

Airbnb's Deal for French Firm Could Signal Entry Into Property Management – Skift

@Melodie-And-John0  @Christine615  @Bez8  @Ute42  @Sarah977  @Ann72  @Colleen253  @Emilia42  @Anonymous  @Fred13   @Rebecca181  @Helen350   et al

*[Post made into a new topic in the Hosting board in line with the Community Center Guidelines. Title updated] 

[Christine615]

Yeah - I would like to know what the host committee is doing to communicate host concerns, if anything. Something is going on. The stock shouldn't be up in advance of those earnings. And I think the employee stock lock-up is expiring in a month or so.

I'm hearing horrid things about VRBO and HomeAway's changing terms so I'm going to stick with the platform I know, which is Airbnb.

But good grief, if the company is struggling to fix the host issue, I think they are in for a rude awakening when they buy properties on their own to compete. Essentially they become a hotel with larger local regulatory hurdles to jump and they better keep a warehouse of supplies and furniture the way hotels do to replace all the damaged and stolen items they're going to encounter.

If they favor their own entities, a lot of us could go back to LTS (she shudders at the thought).

I did read an interesting article that said "Airbnb" had become part of people's working vocabulary in the way that Xerox was synonymous with copy machines and that adds to its intrinsic value vs. competitors.

We shall see. Thanks for the head's up!

[Sharon1014]

@Christine615  MS and GS had a huge number of stock options they could exercise according to the S-1 filings.  Do suspect there is a lot of pump going on before the dump kicks in.

We recently listed with Booking and Expedia, loads of bookings coming in, all with security deposits.  Have heard the opposite re Expedia Group (VRBO, HomeAway, Stayz) - that larger property hosts in particular are being inundated with bookings from Expedia and Booking sources, and they are mighty happy about it.  They also have noticed a serious decline in guest quality with Airbnb guests.

Agreed re ABNB going to need huge supplies of spare everything.  This is the company's long game, imo (creating their own portfolio of listings).  Another thing they're doing is funding potential new hosts to build stand-alone units in their large backyards, with ABNB's finger in that pie on-going as well (a decent % of the take, like forever, plus building debt by home-owner to the company).  Authentic local hosts are serving a short-term purpose atm, but that is all.  My 2c.

@Bez8  

[Christine615]

@Sharon1014Thanks for that. I've been pretty quiet and with the pandemic, I'm okay with that, but I'm hearing from other hosts that the quality of guests is deteriorating. I just had to "agree" to another set of terms of service and I worry that Airbnb isn't getting the message. The quality was better when I had a full name and could find a social media page that matched the name and the profile (a tip a good customer service hinted at back in the days when Airbnb treated hosts like grown-ups.)

The whole anti-discrimination policy is BS because it created a loophole for bad and/or fraudulent guests to drive a truck through. Then add the bots that censor our messages and it's adding up to be a disaster.

I'm settled for now, but if Brian and crew make more host-hostile policies, I'll have to rethink my listing. But I'm not in a tourist hot-spot and I'm competing with absentee LLC's who moved in (lord, we had to fight one of them at zoning after he opened up a party house on a quiet residential street) so I'm thinking things through.

Let the games begin!

[Christine615]

@Sharon1014  Thanks for that.  My listing has been pretty quiet and with the pandemic, I'm okay with that given all the people who still think this thing isn't real. But I'm hearing from other hosts that the quality of guests is deteriorating. I just had to "agree" to another set of terms of service and I worry that Airbnb isn't getting the message. The quality was better when I had a full name and could find a social media page that matched the name and the profile (a tip a good customer service hinted at back in the days when Airbnb treated hosts like grown-ups.)

The whole anti-discrimination policy is BS because it created a loophole for bad and/or fraudulent guests to drive a truck through. Then add the bots that censor our messages and it's adding up to be a disaster.

I'm settled for now, but if Brian and crew make more host-hostile policies, I'll have to rethink my listing. But I'm not in a tourist hot-spot and I'm competing with absentee LLC's who moved in (lord, we had to fight one of them at zoning after he opened up a party house on a quiet residential street) so I'm thinking things through.

Let the games begin!

[Sharon1014]

@Christine615   Agreed re the anti-discrimination policy being problematic for some hosts. Add to that since the pandemic, there's an increasing proliferation of social media "tips" on how to get free accom out of Airbnb hosts.  Word is out about the guest-centric policies and appalling CS that always favours the guest.  Busy doing business with the bottom-feeder crowd.  Not for me.

Our Airbnb guests before last booked for 2 adults and 2 kids.  Turned up with another whole family in their separate truck, parked on our property right next to the booked guest vehicle  We could see the second family was here for the weekend, back of the truck was full of bags and beach gear.  When one of the kids began bouncing his basketball around in our courtyard backyard and in the house crashing into the fences and walls inside the house (+the noise level from 4 adults and 4 kids was deafening), I had to msg them to lock up the ball and ask about the "extras".  Him: "Oh, they're just here for dinner".  Me: "doesn't look like it to me, and xyz is how much we charge for extras".  Lord knows what they did for bedding since our place only sleeps 5, they had 8.  They did pay up and lock the ball away but wasn't impressed.  Don't know how remote hosts do this gig when they don't live on-site.

The rest of our summer peak season wasn't much fun either, season before, problem guests = 0.  This season, problem guests = 6.  We would have charged for extra cleaning or damage if it had been a simple matter.  And the guests never said peep about the problems/damage they caused.

It's certainly a little daunting to start again elsewhere (we were previously exclusively on Airbnb) but to our amazement, it's been no problem at all having zero reviews to fall back on.  I did however mention in our preamble on both sites that we have 30 plus 4.9/5.0 star great reviews on another platform, and that guests can book with confidence.  Seems to be do doing the trick nicely.

[Lizzie]

Hey @Sharon1014,

I hope you are well.

Just spotted your post in the event announcement discussion, as it's on a different topic, I've moved it to the Hosting board and made it into a new discussion. I hope this is ok with you. 

To add, I see you've included a link from 2018. I know there is a lot of worry in the world at the moment, and I think everyone is wondering when hosting will be fully back. Personally, I often at moment catch myself speculating on things in my daily life and it can add unnecessary worry, so I would keep this in mind when looking at old articles as a lot has happened in the past three years. I don't know about you but I think so many people including myself would love to venture outside of their mile area at the moment, and staying in an Airbnb and meeting a great local host sounds like a dream. 

Thanks,
Lizzie

[Rebecca181]

@Sharon1014 Given that it has become obvious (to some, at least) that Airbnb doesn't give a hoot about their home-sharing hosts, I'd say that they'll be building up and pushing their own (owned) inventory over ours, for sure, whenever they can.

Regarding getting people to build stand-alone units in their backyard: In most parts of the U.S. where I live, this requires owning more than one tax lot - or living in County zones that allow for the building of additional units / residences. I happen to live on two tax lots and may one day convert the greenhouse into a tiny house, of sorts; but I doubt I'll list it on Airbnb at this point. Or any of my properties, for that matter, given that I actually want to screen and vet potential guests - like any home owner who cares about their investment (which is also their primary residence) would want to do.