Is AirBnB ACTIVELY trying to get rid of hosts by ALLOWING inaccurate reviews in vilation of its own support agreement with hosts?!

[William1246]

It seems at first glance that refusing to to allow guests who have stolen from properties to post retaliatory reviews would be a no-brainer. A quick glance at the forums here show literally tens of thousands of comments about this. It seems like preventing guests who have caused payouts by the AirBnB Resolution Center would be very much like "low hanging fruit" so to speak when it comes to quick ways of improving the review process. And yet AirBnB refuses to do it! Why??

I have a background that includes military, government and Fortune 500 consulting and this "fix" is a SUPER obvious and simple one to implement, yet AirBnB refuses to do it desptie years of outrage by hosts and damages and thefts from properties. Why? The only logical conclusion is that AirBnB DOESN'T ACTUALLY WANT TO IMPROVE THE REVIEW PROCESS.

That may seem super odd at first glance, however it makes perfect sense if they have "too many" hosts. How could they have too many hosts? Easy. If too many properties are on the market, then prices will drop and that will lower the AirbnB profits. Given that many jurisdictions are starting to "push back" on more properties listing themselves on AirBnB, (witness the prohibition enacted in 2019 against AirbnB listings in Toronto and Paris among other cities,) and AirBnB can't make more money as easily by adding more properties. They can, however, easily make more money by driving up prices, which are still quite a bit lower for a house than they are for a hotel room in many cases. 

How do they do that you may ask? By getting the concentration of rental options to self-reduce in certain markets. The closer they get to saturation in those markets, the higher the prices will go. And AirBnB ends up making much more money without doing a single, tiny bit more work! Same number of bookings, but more profits because the prices are higher. 

That's right, despite the rhetoric on their comments like the transparent ** posted here, AirBnB doesn't actually give a crap about hosts; they WANT hosts to leave! They WANT fewer hosts on the AirBnB platform, because that's the only way that their prices will go up!

**[Inappropriate comment removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

[Kelsey116]

@William1246 And here i was thinking "if only i'd filed a police report".  Sounds like Airbnb wouldn't have cared.  That is just absolutely deplorable that that woman did that and that airbnb won't do anything about it!! They have GOT to start treating hosts better.  Without us, they make $0! It's insane to me that they don't have our backs. So very messed up!

[William1246]

@Kelsey116 as others have said and as I wrote in my original post, AirBnB WANTS some of us to leave. I should have had the poeple arrested simply because criminal charges were the only way that I was going to get any justice for what they put me through! And the next time that there's a theft, that's precisely what I'm going to do. 

Going to AirBnB for help is a waste of time. From now on, I'll just post the police report #.

[Alba160]

@Bez8, Sorry Bez, but I'm a little confused. In response to a question last month about whether or not the Host Advisory Members get paid, @Katie stated that members will indeed get compensated for their time and effort. To most people, that would translate as meaning that the board members *do* actually work for Airbnb, even if it's just in a part-time capacity. Please clarify?

There is a post dated 21-12-20 from @Katie (I am trying to attach that screenshot without success.

@William1246, @Sarah977, @Sharon1014 

[William1246]

Huh! Well how about that! This should be interesting, @Alba160 , interesting indeed!

[Bez8]

@Alba160 

I don't work for Airbnb. I advise Airbnb regarding hosting issues. I'm a host first. Actually that's a lie, I'm an Engineer first then a host. I design mines and make educational apps for kids. Hosting is a passion of mine and I've enjoyed supporting my local Airbnb hosting facebook group. 

I'm an advisor but I dont work for Airbnb. The board members are active passionate hosts and only serve 1 year. I don't know the proper semantics but I dont work for Airbnb. I wish I did because It's something I'm truly passionate about. 

I'm compensated as an advisor would, not an employee. I wouldn't be doing this if I wasn't passionate about it. All public companies have an advisory board. Usually industry experts within their respective sector. 

This is no different. 

[Sarah977]

@Bez8 I have no issue with what you are doing re Airbnb. But it's rather infuriating that hosts have been giving their suggestions, complaints and feedback to Airbnb for years, for free, which they have roundly ignored, only to now be paying a select group to tell them exactly those same things.

Keep that in mind when your host advisory board position isn't met with gushing thanks from experienced hosts. It's nothing personal, and I'm sure you have the best of intentions, but a lot of hosts are pretty upset about this after feeling and seeing that our suggestions for change, often quite well-thought out and calmly presented (as opposed to hosts just ranting about their own particular issue) , weren't at all valued or acted upon.

Not to mention, the advisory board should have been chosen by popular vote by other hosts on this Airbnb Community Forum, not hand-picked by Airbnb.

You said earlier something about not having participated in this forum before because you don't work on a computer??? That makes no sense at all. Because if you can participate in Facebook forums, there's no reason you couldn't have participated here.

[Bez8]

@Sarah977 

I honestly can't speak for the past at all. Perhaps other board members can, but I just can't. 2020 was such a bad year for everyone and we went through a hard time. I have to to be positive and look to the future. But that's my personal choice. I'm not invalidating how you feel and I've heard the same from many hosts. All I can say is that I genuinely see the effort being put in by Airbnb to increase host engagement. 

The community center sits outside of the Airbnb app itself. I'd have to go to a web browser on my phone to access it. I tend to stick to in app options. The community center interface on a mobile device is different. It's a personal preference really. But I've been in a few unofficial Airbnb groups and have really enjoyed growing our official local airbnb group. We have our first virtual meeting next week. It's a place where we get together and discuss all the ways we can improve and go over recent Airbnb announcements. We even leverage experienced hosts in our group by having educational sessions. In our meeting we have a couple of hosts going over Pandemic pricing strategies and how to incorporate local businesses into our listing 

[Sarah977]

@Bez8 Okay, so my next question then is how can you be an advisor, supposedly representing all the issues that hosts have been complaining about to Airbnb for years, if you can't speak to the past? That's somewhat like paying an advisor on national foreign policy who has no knowledge of world history. Or an engineer, as you say you are, who designs something without bothering to research what has been done in the past in regards to that product or construction, and why other previous designs for that thing worked or failed and why.

If you think the main issues facing hosts are that 2020 has been a tough year due to the pandemic, then you aren't representing this host as far as what needs to change at Airbnb.

What I will say, and I hope you bring this to the table in a big way, is that all of the separate issues that hosts get infuriated with Airbnb about- revenge reviews, the company believing a newbie guest's accusations over what a host with pages full of 5* reviews has to say, the abyssmal customer service, the lack of a real security deposit, the ignoring of hosts' suggestions for years, and so on and so forth, all stem from the same core issue.

That core issue is a total lack of respect for hosts, without whom Airbnb wouldn't exist. Instead we get placating empty words, not borne out by reality, about how much we mean to them. We get obfuscating feel-good warm and fuzzy PR pieces. We get Airbnb arrogantly thinking that they know better what works than hosts do. There needs to be a change in attitude, big time, not just a change in policies.

The creation of this host advisory board you are now a part of was no different. Airbnb simply announced one day that they were doing this, with no host consultation or feedback, they have not been transparent about how they selected the hosts for the board, the board is heavily weighted with US hosts, and despite all the rhetoric about inclusiveness and non-discrimination, there is not one host on the board representing the entire continent of Africa. 

[Alexandra316]

@Bez8 You're going to have to excuse people for being skeptical when we've heard the same song and dance numerous times from numerous people and still haven't gotten any further ahead. We had the previous head of hosting come and visit various community members, and no changes happened. Anyone who's been here for a while has been asked to participate in various host listening sessions numerous times, and it feels like nothing comes out of it.

I think looking ahead is great. However, isn't the definition of madness doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? 

I wish you and the board well, and I hope that positive changes do come out of it. However, my expectation is that the results will be the same as previous: lots and lots of talk with no actual changes. I'd love to be surprised. 

[Katie]

Hi everyone, 

Thank you for your participation in this thread. 

Unfortunately, it seems to have devolved into personal insults, and has reached the point where it is not productive to the original topic, and is now veering off into other subjects. 

Given that this is the case, we have decided to close this thread. 

@William1246 I'm so sorry to hear you have had this issue, and that you are struggling with a very difficult time in life; my colleague @Quincy has already escalated this to the team for you, and we will get back to you as soon as we know more. I'd also like to remind you that by coming to the Community Center and participating, you have agreed to follow the Community Guidelines, so please do bear these in mind with all future contributions. It is great to hear different hosts' perspectives, feedback, and ideas, but when members cannot be polite and respectful to one another it's a real shame, as it is not constructive nor conducive to change. 

For those who would like to discuss the Host Advisory Board more generally, as has been happening towards the end of this thread, I would love for you to continue this conversation on a new thread, in order to keep things on-track.