Is Airbnb replacing Hosts with Hotels?

[Maria481]

Yesterday one of my regular customers tried to book my house for his work crew and the reservation was blocked and the guest was advised to book a hotel (with a link provided). He was booking for a whole week, had a long string of 5star reviews, was over 25 yrs old. He has a local account because he is booking for his out of town employees and he was booking the same day. This kind of booking is a significant part of our guest demographic, local people trying to find a place for their families visiting from out of town or work groups. If he had not called me to tell me about this incident and sent me a screenshot I would have never known. It's possible we've lost many other bookings for this reason. 

Particularly now that travel is restricted, the bulk of our guests would be from the local area. This is the most disturbing thing I've seen so far.

I feel that Airbnb is slowly trying to eliminate hosts from the equation. 

What's next? Airbnb cleaning crew and property managers will replace hosts and just do do direct deals with homeowners, edging out all STR managers? 

Thoughts?

[George93]

This is very underhand. The screenshot states that this is not related to coronavirus.

You need to ask their reasons for blocking you and why youhave not been informed

[Maria481]

Thanks for the reply, it's heartening to know people are reading this and chiming in. Good to know I'm not going crazy 🙂

In this case I think the message was actually blocking the guest, or implying that their reservation was being blocked for hosts' benefit. Either way very vague blunt instrument approach to, what at best, it their inability to evaluate reservations on a case by case basis. 

[Susan17]

Hi @Maria481, nice to meet you (so to speak!)

I was actually sent your story on Whatsapp last night - we have a mutual friend, it appears.. A in Berkeley..  :)) This guest had booked with you many times (10, I think?) previously, is that correct? 

So I've been sent probably close to a hundred similar examples over the past 4-6 weeks, so I've got a pretty good overview on this at this point. Initially, the wording on the notification was "Choose another place to stay. As part of our commitment to your safety, certain last minute bookings of entire homes are restricted right now. You can still book a hotel" 

Now clearly, that was completely illogical because if it was really about the guests' "safety", surely it would be much, much safer in these pandemic times for singles/couples/groups to be housed in a self-contained, stand-alone unit, than shoe-horned into a hotel with countless random, unrelated strangers. Presumably, after this strange anomaly was pointed out to Airbnb numerous times, they decided they'd better update the wording on the notification to what it says in your screenshot above, which they did, about two weeks ago. 

The new wording is similarly vague, of course but ostensibly, the "pattern of factors" verbiage is crafted to hint at this being a party prevention measure (but if so, why not just come straight out and say that?)

I've got numerous sscreenshots of responses from CX to hosts regarding this issue, claiming this notification appears for a variety of reasons.. from "health and safety", to "guest failing to complete profile properly" to "party prevention"

As we all know, Airbnb have publicly stated that their "high-risk indicators" for party bookings are guests under 25, local, no previous good reviews, last minute bookings. However, the examples I'm seeing (and have proof of) regularly include bookings from older guests, for stays of several weeks, for stays a month or two in the future, for repeat guests, for guests with lots of good reviews, from guests booking from overseas, for guests booking tiny studio or 1 bed apartments etc etc - none of which could possibly be classified in the "high risk for parties" category. 

Coincidentally, Airbnb just happened to buy Hotel Tonight last April, at a cost of around $400 million, and around the same time, invested $150 - $200 million in OYO Hotels, with plans for major US expansion this year. Both of those outfits will have been hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis too. So let's just say that, regardless of the "Under 25/party house" spiel, Airbnb purposely blocking the bookings of entire homes and funnelling guests to "book hotels instead" in markets with heavy Hotel Tonight and/or OYO presence, doesn't really come as any huge surprise. Doesn't take a genius to work out what's going on. 

Sorry that I haven't got better news for you @Maria481,  but if you want to accept the booking, change your setting to "private room" instead of "entire home", and that should do the trick for you. Personally, if it were me and the guest was already known to me, I'd take his booking and stick his money in my pocket. You owe Airbnb nothing for blocking your guests from booking with you. 

@Huma0 

[Maria481]

Thanks for the reply! Yes, props to our kind, hard-working friend in Berkeley XOX 

I guess the writing is on the wall and COV19 is amplifying something that has been bubbling under the surface. Since SF market was so strong, there was a lot of room for these shenanigans to go unnoticed, but all the cracks in the foundation are being exposed. 

I appreciate the "private room" suggestion, but since my listings are all large homes with 3 to 5 bedrooms and 8 to 14 occupancy, I imagine people looking for a house for a large group would filter on 'entire home' and eliminate me from the get-go. 

In a way Airbnb is cannibalizing their own market. And I understand that in some cases this is not the intended use of the homes but some transparency would be nice. 

Oh well, it was a good party while it lasted. 

Be well 🙂

[Susan17]

You're welcome @Maria481 !

Yes, A is an absolute darling! ;))

With regards to the "private room" suggestion - and also for anyone else reading this who might be experiencing similar issues - I should have clarified that the listing only needs to be changed to that designation just so that particular booking can bypass the block, and be accepted. It can then be returned to "entire home" straight afterwards.

For sure, the cracks in the foundations were already there before COVID ever hit, and this crisis has merely highlighted them. One good thing that will come out of this unexpected bump in the road though, is that it will eliminate quite a few of the fly-by-night rogue operators, many of whom have gone to the wall already. Every cloud.. ;))

As for Airbnb cannibalizing their own market (a phrase I have used many times myself!) - well that's been apparent for some time, ever since they started buying property management companies, acquiring hotel platforms, pushing their Niido operations and investing heavily in mega-hosts on their own platform. Perhaps they're regretting their risky over-exposure now. Interesting times ahead.

Very best of luck to you Maria - hope you (we!) make it through to the sunshine again! ;))

[Manasui0]

@Maria481 @Susan17 

The way I see it from my perspective... after reading all the inputs, seems Airbnb is selling their uniqueness with a more (cheaper or efficient) but is it more effective way of making profit? By reducing cost on Customer Service.. since most hotels provide it's own customer service and swap it with a specialist connector liaison that can cover 2-4 hotels with many rooms at the same time..  

is corporate more easier, more variant, or more efficient and power-full to control guest..

Party ban was a pressure through death, that is why they have to make an act.. but the real problem is home owner might not be educated enough how to deal with this... I see the problem more establish in the gun and shooting .. and this cost a lot, cause there are many worries that delivered to the Airbnb Customer service instead of The Accommodation's Customer service..

Airbnb is unique.. they should not follow the path of other OTA.. instead they should create their own unique solution for their unique ways of home selling.. is hard because it will be a break through.. and is hard because Airbnb is leading in homes.. their customer service may be also the reason why they were loosing money last year.. some times it seems they were outsourcing their CS at the common problem, where they are just sending links after links and unable to elaborate any of the links..

but the biggest issue that has not been address properly is when there are criminal activities involve by the guest, cause Airbnb inexperience to involve as the law authority and the judge.. at the same time, they also try to protect the guest to be reported to the police.. they should have coordinated with police officer and be firm on Law.. party is a child problem.. how about extortion, blackmailing, gun possession.. arson, destroying property.. is a criminal act.. you can destroy some ones home and don't go to jail.. just pass go and change profile..  with corporate.. corporate can call the police, and the Ota has nothing to do with it.. is corporate.. in hime owning is individual.. and has let credibility cause it is individual.. 

would it be better if the home owner have a lawyer back up, for a group of loyal home owning that if available in home owning business expenses?? is the closes I can come up with right now with corporate swagger.. 

their personal involvement has become a double edge sword.. While increasing a trust and security .. it also increases the cost by more detailed management compare to arranging through hotels.. 

other OTA provide less energy, attention, and time investment when they are dealing with corporate groups, 

but Airbnb helps small business to grow and has possibility to become a hotel starting with a cheaper investment.. the other problem is.. in this style .. many of other OTA provide more profit, with ignorance and detachment standard with a fake smile.. 

I'm sorry with the wording I cannot decipher or render better what I have in my head.. 

that is the gist of it.. 

@Airbnb to be honest why I stay with airbnb.. is fun and guest heals my soul.. and many guest feels homie and like a big family and casually safe.. the core of airbnb's style of love.. if hotels style.. I'll go with other OTA that actually sell my place higher and earn more and just pay to do a standard.. nothing unique, special, nor creative.. some OTA offer other hotel 25,000 USD to be provide with a guarantee numbers of rooms.. is just money money money.. is not even a community or a family.. is nothing personal.. is just business.. and it will be cut trout..

is different.. it should be  different platform.. call it  AirCo , or AirSuite, or AirPresident

PS: home owner willing to be help, they just don't know what to be help or how

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/does-any-one-know-why-guest-is-being-send-to-hotels/m-p/128...

[Alisha-And-David0]

@Susan17 what’s the work around if you are already set as a private room in your listings?

[Huma0]

Also @Susan17 

If Airbnb have genuine, above board reasons for blocking these bookings, why aren't they sending notifications to the host explaining that a booking was blocked and why. Well, I guess there would be a lot of cases where the hosts would be very unhappy about it. Sure, I want to be protected from party animals, but it seems their method for weeding those people out is really flawed. Who books a place for a month if they just want to throw a party?

[Susan17]

Well Airbnb made plenty of noise in the media about introducing their Party Prevention measures, banning local, unreviewed guests under-25 from making last-minute bookings in Canada, in the wake of the triple murders at an Airbnb "mansion party" in Toronto in February. So it makes zero sense that they'd suddenly go all shy about letting people  (hosts or guests) know about it now, if that was the real reason for blocking these entire homes. They really must think we're all complete imbeciles 

07/02/2020 Under 25s Banned From Airbnb Houses In Canada After Deaths 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/under-25s-banned-from-airbnb-houses-in-canada-after-deaths-k5g98w...

[S14]

Why is that just in Canada? I asked Airbnb if I could state in my house rules that I don't want anyone under 21. They told me that would be "discriminatory." Really? I'm just trying to protect my home -- after several bad experiences with party guests. I asked Airbnb if I could just be told whether or not the person requesting booking is over 21 (since AIrbnb has their ID)  and they said NO. Airbnb -- this is not helpful.

[Andrey8]

Many of my guests book to stay 3 weeks to 6 weeks during high season, I hope this doesn’t become a new trend as I really like Airbnb’s platform.  I have been approached by local companies who run their own platforms, but I would prefer to continue working with Airbnb as long as they are not steering legitimate guests away from my listings. 

[Crystal378]

I agree 100%.  Airbnb should be transparent and set a notification for host(s) to receive letting us know if a reservation has been deferred or blocked.  This is going to be a real problem.  People who want an Airbnb want a kitchen to cook, a yard, a home away from home.  Not getting that in a hotel and it's really unfair for Airbnb to be able to do this without our approval or acceptance.

[Ashley678]

I had a thought that they would eventually go into an elite style experience hotels.....  who knows with these guys, one thing is for certain, we are just crumbs to them. 

[Susan17]

Oh there aren't any pies they haven't long since got their grubby little paws in, @Ashley678 .. 

Airbnb Makes Big Push Into Hotel Space With Rockerfeller Plaza Hotel Partnership 

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/28/airbnb-is-partnering-with-rxr-realty-to-convert-new-york-city-commer...