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?

[Mark116]

@Maria481  Yes.  They found they were disorganized and incompetent to win against the hotel lobbies so they decided 'if you can't beat them, join them'.....

[Kaylee18]

@Maria481   I also had guests who tried to book with me and received the same message. When I changed my "entire  home" to "shared" they were able to book. Then I switched it back to entire home. 

An ABB customer service rep told me this WAS because of Covid19 measures..... however he may have just been saying that?....

I also assumed it was the new preventative measures for people booking under 25yrs, etc. But all my guests were over 40yrs and still unable to book. 

Does not make any sense.

[S14]

But in the AIrnb pages about hosting for Covid workers, it says that Covid workers can ONLY book if it's a private home. So this makes no sense at all. This mess is very sad. I think I need to figure out a different way of making a living if Airbnb is destroying this

[Danielle476]

This happened to me yesterday!  The guest was over 25 and had one 5 star review.  Thankfully she reached out to me to say she was having difficulties, otherwise I'd have never known.  I changed my listing to 'private room', she booked, and then I changed it back.  Stay classy, AirBNB!

[Alisha-And-David0]

@Danielle476 

it’s happening to me and mine IS a room! I had several guests that tried to book with me this week that ghosted me after trying to book. I’m assuming they got this message too. Ugh!  What to do?!

[Bryce-and-Deba0]

@Maria481  I've been experiencing the same issue with my guests receiving the same note saying they can't book at my unit. I've called Airbnb multiple times to resolve it, but every time I received a different answer as to why it was having errors. 

A good workaround that one of my guests found is to have the person book for dates a few weeks after the dates they actually want. Once they've booked, go into the reservation and change the reservation to the correct dates. Unfortunately, it adds a few more steps for you, however, it has worked out extremely well every time I've done it. 

[Maria481]

Also a great workaround, thanks!

[Carletta0]

I just had a potential booker as me if I've seen this. I hadn't-which led me to this post. It turns out they're local 19/20 year olds trying to celebrate a birthday- which I would have declined anyway, but I wonder how many legitimate bookings I've missed out on! 

[David7065]

I just called AirBNB customer support and they said "This message has something to do with the guest's profile and nothing to do with your apartment. You'll need to have your guest reach out to us."

My guest reached out to AirBNB and customer support apparently told them to ask me to change the listing to a "private room" instead of an "entire apartment" to allow the booking to go through.  The whole thing just seems sketchy.

[Alisha-And-David0]

@David7065 

My listing IS a private room already and the guest got this message. I had several guests reach out with inquiries this week and none ended up booking yet all we’re interested. When I reached back out to them ALL ghosted me. By their name it said “not possible” suddenly yet the inquiry was still there, thus showing they hadn’t booked anywhere else yet. Finally one guest sent me the message she’d been getting. I think the others got it as well but were afraid to book with me now. 5 year 4.8-5 star super host.  If the trick is to switch to private room, what’s the trick if you’re already a private room? And what about the guests this message is scaring away?! 

[Alisha-And-David0]

My listing IS a private room already and the guest got this message. I had several guests reach out with inquiries this week and none ended up booking yet all we’re interested. When I reached back out to them ALL ghosted me. By their name it said “not possible” suddenly yet the inquiry was still there, thus showing they hadn’t booked anywhere else yet. Finally one guest sent me the message she’d been getting. I think the others got it as well but were afraid to book with me now. 5 year 4.8-5 star super host.  If the trick is to switch to private room, what’s the trick if you’re already a private room? And what about the guests this message is scaring away?! 

[Quin338]

This is pretty infuriating. I've been hosting on Airbnb for 3 years, and now I can't book my own place because I'm under 25.

I still only have 2 positive reviews because hosts rarely leave them.

[Super47]

More recent and up-to-date thread, minformation on this topic.. 

"Back To Our Roots".. So Why Is Airbnb Promoting Hotels Over Homesharers.. 
https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/quot-Back-To-Our-Roots-quot-So-Why-Is-Airbnb-Promoting-Hote...

[Ricardo1296]

This must suck for you hosts, i get the exact same message when trying to book anything, i am way way way over 25, i am not throwing a party, hell i have no friends to throw a party. If i was a host i would be furious with Airbnb and asking to be reimbursed for lost business. i tried to ask why i am prevented from booking and they tell me its a glitch in their system to keep trying, well i tried several properties and it tells me the message above, go find a single room or a hotel. 

sounds shady 

[Sarah977]

@Ricardo1296  It's not necessarily shady, it's Airbnb's constant platform glitches and terrible customer service. It's ridiculous that you're unable to book.