Is this a scam? Email from Airbnb 'Move to our professional host fee now'

[Helen267]

Hi,

I've done a search but nothing has come up - can I ask you lovely lot what you think?

On 13 Oct I received this email from a  **   - and the address (minus the four spaces I inserted) seems legit. 

I got this along with other UK hosts I have heard of because we use a channel manager to link to Airbnb - to the best of my knowledge, hosts who manage their sites entirely on the platform have not yet been contacted.

A few things concerned me: one, just the look, font and formatting of the email don't look very Airbnb, and two, it wasn't clear whether this 14% commission offer applied to bookings taken before end December 2020 or made before end December 2020 but for any future date. I would have thought that someone from Airbnb would know this was an important distinction, and this also raised a small red flag.

I replied to the email asking the above question, got a reply (it's the latter, apparently), but I'm still hesitating before clicking on the link, not sure why but something feels a bit off.

Has anyone else received this? What did you do?

Thanks so much in advance,

Helen

**Personal information hidden due to safety reasons - Community Center Guidelines]

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Helen267 I suspect this is genuine. Which of course raises the question to @Catherine-Powell 'why, if Chesky said Airbnb are going back to their roots have you now moved to a charging structure for professional hosts that gives them a price advantage over us plebs?'

[Helen267]

@Mike-And-Jane0 oh that's not how I understood it - I get why they would want to stagger moving us all over to the new charging system, and I guess people connecting with Airbnb through a channel manager are more likely to encounter technical hitches than those working straight off the platform. You are as professional as I am (or I am as plebian as you are, whichever you prefer!) 😉

[Emiel1]

@Helen267 

At least the guy excists:

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/migueldelaossa

[Ann72]

@Helen267  I've heard about this switch, and agree with you it makes sense that hosts using channel managers would be asked to make the switch first or early. There was a discussion here last month that confirmed that:  https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Guest-Fee-waived-but-HOSTS-now-automatically-charged-15/...

Out of curiosity, Helen, do you like working with a channel manager?  How many channels does it manage?

[Marg11]

What are channel managers?

[Helen267]

@Marg11 @Ann72  a channel manager is a piece of software you use to synchronise the bookings in your calendar across all the platforms (Airbnb, BDC, VRBO plus any direct bookings to your own website) so you don't have to manually update everywhere as soon as you get a new booking. It is great for peace of mind - and I can allow IB on Airbnb (with conditions) without worrying about double bookings

I have about 65% direct bookings and 35% Airbnb, and the software I'm currently using is Lodgify - it's not perfect in other ways (automating emails to the standard I'd like is really tricky), but I would never be without a channel manager - all my bookings in the one place, always up to date.  Hope that helps!

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Helen267 Does the channel manager also allow you to set consistent pricing over the many platforms you use? Also why is it better then just synchronising the calendars over the different platforms.

[Ann72]

@Helen267  Thank you, I know what a channel manager is, so I should have been more specific.  What else does it do besides put all your bookings in one place?  For instance, I have different prices on VRBO and Airbnb.  Would a channel manager reconcile pricing across all platforms?  What about notes on certain blocked dates?  Photos and captions?  Reviews?  (When listing on a new channel, does it have a function to bring text from reviews in, or do you have to copy and paste each one?)  Any other functions you find particularly useful?

[Helen267]

Sorry Ann, I was replying to Mike&Jane's question at the same time.  I currently only list on Airbnb (got totally fed up with BDC) and direct, but I was able to have my prices on my own book-direct calendar shipped out to the OTAs with different markups. So my BDC prices were different to Airbnb, and in turn my book direct site is always best value for the guest. My calendar is master calendar, and the pricing attached to it (with my chosen markup) is what gets pushed out to the OTAs. I can't ship reviews or photos, each listing appearance has to be created on the individual OTA channel.

(I do use a reviews capture software called Repuso on my own site though - the social proof is great)

The screenshot shows my calendar. I just click on any of the guest names and can access all our correspondence and notes, regardless of how they booked.

Hope this is of interest, 🙂

[Ann72]

Amazing.  Thanks, @Helen267.  I'm heavily Airbnb but list on VRBO as well and will slowly moving in the direction of direct bookings, so this would be incredibly useful.  Thanks again!

[Christine615]

I'll be watching. I've had several people suggest I go to direct booking. I may do that for my existing guests because I'm kind of sick of Airbnb screening poorly then truncating communication with AI technology. I'd still use Airbnb, but giving repeat customers a way to stop skipping through idiotic hoops would be nice. I could also just charge a flat rate and skip the cleaning fee.

[Marg11]

@Helen267 Thanks for the explanation. Wondered because if Aibnb offloads us for not complying with the latest cleaning, mask wearing, 2 metre social distancing rules then we may need to set up an alternate booking system for our regulars and or eventually return to hosting local university students. The latter is much less cleaning but we would miss the lovely guests we meet.