Maintaining my Superhost status during Covid-19 pandemic

[Janet983]

Hello everyone. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, I blocked out my calendar for summer 2020 as my guest accommodation is in my large, beautiful garden and I couldn’t risk visitors bringing the virus to me. I close down in the winter as we are essentially summer holiday stays.  Therefore,  I have had no guests this year and am assuming I will have my Superhost status automatically cancelled.
This seems extremely unfair as we have to work hard at getting that status and don’t want to lose it because of being cautious about the risk to our health from this terrible virus. How many other hosts are in this situation? Surely, in these circumstances,  Airbnb should remove their minimum of 10 reservations criteria this year so that we can start 2021 with the Superhost status that we gained in 2019.  What are your thoughts on this? Did you also do the right thing and prevent holiday guests bringing the virus to you by blocking out your calendar?

[Anonymous]

@Janet983   Airbnb did suspend the 10 reservations criterion for the last quarter, and it's not inconceivable that they might do so again for the next assessment.  But the pandemic may well last for years, and there's not really much in it for them as a company to keep pumping out rewards to inactive hosts. 

That's the thing:  this whole ridiculous Superhost program has nothing to do with rewarding hosts for hard work and excellence; it's all about using status anxiety to manipulate you into making decisions that benefit their bottom line. Of course your health matters far more than the orange badge, and when you're ready to host again, guests who appreciate your large, beautiful garden won't care one bit whether you're a Superhost.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Anonymous Whilst people maintain their Superhost status with the waived measures they do not get the financial reward so it doesn't actually cost anything.

[Anonymous]

@Mike-And-Jane0  That's true now, but If I remember correctly, they added the caveat about not getting the bonus voucher after the first quarter or two of the initial waiver. 

And the voucher was a nice perk, but $100 per year coupon is pretty small in proportion to the angst some hosts feel about attaining or losing it.

[Janet983]

Thank you very much Andrew for updating me on the 10 reservations criteria. You are right about all the hard work we all put into hosting. However, younger members of my family who toured Scotland last year, staying at Airbnb accom and other online booking platform accom, said that Airbnb hosts were so much more caring and interested than hosts on other platforms. It’s because we are all trying for Superhost status!  It definitely makes a difference for our guests but is hard work for us. Thank you again for updating me and doing so within 1 hour of me posting my message. 

[Anonymous]

@Janet983  You're welcome! 

I would beg to differ that Airbnb hosts are all trying for Superhost status. I couldn't care less about it myself; it is to hosting as a sticker on a child's homework is to a quality education. Airbnb tries hard to jump in your face and micromanage you with its hollow threats and infantilizing rewards, but they're just your listing service. You're doing this job for you, not for them - and at the end of the day, having happy guests and steady income is enough reward for a job well done.

[Paolo466]

@Janet983 I completely agree with you. By the 1st of April I will lose my Superhost status because I'd not 10 guests or 3 guests for 100 nights. I live in Milan and it is very difficult to find guests. Airbnb should consider to avoid yearly rewards like 100$ coupon and use a mild approach to evaluate Superhost in this very difficult period. 

[Helen3]

How do you know you will lose your status.  @Paolo466 

I think they are likely to extend the period where hosts don't need to meet the minimum guest criteria 

[Paolo466]

Hi @Helen3 , indeed, you are absolutely right. But I found in my private area that, at the moment, I've not all I need to maintain Superhost status. I post a screenshot... I've only 2 stays out 10.... and at the moment is almost impossible to reach 8 guests in 2 moths...

[Sarah977]

@Paolo466 I haven't hosted since March due to having a home-share listing re the pandemic. So I have had no guests at all since then and still am retaining Superhost because Airbnb has waived the number of stays/days booked requirement for the past few quarters. I don't know how long they will continue to do that, though. I should hope for some time, as so much of the world has restricted travel now.

[Lucille-and-Michael0]

@Janet983 I’m glad you raised these issues, we’ve been in this situation since March 2020 where we would like to keep offering our space (private room under our roof, shared wet areas) when travel is allowed and hosting deemed safe - which fortunately for Australia was the case for some of the past year, but we ended up blocking our calendar due to guests requesting to book during periods of restrictions even though the listing obviously isn’t appropriate for self-isolation or quarantining, so that we’ve had to decline requests and redirect those guests to the health and state government directives (and the option of self-contained accommodation at least..!)

Like @Paolo466 we have noticed that Airbnb have started counting the number of bookings again towards this quarter, so we too stand to lose our Superhost status.

Interesting to hear from someone who doesn’t value the Superhost badge @Anonymous , I know that as a guest when travelling I always favour superhosts myself, and because we offer a private room at affordable rates (to like-minded travellers) I suspect guests might trust the listing a little more with the SH status. But I guess everyone is different. Definitely looking forward to being able to host again without worrying about virus transmission or non-compliance with health & government directives, as it makes for very awkward communication with guests in our experience! 

[Marga-and-Bart0]

Hi, I would like to get back to the requirement of minimum of 10 reservations.   In my case, in past years I had more than 80 reservations per year, while due to COVID, I'm now at 7 reservations.  Most of the time, our national or regional government simply DOES NOT ALLOW guests to come.  We have a 4,98 on overall satisfaction and I truly believe  that it simply is unfair maintain this requirement when due to force majeure it is extremely difficult to comply with it.  It would be much fairer and more proportionate to either strongly reduce this requirement (down to e.g. 3 or 5 reservation per year) and/or not count the periods of time when travelling officially is not allowed.  In my case, e.g. obviously travelling was not allowed during the great lockdown of spring 2020, but also during all the periods afterwards when the incidence has been above 400 or 500 cases / 100.000.  Thank you!

[Sarah977]

@Marga-and-Bart0  There is currently no requirement of 10 stays as a Superhost criteria. Airbnb has waived that since the pandemic started. 

Of course I don't know how long they will continue to do that

[Marga-and-Bart0]

@Sarah977 I really appreciate having made the effort of answering me, but unfortunately I believe it is not correct.  I have called Airbnb, and they have told me that for the period that ends on June 30th, the minimum of 10 reservations is compulsory again.  Also, when I look at my performance rates, Airbnb states that I haven't met the 10 reservation requirement, as you can see below.  I'm therefore quite sure that the 10 reservation rule is obligatory again, despite the fact that the crisis has not ended yet and, as I said before, I believe that this not fair nor proportionate.  Let's be clear, our apartment had an average occupation of 88%, where the remaining 12% were loose days or maintenance operations, or in other words, virtually an 100% occupation.  We've worked exclusively with Airbnb, and now, instead of having 80 reservations, we have 7 reservations, not because we did a bad job, but because of force majeure, caused by COVID and the corresponding government prohibitions.

[Sarah977]

@Marga-and-Bart0  Well, maybe they will count that at the June assessment and maybe not. The CS reps often give out incorrect info. All those stats have been shown throughout the period that they have waived them at the assessment date. Then they announced before each quarter that they were waiving them again. 

So I guess it remains to be seen come late June. If they are counting them again, there will be a whole lot of us who will lose Superhost. Many home share hosts like me have been closed due to Covid since March 2020 and there are lots of areas of the world where hosting any guests who don't fall into the "essential travel" category is strictly illegal.

They would be booting thousands of hosts off of Superhost so at least you'll be in good company 😞