New Airbnb Feature : Teams

[Ben551]

Greetings ~

I may have missed the announcement on this, but yesterday morning I noticed a new feature called “Teams” roll out on the Airbnb App. It looks like it is intended to allow hosts to invite other parties to help manage listings (i.e. cleaners or property managers). Most people do this via other apps like Smartbnb or (the free one) YourPorter, but it looks like Airbnb wants in on this action.

It also seems to allow hosts to completely customise the permissions for each team member!

This is actually quite good because not all hosts have “equal” arrangements with a cohost. Some don’t want co-hosts to be able to amend pricing, others do... this new feature allows full control over who does what, plus communication to the team.

[Daniel1598]

@Ben551 thanks for the info. Great for you guys to have early access to new functions. Well.. pros and cons to being beta guinea pigs. Overall, cool I'd say.

[Lizzie]

Hello @Ben551, 

Thanks for sharing this here in the Community Center. I have to admit, I don't know a lot about this new feature, but I agree it looks very interesting. I'm going to try and find out a little more about this. 

I imagine, as with most Airbnb features, they are gradually rolled out to all hosts to make sure everything is working as it should be. 

I'll let you know when I hear more, but please do continue to share what you are seeing and how you might use this. 🙂

Thanks everyone,

Lizzie

[Helen267]

please do find out some more, Lizzie - this would be great for me to add my cleaners to it without making them co-hosts, but I'm testing it on my husband first and there are SO MANY glitches, we just can't get it to work

[Zappa0]

@Lizzie This just appeared on my desktop and read through the endless list of terms and conditions. I'm still trying to find out if team members can register so that they receive a 1099 tax form from airbnb (for the US). Can we pay them a cut directly through the system like we did with co-hosts?  If it saves me this headache that would be fantastic! 

[Emilia42]

I noticed the 'teams' as well, @Ben551 . Seems that is geared to help property management companies and those with dozens of listings. I don't think I'll have much use for it.

[Ben551]

@Emilia42  Yeah, I think it’s definitely more useful for folks with multiple listings. Even so, it has made co-hosting with my wife’s account easier. Previously she couldn’t see half the things on her account that I wanted her to see. This change has fixed that. I added her to a new team and gave her “god powers” over the listing. Now a bunch of performance stuff is visible to her.

From July I’m going to be too busy to manage the listing like I do now, so am glad this feature is in place now. I will setup the other co-host or property manager with the roles they need to sort out the cleaner and do turnover, then let them get on with it. We will still have a break between turnovers though... I want to inspect the place when I get home and know it’s up to scratch before guests arrive the next day...

This teams idea is perfectly timed.

@Lizzie I have noticed a pattern with new changes coming to our region before others. I can tell because about a month after I get new stuff I see posts on this forum going “woah new feature”. At first I thought ya’ll were just slow to notice things hahaha. It turns out I’m getting them early. Now that I know that I’ll try to pay more attention.

Lizzie, I can also see a new “Team Transaction History” page under settings, which I believe is intended to track all the payouts to people in the team.

I can also see a type of unique access, which is perfect for my accountant:

Finances

Review and create reports for earnings and transaction history.

[Wendy533]

How did you add your wife? Did you have to remove her as a co-host before inviting her? I'm trying to add my co-host and it won't let me or maybe I just don't understand how.

[Ben551]

Sorry @Wendy533 I missed this question without the tag... yeah I had to remove my wife as a cohost then add her as a team member. I changed it back after tinkering around a bit and haven’t played with it since then... slipped my mind actually

[Julie3777]

Hi Wendy

Did you solve this problem?  I want to add someone (who I already have) as a co-host.  It looks like it has changed to TEAMS however, the person I want to add is already a co-host.  I presume I need to remove them as a co-host and add them as a team member.  However, I cannot see how to remove them as a co-host.

[Susan17]

@Ben551 

Homesharers and small independent hosts need to be extremely wary of signing up to use ProTools on the site, and cognisant of the potential legal and operational implications. 

This is yet another preferential feature, designed specifically for the benefit of the professional and commercial operators with 6 or more listings on the platform, and while it is possible for small hosts to access Pro Tools, they're really not intended for use by non-Pros. 

When clicking any of the "learn more" icons on the Performance/Teams page, one is taken directly to this page with information on "how to use professional hosting tools". Hosts with 6 or more listings are automatically granted access, while everyone else is redirected to "Account Settings", where they see the following... 

[Susan17]

We need to bear in mind that Airbnb is coming under increased pressure from the EU Commission and various consumer and regulatory bodies worldwide, to seperate and clearly identify professional and commercial entities from small independent hosts on the platform.

EU Press Release - Sept 2018

"In addition, Airbnb has committed to clearly identifying whether an offer is made by a private host or by a professional, as the consumer protection rules differ for each. The company has until the end of 2018 to make these changes on all EU language versions of their website"

(As yet, Airbnb appears not to be in compliance with the directives)

Therefore, given the grouping of the "Use Professional Tools" button, along with the "Add Your Business Details", and "Create Company Account" buttons, it's fair to assume that anyone who does sign up for the feature, may very well find themselves erroneously included in future stats as a "Professional" or "Business" Airbnb user (whether or not they complete the sections to add business details or create a company account) And as Airbnb now routinely hands over host data to local governments and municipal authorities in pursuit of more lenient regulations, non-professional hosts could very conceivably be opening up a whole can of worms for themselves by inadvertently straying into the Pro-designated sector of the platform. 

So unless you really are  a professional/commercial operator, and until Airbnb provides some clarity and transparency on the Pro vs  Home host situation, and the legal and contractual obligations of same, it's probably wise to pass on the Pro Tools option for the moment. 

[Ben551]

Interesting re: EU requirements.

The “Add your business details” feature is only shown to people in the EU, naturally, so I didn’t even know it existed until your post. I wonder if it will be shown to UK people after Brexit.... 

[Susan17]

@Ben551 

That's where it gets even more confusing. Yes, these requirements have been updated on the site for EU users, but that's because Airbnb has been forced to do so by the EU Commission, on foot of recent Airbnb-specific legislation. 

However, hosts (including homesharers) in many other countries around the world have had their payments witheld until they signed up for an Airbnb business account too, once they pass the earnings threshold (AUD15k, €9.3k or local equivalent). I'm going to try and tag Australian hosts, Lisa and Jayesh, in here, who have had personal experience of this. 

It's worth noting too, that hosts worldwide - with the exception of US, China and India - also contract through Airbnb Ireland, which is obviously subject to all EU rules and legislation. It's unclear at this point if/how non-EU hosts who come under the umbrella of Airbnb Ireland are affected by the rulings, but for sure, Airbnb did amend several policies recently in those countries too, that they were compelled to amend in Europe by the EU Commission (how pricing is displayed, being just one). So from the evidence so far, it does look as if whatever changes come into affect for EU hosts, are also being applied to all non-EU hosts who transact through Airbnb Ireland. 

As regards hosts with business accounts on Airbnb being legally obliged to clearly display their business details - including phone number - on their listings, I'd imagine that would be governed by the laws in each specific jurisdiction, but I'm not 100% sure on that, and trying to get straight answers from Airbnb on the matter - or any matter - is like getting blood from a stone

[Ben551]

@Susan17 interesting... hey I wonder if US hosts can see the “Add your business details” button for EU rules? Certainly can’t in NZ.  It sure if Australia is different...

It seems odd to suggest that Airbnb would roll out an EU specific thing to the world... why do you think that’s even likely? Not that it would make any difference in NZ.. so not asking for my own concern... 

[Piotr30]

Hello everyone! Me and my business partner are willing to sign up our company accounts for this new feature as it will improve greatly on the performance of our team. However, we still have doubts as how much this will contribute to our "corporate" image. Do you think this would make any difference to our potential guests that their host is a company? We always saw Airbnb as a place where guests are more concerned about their experience and being treated individually. I'm curious what are your thoughts.

Also, does anyone know if I would finally be able to merge listings from my other co-host account so that they're finally visible under one and the same "team"? This would improve my performance greatly in the terms of bureaucracy (invoices) and finances (payouts).