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.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Ben551 - Teams have been installed for me here in NA.  Here is the Help Center information I found about "Teams" https://www.airbnb.com/help/search?q=team

[Ben551]

@Alice-and-Jeff0  Ah there we go. Looks like it’s rolling it’s way out.

[Wende2]

So the addition of this new feature, it's sounding like it may actually be directed to those user's of the newly acquired HotelTonight.?

[Calvin15]

Hello Everyone,

Good day.  I've been trying to explore this new feature Team and here is something a host should know before testing:

1.  As a listing owner, you need to remove all cohosts of all your listings before you can invite them to join the team you created.

2. Your cohosts should avoid being in any Team, even in the Team they created themseleves.  Otherwise, you will not be able to invite them.

3.  So far there is NO way to delete the Team you create yourself.  So, if your cohost accidentally creates a Team, the system will prevent you from inviting him/her.

I am a cohost and now because of Point 2 & 3, the system refuse to allow my listing owner invite me to join her Team and there is no way out.  Headache!!  (did anyone find a solution one this?)

Regards,

-Calvin

[Ben551]

Oh yikes, that potentially sounds like a lock out glitch @Calvin15 - I suggest getting in touch with Airbnb. Though... I would do it in a week or so, when their CS have had time to learn about the feature themselves 😄

[Calvin15]

Thanks, @Ben551 and I already did.   No solution yet as of now 😞

[Ben551]

@Calvin15 it doesn’t sound like this feature was well tested before release...

[Dev4]

@Calvin

I am in a similar situation where I am an Airbnb Host for a few properties on my Company's account and then a co-host to a few Airbnb hosts. I want to explore this functiion so that my team members (who are listed as co-hosts) will be part of the team. 

My question is can a member be part of Team for multiple hosts? 

Airbnb customer service, in my opinion, is very poor when it comes to new features. 

Regards,

Dev

[Helen267]

I think the team feature would be so so so valuable to me - as a remote host of a single entire property that is serviced by a cleaning company - if only I could get it to work!

It would be great to give the cleaners ability to view my calendar and guest correspondence, without them being able to view the financial details or have the power to accept or decline guests.

I am testing this on my husband to makes sure it works before getting the cleaners involved,  and I'm really struggling. I have removed my husband as co host and added him as a team member, but I can't get the team function to work for him at all. I'll give it 24 hours and try again.

Anyone else had this?

[Calvin15]

Hello @Helen267 , thanks for sharing and same frustation here.   I could not even get invited as I described in one of the post, and may I know what your situation is?

[Helen267]

Hi @Calvin15 - I'm the listing owner and I'm not a cohost with anyone else. 

I had my husband as cohost, but yesterday I deleted him as a cohost and then immediately added him to my team. He was sent an email to join my Team and he clicked that he accepted.

On my host dashboard it shows he has accepted, and has basic privileges, but when he logs into his Airbnb account he can't access the Team feature at all.

I am hoping this glitch is because I deleted him as cohost and invited him as Team member within a short space of time, and that after 24 hours it will work.

However, I am also testing this by inviting a friend who I am meeting up with later on today (and who has never been my cohost) to join my team.  I'll let you know how I get on.

[Helen267]

Update to say: I've got it working but since team members with the most basic level of permission are allowed to view the amount of the booking fee for each booking, I can't use it since I consider that business confidential information

[Nick55]

---

@Helen267 wrote:

I think the team feature would be so so so valuable to me - as a remote host of a single entire property that is serviced by a cleaning company - if only I could get it to work!

It would be great to give the cleaners ability to view my calendar and guest correspondence, without them being able to view the financial details or have the power to accept or decline guests.

I am testing this on my husband to makes sure it works before getting the cleaners involved,  and I'm really struggling. I have removed my husband as co host and added him as a team member, but I can't get the team function to work for him at all. I'll give it 24 hours and try again.

Anyone else had this?

---

I tried the same with my wife who was a co-host but the first problem was to delete her as a co-host because ihe deletion process aways got stuck at the last step using any computer or browser. Finally after the third call to customer services someone there told me to clear the browser cache and then all worked fine. I only managed to get the team function to work for my wife in the end by creating a new Airbnb account for her with a different email address. 

[Daniela1119]

I was very excited about the Teams feature as our property has multiple employees with different functions and levels of authority.  HOWEVER-- there is one huge drawback so far that has prevented this new feature being useful at all-- the calendar rule sets and color coding do NOT copy over to new team members.  This means the new team member can't see what minimums have been set AT ALL-- it just says "custom rule" and there are no colors to easily visualize what minimums are set when. Until Airbnb fixes this, the new Team feature has practically no use to us. 

[Nick55]

Hi,

I've been trying to use the new Teams feature for about a week or ten days so far because it seemed idea solution for my company as we have multiple properties and staff. To date my staff have always had to access Airbnb using my account!

However, it has caused me to have to call Airbnb customer services several times to get help with things that look like bugs or maybe a lack usability testing by the developers to me. Sadly, I have yet to find any of their staff that know more than me about Teams and scarily several admitted to not having heard of them and thought I was talking about co-hosting!

Making our external accounting company a team member with only access to the Finances section has made both their jobs and mine much easier regarding our quarterly tax returns to the Spanish tax authorities and the six-monthly tourist tax tracking and payment. That’s certainly a success story Teams.

The most annoying problem we have encountered is whatever the rights given my assistant cannot use the 'Send or Request Money' option or access the resolution center.

We use the 'Request Money' function to provide another payment option to our guests to settle the amount required for tourist tax, which cannot be included in the base rental because it is a per person per night amount and should not be subject to Airbnb service charges.

Nothing worse for the person doing the check in to find the guest is unaware they will have to pay tourist tax on arrival in cash or by credit card. Consequently, we warn all our guest before they arrive and give them the option to settle payment via Airbnb, which is very popular.

According to the Guest management rights option the team member can: Edit reservations and calendar, pre-approve, contact, and review guests, send offers and file claims. Therefor if the team member can file claims why can't they request money or access the resolution center?

This means my assistant can do nearly everything as a team member but still has to use my account to send money requests.

The messaging is great because now it's easy to see who is sending the message and avoids both my assistant and I replying to the same message. However, as a team member using the latest version of Chrome with the cache cleared to access the web based version of Airbnb there is no way to make use of the 'Use a Saved Message' option. It has just disappeared from the 'Send Message' text box. Although it is available in the mobile phone app as a team member.

Customer services told me it was always preferable to use the mobile phone app to manage Airbnb listings. Very odd because I clearly remember when that application didn't even exist. The mobile app is very useful when out and about but after nine years of listing on Airbnb I much prefer to work using my computer via their web interface.

Anyway, I could love teams if they worked and if I could get some support.

Please let me know if anyone has solutions to our problems.