Olympian & Paralympian Online Experiences

[Jo-and-Ivan0]

Have you seen the promotion?  Just go to the Airbnb home page.

I refer to Brian Chesky's memo in May after the 1,900 layoffs were announced (I added the boldface below for emphasis):

"we need to make more fundamental changes to Airbnb by reducing the size of our workforce around a more focused business strategy"

"Since we cannot afford to do everything that we used to, these cuts had to be mapped to a more focused business"

"This crisis has sharpened our focus to get back to our roots, back to the basics, back to what is truly special about Airbnb — everyday people who host their homes and offer experiences. "

"This means that we will need to reduce our investment in activities that do not directly support the core of our host community"

I may be a bit short-sighted, but just how would Olympians' hosting online experiences help EVERYDAY PEOPLE (us hosts!) do our work?

Wouldn't a re-allocation of resources and management attention to Customer Service (which has notably declined the last few months in terms of responsiveness) and a stable technology platform (no more bells and whistles User Interface changes that are not actually improvement) directly benefit EVERYDAY PEOPLE (hosts!) more?  And in turn these very hosts would be better enabled and empowered to deliver a better experience for guests?

Just a thought.

[Ann72]

@Jo-and-Ivan0  You read my mind!  

[Jo-and-Ivan0]

I just got my second email in the last 2 weeks promoting this.  And it's on the Airbnb home page.

Whilst I have had to contact Airbnb CS a handful of times during the last few months, I've been very fortunate in terms of wait times and getting (minor) issues resolved, yet I'm fully aware many hosts are having a much tougher time with basic things like talking to a live and competent CS person and getting payouts.  Nothing grandiose like fixing the rating system to be more equitable (which I'm convinced will never happen).

I see this silly promotion and then go back Brian Chesky's memo and...it's just more spin.  A leopard can't change its spots.

How about actually getting the BASIC stuff working?  No wonder all these long-time hosts are leaving.

[Sarah977]

Lipstick on a pig. 

It's no wonder their tech team doesn't get around to fixing all their ongoing and never-ending glitches when they are tasked instead with completely changing the format of our hosting pages for no logical reason, and coming up with daily-changing graphics for "Olympian Experiences".

This company is deaf, dumb, and blind. But one thing they really excel at is lying and treating their users as if they are stupid annoyances.