Sad farewell to AirBnB

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

Today is the day we say goodbye to AirBnB as hosts. Over three years ago we began hosting on this site and while there were issues, we were very happy with the guests who came our way. Since the arrival of Plus and the dramatic increase in hosts in our area, we went from 99% of bookings with AirBnB to our current state of 0%. That is despite being superhosts, etc. All of our bookings now come from other platforms and we are very pleased with the quality of guests and the reliability of their platforms, plus their telephone support if there is ever a problem. 

We will be staying as members as we like using AirBnB as travellers - good luck to everyone, thank you for your advice over the years and here are the top four things we have learned.

1. Be welcoming to your guests, remember they may be as nervous as you - they will appreciate a smile and warm welcome
2. Don't undersell yourself as you will get the wrong type of guest
3. Hosting in your own home is tiring so remember to take a break occasionally
4. Try see your property/guest room from a guest's perspective - what would you change or do differently?

[Eric1089]

i dont blame you.  i am on the edge of leaving airbnb myself.  Airbnb doesn't care one bit about jts hosts.

I have given airbnb endless oppoutunities to make things right and yet they  just have absolutely failed in the customer service.   

Payouts are inconsistent and late!  The airbnb staff fail to follow their own terms and conditions on such a frequent basis that it appears to be a company policy!

i spend over 75 hours a month dealing with such unprofessionals at airbnb that its not cost effective any longer to pay airbnb fees for such unprofessional services.  

i wish there was some way to reach upper management but that request has been denied a minimum 1000 times!

[Susan1028]

@Gerry0 and Rashid

Sorry to see you leaving as hosts.  Thank you for your wisdom and good humor in this forum.

Better service and more bookings for the same or lower fees is drawing many conscientious hosts away from this platform.

Im caring for a disabled family member and depend on the income from my listing to make things work, so I can’t wait for my bookings to bottom out here.

Im “comparison shopping” myself and am very pleasantly surprised by some.  Would love to know what’s working well for you as a reply here or via private message. 

Wishing you both much happiness and continued prosperity.

[Sudsrung0]

Sad to hear you feeling that way about Aibnb In my experience of hosting properties for the last 7 years it's the best of a bad bunch, it works the best out here in Thailand and we do use other platforms but most of our business comes from Airbnb.

Having said that we do have 3 small studio rooms with a pool we dont list on Airbnb only Booking.com and we constantly get bookings everyday so at the moment I dont think we will list on Airbnb,

We are listed on a few web sites so I think you have to give some a try and see which ones work in your area or country.

Tripadvisor we have only had one booking in the last 12 months but it might work better in Europe or the USA if you dont try you will never know.

I must add all our properties are stand alone we dont home share maybe the demand has gone for shared homes.......?

[Jeff158]

Well flippin eck @Gerry-And-Rashid0  sad to see you go but understandable, my bookings are lower on airbnb these days.  

[Lizzie]

Hello @Gerry-And-Rashid0,

I am so sad to read you message here and hear you are leaving Airbnb. 

Your contribution as an Airbnb host to the many guests you have hosted and the amazing knowledge you have shared here in the CC will be sorely missed. It has been a pleasure to have you part of the community and I very much hope you will still pop by to visit us and know that you are still very much welcome here. 

We still have you great Community Spotlight to remember you by, of which you were one of the very first to take part in the series. 

I still hope you will return to Airbnb hosting at some point and if you feel there is anything that can be done to help boost your bookings, then please do let me know.

Thank you for everything you have shared here and I wish you and Rashid, the very best with the future. 

Lizzie

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

Thank you Lizzie - best wishes and appreciate your help in our early days!

[Robin4]

@Lizzie

Lizzie I am cross because of Gerry and Rashid's decision to leave, after all their help here, but there is something of a pattern developing here and I wonder if there is some way you can intervene and, with your influence,  put the community's concerns towards the company decision makers! We used to have a discussion room called Host Voice, which we were lead to believe promoted our issues to company decision makers, but I have not seen any evidence of that for the best part of a year.

I am sad to see the company I have loved over the past three years dismantling itself! I have just gone back over the last two days of posts here on the CC! A year or two ago we joked and had fun involving ourselves with each other and exchanging our experiences. Now, as a group, we seem frightened and are more concerned with self-preservation. We shoot from the hip with advice because we no longer know what is going on. We are all puzzled by what the company is doing!

I decided to stop at a dozen CC links…..but I could have gone on to one hundred, maybe even one thousand if I had wanted to troll back a month or two.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Guest-booked-a-room-but-takes-over-the-whole-house-for-a...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Hosts-beware-first-time-guests/m-p/933344#M232872

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Booking-request-with-no-verifications/m-p/932504#M232637

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Warning-hosts-of-a-potential-risk-guest/m-p/933288#M2328...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Hi-Guys-I-need-urgent-advice-for-my-airbnb-listing/m-p/9...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/How-do-i-properly-deal-with-damages-caused-by-guest-Brok...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Guests-refuse-to-pay-extra-person-fee-and-Airbnb-dont-su...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Theft-Warning-in-Hamilton-ON/m-p/932848#M232724

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/I-received-a-death-threat-from-my-AirBNB-guest-amp-AirBN...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/More-outrageous-Airbnb-Policies-against-Hosts-More-refun...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/House-trashed-wrecked-destroyed-by-guest/td-p/76067/page...

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Sad-farewell-to-AirBnB/m-p/933336#M232869

These hosts all thought they were doing the right thing! They felt they were worth being promoted by their performance, not the depth of their pocket, and were trusting the guests Airbnb were so keen to have the host accept that the company made a conscious decision to withhold relevant information!

We are not a happy community any more, @Susan will tell you the statistics, I will just tell you the sadness I feel that those who were fawned over by this company and promised such lofty support suddenly find themselves with a property and no business….and little or no support!

Daily we are seeing wonderful hosts….Superhosts  like Gerry and Rashid, David from Como, Marlene from London, John from Boise, Kendell and Dereck from CA, another John from the UK moving away from here and going to other platforms  where they feel supported and wanted.

Sooner or later someone at the top has to stop telling us to drink the Kool-Aid...... and return to the days where we as hosts mattered!

Lizzie, I don't find myself getting enjoyment here any more because too many good hosts are being hung out to dry by the company. As a carer, I have my fair share of taxing issues in my life, I come here to help, not run into company brick walls!

Cheers......Rob

[Kathy33]

Well said Rob! And thanks

[Ben613]

Thanks for the info!

[Robin4]

@Ben613, well strange Ben I still cannot access a direct message box for you.

Mate I will look at this another way, back to you shortly!

Cheers.........Rob

[Susan1028]

Thank you Rob.

As usual, your grace and clarity shines through.

[Rebecca181]

@Rob0 As I mentioned elsewhere, I had 50K worth of bookings with Airbnb in just 20 months; but these days keeping dates open for Airbnb is my last priority - Because I am obviously a last priority for them. As are most of us traditional, home-sharing hosts. The only real thing that vexes me these days is why can't Corporate just be honest about the fact they don't value our presence on the platform anymore?

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Gerry-And-Rashid0

It is so sad to see good old members go...  😞

our bookings dropped from 1100 € last February to 175 € this year,  our neighbors are also empty and when they get guests than they are from Booking.com. We are also researching other booking sites, preferably with better security deposit, better refund policy, better map view/visibility and fewer penalties/more freedom for hosts.

Airbnb is not what it was just 2 years ago.... it seems everything is falling apart.. 

[Ben551]

I wonder whether things will change after the IPO. Maybe Google will takeover Airbnb, who knows... I would not put it past them... PS: called it here first!

[Susan17]

@Gerry-And-Rashid0

Very sad - but not surprised - to read this. Such a huge loss to the Airbnb hosting community, and to the CC. Wishing you the very best of luck and success in your future endeavours.