Superhost Grant

[Alexandra199]

Has anyone successfully received the Superhost Grant? Does anyone, like me, think that they are eligible for the grant but have not been contacted? Any idea how to appeal this because Airbnb CS are unable to help?

[Anonymous]

Will all eligible Superhosts be invited to apply?

There are hundreds of thousands of Superhosts around the world. While everyone in our community is feeling the impact of COVID-19, we are using this fund to offer meaningful aid to some of the Superhosts whose earnings have been hit hardest.

That means not all eligible Superhosts will be invited to apply for a relief grant. Airbnb will be prioritizing invitations for hosts based on a number of reasons, including how long they've been a Superhost and how badly their earnings have been impacted, at its sole discretion, and award relief grants to hosts that demonstrate the most urgent financial need.

@Alexandra199  The 4 words most relevant to your question here are "at its sole discretion." That means Airbnb can invite however many or few hosts it pleases, based not only upon the criteria it's made public but also upon ones it has no intention of announcing or justifying. They're still supposedly sending out invitations up until 15 May - maybe you'll get one, maybe not.

An "appeals process" wouldn't make sense here. It's a promotional stunt, not an entitlement.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Alexandra199 @Anonymous 

I am totally puzzled about this, as well. I have not received an invitation to apply for this grant, and it is already mid-May..

I became a Superhost the first group in 2014, and have not lapsed the entire time, with a 5 star average. Last year the company sent me a brass key for 20+ quarters of being a Superhost. It is a lot of work, as you know, and a source of pride, also gratitude to my German mother, a surgical nurse who drilled into me at a young age the standards of keeping a perfect and sanitary home. 

In addition, we are over 70, hosting in our home - the perfect poster children for the tradition and the origin of this amazing thing we are part of. We prudently blocked our calendar in mid-February when people in the SF and SJ area started becoming ill with this virus. Our last guests are from the SF area, and frequent international travelers, including just before they arrived here at our home.

Yes, our hosting income is important to maintaining our wilderness home, our ranch property and paying our taxes.  What we offer to our guests is value beyond price; here in heavily populated California where a home like ours in such a location is rare, indeed. When it will be safe for us to  host again is unknown. Our county health department has banned hosting until further notice.  

Would we qualify? We believe so. Have we the longevity to be included? Yes. Have we been invited to apply? Not yet. It is May 12. Tightening my belt and enjoying the spectacular view from the mountaintop here in my all-glass home. Staying healthy, working on our firebreak,  and so missing sharing this with guests from all over. Wishing everyone well, healthy, and safe. 

[Helen350]

@Alexandra199  See also https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/So-only-5-of-superhosts-will-get-the-superhost-relief-fu... 

[Alexandra199]

Got this response today:

We appreciate you getting back to us with your email address. You can find the eligibility criteria here: http://abnb.do/60111hpCX We're prioritizing invitations by inviting tenured Superhosts who are most in financial need first. This means not all eligible hosts may necessarily be invited. You will know by May 15th whether you've received an invitation or not.

I am not impressed. How are they deciding who is most in need without knowing what each persons financial situation is?? This seems ridiculously unfair and biased 

[Anonymous]

@Alexandra199  "Financial need" is a very misleading way to portray the actual metric they claim their algorithm is using - that being, the year-on-year differential between your listings' 2019 earnings and 2020 earnings. That sounds rather upside-down to me; if you're a longstanding host who had unusually low earnings in 2019 - say, maybe your listing was down for months due to a natural disaster or a health issue - you're in an even tougher spot for 2020 than one who had an exceptionally successful 2019.  This metric also automatically favors expensive listings in major year-round markets over lower-cost listings in seasonal or developing markets. 

But if Airbnb were really making donations out of charity, to the human beings most in need during a time of crisis, it would be incredibly stupid for them to single out Airbnb hosts in rich western countries. And that's what bothers me most about this program: they're appropriating the language of non-profit charity to describe what ultimately amounts to a PR campaign and an MVP bonus for the hosts who look best for the brand. It's no coincidence that days after saying they were suspending their advertising budget, they sent out press releases about this "relief fund" far and wide to get it maximum exposure. 

Also, Santa Claus is fake.

[Helen3]

I agree @Anonymous  and have made this point several times.

The problem is they are allocating money to hosts which on paper may have the highest income loss because they have a couple of whole listings in an expensive country as opposed to a host who who has a room in a shared home say in north Africa, India, the Philippines etc.

Just because on paper they have the highest income differential doesn't mean they are hosts in the most need as they a) may still be able to host b) have access to welfare benefits and mortgage breaks not available in many developing countries and c) from what has been posted on forums, they are often hosts with other properties and partners with their own business or professional level incomes.

[Anonymous]

@Helen3  You were one of the first hosts in this community to speak out about this, and I agree with you completely.

I've lost a lot this year, not just one job but three - it's a far bigger setback in life than I care to whine about on the internet. The fact is, I'm in Germany. We have a social safety net. I'm not going hungry (if anything, I'm eating too much out of sheer boredom), and I'm not going to be put out on the street. Millions of people in are experiencing genuine hardship now, and not just in the third world - look at the hourslong queues of Americans at food banks - and it feels extremely tone deaf and myopic to whine about losing income I expected from the ridiculous privilege of having more housing space than I needed to keep a roof over my head.

But Airbnb's brand was not ever, at any point, advertising its utility to third-world families with precarious housing or food security. During the years they spent amassing the clientele of property managers running illegal hotels in major cities (as Susan repeatedly warned us about), Airbnb's official line to the jurisdictions trying to regulate them was that they mostly represented middle-class moms and pops and Treehouse-humping hipsters renting a spare room to help pay the bills. Nobody who is paying attention will be surprised that the winners of their "relief" lottery will primarily coincide with the demographic they're trying to associate themselves with while taking most of their profits from the more unsavory income stream.

[Sarah977]

Yep, they completely misrepresented the basis upon which they were going to give out grants. Whether this was done on purpose or simply because they are too stupid to understand that a difference in income between last year is not the way one assesses need, is immaterial. They got a lot of very needy hosts hopes up for nothing, while grants went to the biggest earners. 

[Robbie54]

At the end of the day Airbnb have shown themselves to be a sly, untrustworthy and a unreliable source of up to date information (this isn't a new thing). I'd be very surprised that when most of us hosts are back up and running it would be in the same high numbers as before. I honestly think Airbnb have shot themselves in the foot many times over these past 2/3 months, and it's gonna come back and haunt them very soon.

[Ephraim0]

Forget superhost fund not even receiving the promised 25 percent. More like 5 percent since the beginning.  Completely without explanation. 

Latest round. $66 on what they say is nearly $2000 in booking cancelations. Unbelievable. 

[Heidi555]

I agree with all that has been said - their policy/process doesn't seem to hang together - and why the cut off now - this thing still has a long way to go and in the UK at least, looks set to run through until Jul and possibly beyond - just the bookings start to ramp up. So why are the lost earnings for this period being not included in the calculation - or am I missing the point? All that said - I would wish the fund to focus on those who truly need it and are dependant on the income (i do not include myself in this category) - unfortunately from what others record as the process, it doesn't appear that this system will necessarily achieve it.

[Kristian13]

Thanks for sharing this info.

[Christine615]

I'm disappointed. Really disappointed. Why roll this out publically then? We haven't had a booking since March. Even then, I refunded two guests who cancelled due to Covid-19 in accordance with Airbnb's new policy. I received $55 from Airbnb. But my cohost was furloughed and Missouri has been dragging it's feet on paying any unemployment. So I've been paying for expenses out of the rest of my savings (mortgage, utilities, etc.) One unit. Superhost rating.

Sometimes I wish they had just paid select hosts behind the scenes rather than announce the grant is available then add that its invitation only. It only breeds resentment.

[Helen3]

Join the club @Christine615  in the UK no one is allowed to host until at least 4 July so we have been without Airbnb income since March and will be for at last another six weeks so we are all having to pay mortgage/rent and bills on our properties.

Have you thought of letting out to key workers or moving your listing to a long term rental for the next three-six months.

Good luck and hope things turn around for you soon.