Superhost Relief Fund

[Moreno-and-Stefania0]

Hi, I have a doubt about the following programme: Superhost Relief Fund

All the superhosts with the requirements required (almost one year with the superhost title, no more than 2 announcements under the same profile, profile with identity verified) will receive the invitation to apply to the programme or a previous selection will be done?

[Sarah977]

@Moreno-and-Stefania0  No, not all Superhosts will receive an invitation- it's a selection process, supposedly based on "need", but now it seems that how Airbnb determines "need" is quite suspect. See @Susan17's post about halfway down this thread :

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/COVID-19-Discussions/Haven-t-received-Grant-Invitation-yet-and-r...

[Moreno-and-Stefania0]

Hi Sarah, do you have any idea about the criterias that Airbnb uses to determines the most needed superhosts before sending the invitation?

[Sarah977]

@Moreno-and-Stefania0  Nope, not a clue.

[Huma0]

@Moreno-and-Stefania0 

They have updated the information to say they will be basing this criteria on lost Airbnb income (comparing this year to last, or something like that) but I have no idea if that means those who have lost the biggest percentage of their Airbnb income or the largest amount of income in $$.

Also, although previously, the article said you needed to be a Superhost for a year or more (not nearly a year as you mentioned), the update says that they will focus first on those who have been Superhosts for four or more years.

[Huma0]

See: https://www.airbnb.co.uk/resources/hosting-homes/a/april-28-helping-you-prepare-for-the-future-of-tr... 

Update after Brian Chesky's latest video to hosts.

"

Clarifying our Superhost Relief Fund eligibility

Another topic that’s come up a lot in our global listening sessions is the Superhost Relief Fund, which was created to help some of our most experienced hosts who are struggling financially.

• To start, we’re inviting the longest-standing members of our community—which typically means they’ve had Superhost status for four or more years. We’re also comparing these hosts’ earnings from this year and last year to make sure we’re inviting hosts who’ve been most impacted by the current crisis.
• Hosts who are eligible will be invited by Airbnb—we’ve already started sending out invitations, and we’ll keep doing so every week through mid-May.
• If you’ve been invited to apply, you’ll get an email with a link to the application. We’ve got a specialized team in place to review applications as they come in. If you’ve applied, you should get a response within two weeks."

[Ute42]

.

@Huma0  

Brian Chesky also said in yesterday's video:

• This applies to superhosts who offer homes
  
  and
  
  we're also applying this to experience (d) hosts as well“.

[Sarah977]

@Ute42  I think that's "Experience" hosts, not experienced hosts.

[Ute42]

.

@Sarah977   

You could be right. But I didn't know someone can become a Superhost by achieving an average 4.8* + rating due to experiences.

[Sarah977]

@Ute42  I think the grant is for Superhosts and  Experience hosts. That's what is stated, anyway. The Experience host doesn't also have to be a Superhost.

[Ute42]

.

@Sarah977 

You just know everything :):)

[Sarah977]

@Ute42  I wish. 

[Huma0]

@Sarah977 

I wonder why this is? I am not belittling Experience hosts at all, but why would they be entitled to this fund as opposed to, say someone who had been a Superhost for 3.5 years?

I know a lot of others won't agree, but I get why this fund isn't for everyone as it's actually not that much money. It's already nowhere near enough to go round for Superhosts, so it makes sense to put additional criteria on it like being a Superhost for four or more years, but why Experience hosts? What makes them so deserving compared to others? Have they invested more in their business? Are they likely to have the highest outgoings to cover?

Or, is it because the money losing Experiences programme is reportedly one of Brian Chesky's pet projects? He seems determined to save it even though it was apparently not profitable before COVID-19.

[Sarah977]

@Huma0  Your last sentence could certainly be the reason.  Maybe it's intended to make more hosts sign up to host experiences, since they just introduced "Online Experiences".  And maybe they just couldn't come up with yet a third fund to assist hosts, so they stuck the Experience hosts in there so they wouldn't start jumping up and down ranting about how they'd been overlooked.

[Huma0]

@Sarah977 

I could be wrong, but this whole online experiences idea seems a bit far fetched to me. There are already so many channels offering people content for free and often times from people already well versed in producing this kind of stuff online, like Youtubers with thousands of followers. I am not sure Airbnb can compete.

Sure, Experience hosts could be upset to be left out, but so could many other hosts who don't fit the Superhost for one year, four years, with X number of listings etc. or whatever Airbnb eventually decide it is.

The difference is, to be a Superhost, especially for a prolonged period of time, you've probably had to put in a lot of effort and you've proved yourself to some extent. That's not to say that there aren't many amazing and deserving hosts out there who don't have the status, as we know how flawed the whole review system is. However, at least it's a criteria with some measurements to it.

I really don't know much about hosting experiences as it's something I never had time to look into properly. I assume there is also a review system in place, so are the Experience hosts selected to apply for the fund also expected to have received a certain percentage of 5 star review over a long period of time, or does it not matter for them?

Like I said, this whole thing is too cloak and dagger for my liking.