Superhost relief fund - I didn't get the invite nor paymet altough I MEET ALL CRITERIA REQUESTED

[Ivan1534]

Dear colleagues, Airbnb,

I am writing to you because I am frustrated and I will most likely quit doing business with Airbnb and I am in a desperate need for help or advice.

I didn't get the inivte for Superhost Relief fund although i meet all the criteria that the are requesting. And it's clear that there is no doubt about it.

On all my phone calls nad messages to Support agents they are answering me the same al the time - that they cannot do nothing about it and that this is automatically generated and they are not giving me thorough explanation.

Has this happened to somebody and can this be solved, can somebody give me an advice?

If i don't receive the invite I will quit doing business with Airbnb next month as a sign of a protest and I hope you somebody will do the same.

Thank you,

Ivan

[Stephanie]

Hiya @Ivan1534 ,

Thanks for sharing in the discussion. Regarding the Superhost relief fund, I have the following information:

How do invites work?

We started sending out invites in mid-April and we will be sending them weekly through Mid-May to eligible hosts around the world. We’re prioritising invitations based on a number of factors, including how long people have been a Superhost and how significantly their earnings have been impacted due to COVID-19. That means, most invitations so far have gone to people who have been Superhosts for 4+ years. All invites will be sent by mid-May, and if you’re invited to apply, you’ll get an email with a link to the application. 

A specialised team is reviewing every application and keeping hosts' information discreet. Everyone who applies will get a response within 2 weeks, and grants will range from $1,000 to $5,000.

I know it's a tough one to do but I would advise you please wait until mid-May as invites are still going out.

Thanks,

Stephanie

[Anonymous]

@Ivan1534   Most of the hosts who meet the base eligibility criteria will not get invitations. They have a sort of ranking system based on the length of your Superhost tenure and the differential between your 2019 and 2020 earnings (they have not disclosed which data points are used to formulate the latter). 

Airbnb claims that it will still be rolling out invitations up until 15 May. Presumably some portion of the applications will be declined. So it would be quite foolish for any host to make any plans under the expectation that they'll be among the lucky winners of this lottery. I don't see anything to gain by hassling the Support operators about it, since they have no influence over who gets picked and are not at liberty to disclose what's going on behind the curtain. Fact is, it's a grant and not an entitlement, and it's deliberately organized to sidestep any kind of accountability.

You'll find a lengthier discussion about the program, including moderator responses, here:  https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Have-any-Superhosts-received-an-invite-to-apply-for-the-...

You'll also see pretty clearly which questions Airbnb does not want to answer. This week, they even saw fit to ban one of the hosts asking these questions ( @Susan17 ) from the community center altogether.

You may look at your situation and decide that it's not worth doing business with Airbnb anymore in general. Thousands of hosts have been going through that right now; we have no way to know when the travel business will recover or even whether Airbnb as a company will survive. But I'd encourage you to make your decision based on what's in the best interests of your business overall, and not on whether or not you're invited to the relief fund.

[Ivan1534]

Hi @Anonymous   and first of all thank you for your help and feedback. I will go in little more details about my case, I am not meeting the base criteria I think I am the perfect example of the criteria. My incomes have fallen from 20.000,00 € in 2019 to 0€ in 2020 and I am Superhost from 2015 I think. I dont want to mention that I am living out of this and the other criteria is really clear. 

So I really don't know where is the problem and why did I still didn't get the invite...

[Anonymous]

@Ivan1534  I also don't know why Santa Claus didn't come to my house this year but I don't expect the poor elves in his sweatshop to tell me why. 🙂 Maybe you'll get an invite, maybe not - but if not, it would be very out of character for Airbnb to tell you why. Oftentimes they cancel bookings, delete entire listings, and ban profiles without explaining why, and their Terms of Service quite explicitly allow for this.

The thing is, if this fund were based purely on the criteria they publicized, they wouldn't need to do an invitation process, since the algorithm could do all the work. In all likelihood there are other criteria that don't sound as nice in a press release, as they would too easily show how these grants are being targeted to serve the company's own interests above all.

I don't think there's anything wrong with that per se, but it would have been more honest for them to frame these grants as selective investments (and shadow PR), rather than as a relief fund.

[Ivan1534]

Andrew, one more thing... I don't see this as a "lottery". The criteria is clearly written and it is clearly written that if you meet the criteria you will get the invite. What it isn't written is the amount of money you will get, but the crietria for invites is clearly written and this is not a "lottery" - everyone who meet the criteria should get the invite (that is how they wrote it)

[Anonymous]

@Ivan1534  That is not what they said at all. To quote directly:

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.

In case you missed it, "at its sole discretion" is the kicker here. That means nobody is guaranteed or entitled to an invitation, regardless of eligibility.

[Ivan1534]

@Anonymous 

including how long they've been a Superhost 5+ years

and how badly their earnings have been impacted,  20.000€ --> 0€

IThat's why i think i super meet the criteria... I dont think there are much of worst cases... 

[Anonymous]

@Ivan1534 We don't know one way or other, because we can only know the criteria they publicized, and we can only guess about the ones they didn't.

If you think using this forum to lobby for yourself as a grant recipient is going to help your case, I have doubts about your strategy. Just a few minutes ago you were threatening to pull your listing altogether in protest. I don't think anyone who reads your post actually cares whether or not you stop using Airbnb. Hopefully you have another plan for keeping yourself afloat financially during these hard times.

I wish you the best of luck but I have no further advice for you and don't really see the point in making an argument out of it.

[Ivan1534]

@Anonymous hey, you really helped me with your advices, i am sorry that this sounds as lobbying for myself, because it really isn’t, i can only speak for myself cause i know all the facts and that’s why i dont understand this and i was hoping to find answers here (maybe this happened to someone else etc). Anyway, thank you for your time and help, it is really apreciated!

[Paola50]

Dear @Ivan1534  ,  I was surpriezed when you wrote you made an income of 20K in 2019 and I see you manage 2 listings in different areas,  it likely seems to be the reason you are not meeting the criteria.

I did not scratch your profile so I do not know which kind of property your managing , but they made it clear that for this fund, they  are focusing on hosts who list only their homes or second homes, or private rooms in those residences. 

[Ivan1534]

@Paola50 hi... i am managing only 1 listing, and on the second listing which is on a dofferent adress I am only administrator/co host. This listing is not mine. So i have only one listing which is mine. I have already checked with Airbnb, if you are a co host, that is not included. So i only have one listing and the criteria is no more then two... 😕

[Sarah977]

@Ivan1534  And there are tens of thousands of hosts who meet the criteria just like you do. Yours is not some special case. They won't all get grants. 

[Gordon0]

You'd be better off to assume you won't be invited, and be pleasantly surprised if you are @Ivan1534. Plenty of hosts on here meet the criteria (me included - Superhost from the get-go/no bookings) without an invitation (nor expect to receive one). Better to be a realist in these situations. There is no 'Get out of jail' card. 

[Ozlam0]

Also, while it may seem you have lost a lot, for some areas even 5000$ a year is a big deal. Therefore, I don't think it is fair, to say that Airbnb will send-out invites to hosts who lost significant amount. I don't know the exact logic behid the invites but hopefully it is a fair one. It should take into account cost of living standarts in that area.

It should be based on the standarts of the area of your living. For me 5000$ is a big deal, I could literally survive on this amount as per our area of living standarts. And I am getting '0'$ this year due to cancellations....