@Ute42 really got me thinking when she mentioned a book called The Culting of Brands. The author, Douglas Atkin, was once the Global Head of Community. His deep research into cults - which he says are communities - shows in many ways across our interactions with Airbnb.
He was inspired by talking to teenagers obsessed with Converse. They didn't see it as merely a good brand of sneakers. To them it was much more, and together they were a community of people who had Converse in common.
You get that sense around here, don't you? I think of Airbnb as an excellent tool that serves the needs of my property and my business. In fact it has allowed me to start a second business with very little effort. They do all the marketing, advertising, and outreach; I keep the product in great shape and manage the customers. But there are so many ways in which I feel like I'm dealing with a bunch of Moonies instead of level-headed business-minded people.
Here's an example: the Teams feature allows you to add people, like a housekeeper. But it doesn't allow you to screen financial information from anyone on the team. I asked why this could not be changed, and I was told that the nightly prices are available on the platform for anyone to see.
This feels so culty to me, in that members of a cult believe all are equal (except Dear Leader) and should have equal access to all resources and information. It's the opposite of acknowledging that we're each running businesses and must be allowed to run them as we see fit. Obvi we can do that, as long as we don't ask that the platform gives us normal options for running businesses. It is a commonplace that any business that shares information can grant members of its organization different levels of access. But not at Airbnb. Because that would somehow prevent someone somewhere from feeling like they Belonged.
Another way Airbnb is culty - whenever I talk about money, everyone, including all the admins, runs and hides. You can just about hear them crying out that it's all about Belonging Anywhere and A Sense of Community and Sustainability but DON'T MENTION THE MONEY. The ludicrously low pricing suggestions are tinged with a kind of moralistic notion that higher prices mean Someone Out There might not have access to A Sense of Community and Belonging Anywhere.
Then there are the suddenly-delisted hosts. I told an Airbnb employee that it was insane and Kafka-esque to give hosts in this situation no information whatsoever about why Airbnb had taken this action. She swiftly answered that Airbnb was prevented from doing so by local laws. Wait, what!? This cannot possibly be true. The very nature of local laws is that they vary to the widest degree possible. No, there is a deeper, CYA legal reason for this, and companies with deep pockets get away with it because they just shrug and say Sue me. (McDonald's, for instance, still prefers to settle lawsuits from victims of coffee burns than change the temperature of their coffee. Cost analysis showed them they'd end up throwing out more coffee than it costs to settle the lawsuits.) Nevertheless, these unilateral actions, no explanations given, feel culty if not actually Fascist.
Unfortunately, I have zero expectations that I can effect cultural change. So writing this is just an exercise in venting, with the hope that some of my fellow hosts will see things the same way. And for that palliative I bet the cult will want me to feel grateful.
