The analysts are beginning to sort it

[Elaine701]

This is a rather interesting article, which seems to explain many of the grievances frequently expressed here. 

https://cointelegraph.com/news/airbnb-is-exploiting-its-users-but-decentralized-alternatives-are-pos...

[Laurelle3]

 @Alba160 very interesting article on payouts. I  just think it would be fairer if the bottoml ine which is the host should receive a bonus paid out in shares. Different companies give a bonus to their employees in shares or money at the end of the financial year for their service to the company.

If the good name is provided by hosts of Airbnb it will improve the product produced, thus affecting the share market. 

On the other hand, I see in my local area that real estates, hotels and motels, group managers are on the  Airbnb plateform marketing the product. Which is different competition for the home based industry. I know I don't have their marketing powe.

My outlook is i am in competion with them and prepared to take them on in a small way. By providing a personal warm welcoming  homely approach,  able to be contacted easily to sort out an issue that guests may have. Along with providing extras to make the welcome more personal rather than the commercial standard.

Lastly, I still have the veiw that the host who provides and keeps the good name for Airbnb should be rewarded. Shares!, Shares!, Shares!. @Elaine701 also points out that it could be given out for loyality invested each year.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

ok, my English isn't perfect and it's after midnight here but as I understood, the author of this article thinks Airbnb and other OTAs charge too high in service fees. So, he and his partners are building a new platform  where hosts will pay 0% and guests 7,5% service fees and will be allowed to give suggestions about improvements etc... The platform is called Dtravel , the page is up already but will start in a few months

[Ann72]

Your English is perfect @Branka-and-Silvia0 but your detective skills are even better!

[Alba160]

@Sarah977 

To put this in perspective.. the Superhost Relief Fund - from which Airbnb milked every possible ounce of 'benevolent us' PR - was set up to (supposedly) grant desperately needed aid to superhosts globally whose incomes and livelihoods had been decimated by the impacts of Covid. According to Airbnb, "The spirit of this program is about supporting longtime hosts who are in danger of losing their primary homes". So at least the company was openly acknowledging their awareness of the dire hardships that hundreds of thousands of their hosts were suffering.

However, at the very same time as @Catherine-Powell was being blessed with her $14.8M payday, the *total* amount that Airbnb saw fit to contribute to the Superhost Relief Fund - to cover not only every Superhost in the world, but Experiences hosts also - was a mere $10M.

Put simply, Airbnb somehow calculated Catherine's single year contribution to the company as being worth 1.5 times the value of the contributions of its *entire* long-serving global Superhost community. Go figure. (And it goes without saying that Ms Powell probably didn't have to be 'invited to apply' for her windfalls, and it's unlikely she was required to stoop to sending begging letters to Airbnb for them either)

In a different note, I'm in PV right now. I remember the old Sayulita. What a charming town. 

[Michelle53]

@Alba160  I hate to be the skunk in the playpen here, but the Superhost Relief Fund wasn't funded by Airbnb itself.  It was funded by donations from employees, the founders, and a small number of investors, and was never designed to support "every Superhost in the world".  It was always going to be just a gesture. 

I don't think you can draw any parallel between that fund and Ms Powell's compensation, which was determined by Airbnb, the Corporation, and is likely in line with compensation plans of senior level executives in pretty much any public company, in order to retain these hires. 

The fact that these compensation packages are possibly a hundred-fold higher than those of the average employee might be a subject for a different discussion. 

@Elaine701   While it might be an attractive idea to receive stock options as an incentive, hosts are not employees, or independent contractors. Independent contractors are paid by a company for rendering a service to that company, in the same way as you might pay a cleaning service, but without withholding payroll tax. 

Hosts are not paid for rendering a service to Airbnb. Airbnb is a listing service which enables hosts to render a service to guests/customers and receive the money from those customers after paying a fee to the listing service for processing the payments.

Also, I was opposed to the idea that just Superhosts be included in the IPO offering. One only has to read the horror stories of revenge reviews bumping people out of Superhost status to realize that the hardest workers and biggest contributors can be found everywhere, not just in the ranks of the Superhosts.

I was also of the belief that tenure needed to be a consideration. I couldn't see it being fair that someone with 10 reviews and a 5.0 rating, on the platform for 3 months, could be valued higher than someone with 400 reviews and a 4.8 rating, on the platform for many years, having suffered all the ups and downs over time, and still in the game. 

[Sarah977]

@Alba160  And I just flew to Canada a week ago until mid-Aug. Too bad, I'd invite you out. I've been in Sayulita for about 20 years. It still has its charms, but has grown incredibly.