The future of Airbnb?

[Laura2592]

Every day I see more and more news articles about Airbnb needing more money, unhappy hosts, calls for the CEO to step down, the encouragement toward LTR. As a host who has no intention of going down a landlord road on this platform, I find all the shakiness very concerning. My personal feelings about the leadership direction of Airbnb aside, I find myself wondering if there is a future on this platform. Or if it will continue to exist at all. I remember working a job years ago where the boss would tell us every day "we are going broke!" -- it was hyperbole, but you better believe I found a new job and quick. That's sort of the effect all of this news has been having on me.

What are your thoughts? Does Airbnb have a future? What does it look like? 

[Maxine33]

@Sarah977I hear you!  I wonder if you got the same do nothing that I did.  Customer service for hosts is awful and there is no accountability.

[Dianne243]

You are 💯 percent right the same thing happened to me over over over again. I just stop calling them. 

[Sarah977]

@Dianne243   I never call them- I prefer to deal with them through messaging. Then at least I can get things done while waiting for them to reply. And I have a record of the exchange.

@Maxine33  Oh, there's plenty of know nothing-do nothings there, no shortage, it seems. The only thing all of them appear to be adept at is sending cut-and-paste messages thanking us so much for being such awesome hosts and sending us links to useless Help pages that have nothing to do with our questions. "Read your question? Oh. Yeah, I guess I could do that. Comprehending what you're asking may be a little more challenging to my skill set, though."

[Maxine33]

""Read your question? Oh. Yeah, I guess I could do that. Comprehending what you're asking may be a little more challenging to my skill set, though.""

I am dealing with that right now!

If I gave such poor customer support, I would be totally out of business. 

[Sandra126]

100% sure about the files @Robin4 ! 

[Sam397]

Personally I think AirBnB will be done. I also think the top execs know it and that's why they have done the things they have done. They screwed the host in the beginning and now they are screwing the guest over. Assuming these guys didn't get where they are now by being stupid, they have to know that they cant burn their bridges on both sides and expect to survive.They might be able to screw over one side(host) and survive but to screw over the other side (guest) as well will be fatal..

You have to believe that when this is over and things get back to normal host will be wanting to try other platforms looking to leave BnB, it wont be right away but BnB will lose a lot of host. The guest however will have an immediate affect because they will never use them again. Is there any host or guest out there that trusts AirBnB to do right by them, I wouldn't think there are many. And not many people are going to do business with someone who they dont trust.

The good news is there are plenty of other platforms that will be able to step up and be the new BnB its just going to take time.

[Dianne243]

😊

[Dimitar27]

The ABB platform is very popular, because it's very user-friendly, very simple and easy. Other platforms are not. Some of them are really complicated.

But right now, almost nothing depends on the platform itself. The STR market is dead. Completely dead.

Hotels, restaurants, cinemas, farmer markets, parks...everything is closed.
90% of the flights, near 30-40% of the internal trains and buses are canceled.
From yesterday, my city is under lockdown. Two days before, the gypsy neighborhoods went into full lockdown, because of too many COVID-19 cases. It will take months for city to become safe again. And more months for the people, to become confident about travelling.

[Fred13]

@Laura2592 This is what I see for the future with Airbnb.

1. Airbnb will be somewhat forced to be more profitable in the future and their lack of past profability is because of two things they been doing: excessive thoughtlessly spending, all out advertising and experimentation into tangent areas (ex. Experiences, etc). When Airbnb came to my place to make a 10 second spot for their 'Love This/Live There' campaign they send 21 people. WSJ made one phone call.

2. When you have to borrow money, other people besides the 'founders' get to have a say how things are run, or else; meaning the original CEO/Founders may be asked in none-polite terms to step down. They may have been 'brilliant' at coming up with a marvelous  concept/idea  but lousy at even running a popsicle stand economically.  Present lenders are not to thrilled with Chesky refunding too much.

3. A lot of these companies are NOT setup to make a profit (i.e. Amazon originally), but make a score when they go public (IPO). If my mind serves me correctly Amazon stock opened at $5 (1998) went to almost $90 by 2000 and yet wasn't profitable; which begs the question, their stock went 18x in two years based on what? It took them 8 years to get back to $90+ after becoming a real company not a concept.

4. Airbnb's ~extreme~ recent move to refund guests will serve them well because ~guests~ will love them for it. So what will happen as people start to travel again? They will book with Airbnb, why not, they were 'taken care' by them. The host's experience is a whole different story. 

5. Hosts are and will hate their guts for a while, but Airbnb has three things going for them with hosts: they charge a small fee to hosts (~3%), have ~an easy to use~ front end and they have concentrated market share - for STRs. Few techies 'loved' Microsoft, but with 85% of the market share by early 90's and standarizing PC's operating systems, few developers had a choice not to go with them.

6. Airbnb will now loose some good hosts no doubt, but there are millions of NEW places being built and planing on  'Airbnbing' them to make them financially pay off. Risky moves no doubt after this fiasco.

It is not Airbnb who I am worried about, it is public confidence to travel again; but then again the Covid-19 will in all likelihood take a different perspecticve in the next coming weeks, meaning how dangerous was it really was in the first place. That will influence public confidence no doubt.

Personally, I will like others will look into other platforms because I too do not trust Airbnb's EC option or application of, nor their PC culture or lousy CS; but I do not think anything more or less about Airbnb - to me they will remain a strong booking agency in the future and nothing more.

[Fred13]

   Just happened to stumble on this WSJ article today, which some of you may find most interesting. It reiterates the points in my post in a clearer manner. It is important, make that imperative, for hosts to understand the 'creature' they are dealing with. 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/airbnbs-coronavirus-crisis-burning-cash-angry-hosts-and-an-uncertain-fu...

[Linda108]

Thanks, @Fred13 .  Great information and analysis.  It doesn't cost me anything to keep my shared home listing, so I am in for the long haul.  Besides, as behaviorist, I am very curious to see how this all plays out.  Now, a great many host are not in the same situation and I do not envy them at all.

I don't waste my time or energy on whether Air BNB is fair or smart because it has no bearing on how I run this little business.  I deal with bottom line.  If I find it worthy of both my time and energy, I continue.  If not, then I quit.  Keeping it simple. 

I do find it sad that people are suffering from what is going on right now and hope that they can reach into their own reserves of creativity and resilience to reach whatever goals they need and want.

Thanks again, Fred.  Always a pleasure to read your postings.

[Fred13]

@Linda108 You are one of the people here that I oftentimes ask myself - "I wonder what Linda thinks about this particular subject?'. Though you post so infrequently you are always so sober & wise when you do. Well, now that we got to rekindle our at-least-2-person, 'mutual-admiration society' (LoL), I am doing this nowadays....

I am taking my listing now to another level in thought, in changes and additions..by spending every day rethinking/doing everything on it, and grabbing this opportunity of  precious time to make it that much more formidable in value and joy for my future guests. That much is within my control, I don't think nothing else really is during these unusual times. 

[Ute42]

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@Fred13 

Thank You for posting the WSJ article. Very interesting indeed.

[Rodney11]

@Fred13 & @Linda108 , I am on the same page as you: AirBnB is a platform that costs me nothing to list on and has little risk, so I will continue to list as long as they are around. Thanks for the link to the insightful WSJ article.

I agree with @Dimitar27 that STR is dead, probably for a year or two minimum. Fortunately, I set my property up to transition from short-term int'l travel rental to long-term local resident rental fairly easily. I am currently in the process of making this transition. If AirBnB gets me some LTR bookings, that's great, if not, meh, there's a lot of ways to offer LTR in my market. Related to the WSJ article is this article which hints that AirBnB knows they now need to focus on LTR, and replace the hosts who will leave their platform, either voluntarily or because many hosts will lose their property without the STR income: https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/06/airbnb-turns-to-private-equity-to-raise-1-billion/

I've always looked at my "partnership" with AirBnB this way:

1. AirBnB = retailer
2. Guest = customer
3. Host = product

If AirBnB does not provide me with a price I think is reasonable for my product, I'll offer it to other retailers for their customer base. Framing it in the above structure also helps me make decisions about how to list my property on AirBnB, for example selecting the Strict cancellation policy because I feel it protects my product's cash flow better, despite AirBnB's frequent reminders to me that the Flexible policy will attract more guests. 

I hope you all come out of this crisis with as little damage as possible, but especially with your health intact!

[Maxine33]

I agree that Airbnb may have gotten too big for its britches and has been way to heavy handed with host dealings. Some changes have been just stupid (not being able to see guest photos until after booking?!) and some have been good (posting reviews after two weeks, instead of only if both parties leave a review).

Like @Fred13, @Linda108, and @Rodney11  I see benefits with staying the course a while longer.  It is less expensive than some of the competition but in return you give up almost all control. Truthfully, aside from the fact the customer service department can be so frustrating I have suspected they were secretly working for the competition, we have been overall satisfied with the platform.

It is easy to use, payments come promptly after check-in, the reports are easy, and the Community Forum is invaluable.  I do hope this will be a wake-up call for Airbnb and they will make some positive changes after this is all over with.