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? 

[Emily487]

@Laura2592 

I don't know about the future of AirBnB but I do know that WE don't have a future with AirBnB.

Covid-19 aside, it's simply too much effort required on our end only to be bent over time and time again by customer service regarding rules, damage claims, etc with no rhyme or reason. My host may try to stick it out through the fall but I can't imagine putting up with it for much longer than that. 

[Anonymous]

@Laura2592  Considering how many major, mainstream tech brands have existed for years without ever turning a profit, I think it's likely that Airbnb will ride out the impending recession on a float of frothy capital. It will probably have to divest itself of a lot of products, and I don't think we've seen anything near the end of truly embarrassing experiments like the recent "Virtual Experiences." (Really? Asking people to pay to watch hosts giving sad YouTube tutorials about pasta? What's next, an all-host nude calendar?)

In terms of what it means for hosts, I don't foresee anything resembling a recovery of the travel industry for the remainder of this year. So for those whose business intersects heavily with cross-border travel, air travel, public events, festivals, conventions, nightlife, or family gatherings, Airbnb is a lost cause for the time being.  We'll see places around the world "opening up" in different ways to stanch the economic bleeding, but the tentpoles of tourism just can't hold as long as social distancing is the only defense people have against the virus.

Thus far, as much as Airbnb has tried to diversify its portfolio, it hasn't really notched any breakaway successes outside of its original product. The expansion into Hotels has been a disaster, nothing about "Experiences" has been a game-changer, and they bring nothing to the party for long-term housing. Since they're not sitting atop a pile of empty real estate, they can still shrink the company down to fit the drastically-contracted market, albeit with a lot of layoffs.

But what happens to all the hosts competing for the business of an ever-dwindling number of guests? Even in the peak times, hosts constantly complained of guests having the upper hand and getting away with too much bad behavior. But when room rates hit rock bottom, and guests expect free cancellations by default, hosts will have to work a lot harder and put up with a lot worse treatment for smaller gains. And that's not even speaking of hosts who share living space with guests, who under current circumstances would literally be putting their lives at risk to get back into the game.

I could be all wrong about this, but none of the pathways toward a better outlook are supported by current data.

[J-Renato0]

@Anonymous

You said "I don't think we've seen anything near the end of truly embarrassing experiments like the recent "Virtual Experiences." (Really? Asking people to pay to watch hosts giving sad YouTube tutorials about pasta? What's next, an all-host nude calendar?)" LOL

Please....be cautious with what you say...    Do not give the idea to offer "virtual  s e x   experiences!" LOL 

[Sarah977]

@Anonymous  At least a nude host calendar would provide some comic relief.  It would probably prove to be Airbnb's most-liked initiative :-))

[Anonymous]

@Sarah977   OK, we need 12 volunteers! Will you be our Miss January?

[Sarah977]

@Anonymous  I would have 15 years ago, when I was still relatively cute, but not anymore. It would be more like the "Too Much Information" calendar now :-))

[Robin4]

@Anonymous 

Has to be an automatic age cut off for inclusion here Andrew, and that would certain rule out Ade and I. 

That once trim bod I possessed looks more like a pile of washing in the corner of the laundry these days....and Ade, goodness me that lovely figure she once had, more closely resembles a badly packed Kebab now! :-((

The ravages of time!

Cheers......Rob

[Dianne243]

Ok Sign me up lol 😂 lol 😂

[Helen350]

@Sarah977 "We're going to need considerably bigger buns!" - Calendar Girls, 2003.

[Ute42]

.

@Laura2592 

I don't know about the future of airbnb and I don't care.

Airbnb has worked for most of us in terms of revenue, but there is no partnership between the company and their hostbase. Quite frankly, they are treating us hosts like a piece of **** and it has gotten worse all the time.

When I started out with airbnb in feb 2018 I was pretty excited, but in the end I just hated them. As a consequence of it, I cut down doing business with them drastically. When Corona broke out in march, I didn't have one outstanding airbnb-reservation and thus not one cancellation. And I just love it.

Here comes the funny part: Right now I have an inquiry from a guest „Sabine“ for one week in june, rental price 2764 Euros = 3000 USD. That would be 500 USD in service fee for airbnb.

Does airbnb really deserve to get $500 in service fee for treating us so badly? And what about this: Sabine pays 3000 USD for the reservation now, then they check in in june and then maybe airbnb doesn't have the funds anymore to pay me?? And what if airbnb changes around their Corona cancellation policy one more time? Then Sabine may cancel, get a 100% refund and I get nothing.

What would You do?

[Robin4]

@Laura2592  @Sarah977  @Anonymous  @Emily487 

I would like to be a little bit optimistic here. 

The current Airbnb is dead and I think many hosts would raise their glass to that...good riddance a lot of them would say. 

We are going to come out of this, it will end and believe me, once we get on top of it, the end will come quickly, as we are seeing here in Australia.

The US daily death rate has fallen by 500 in the last 24 hours! France's death rate has halved from 1438 day before yesterday to 753 yesterday. Things are looking encouraging and this is how quickly things recover when you improve your testing and tracing/tracking methods....

Only 21 new cases showed up in the whole of Australia yesterday, down from 47 the day before, and no new deaths......containment treatments are just around the corner and there is an end to this....

God, tell me I don't sound like that buffoon, Trump!

As I said in another thread hard times lead to good and people will start to travel again, social experimenting will see certain low risk age categories restrictions eased fairly quickly now, and this time next year Covid-19 will have fallen into the bracket of those other respiratory viruses that we have managed to contain.

The first accommodation category that will be seen as safe will be STR because (apart from shared accommodation) it complies with distancing conventions and the risk factor by shear numbers of people is far lower than a hotel.

My feeling is Airbnb needed this kick in the arse!  8 years ago the company were cooperative, easy to join and use, and did what ever they could to lift their host base, and what they did worked. By 2015 they started to put the screws on hosts and they have been turning those screws tighter ever since. The only hosts who have come out of this last 2 year hosting minefield in relatively good shape are hosts like me who never hassle the company in any way....we just keep on accepting guests without issue or complaint! 

Although nobody would ever admit to it, I suspect there is a file on every one of us hosts within Airbnb where our usefulness to the company is plotted. We need to hit certain benchmarks to warrant company support, and it is probably that the next 6 weeks will uncover this, if that is the case. I can think of no other reason some hosts have had their listings deleted and accounts summarily closed with no right of appeal. They fell below the line and are simply more trouble to the company than they are worth!

All this has to stop, and I am optimistic that the coronavirus will do that.

If Airbnb do survive they are going to have to reinvent themselves, they have a lot of bridge mending to do, they will have to get back to their grass roots.....because that is what worked. We are already seeing that with the plethora of user get-togethers that are starting to happen!

They could be worth staying with because I think we are going to see a much nicer, more user friendly Airbnb to the one we have been forced to get used to!  The current situation has forced us hosts to accept certain realities, I am sure that goes for the company as well!

Watch this space, I guess!

Cheers.....Rob

[Sarah977]

@Robin4  Well, you certainly wouldn't think that they are paying any attention or changing the way they do business if you could see the ridiculous exchange I had with CS today. 2 totally clueless reps, and now a clueless supervisor. They have asked me the same question 3 times!  Even though my previous answers are simple and clear and right there for them to read in the message stream.

[Robin4]

@Sarah977 

Ooohh  tread carefully Sarah, that nuisance file might take a bit of a battering if you strike any more 'clueless' people.

One way out possibly Sarah, close that ticket, tell em to drop it and contact via Twitter, keep it sweet and see what happens....I would love to know!

Cheers.......Rob 

[Sarah977]

@Robin4  The supervisor finally got back to me with real answers! Now lets just hope they're correct. You can read the answers here: (last page of the thread) https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/COVID-19-Discussions/How-Can-I-Opt-Out-of-quot-Contributions-to-...