Why It doesn't Pay to be a Superhost with Airbnb Anymore

[Angie183]

It doesn't pay to be a Superhost at Airbnb anymore. Hosting used to be a privilege and the idea was for a host to be present and to give guests from around the world a great experience, at a cheaper rate than a hotel. Now its just a ton of absentee landlords and building developers. And if you're a live-in host, it doesn't matter how many stars you get or how great your reviews are, you do not matter in a crises. Airbnb encouraged me through their algorithmic messages and nudges, to have a flexible cancellation policy. I did, and now I don't qualify for the 25% of any of my 4 overseas guests who had to cancel due to Covid-19.  But I see that those absentee hosts who had a strict cancellation - which is just stealing money, because a guest can only cancel within the first 48 hours! - do benefit; because  no matter what they get paid. This Covid-19 crises has brought sunlight to yet another greedy corporation. Brian Chesky pretends to be helping but as usual only the people who have multiple listings and are not true 'Hosts' can benefit. I had one guest who booked Feb 16, 2020 for a May 14-18 stay. He cancelled on March 19 because of Covid and the travel ban. I was told I didn't qualify for 25% because he didn't cancel before March 14. I sent the agent the updated version of "extenuating circumstances" from April 30 which reads: This policy will also apply retroactively, including any cancellations you may have had since March 14.

Then I'm told my cancellation policy was flexible so I still don't qualify. So what the ... !  Then I'm told "Since support payments depend on the amount owed to you by guests at the time of cancellation, those of you with Flexible and Moderate policies may be less likely to benefit from them." So, who exactly benefits from the $250M? Those who have a strict cancellation policy also get their money, in full, and under any circumstances. Those who have flexible policies don't benefit from a cancellation and now don't benefit in a crisis. It feels like yet another corporation making a fraudulent attempt to garner accolades for seemingly "doing the right thing". And the stupidity of it is, until it was announced I never expected anything. Now I'm irate at having to spend so much time getting the run around from agent to agent - with endless double talk, before someone finally came clean about my generous cancellation policy being my achilles heel. I hope Airbnb are not benefiting from any government stimulus, but I'm sure a lot of absentee landlords and building developers are. It just doesn't pay to be a real "Superhost" on Airbnb anymore. Thank you and Stay Safe!

[Rodney11]

@Sarah977 and @Susan17 , I just kind of fell into being a Superhost because I try to provide excellent service to my guests. I think perhaps one or two of my hundreds of guests have mentioned the Superhost status, whereas many, many more of them have said they specifically booked because of my 4.9 star rating and hundreds of positive reviews. As @Paul60 and @Jessica-and-Henry0 say, chasing that Superhost badge is equivalent to getting a gold star on your work book in grade 6: nice to have but not life changing. The badge is really a side effect of simply being a good Host. 

What is especially frustrating is providing a good experience to guests, getting the 5 star reviews, attaining Superhost status only to have your listing booted to the 13th page of local searches because some "property manager" dumps 200 new units on the market and AirBnB's algorithm prioritizes new listings. I suspect the COVID situation will flush out a lot of these over-leveraged multi property Hosts, and possibly even end AirBnB as a viable rental platform.

I was intrigued by the information @Susan17 shared about AirBnB's former Global Head of Community. The cult-like gratification pursuit of chasing things like the Superhost program puts a lot of AirBnB's relationship with the Hosts in to an understandable (if somewhat perverse) framework. I don't know if any of you visit AirDNA.co, but I find it a good resource for contextualizing AirBnB's sometimes head-scratching business decisions. 

As I've said in other posts, AirBnB doesn't cost me anything, so I'll continue listing on the platform and if they get me some bookings, that's OK. If AirBnB ends up going the way of the dodo, meh, I've structured my property and business so I am not overly reliant on them. 

The question now is: which one of us wants to lead the mass arbitration action?!?!

[Huma0]

I agree with most of the comments above about Superhost status and why it's there. @Susan17 's analysis sounds pretty viable to me.

However, I would counter that, in my experience anyway, being a Superhost does matter to guests, at least quite a few of them. Two years ago, I would have agreed that it made no difference whatsoever as most guests had no idea what a Superhost was, let alone that they were staying with one.

A couple of years ago (I think), Airbnb said they would start promoting Superhosts more, e.g. putting something up on the homepage (even though it was at the bottom, way below the Plus listings they were really plugging at the top), amongst other things. I thought this was a lot of baloney, but almost immediately, guests would start to mention the word 'Superhost' unprompted and more and more frequently. 

For example, they tell me that they booked my listing because I am a Superhost, as one of or the main reason. They will notice something special during their stay and say, "That's why you are a Superhost." They meantion in their reviews, "Huma truly is a Superhost!" etc. etc. Although guests don't need a Superhost badge to tell them if the listing is up to scratch (hundreds of five star reviews would do just as well), still, they are impressed. They feel like they are getting the cream of the crop. Some even tell me they will ONLY stay with superhosts.

Perhaps it depends on your location, market, offering or whatever, but personally I wouldn't dismiss it as something guests neither know nor care about. Does it make a difference to the number of bookings? Probably not, as that is more dependent on search results, where Instant Booking is more of a factor than being a Superhost. I do know that the longer I have been a Superhost, the more I have appeared on the first page of results for the guests that do book my place, but that might be down to completely different factors, e.g. number of bookings and reviews.

[Luka280]

@Angie183 same here. We all probably receive notice from AirBnb for help out the future guests and offer them more flexible cancelation policy. And honestly I did that even before notice, just being human and help the others to se how the situation unfold. But now Im screwed, I really dont know what to do. I switch from moderate to flex cancelation policy on AirBnbs recommendation. And now those who dont even know how to use cancelation policies and visit AirBnb dashboard few times a year benefit from it (not saying all of hosts with strict cancellation policies are like this)..so I end up really disappointed..my grandpa left me old house, took a loan for creating the place for all the guests to enjoy, and now unfortunately Im not sure if I will be able to keep the house because of the mortgage..for me it is shame for not creating better solution for all of us..in the end, it is all about profit..as the superhost and guy who really enjoyed AirBnb so far, that was unexpected..hopefully they will find some solution, but really I doubt it..I really do hope our message will reach someone who can act and do something

[Alexandra168]

I believe the Airbnb algorithms for awarding Suoerhost status are incorrect. I have achieved a high proportion of outstanding reviews and ratings consistently for many years and yet I am still not considered for Superhost status!

The occasional low review has been unfair with these particular guests expecting Buckingham Palace for £45pn!!

Therefore your system is floored!

Coupled with the fact that not only myself but MANY other hosts who are in this unfair predicament are unable to claim for Superhost status financial support, yet we have lost out significantly financially, and so will result in MANY legal claims against Airbnb.

Brian Cheeky and his directors have made massive personal wealth off the back of hosts properties and yet they asked their own employees to put their hands in their pockets to raise money for hosts but so he will inevitably find themselves unemployed as a result of the pandemic.

CEO's and Directors have a duty to hold contingency funds on account for such business emergencies.

I think the best way to repay not only staff but hosts alike would be to offer shares in the company once it is floated on the stock exchange!