Feedback needed: Community Center Board Structure

[Lizzie]

Hello hello,

Over the past three years, we have had an incredible array of conversations created and shared by you all. We’ve realised that although we have eight different discussion boards, the majority of discussions take place in just two of them (Hosting and Help).

With all the discussions in two areas, this can make the CC harder to navigate and essentially find what you are looking for.

With this in mind, we are thinking about refreshing the CC board layout and we want to get you involved to hear your thoughts and help shape this together.

To get you thinking, here are a few questions (feel free to expand outside of these):

• What do you currently like about the current board layout?
• Do you use all of the boards? How do you currently find your way there?
• Do you have any ideas on how we should split the current boards (Hosting and Help) and potential names?
• Are there any additional boards that you would like introducing? Why?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas.

Lizzie

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Lizzie 

Then (if by magic)...

The CC breaks. I hope all my notifications get reloaded as I would have no way of finding people wanting specific help when some solution arises:

[Christine615]

When I log on to the community center I don't get the grid. I get the post section consolidated with the headings Top, Recent, Unanswered. That is not the way it used to work. To get to the "grid" I have to go into a post, then click on the navigation bar.

For the most part, I like the suggestion above - first create a distinction between commercial properties and those run by private owners (i.e. hosted in our homes, or a single vacation home).

Two - I would like to see "Guest discussions" and "Host discussions". Then a third for Airbnb information. The third tab could then have a tips thread, a corporate updates, thread etc.

But the landing page should be simple so we can chose our reason for visiting. I think showing the post section as a list hurts people with other topics they'd like answers too but are too far down on the list to be seen because the more active posts are listed first. 

One last note - I'd like to see the date more prominent. I sometimes find myself answering a question only to find out people are still discussing something (and giving advice) to threads as far back as 2016-2017.

[Helen427]

@Christine615 @Rowena29 @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 @Tim-and-Holly0 @Lizzie @everyone-else

It appears this is the way to go on to get the Top, Recent and Unanswered - first click of  CC Home page on a computer

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Community-Center/ct-p/community-center

And this way we get the full grid - it's the 2nd sub title on the same page.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/All-Discussion-Rooms/ct-p/host

@Christine615 I always enjoy your excellent contributions.

[Christine615]

Could we add - behind the Host circle firewall - a thread where we can offer suggestions (not long discussions - just suggestions). For instance, on our local FB page someone mentioned a new trick - guests asking to check in early, getting romantic, then checking out before the official check-in time and cancelling - which triggers a full refund if the policy is "flexible."  Or doing that and complaining about something so they can trigger a full refund.

I would like Airbnb to add a field so the host can flag a guest who checks in early and therefore starts the clock running on potential issues/damages.

[Tim-and-Holly0]

@Lizzie:

Not sure if this is going to help... I just go to the homepage, check to see if there are any new big stories there, then to "recent" to check for the latest then move on to "unanswered" to see if I can help anyone. If I search I really don't even notice the category the article is in. I've never gone category to category since I figured I was hitting the important stuff anyway.

[Rowena29]

Hi @Lizzie 

I am reasonably new to airbnb and using these boards, but perhaps that in itself is helpful.

I do find the front  landing page quite confusing and rather counter intuitive. It's very easy to see the Top, Recent and unanswered posts, and for quite a while I didn't realise there was more to it.  Those little discuss and discover buttons in a very light font hiding right at the top of the page are hard to see and very easy to overlook when the rest of the landing page is brightly coloured  - your attention is immediately drawn much further down the page to "start a conversation" "tips and tricks" etc. 

 I'm not at all surprised Host Circle etc are rarely visited - I bet a lot of people don't  know it's there and struggle to find it if they do. On my very first post I really wanted  to start a conversation under "hosting" not "help" and struggled for sometime to see how to do that - the start a conversation seems to immediately take you to the "help" boards without giving you the option to  easily choose...

I vist the boards most days and still have the uneasy feelign I don't QUITE understand how they work...

Overall I tend to agree with @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 thoughts in terms of functionality of the threads and the searches.

Hope that's helpful.

Cheers!

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

Hi @Lizzie 

I would also suggest that the grievances of hosts regarding guests should be channelled to the 'Host Circle' or have a secure 'Hosting' section.  Guests reading about Hosts insecurities regarding the review system and other issues will simply encourage them take advantage of this if they are not already doing so. Perhaps Hosts need educating or encouraging to  use the 'Host Circle' for these types of conversations? It would also be beneficial when an ongoing Host/Guest situation is occuring so that guests don't get to read about it.

The issue then gets raised about the naming of the sections. It is ovious to Hosts that they need to post in 'Hosting', although this might not be the intention.

[Lizzie]

Hello @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0, @Rowena29, @Tim-and-Holly0, @Christine615, @Gordon0, @Sehyun0, @Ann72, @J-Renato0, @Beth80 , @Helen427, 

Thank you all so much for taking the time to share you ideas and experiences with navigating the CC. It is really exciting to read.

I'm going to be away from the CC for the next few days, but when I get back I would love to talk more with you about all your points and get more of a discussion around this going. I didn't want to go without getting back to you.

Thank you again and I look forward to it. Feel free to share more thoughts and spread the word in the CC! 

Lizzie

[Rowena29]

Thanks @Lizzie,

Actually that was a really timely  because I've JUST thought of another thing.

It would be a good idea to have a sort of an orientaiton to the boards and how to use them?

I had absolutely no idea how the @   XXXXX    thing worked and why people were doing it.

I've noticed quite a few  older threads recenlty where a member has answered a question and the original poster and asked for more clarification but didn't tagged with  the "@"   -and there were no more responses to what was quite a straightofroward question. I imagine the poster is left feeling at a loss and isolated and unhelped.  I've been in that situation myself quite a few times in the early days and it's awful - counterproductive. 

Enjoy your time off!

Regards

Rowena

[Sarah977]

@Lizzie  I don't mind the format as it is. Plus I think we're all quite weary of constant, often useless (don't fix it if it ain't broke) format changes. I first log in straight to my notification page, check the new ones, then read down the first couple pages of new posts in the Help and Hosting sections, then check out Host Circle.

But whatever happened to you saying you were going to work on having the names of all posters in a thread available in the tagging box? You said that almost a year ago, and nothing has changed on that front.

I don't think it would be that great to divide the Hosting or Help sections into categories, as some of the topic posts encompass more than one issue. 

And I wonder if it could be made clear somehow at the top of the forums that this is a community forum and that specific issues with payments, or reservations should be addressed to Airbnb itself, as no one here has access to a host or guest's personal account information. There are so many posts on the CC with users asking questions about a specific booking, or demanding refunds, etc, as if they think this is actually the main Airbnb site and they are communicating with CS. And somehow make the contact info for Airbnb part of that, as so many posts appear saying there is no way to contact Airbnb, even though there is a huge pinned post on the first Help forum page giving exactly that info. (Personally I don't quite understand how users can miss that Contact post, as it's right on the page they go to to start a conversation, staring them in the face, but they don't seem to notice, just like guests don't read our listing information)

I think "Interests" could be eliminated, as it appears to be little used and I think I've only looked at it once or twice.

And "Airbnb Open" could also be eliminated- it's obvious from posts that appear there that users have no idea what it refers to. Perhaps it could be consolidated with Community Updates or Airbnb Updates.

[Lisa1831]

@Lizzie Hi Lizzie, I would like it if you created a section for Guests like you have for Hosts.

Guests would like to discuss our issues as well. When I first found the community that was the first thing I noticed that there is not a section for me as a guest. So I just started helping in the help section and starting topics in the host section. But really I don't belong in the host section and sometimes it feels like that. So a section for guest would be great. 

Also, just an actual community section for host and guest.  It seems so divided on here. Like Hosts vs. Guests. Like we are two different teams - when really we both form Airbnb.

So hopefully you will find a way to make it feel like a community. Thanks. 

[Sarah977]

@Lisa1831   I'm sorry you feel like that. I actually like it that both hosts and guests participate in the Hosting and Help forums. I've learned a lot from reading guest comments and I think it's valuable for all. For instance, sometimes a guest says they cleaned up well, didn't throw any parties, but the host was nit-picky about things and didn't leave them a good review. Hosts who nit-pick every little thing a guest does, or doesn't have the place well-cleaned, was  invasive of their privacy, or is unresponsive to guest messages or complaints reflects badly on all hosts and when it's clear that the host was at fault, not the guest, we'll often advise the guest to persue a refund or a removal of the review. Other times it's obvious that the guest doesn't know how to be a good guest, they express that they don't see why they should have to pick up after themselves or wash the dishes, or made a last minute booking and was mad because the host couldn't drop everything and meet them in half an hour. Those type of guests we try to set straight and point out what booking an Airbnb, as opposed to hotel, means.

And sometimes guests are under the mistaken impression that the host has their money as soon as they book- as far as I'm aware, Airbnb doesn't tell guests how it works, that Airbnb has the $ until 24 hours after the guest checks in. So I think it's good that hosts and guests can communicate here and hopefully see each other's points of view and help each other out.

Also, there are many people who use Airbnb as both hosts and guests.

Of course, that doesn't mean there couldn't also be just a dedicated guest forum as well.

[Susan1028]

Great points @Lisa1831

Ive wondered what it’s like to enter this forum as simppy a guest who doesn’t host and tried doing so and been left wondering...

Welcome, and thank you !

Yes to combined and separate areas.  I think both need areas to address issues specific to each and a unified area for help and insight and sense of belonging @Lizzie 

[Jennifer1421]

@Lizzieet al

I'd like to see a consolidation of those looking for, or to become co-hosts and or cleaners under a separate section. There seems to be a great many of those posts coming up in the feed, and it cannot be efficient for those folks to have their offer to hire/help just dangling away in the general feed.

Thanks for looking into ways to make the boards less "cluttered".

[Sarah977]

@Lizzie   One thing I think really needs doing on the CC is to have a pinned post at the top of each forum titled something like "NEW TO THE CC? PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE POSTING"

Every day we see new posts here saying there is no way to contact Airbnb, asking about their missing payments, or a specific reservation (as if they think they are speaking directly with an Airbnb rep) and new posters addressing specific posters without using the tagging function. So in this proposed intro to the forum you could:

Make it clear that this is a forum for host and guests to exchange info and ask questions and that no one here can deal with their personal account issues- that they need to contact Airbnb directly for that and direct them to the "Contact" post.

Explain how the tagging function works and why it's important to use it if replying to a specific poster.