Message from Chip Conley

[Lizzie]

Hello Everyone,

I know many of you have either met, spoken to or even heard him speak before, so Chip Conley, Head of Global Hospitality & Strategy, has asked me to pass on a message to you all here in the Community Center:

Nearly four years ago, the Airbnb founders asked me to come out of semi-retirement as a hotelier and help them evolve Airbnb into a world-class hospitality company. While this was supposed to be a part-time role, it quickly became immersive.

My first step was to travel around the world to more than twenty major cities and meet with you, our host community, to understand what matters to you and to learn more about how we can serve you better. Along the way, I also shared some hospitality tips as well as best practices I'd learned from many of you. And, I'm proud of creating the Airbnb Open. Based upon the variety of means we used to create a great Airbnb host community, our guest satisfaction scores are now substantially higher than the average for the global hotel industry. You truly are the best hospitality experts in the world!

It's now time for me to transition to a Strategic Advisor role serving the founders in the areas of Hospitality and Leadership. While I’m scaling back from a full-time role, I will continue to advocate for you and champion home sharing worldwide (I'm writing this from Stockholm where I'm giving a speech on home sharing). It's been an honor getting to know so many of you and be part of the movement to democratize hospitality. Keep opening homes and opening your hearts! It's good not just for your guests. It's good for you, too. 

Share with Chip and the rest of community, what motivates you to continue opening your home and your heart? Plus, if you have any kind words you would like to say to Chip, feel free to share them here, I am sure he would be really pleased to hear from you. 

We look forward to hearing from you. 🙂

Thanks,

Lizzie

[Robin4]

@Lizzie

Sorry Lizzie, but this is the sort of material I just hate reading!

We get these rousing 'pat on the back' statements from above, when so many hosts around the world are hurting, bleeding from the indignity of having to deal with the resolution centre when their trust has come crashing down! Being slapped in the face by them and then having to turn around and put the pieces of their little world back together again with no support.

The most read posts on this forum over the past year are about experiences where hosts Helena, Jac, Susan, the man who had his apartment cleaned out by theives, and many more are hurting. The thing all these posts have in common is the appalingly bad level of support they have received from Airbnb! And we have to read of this self congratulatory 'piffle' about how these people up the top have made such a better world!

To be honest Lizzie I don't care if Chip Conley transfers to Mars....in fact there are probably 1,000s of hosts who wish he would!

There are many nice and constructive headers you could start these pages off with without resorting to more of this self promotional *bleep*!

Rant over...cheers....Rob

[Louise0]

Wow, way to go Robin!   

The thing that I find most infuriating about these 'let's all share the Kool Aid' missives is the inference that Hosts believe all this home-sharing/sense of community/democratisation of the hospitality industry nonsense.  Even those who may once have believed this have had the scales ripped from their eyes long ago.  

Airbnb MUST know that for every one host who has succumbed to Stockholm Syndrome and still feels a soupcon of regard for Airbnb, there are ten who feel the relationship has become exploitative and almost amorally venal.  The feelgood bull**bleep** that ABB has used in the past to get cut-through with local regulators has all but dissipated and certainly, down here in Sydney, things are about to blow up spectaculary - and ABB have only themselves to blame.

[Robin4]

@Louise0

You rock girl!!

I did a post this afternoon that said something along the lines of, the top brass of this company should be forced to sit down for a day after each superhost assesment and look at the profiles of newly appointed Superhosts! Look at their faces, look at the dedication that goes into their listings and look at their reviews.......and then ask themselves how they would feel and react if a customer of this organisation had a party in the listing of that smiling face and did what they did to your listing Louise!

Guess what, that post disappeared!!! I went back to it later on to see if anyone had thought it worthy of the finger and.....zippo, it's gone.

So Louise, we need to make a statement in the only way we can! Sure, I do hope that Chip Conley gets to see these responses because, you and I, sure, we are different, but we are the lifeblood of hosting! In 87 reviews across two sites I have had 5 who for one reason or other did not leave a review! Of the remaining 82, I have 80 five star reviews and I have had 2 four star reviews!

Do you think you and I need to be told how to host!!

Cheers.....Rob

[David126]

He does not need to travel, plenty of information from mainly Hosts and some Guests on this forum.

Has there ever been feedback on issues raised for example on the Host Voice Forum?

[David-and-Fiona0]

I love hosting but sadly I think AirBnb has fallen into the trap of treating the hosts like an 'extractive industry' mining our good will and resources to the point we are left with a gaping pit and in some instances dispair. I realize it's hard managing the expectations of guests AND hosts equally but it isn't impossible. Instead of 'tweaking' the platform continually I think Airbnb needs to get back to basics and rediscover what it was that originally drove the concept. If not it's easy to predict someone else will reinvent the concept and give Airbnb a run for their money. 

[Lisa-and-Cody0]

I definitely agree with this, and I am a former Airbnb staffer myself. I was one of your first Superhosts in the original (and more stringent program) and went onto working on the program and teaching hosts how to be awesome. The lack of support for hosts is really disheartening because it wasn't always like this. I feel like Airbnb is chewing us up and spitting us out, thinking that we are easily replaceable.

Sure, you can always sign up more hosts. But will they be good ones? Where are the retention efforts? You wouldn't need to educate as much and have Opens and all the fluff if you just took care of things at home. Where is Gebbia when you need him? He used to handle CS himself, he should get back on board to help guide Airbnb back to a semblance of it's former self.

I am all for moving forward and being excited for the sharing economy and the future (heck, I built my award-winning short-term rental management business  hp-properties.ca thanks to Airbnb!) but I don't think Chip or Airbnb really "understand what matters to you and to learn more about how we can serve you better. Along the way, I also shared some hospitality tips as well as best practices I'd learned from many of you." I don't see any of these best practices, at least none that I didn't help implement myself in the old days.

I would love to see more responsiveness to hosts. We are the foundation of the building that is Airbnb, and we are dangerously shakey right now. Please, reach out to old-timers like me and the other great hosts on the platform and talk to us like you used to.

Less piffle, like Robin said. More substance and action, please.

[Robin4]

@Lisa-and-Cody0.....Thanks, in my eyes you will always be  a superhost!!

I am putting together statistics which will put the whole host resolution thing in perspective!

Cheers.....Rob

[Linda108]

@Lizzie  It bothers me to read what @David-and-Fiona0, @David126, @Robin4 have posted but I cannot disagree with them.  I would love to focus on the mission of Air BNB or the Air BNB vision because I am very supportive of the idea of the shared housing/economy.  My dissappointment comes from the execution of the ideal.  Many of the unhappy hosts are unhappy because they are uneducated about the platform and/or running a business. I believe the host forum helps with that, but some of the issues are related to systemic issues that require Air BNB intervention.  Getting that intervention is the crux of the dissatisfaction of both the individual host and the host community in general.  

I came away from the LA Open appropriately energized but I also see that the vision is sexier than the reality and I get that.  Unfortunately, the hosts are not "drinking the Koolaid" but are living the reality of the vision.  

Chip, I ask that you use your influence to help Brian get back to earth and make sure the core business is done well before we venture off to another vision.  

Thank you for all you have done Chip, and good luck in your new role.

Linda

[David126]

@Linda108

Reminds me were there not questions raised that were to be put at the Open and I do not believe I have ever seen the reply?

[Linda108]

@David126  It was my understanding that these questions would be addressed at the LA Open not posted in the host forum.  I attended several presentations by both the Founders and other Air BNB management.  I recognized that some of the questions raised by hosts were directly addressed, e.g., poor customer service, difficulty with contact customer service, Instant Booking.  I haven't listened to the presentations that were posted on the website.  Have you?

[Ange2]

@David126  I was wondering about that too.  @Lizzie did you ever post them?  If yes can you please share a link. Thank you.

[Pamela138]

I'm not sure how Airbnb lost its way, but I am so very dissalusioned. The million dollar 'insurance' is no insurance at all. The lawyers have made sure it is almost impossible to collect. The instant book is forced on us and we are left to deal with the problems it creates, we are punished for not using it by pushing our listing lower. The guest is almost always favored in any dispute, leaving hosts vulnerable (what good is a securiy deposit if we can only collect it if the guest admits damage?). Unlisting hosts' accounts with no warning or explanation makes the rest of us feel threatened and patronized (the unintenedd consequence is that we are forced to use multiple booking agencies in case this happens). Airbnb forgot that for MOST of us, these are our HOMES and for some of us, this is our livleyhood. Almost every new change that has been rolled out in the last two years benefits Corporate, not the hosts or guests. The new 'tweaks' take control and protections away from the homeowner and increase profits for Corproate.  That is the opposite of how it started. I hope new providers come along and create the sharing community the way Airbnb used to be.  I'm not sure how much of this is due to Conley, but I hope his replacement is more humane. 

[Kelamel0]

I have to agree with Pamela, with the instant booking creates problems that airbnb don't see. Expecatation of guests are now much higher. Worse is the cleaning fee that i made it very clear yet when the kitchen is so messed up and balance food, cake all over the dining table i cant ask for more fees for cleaning.  

[Pamela138]

And the syncing system is not perect (and the glitches seem to come from airbnb) so I CANNOT use instant book without risking double booking, so I lose my SuperHost status in spite of my 300+ 5 star reviews. Obviosly airbnb puts profits over the quality odf te host. In other words, SuperHost means we make more profit for Airbnb, not that we ARE better hosts to guests.