Say hello to the Host Advisory Board members

[#1]

Hello everyone,

When we announced the Host Advisory in December, we said we'd look to this group of hosts to represent you and help highlight the things that really matter to hosts within Airbnb.

To make sure they understand the needs and perspectives of our global community, the Advisory Board members are active in different ways: from contributing here in the Community Center to leading local hosting groups, to participating in product and policy feedback sessions.  

All of the Advisory Board members are active hosts and represent hosting from countries all around the world. They all have different stories and reasons for why they host. They are excited to get to know you, and we hope you will get to know them. 

Introducing...... 

  @Anna1403 ,  @Bez8,   @Antonella78,  @Susan208,  @Till-and-Jutta0,   @Nutth0,  @Norma17,  @Peter1,  @Merrydith0,  @Pascale144,  @Omar202,  @Pooja30,  @Tiffany204,  @Vinícius0,  @Shinya0,  @Ningyi0,  @Samuel604 

Many of you have already been speaking with Till, Nutth, Bez and Peter, here in the EN CC. 

I ask you to support the Advisory Board members by continuing to surface the great knowledge and insights we see here everyday. Make them feel welcome here and get to know them, they want to hear your ideas and make a difference for all of our community. They need your support to do this. You can also use the tag #HostAdvisoryBoard to highlight topics to them.

What’s next?

Each month a different Advisory Board member will be representing the group and providing an update in the Resource Center and we’ll be carrying on the conversation here on the CC. In the meantime, @Susan208 is our first spotlight of the year, please take a look here.  You can also meet Susan at our Community Center meetup on Tuesday February, 23rd 1PM (PST)–to join view this post here. 

@Omar202 will be providing a February update, so do look out for that in a couple of weeks. 🙂

Thank you,

Lizzie (and all of the EN CC team) 

[Adele46]

Welcome from Atlanta, GA! Thanks for taking this on :)). Please ask Airbnb to create a Shipping Container category under Unique Listings! I’ve asked and asked and asked... I even did a shoot with Airbnb and Tastemade, featuring our shipping container units for a ridiculously low location fee, because the producer said it was going to be an episode for a new show, reaching millions more than it did. It didn’t. Why? It was actually a sponsored Facebook post. It cost us a lot in time and money to prepare. Every time an Airbnb rep said they were sending the suggestion up the chain and encouraged me to send feedback, they assured me that I was being heard. ... crickets. It would take 2 minutes!!!

[Mary-and-Brian0]

Hello all. Great to have this contact. We are hosting in the eastern part of Ireland.   Its a small scale post- retirement effort. As it turns out we are really enjoying it . But it is unfortunate that business has been hit again due to the Covid restrictions this year.

We do find it a little difficult sometimes getting  our message across to the team when we have a query. We believe it must be that English is not the first language of most of the team and things can get lost in translation.

We too would like a category of accommodation in the listing called 'apartment' rather than 'flat'. A flat here in this country is an old fashioned name for a cheap rental whereas an apartment is regarded as a more up market term for a private rental unit.  An apartment does not have to a part of a large complex although it can be.  We believe having to call our letting a flat really cheapens the image. We would like Airbnb to reconsider this section of the listing.

Also we run this listing together as a team but the introduction does not allow for the plural to be used in the introduction or in the body of the set text. This looks very funny and bad English to have single verbs when they should be plural.

[Samantha-and-Bruce0]

Thanks for this. I am a bit confused by all of the @ and who everyone is? Seems this might be another job for me to figure all of this out and I already have several (in addition to being a Superhost). In general, I would love to have more support in Madison, Wisconsin. I have asked to volunteer to be a group leader in Madison, but possibly there's no critical mass? I have never been contacted. Also, I think we'd qualify to be an Airbnb Plus host but that hasn't come to our market yet, either.  My gripes about guests and the platform are few and far between. Except it IS frustrating that the desktop version and mobile version of the platforms are so different from one another AND they seem to be changing constantly. My desktop version is full of information I don't use often and I have to scout for info I do use often like: inbox, account info. Those seem to be buried. Thanks for listening!

[Samantha-and-Bruce0]

Also, historic home should be a category--we're going to create an Airbnb in a place on the National Register of Historic Places. 

[Shaun124]

Hi to everyone from warm and sunny Florida ( most of the time) from @Shaun124

I think this is great platform to help us grow and improve our business.

We are a family run business, With my wife Shona and my 2 daughters Tamara and Justine and 4 future superhosts, our grandchildren.

I was born in Zimbabwe, grew up in South Africa and moved to Tampa Fl 23 years ago with my wonderful wife and 2 pre teen daughters.

My wife and I have been traveling to Europe (mostly) for 4-6 weeks over the past 16 years. We have always loved the idea of living local amongst the locals. Over the years this has meant staying and using Airbnb platform.

Through this philosophy have stayed in some amazing Airbnbs and met some wonderful hosts. 1 couple in particular have become close friends since our 1st stay with them in Chablis France many years back.

For the past 5 years, I kept telling my family that we need to convert some of our long term rentals into Airbnb stays as I felt we had great locations. Thankfully about 2 years ago I went against the wishes of my family( I am know to be suborn in my old age) and when 1 of our long term rental units went vacant, I converted it into our 1st Airbnb.

Within 60 days the family was sold and it was then "dad, how soon can we convert all the properties we own to Airbnb's". The family had to concede that this old dog was right. That never happens in our family dynamic.

Since then we have grown to 15 units and we have loved everything about it. We have had some amazing guest experiences and love that this business has given us the opportunity to build a long term business for our family.

It is my wish that through this community and the Airbnb platform we can continue to change the perception that we are not a venue for rowdy out of control, parties but rather responsible business owners building a future through responsible hosting.

Welcome to everyone and I look forward to contributing

Shaun Shona, Tamara and Justine

The Hey Vacay Team

[Kim-And-Fred0]

Hello,  I look forward to seeing what will be discussed. Kim Gordon Cumbo

p.s. We have been hosting full-time since 2012 in Portland, Oregon.  Now we have a guesthouse.  😉

[Amrita8]

HI  folks , 

Let me tell you that it surely  has been a totally joyful experience hosting for our Airbnb family. This is a marvelous platform  that  one can ever imagine & to be a part it is absolutely exhilarating indeed 

 Hope to keep up the super host status &  keep improving. Cheers and  wishing you all the best of season.

[Nutth0]

Hi Everyone, 🖖

My Name is Nutth, I am a Home-host and an Experiences-host in Chiang Mai, Thailand. 

I host in my own home ( 3 bedrooms house ) and turn my hobbies to be an experience like a Film photography class... Yes, I have only 1 digital camera and 100 analog cameras. 😂  

I'm excited to be HAB and have a chance to meet other members. Thanks for all reply and especially an input you give to raise the voice of what hosts need for the future of hosting.  

Best,

Nutth  

[Brigitte960]

just getting to know about this, love it, look forward hearing more.     have a great day😍

[David122]

I don't know what the conversation is about   how do I find out.

[Nutth0]

Dear @David122 if you mean an conversation about Host Advisory board or an Suggestions you can use #HAB for search on this web or here: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?advanced=false&allow_punctuation=f...

[Antonella598]

Hello, nice to meet you all, i´m Antonella, from Paraguay.

[Anna1403]

Shwmae everyone!

I have so enjoyed reading all these wonderful comments, I love the passion in this community!

I just wanted to reach out and say hi from Pembrokeshire, Wales! I'm @Anna1403 and I have two listings on our old farm right in the heart of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park - my true passion is sustainable hosting and sharing my love for where I live with our guests! I live by the rhythm of the sea and the seasons - and enjoy swimming in the sea all year without a wetsuit in sight!

I'm so thrilled to be a member of the HAB and promise you that all 17 of us are doing all we can to make sure your voices are heard!

[Nanxing0]

Love the idea! Thank you!

[Omar202]

Hi everyone this is Omar from Mexico, I host a couple of apartments in the beautiful Coyoacan which is located in the south part of Mexico City.

I got very excited and energized by reading all your warm welcome words and wishes,  I value and appreciate your comments, suggestions, opportunities, recommendations and feedback I'm fully convinced connection, communication and interaction are always key to success.

I enjoy being a host, meeting guests and visitors from our beautiful Mexico and the rest of the world, networking with other hosts as well as learning, interacting, sharing experiences and good practices with our host communities. One of my passions that I enjoy the most is to educate,  coach and guide new hosts that are starting or are about to start this lovely hosting journey, helping them to become professional and successful, strive and achieve their goals.

We are a group of 17 highly committed hosts just like you distributed across different latitudes who are here to listen, be your voice and represent you the best as possible, so many thanks to believing and trusting on us 🙂

We stay in touch & happy hosting to all of you!