Airbnb needs hosts-- how about making some changes first?

[Laura2592]

I keep seeing this on my phone:

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/16/airbnb-ceo-says-company-is-going-to-need-millions-more-hosts-to-meet...

I can honestly say I would not recommend that others home host on this platform. When people ask or think about becoming a host because they know I am one, I steer them to other places. Airbnb, if you need more hosts, here is what I suggest. Some of these are EASY fixes and would do wonders to attract others to  your community.

1. Include a button on reservations where individuals can list pets staying with the ability to charge a pet fee. If the person booking has pets and the host does not allow pets, a pop up should appear asking the guest to look for another accommodation.

2. Include a space for guests to fill in the names and info of everyone who is coming OR require that all guests be registered with Airbnb.

3. Publish rules for being a great guest. Include things like not bringing extra people, not overstaying their reservation, etc. Include these with EVERY BOOKING MESSAGE.

4. Allow hosts to truly collect a security deposit. As in, put funds on hold until after a reservation is done just like hotels take a credit card number for incidentals.

5. Publish protocols for a mismatch reservation-- this is the situation where the guest shows up with extra people or pets or in some way is just not a fit for the host based on posted rules (and vice versa).  So often I see people saying "well they arrived with 10 people and the reservation was for 2 and I couldn't get ABB on the phone so I let them in." This is SUCH an awkward but sadly common occurrence, it would not be difficult to come up with some protocol for handling it that made sense. 

6. Give superhosts 3 cancellations a year without penalty. 

7. Rethink ratings. They are absurd and pretty much meaningless. When guests are parsing a 4.98 vs a 4.91 or a 4.8 to determine which is the best place to say you know your system is broken and measuring nothing. 

8. Redefine your "infant" category. If a host is childfree, again, a pop-up should be enabled so that a guest who wants to book with an infant has to look elsewhere. 

What else can you think of?

[Ute42]

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@Ann72 

You wrote:

• The reporter has used the word "service" differently than we use it

Well, Brian said „service“ and the reporter typed „service“. I'm sure You have meanwhile seen the word by word transcription posted by @Mary419  below. The reporter didn't „use“ the word „service“ by assigning a special meaning to it, the reporter just typed what he said.

But I agree with You that Chesky didn't mean Customer Service when saying „service“. I think with „service“ he meant the general service of the airbnb platform and that is connecting guests with host in order to generate rental contracts.

I think what Chesky wanted to say is something similar to what You suggest:

• Airbnb isn’t likely to offer a lot of incentives to bring new hosts on board because thousands of new hosts are signing up to the airbnb platform every week anway.

Ok, if that's what he wanted to say, why didn't he say it? Why replace the specific term „airbnb-platform“ by the very unspecific word „service“? Just for the sake of being vague? Who invented that language?

Cc: @Laura2592 @Sarah977 @Anonymous @Debra300 

[Ann72]

@Ute42  That language is endemic to the Airbnb culture.  I really hate it.

[Anonymous]

@Ute42   I can see how the ambiguity here makes things confusing. But if we're splitting hairs over word choice, what you quoted was:

" there’s already a huge demand for service."

Whereas the actual quote appears to be:

 "I think we have a huge amount of demand for the service already."

"Service" is a malleable noun whose meaning changes depending on whether it's preceded by a definite or indefinite article, or by no article, or rendered as a verb ("serviced," which has implications both prurient and mechanical). 

If you zero in on the phrase "a huge demand for service," the word connotes that people are expecting to be served directly, like in the context of "customer service."  But when you add the definite article "the," the noun "service" is no longer a shorthand for the actual labor of service work, but rather a euphemism for the entire business.

There are exceptions when the word is being used as a synecdoche: a restaurant reviewer might say "the food was mediocre but the service was excellent," and you know that service refers to the waitstaff.  A veteran might say "I was in the service for 10 years," and you know what she actually means is military service.

But in this context, Brian's use of "the service" is grammatically conditional to his prior use of the pronoun "we," which means that in both cases they are just other ways of saying "Airbnb."  This isn't exactly incorrect, because Airbnb's entire product is a listing service. Unfortunately, the interviewer made no attempt to challenge the way Brian conflated the demand for the type of property listed by Airbnb's service with the demand for Airbnb as a brand itself. That's the kind of distinction someone with a bit more humility would make if trying to appeal to people who know they have options about which service to employ.

[Ute42]

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@Anonymous    

I think Your english is much better than Brian's.  😎

If I would write this on another forum but not on the CC I would not have added the smiley. But Stephanie once told me: In order to avoid misunderstandings, whenever I make a joke I should mark it as a joke, wich I did. I always do what I'm told to do.

[Anonymous]

@Ute42  I think what it was intended to mean is  "there's so much demand for Airbnb homes from guests that hosts are guaranteed to make money in this market. Therefore, we don't feel the need to pile extra incentives on top of the inevitable profit."

Of course they can't come right out and pitch it like that, since the marketing department still wants to keep Airbnb the brand of sentimental puppy videos and corny nostalgia. But realistically, hosting is a business, and making money is the goal - not "belonging."

[Mary419]

His other memorable comment I heard from his own mouth when asked about hosts losing money was that it’s just “incremental income” for most hosts. So not an issue. 

So basically the company imagines it makes their very meaningful profits out of a conglomerate of tons of people just making a little extra spare change they didn’t truly need, as a hobby. 

[Ute42]

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@Laura2592 @Sarah977 @Debra300 

That's happening to me again and again: I see a message generated by airbnb, I read the message and I know all the words in said message. And then I go:

• What are they saying here?

Their language is getting more and more unclear and vage as time goes by.

Maybe that's based on advice from their legal departement: If You say something that makes no sense at all, noone can sue You over it.

[Debra300]

@Laura2592,

I agree with you in that I cannot recommend Airbnb to anyone as a platform to list their STRs. Someone isn't telling the full truth when reporting that Airbnb isn't going to incent people to become new hosts, because there are active promotions to the contrary.   Airbnb has the guest to host program:  https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1546/guest-to-host-program-travel-coupon-terms-and-conditions.

There is also the host referral program: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1129/host-referral-program-terms-and-conditions-referring-host.

I am unsure if it's Brian's arrogance or the writer's poor editing, but Airbnb's brand isn't so popular that it's above providing incentives to attract new hosts.

@Ann72 @Sarah977 @Ute42  @Glenn258 @Michelle1851 @Anonymous @Fred13 

[Anonymous]

@Debra300   Just like with the host referral program that you mentioned, there have always been small incentives to attract new hosts. But a big chunk of new listings from small-scale hosts generate no more than a handful of bookings. You have the hosts who test the waters and then decide it's not for them, hosts who just temporarily sublet their home while on vacation, "hosts" who create sham listings to cash out the bonuses, and ill-fated attempts at listings doomed by their first review(s), all mixed in with the legit ones that become going concerns. 

At the moment, it seems that these transient hosts function mostly as a smokescreen for the larger property managers that are quietly taking over the platform. The brand image depends on the idea of the independent host and the quirky Mom-n-Pop, but the real money is being made by the people appropriating thick portfolios of residential homes for tourism. So the two-pronged strategy that comes with that is:  use the financial downturn suffered by millions of families in the pandemic to lure guestroom hosts into the fold and keep up the brand image, while dog-whistling to the property managers that it's a bull market for chomping up viable housing and converting it into generic holiday homes.

If this is what was "made possible by hosts," count me out. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Laura2592 

I would add :

9. Do not change the platform layout anymore. It is bad enough, it doesn't need to be worse

[Sarah977]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 I know, I don't understand Airbnb's obsession with constantly changing the layout of our hosting pages. It's so disrespectful to make us waste time trying to figure out where they've hidden things and it's never intuitive nor makes sense.

For instance, how on earth would anyone know that you now have to click on your listing title next to the weekly calendar to see the monthly calendar view unless other hosts tell them? It makes no sense at all. Why not just have "Monthly calendar view" as a line you can click on? Why would their programmers not think of that? 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sarah977  I can still see the old calendar layout, still have "month" and "year" buttons. Maybe because i use "professional tools" or how is it called or maybe because different parts of the world have different layouts ( also nonsense btw)

[Sarah977]

@Branka-and-Silvia0  I can still see all that, too, it's now just hidden unless one knows how to get to it. When I click on "Calendar", it goes straight to the weekly, not monthly, view.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Sarah977 Having been involved with many programmers over the years I concluded

1) Many do not know what they are doing

2) Most are overpaid

3) Most are not properly controlled so they just program what they fancy rather than what is needed.

Surely the above cannot apply to Airbnb though.

[Glenn258]

@Laura2592 I just got done telling them that exact same thing. I can't ever find what I need on the site and then when I learn it, they change it.