Host Advisory Board - Top 3 Suggestions

[Mike-And-Jane0]

As The host advisory board members appear to have been instructed to engage with the official Airbnb Community Centre perhaps we could suggest the top 3 concerns for them to take forward to Airbnb. Not an ideal method but it may encourage them/Airbnb to actually do something more efficient to canvass hosts.

My top 3 are:

Reviews - Allow hosts to remove the star rating of 1 review per year. Comments would stay.

Cancellation policy - Apply the hosts cancellation policy EXCEPT where it is inconsistent with the law in the host's country.

Payment - Take responsibility (ie pay) if a guest is introduced to a host but their payment method falls over at a later date.

[Mary996]

HI @Sharon1014 

Would you consider starting a new thread with this information...?

Many thanks indeed if not too cumbersome!!

[Mary996]

That was for you above @Sharon1014 

I will get better at this...haha!!! xx

[Mary996]

Just to reconnect with the subject you raised... it was on 3/2/21 and you said:

"Oh don't get me started on that one.  The evidence list is waaayyyyyyyyy too long to post here!!!"

I would really like to try to understand Host grievances with a view to seeing them fully addressed. If at all possible I would very much appreciate seeing these specifics . Many thanks indeed

[Helen3]

Hi @Sharon1014 

I got 11 partial payments last year when Airbnb had to cancel bookings because we were under lockdown under this scheme . 

If you were a SH with a strict cancellation policy and didn't get partial payments did you chase Airbnb at the time? 

[Mary996]

@Sharon1040     Thank you for so kindly sharing your knowledge. The link below which you put up has sadly been ended:

Nowthis: "Airbnb CEO Speaks on Travel Amid COVID-19" (pscp.tv) . If you have any recollections to share, if not too time consuming, your perspective would be warmly appreciated. Very best wishes from Mary

[Nathalie-Et-Gilles0]

@Sharon1014 

Your question is interesting.

@Mike-And-Jane0  speaks only for UK but in France to overide the policy was strictly forbiden (a law was voted in march 2020 to make things clear on this point).

But hosts had to accept to change dates up 18 months later if guest requested it.
If guest did not want to change the dates, deposit was due to host.

Since september 2020, as it is a well known risk, only the contract and cancellation policy are valid.

@Mike-And-Jane0 

You don't get the point.

To ask to clarify between speech and reality allow to assess the damage.

Your opinion is not entirely true.

Even in Britain, travellers cannot pretend they don't know there is a risk of travel restrictions.

Moreover, hosts could receive last spring at least those who rent an entire place but the tenant should have a right to come or travel like nurses, some core workers and even workers living around who needed a quiet place to work.

And even "tourists" who moved before the travel ban.
Where do you think the foreign tourists suddenly bloked abroad lived during the confinement?
They rented some place.

[Sara952]

1. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE add back the option to select who gets the cleaning fee in payouts.  The removal of this feature (2? years ago) has wreaked havoc on my business.  A simple option to say for each listing where the cleaning fee goes instead of doing the split payout along the amounts specified for the rest of the payout.

2. Remove ESAs from 'assistance animals'.  ESAs are not service animals and should not be given the same ability to book at houses that don't allow pets.  Being told I'm discriminatory for not allowing an ESA (in this case a pet with an online "certification") in a home where the owner has a severe allergy is very frustrating.  In the same vein have an option (like VRBO already does...)  to select a pet and have the fee automatically added.

3. Have advanced support for experienced hosts.  I have been hosting 7+ years, 40 listings, over 3000 guests, I know how to use the website and app and don't have any basic questions ever.  I need to be able to contact someone who can help with advanced issues/things that cannot be done by anyone except customer service.

[Nathalie-Et-Gilles0]

@Mary996  bonjour

For the deposit, judges take into consideration the reality of what is promised.
Airbnb promises to manage the deposit.
But it does not debit the CB!
So in reality, it does not manage anything.
So to fordid host to hold a deposit may be considered as an abusive and unwritten condition.

In France, a human being cannot be deprived of his rights and a rental deposit is a right.

It would be different if Airbnb debited the deposit (as any rental business) and gave hosts a real power on it.

[Mary996]

Bonjour

Je suis d'accord avec vous!

I love your legal system... Socialist country see!! When I lived there the topic of conversation at the dinner table was whether to vote Socialist or Communist ....!!!  xxxx Bravo

[Nathalie-Et-Gilles0]

@Mary996 

Humm!

it was a few years ago.

Socialists have disappeared.
RIP.

[Mary996]

@Nathalie-Et-Gilles0  Yes it was a good many years ago.... but is still in the blood ... your sense of justice, civility (do you still Greet and take your leave in the shops?), good food prioritised  (I am so sorry about McDonalds) and l'esprit. You don't have to inter that in the grave Gilles...This can be you!! 

[Mary996]

@Emily-And-Virginia0 

Its the placating bot here....(!!) . I thought you might appreciate being brought into this conversation. There are a number of points of view re:pets/dogs in this thread and some alternative strategies that you might be able to implement immediately???? Best wishes Mary (down graded from most helpful answerer ... which would have been the honour of being my first 'most helpful answer'... and I do try to be helpful haha!!). I also think that I'm pretty competant... and I anticipate results (which is what matters really, irrespective of my style!!). Teasing you back xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Love to you both from Mary

[Mary996]

Dear Mike and Jane

@Mike-And-Jane0 

I would like to express my appreciation of this thread. Thank you so much for the initiative and for getting us to pull together to produce so many strands that can be refined down to coherent issues to go up to the HAB @HostingAdvisory Board  @HABF . Truly heroic! Thank you again!! xxxxxxxxxxxx

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Mary996 Thank you for your kind words. sadly the HAB folks are 25% through their term and it is very apparent that they are just a PR exercise by Airbnb and/or a talking shop. No effort has been put into actually trying to help hosts with their main concerns. I hope I am wrong but fear I am not.....

[Sarah977]

@Mike-And-Jane0   Ever read the comic strip "Peanuts"? There's a long-running gag wherein Lucy, the quintessential teasing older sister who loves nothing better than to make a fool of her gullible little brother Linus, convinces him to kick the football she will hold on end for him.

Every time, she pulls it away at the last moment, so Linus kicks the air and falls flat on his back. 

Every time, he expresses doubt that she won't pull it away again, she oh so sincerely manages to convince him otherwise, yet does it again.

Airbnb continues to play the role of Lucy, but there are fewer and fewer experienced hosts willing to audition for the part of Linus.