Are Traditional Hosts Still Valued By Airbnb?

[Rebecca181]

I am a United States (super) host and have been listing on Airbnb for about 9 months now. During this time I have noticed a large property management firm start to 'take over' many of the Airbnb listings in my neighborhood - To the point where I am one of only a handful of traditional (non-property managed) Airbnb hosts left, out of nearly 100 listings. These are the same listings I see on other booking sites; there is no home-sharing going on; no on-site host; no personal touches to acknowledge someone's birthday or an anniversary, etc - Just the same kind of anonymous listing you can find anywhere else these days, and there is nothing 'Airbnb'-like about it. 

This same large property management firm offers these listings at ridiculously low prices when they first come onto the market, e.g., in one case an ocean-front house that sleeps 12 was put on the market for $79.00. If I did not excel at marketing my place and catering to a 'custom clientele' (my strategy from the beginning - I have the advantage of being a former VP of Marketing), I would have no doubt been driven out of business nearly immediately - And I am guessing that other hosts may have indeed been driven out of business, or forced to list with this property management firm if they wanted their vacation rental business to survive. True 'home-sharers' may have had to close shop altogether, being unable to compete with such ludicrous prices.

It seems to me that Airbnb appears to be making itself over into a Booking.com or a VRBO or Expedia-type site as it prepares to go public in the not-so-far future. I began to wonder if us traditional hosts are seen as a liability by Airbnb these days as they move toward an IPO: Perhaps because we do things like speak up about flawed or failed policies; want to control our prices and not give in to these constant, nagging reminders to lower our rates to ridiculous levels; and have final say over who / what comes into our homes (whether human guests or animals). 

So, I'm curious, are other hosts noticing property management firms taking over the listings in their area? If so, how is this impacting / affecting you and your listing's success? And if you host in the traditional sense (home-sharing / sharing your primary residential property), do you feel valued as a host, and as a 'partner', by Airbnb? By the way, here's an article on the 16 Steps Airbnb has taken to entice Property Management firms with Vacation Rental listings to list with them. Notice that Property Managers are reportedly paid 30 - 60 days BEFORE the guest checks in. Must be nice! This is just one of the many policy adjustments Airbnb has reportedly made to appease Property Managers and get them to list. Seems like Airbnb is setting up Property Managers to succeed. Are they doing the same for us hosts?  https://www.vrmb.com/airbnb-16-steps/

[Gisele20]

The rent may be low but look at the cleaning fee!

[Ute42]

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Hi @Gisele20 , which listing with which refering cleaning fee are You talking about?

[Gisele20]

@Ute. It was about some listings that @Rebecca181 had mentioned, that were commercial listings. I looked at some and wondered why they were so low and noticed that the cleaning fee was several hundred dollars

[Gisele20]

@Rebecca181I saw a documentary on German tv. Airbnb is now bigger than all 5 of the biggest hotel chains together. And that’s why they also want a 4.8 average because they start mentioning the ratings of their places and how great their hosts are.

[Rebecca181]

@Gisele20 Thank you for this information. @Ute42 have you seen this documentary on German TV over there? Yes, so many of the hosts here at Airbnb are indeed great - Hosts like Super Host David in Colorado, who has hosted over 1000 guests and who recently had his account closed for no reason that can be discerned, and without explanation or recourse. That's how Airbnb's 'great hosts' are treated at this point. Maybe commercial listings on Airbnb and Airbnb Plus hosts are spared such terrible treatment, since that's obviously the way that Airbnb is now going - Hostless listings with 'great hosts' who are not on site.

[Gisele20]

@Rebecca181 They probably will not be spared. It’s the Airbnb way to push ALL the hosts

[Rebecca181]

@Gisele20 Perhaps, but no commercial property manager would put up with having their chosen cancellation policy overridden; not being able to collect for damages from a security deposit, etc. I am pretty sure at this point that such commercial operations are treated *very* differently than the non-commercial hosts on Airbnb. It also appears that they have their own special policies and terms, their own dedicated website, their own support, etc - There is just no way that commercial entities would remain on the platform if they were treated like they had no head for business and were dabbling in a fun hobby by hosting with no thought of even making a profit - which is how we shared home hosts are basically treated.

[Gisele20]

@Rebecca181 they are going to ‘write off’ everything as a loss

[Rebecca181]

True. But commercial listings / 'hosts' also work under 16 different, 'special' policies that we 'regular' hosts do not have access to, including a 'super strict' cancellation policy and early payment for bookings.

Must be nice.

[Syl11]

@Rebecca181  Would be interesting to read the 16 different 'special' policies we don't access as traditional hosts. Can someone in the commercial domain reveal these 16 policies ?. I'm not impress with Sydney side of things, it was announced 5 months ago our trendy top real estate agents was in charge of listings to the tune of hundreds, not including other multi listed agents to the tune of three hundreds, all playing down pricing and beating the crap out of any listing let alone a horrible LIBERAL government self trashing its own party sabotaging everything in its reach. The Sydney team are bull of BS...........they love their BS and shame for the concept.

I don't get annoyed by its owners trying to live their DREAM and doing their dream but its the BS down teams ..........BS Its BItchy business.

[Syl11]

@Rebecca181 @Susan17 @Oomesh-Kumarsingh0 @Cormac0 @Fred13

I get the hint why there was NO AIRBNB OPEN in 2018.........GUESS WHO....DON'T SUE    Where do you think the airbnb 2018 Open was suppose to be?Sydney Liberal Politicians has completely self sabotaged their transport network systems with the city looking like an open mine......dust dirt constructions, overspending, over delayed light rail, light rail project sueing this NSW LIBS, many city business bankrupt from the raw construction right on their doorsteps for several years and facing an extra two years to finish, now a new class action against this Liberal NSW GOVT. Can one imagine an airbnb OPEN 2018 in our City!!!   WHO MESSED UP?

Lots of Bull S...T POLITICS.....I seriously hope the SYDNEY LIBERALS gets TOSSED OUT of GOVERNMENT in MARCH 2019, they write how great their regulations are, the actual ordinary business side of listings were unaffected until these idiots started their negativity. These Liberals in general have thrown out their PM, most recent allegations inside politics are bullying and harassments.

Therefore, we had to deal with multi hundred agent listings, we had to deal with a disgusting government........its disgusting......and GREED, corruption 

No turning back

[Fred13]

These are the numbers I have observed, taking  Airbnb & VRBO for example.

  ~VRBO: 6.6% fee to host, 10% > 6.5% fee to guests (10% at $1000 stay down to 6.5% at $3,000 stay).

  ~Airbnb: 3.3% fee to host, 12% > 6% fee (12% at $900 stay down to 6% in a $3000 stay).

Airbnb is trying to figure out a way to not have a booking fee at all  to guests, but go strictly to a 12% host fee, but hesitant to do so because their hosts then may pass the fee on toward their particular guests. The Airbnb original traditional model is probably proving to be now way too expensive and too high-maintenance, in comparison to the  'proffesionally-run', multiple-listing accounts. Supposedly, still 85 percent of Airbnb hosts rent out the home they live in and the typical host earns only $4,505 per year by renting 37 nights per year, but this is spread over a whopping 1,000,000 individual hosts which may be proving too costly.

Their Host Guarantee program is probably the leading culprit, I suspect they know by now it is a royal can of worms. VRBO doesn't have this but instead offers a $1m a host liability protection & offers a true security deposit system, which how it really works out I have zero clue; it still requires the booking agency to act as the heavy, something Airbnb (and maybe everyone else) would be reluctant to play anyway.  

Personally, I am thrilled with a booking service who only costs me 3.3%, takes care of all the collecting, brings me 5x+ the guests anyone else can and I only have to put up with the occasional  absurd decisions like Extenuating Circumtances and such surprises. No, I do not get lunatic guests, no chance of that; if I did, I probably be going about it differently or doing something else entirely. The rest of the stupid things they do, like those annoying notifications, I simply ignore or turn off.

A pity there is no going back to the 'good old days' and more changes are coming, because economically they probably have to,  and economics is the strongest force of them all.

[Susan17]

@Rebecca181 @Oomesh-Kumarsingh0 @Ute42 @Cormac0

Just an update on my situation. Nothing much to report unfortunately, but this is the email I sent to Gennica at Airbnb Support on Sunday (two days ago). It's now Day 23, and still nothing...

Hi Gennica. Day 21. Still no explanation forthcoming from yourself as case manager, or from your supervisor/s, regarding the alleged grounds for the  €2400 refund to Mr XXXXX, which was against my cancellation policy, and against my wishes. Still no call back from a supervisor, which was promised 6 days ago. May I strongly urge that you and your supervisors/managers acquaint yourselvess with the new European Commission directive, regarding Airbnb's unfair and unethical business practices - which came in to effect on July 16th of this year - prior to (eventually) getting back to me, please? Much appreciated.

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-4453_en.htm

With particular attention to the following clauses...

Airbnb's terms of services should be brought into conformity with European consumer law. The Unfair Contract Terms Directive requires that standard terms and conditions do not create a significant imbalance between the parties' rights and obligations, to the detriment of the consumer. The Directive also requires that terms are drafted in plain and intelligible language so that consumers are informed in a clear and understandable manner about their rights

Airbnb cannot decide unilaterally and without justification which terms may remain in effect in case of termination of a contract

Airbnb's policy on refunds, compensation and the collection of damage claims should be clearly defined and should not deprive consumers from their right to activate the available legal remedies

Best 

Susan

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

@Susan17 Thank you for providing some updates on this problematic situation that you are facing.Unfortunately i believe because Airbnb is not a European company it may not be suject to  certain EU policies.This is why in some famous European capitals hosting on Airbnb is limited or even illegal.

[Rebecca181]

@Susan17 Keep fighting the good fight. I have been thinking about you and I appreciate that you are keeping us updated here. I can only hope that similar protections are one day in place in the U.S., and everywhere where Airbnb trades.