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/
