Brian Chesky Making 'Big Announcement' February 22 on Facebook 'Live'...

[Rebecca181]

Did a search and don't see a post on this, so....What do you all think Brian Chesky will be announcing on the 22nd of February (10 am Pacific Standard Time here in the United States) on Facebook? I guess the community got a letter from him Thursday but I did not see it for some reason. You can access the letter in full via the link I include here. Perhaps this will give us all some clues as to what the announcement 2/22 will be: 'In a cryptic letter, Airbnb's CEO announces a new board member — and that it's now an 'infinite company'':  http://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/airbnb-ceo-brian-chesky-writes-vague-mystical-letter-...

in 10 years'?

[Fred13]

Be most interesting to hear what is 'the latest' from Chesky tomorrow.

(Back from the other side of the Carribbean [Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic} and stayed in an Airbnb; so interesting to hear how Airbnb works for people in  such far-flung places)

[Sarah977]

@Rebecca181   Where did you see the prompt to edit your listing to "Owner" rather than "Professionally Managed"? I haven't gotten any email or message to that effect.

And I think that using the term "professionally managed" is a real insult to those of us who share our homes and will seriously impact our bookings. If you make money doing something, you are professional, that's the meaning of the word. As in professional vs amateur sports. Experienced hosts manage their airbnb business professionally.

That designation for non-owner managed should read "Management Company".

I am really offended by airbnb's choice of words.

[Rebecca181]

@Sarah977 this morning when I went into my listings page to make an edit I saw a little notice under the edit link that I needed to make some kind of special edits, I forget how they worded it and I wish I had taken a screenshot now. The implication was that the listings were either for rent by 'Owner' or professionally managed / commercial, but I honestly can't remember if those were the exact words. It definitely mentioned something like that and then said "for example, you are in the hospitality business".

I now see that there's a bunch of new filters when I go in as if I am a guest and look at my listing. They are the same filters that correspond to what I filled out today, except there is nothing about wanting an owner managed listing versus a property managed listing or hotel.

When I had to check one of those boxes there was a note that was seemingly reassuring, saying that guests would see my listing no matter what. So I wonder when that particular filter will be rolled out. It seems to be very similar to what VRBO and HomeAway has, if you've ever gone in there to look as if you were a guest. It seems like some people have this on their platform and others don't, so I wonder if I'm in some kind of beta testing group that I don't know about.

Let me know here when it comes up in yours. I expected to see a lot of people talking about this today but I appear to be the only one! It's hard to believe I'm one of the only ones on this community forum that is seeing these new filters, but maybe a lot of people have and they are just not on this forum or don't think it's a big deal. Anything that screens out a listing to me is a big deal. And we therefore need to be as informed as possible, and maybe that's what Brian Chesky will be introducing tomorrow in his talk. We shall see!

[Sarah977]

@Rebecca181   Well, I almost never edit anything in my listing, so I wouldn't see such a thing  as a "little notice" under the edit link. You'd think if this was a new thing we should all know about, that hosts would get an email or something. I'll see if I can find it on my edit listings page, but maybe like you said, you're one of the lucky guinea pigs for another experiment.

[Sarah977]

@Rebecca181  Okay, I just checked and there is nothing like that on my edit listings. BUT I see they changed "Stats"- it is now called "Progress". Who the hell comes up with these absurd and pointless changes in terminology?

Oh, and when you go into "Progress" they now have a new heading called "Opportunities". In which they tell me there is one thing I can improve on- my response rate, which is 96%! And the only reason it's not 100% is because they suddenly stopped sending me text messages, so I didn't know I had an inquiry and didn't answer it until 25 hours after it had been made. Oh, my bad. I contacted support right away to tell them my text messaging was not working, but they still lowered my response rate even though it was airbnb's screw-up, not mine. (they have since re-instated my text notifications, but it's so weird- they each come from different phone numbers- a different one every time) The guest whose inquiry I didn't get back to until after the 24 hour response limit ended up booking anyway, by the way.

[Fred13]

 @Sarah977 by now you know Airbnb sometimes makes changes for the 'sake of change'. If anything keeps us guessing on what is next, beats a moribund company that moves at a snail's pace.

Seriously, I would have called it 'Property Managed' for everyone can identify with what that really means - managed by a '3rd party'.

[Marzena4]

Listing edit has changed - there is a shortcut:

[Marzena4]

Once you go through the edit over there, you get those options of management and others.

[Rebecca181]

@Marzena4 Thank you! @Sarah977 this is what it looks like, 'Update your listing' / Add new details' (above). Marzena, do you remember what term they used for the managed properties? I couldn't remember and was hoping to clarify my earlier comment that I remembered the words 'hospitality' and possibly 'managed' or 'hotel' or 'property managed' but wasn't sure. On the guest side, I do not yet see filters whereby a guest can filter between 'Owners' and this other (managed) category. But I imagine something like that may be coming. I would guess Chesky will be discussing this live on Facebook in less than 9 hours. 

[Marzena4]

@Rebecca181 I am not sure what words were used over there. I cannot find any screenshot, either. 😞

[Rebecca181]

@Marzena4 did you watch / hear Brian Chesky's speech today?

[Marzena4]

@Rebecca181 Nope, because it overlapped with my last classes. I will be looking for a replay/recording.