These notifications and warnings from Airbnb are ANNOYING!!
I am a Superhost and have been for a few quarters, so I was a bit surprised to wake up to this little warning on my dashboard the other day:
My performance has fallen below the average for hosts? What? Look at the stats underneath that statement: 4.9 overall rating, with 87% 5 star reviews. How is that below average? Also, I have always provided all the basic requirements and more.
So, I clicked on view details to see what the problem was, and it took me a while to figure out it related to one of my listings which hasn't been available since last Summer, but which has 100% 5 star reviews.
Mmm, that's odd. I'm sure I had all the amenties ticked, but it had been a while since I updated it, so I went back through the whole listing and updated every section.
The annoying warning message was still there days later. Finally, I figured out what it was referring to and that's this:
You've got to be kidding me! Acceptance rate? Okay, so this is the thing that Airbnb always told us did not matter to our rankings. Now all of a sudden it does matter and not just for Airbnb Plus listings. Also, why am I getting a warning when I am meeting the requirement? Really, this is stupid.
In addition, the reason why the acceptance rate is not higher on that listing is because of the Airbnb system, not because of me. It was the first room in my house that I listed, nearly two years ago. I set it up, Airbnb showed me the price I could expect to earn and it looked okay to me. I saw the Instant Book option and decided, as a new host, that I wasn't comfortable using that so I made sure it was not enabled.
The next morning, I logged on to find that Airbnb had not only activated IB on this listing, but halved the nightly price. Yes, that's right, hacked off 50% since the day before (I had no idea back then that Smartpricing was not so smart).
Of course, I had been inundated with enquiries that I couldn't accept at that price, which would have COST me money (not why I started hosting!). I immediately switched IB back off but had to honour a booking I already had at that low price. Fine, the guest was lovely and I got my first review (5 star) and could move on.
Apparently not. It seems I am now close to missing the 'basic requirements' and could have this listing removed if I decline a single request that comes in for it?
Thanks Airbnb. Glad to see you have my back after all my HARD WORK.