--> "Why is it a good idea to try out policy changes in the system without at least notifying hosts?"
Hosts tend to find out the hard way when an important policy change is being tried out. And then it's floated sometimes in only one region, so when seeking support in the community forums it just results in general confusion. Can you please go back to saying what you do, and doing what you say? Policy changes are natural and often necessary, but please work to a managed and transparent process.
--> "Instant Book. Can we all stop pretending it's to fight racism? "
You are throwing the hosts who shared space in their personal home under the bus, the peoplewho made AirBnB a success but who do very much need to have a normal human interaction with a stranger before inviting them into their home. Remember when the pitch was about mutual trust between host and guest, the things that brought you success? All of that is being thrown out. Please note the below pop up that guests get: only one button to click, and it doesn't do what it says. At this point Instant Book listings are *already* shown. What it does is hide listings who dont' have Instant Book turned on, or only turned on for guests with past stays. No matter if they're Superhosts who've been with the platforum for years, with 5 star listings. No, Instant Book is more important than everything else, to the point of hiding many of the highest quality listings.
Also note that this was not communicated.
Yes Instant Book makes you (and hosts) a little more money. Which you then get to spend on ever increasing numbers of call-center staff to work through cancellations as a result of incorrect expectations, things that would have been prevented in a good old guest-host message chat, where the host can explain things to make sure the place is a good match for the guest. Instead places are booked instantly without reading properly, then the guest wants to cancel, then the call center staff calls the host to push to make it a booking change from 10 days to one day, so without getting the cancellation fees that the host intentionally set for his listing. All that aggrevation for guests, hosts and your call center peeps: why?
--> Why do you want to become Priceline.com or Booking.com, moving away from a 'travel community' feel where guests and hosts actually talk to each other and get to know each other before agreeing on a stay? Assuming the answer is 'money', could you spin off a dedicated site for one-click booking type stays, and keep a place for an actual tracel and sharing community? (Or the other way around, keep moving AirBnB where it's going but then spin off an 'AirBnB-Home' for the original model of people sharing a couple rooms in their own house. It's very difficult to be all things to all people.)
--> PayPal. Earned money can go to PayPal, but if I want to use those funds to actually travel then I cannot. Please find a way to make that happen, and if you must charge more for that then that's fine too.
--> Message censorship and blanking of content. I'm a superhost with hundred's of stays. Please cut me a little slack when trying to communicate with guests and help them arrange their travels. I like the platform, the value proposition makes sense, fees are fair, I love it. Now please let me communicate without having to do word-limbo-dancing to not see parts of my communications censored, resulting in an unprofessional and less helpful communication to my guest.
All of this said, AirBnB is still by FAR the best holiday rental platform out there. Criticisms are intended to make it even better, and/or prevent it from getting worse for hosts and guests alike.