Supporting new hosts

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

Since I've been sharing a lot of your feedback with the Airbnb team, some of them reached out and asked if I'd get your input on how they can support new hosts, in particular. Many of you have been hosting successfully for a while now, and they want to find out how they can help others do the same.

Do you know people—a friend or neighbor, maybe—who's considered hosting on Airbnb but never gotten started? What do you think their main hesitations are? What are one or two things that Airbnb could offer to better support them as they get ready to become hosts? Would resources like free storage, a discounted cell-phone plan, or a coupon to claim a smart-lock device help?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this. Thanks so much!

Lizzie

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[Sarah977]

@Lizzie  Thank you for your response. You say it takes a long time to change things- but hosts have been asking for Airbnb to get host input BEFORE coming up with new changes- this would solve a lot of problems before they became problems. It's akin to me trying to assemble some new piece of equipment without bothering to read the instruction booklet that came with it, and getting it all wrong with the pieces upside down so it doesn't work, whereas if I had read the instructions first, there wouldn't have been any problems.

For me, and I think a lot of hosts, the biggest issue right now is the new 10 page review form for guests, which, as you know from reading here, is causing guests not to leave reviews. If we weren't being rated on the % of guests who leave reviews, it wouldn't be such a big deal. If Airbnb had garnered host and guest input on this review form idea before they instituted it, every host and guest could have told them that this would result in guests not bothering to leave reviews. 

So rather than you relaying all these separate issues to Airbnb, the most important thing to convey to the company is that requesting host input on ideas for changes before spending time constructing and implementing them, only to have to relook at the results and deconstruct, would be the most productive change they could make in the running of this platform. 

it would be easy to do here- they submit an idea to you, you post it in the forum, and Airbnb can assess whether this idea is worth spending time developing or not, or how it could be tweaked to be of value to hosts and guests. As it stands now, the way things are implemented reminds me of 15 year olds who think they know everything and that Mom and Dad are stupid and not worth listening to.

[Rachel0]

@Sarah977 I read through your post muttering, "Yep, exactly" for every point you made!  @Lizzie's time would be well used if she were to be given the proposals for changes and then coordinated our responses back to Airbnb.  As it is, the arrogance of Airbnb is staggering. They foist unnecessary changes upon us, expect us to meekly comply and then threaten us if we complain.  That's no way to run a company in the 21st century, it's Dickensian.

[Kimberly54]

@Lizzieand all,

The cool thing about AirBnB is the philosophy--the dream.  And when it WORKS?  It's amazing!  I just had two DREAM guests in the last month. 

When AirBnB doesn't work, it is just broken, and there is no one there to fix it.  (BE NICE TO THE PEOPLE--if you can find one--BECAUSE THEY ARE ALSO CLUELESS... and can't admit it!)  =-((

The site also changes--often.  No bread-crumbs to tell you where to go now (not like last time... no, it's changed).  

@Lizzie, Help us help you!

Best,

[Rebecca181]

@Lizzie In addition to @Sarah's suggestion, above (Corporate getting our feedback *before* making a significant change to the platform and/or practices that will affect all hosts / super hosts, such as this incomprehensibly long, new and definitely not improved review process), it seems to me that there needs to be accountability built into the Host / Guest / Airbnb Corporate relationship - a triangular relationship that, when not working well, becomes something akin to the 'Bermuda Triangle' - with hosts feeling like their voices and their expressed concerns disappear into some mysterious, black void.

I can only wonder: Why does a company that stresses community operate in such a 'top down' manner that suggests a deliberate arrogance toward, and a possible disdain for, the very people the company built it's business on? Not to mention things like hosts having their chosen Cancellation Policy completely ignored in favor of a guest's demand for a full refund, even when undeserved. You know, things like that.

When experienced, proven hosts present the same issues over and over and over and over again ad nauseum here in the CC, clearly these would seem to warrant dedicated attention from Corporate. A dialogue should then be opened between Corporate and hosts and guests, as needed, here in the CC via a mod post, until these issues are at least somewhat (even if imperfectly) resolved. 

Until this happens, the CC is merely a place for hosts to help each other out and sometimes 'vent' and 'rant', while the mods post on benign topics of interest that seem designed to transcend, ignore, and completely bypass all of the 'messiness' below. I don't know about others, but I find it all to be a bit surreal, myself...

[Sarah977]

@Rebecca181   Very articulate and on point, as usual.

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

@Rebecca181 Totally agree with you! 

[Rachel0]

@Rebecca181 Yes, spot on and well put.  Problem is of course that the people who are telling us how to host have probably never been hosts themselves and, I suspect, may not have been guests either.  

[Sarah977]

@Rachel0  Yes, and Chesky went from providing an air mattress on his floor to wanting his site to be filled with slick, generic-looking no-host apartments and getting guests to rat out hosts as to whether they provided toilet paper.

And obviously none of them have children, or they wouldn't lump 0-2 years of age in a category called "infants". 

[Sally221]

Speaking as a retired infant/toddler teacher- under 2 is an "official" definition of infant although the needs & abilities of a six month & under is Very Different Indeed from the needs and abilities of an 18 month kid.

Some listings would be totally inappropriate for a mobile and intent on exploration toddler- nerveracking for all concerned and best avoided for the peace of mind of host & guest alike.  I don't charge extra for additional guests but I do limit our listing to 4 + 1 infant (I have portacribs in 2 sizes )

I had one family with a child who was at least 8, clearly not an infant-he slept with "Nasty grandma" it was either confusion over the term or trying to avoid a non existant surcharge. If a space isn't amenable to adequate childproofing,  I'd advise explaining this to prospective guests in terms of their child's safety and  their own sanity. There is nothing relaxing about spending your vacation being a hypervigilant killjoy! ( I love hosting toddlers but it is a niche!)

[Sarah977]

@Sally221   You'd think parents would be concerned for their toddler's safety if they try to book a place that says "not suitable for children". I don't understand why any parent would do that, but apparently they do. 

It's not just that a host doesn't want the walls scribbled on, a toddler could fall to their death at my place- balcony railing an inquisitive, agile toddler could climb up on and fall to their death on the concrete patio below. Stuff like that. Some parents must think the host just doesn't like kids.

[Lhenice0]

Hi..I'm new to hosting.

Can you check my listing if needed to update or change.

Cannot access payment metjod..doesn't allowed  bank transfer.

Manila  is the location  of my place..Philippines. 

Thanks..

[Emmanuel244]

They need to make the website more user-friendly, very hard to find the most relevant links. I even have a hard time just finding my own listing.