Hiya community, I have recently been asked for my national i...
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Hiya community, I have recently been asked for my national insurance number from airbnb. I asked what this is for as they are...
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We are having Bad Airbnbs news in my community. Im not sure why there are so many issues unless its bad management or absentee landlords. The Community is upset that STR are not vetted better. TOO MANY PARTIES, NOISE, AND DISRESPECT OF NEIGHBORS, AND NOW MAJOR CRIME. The many good host and Airbnbs here are all getting a bad reputation for the mismanagement of a few others. One bad apple spoils etc. A detriment to my future hosting incomeand bookings already affected by various inflationary costs. Wondering if there is any way to put out a positive message or ST campaign. Something needs to happen. Either the community votes and makes it impossible to have Airbnbs here or Airbnb takes action to acknowledged or changes rules and policies to vet out and suspend for good bad host and guest.
@Aundrea3 I like your idea "positive message or ST campaign"..."Airbnb takes action to acknowledged or changes rules and policies". I have to say that the partiers STILL have Zero idea that Airbnb put a no parties policy in place a year ago. Young adults still see an Airbnb home as a party house. What needs to happen is a pr campaign that lets partiers know they aren't welcome any longer nationwide, and at the same time promotes good hosts to good guests. Frankly, I'm very surprised that the basic terms and policy isn't in very large font on the website front page like a news flash for guests. It's like AirBnb doesn't REALLY want to limit partiers and damage publicly.
More social media post in my community which is suposed to be , private and secure, but somehow procedures have not been followed and word gets out to the partiers its easy to get a many people through the gates. And I think the true problem is the huge number of absentee Airbnb property owners, and their lackadaisical managers who don't enforce the Airbnb rules of no parties or large groups. And I heard from other former Airbnb host, there is a problem of Airbnb traveler members booking a place but allows someone else to use the Airbnb. That actually happened to me once and made me nervous since there is no reviews to read and determine if safe to have them. Since I didnt know until last minute I allowed the non member guest to stay, but will not happen again. Reviews are valuable if factual.
Airbnb has a terrible reputation in my area (Tempe, AZ). I recently tried to locally promote my Airbnb in the "Nextdoor" app, which is used widely here. My post turned into a huge, ugly thread of locals trashing Airbnb and demanding that cities in metro-Phoenix ban Airbnbs. Their complaints included:
A) Airbnb has "caused" or "worsened" our severe housing shortage because so many properties have become STR investments instead of places people can live long term.
B) Airbnbs have taken over formerly-quiet neighborhoods and apartment complexes; residents feel surrounded by party STRs,
C) residents no longer have neighbors they can know and have a sense of community with because of absent STR owners
D) homeowners' fear their property value and ability to sell are damaged by having STRs around them, because "no one wants to buy a house or condo next to an Airbnb."
I found myself defending my Airbnb: it's just a private room+bathroom for 1-2 people attached to my home; not big enough for parties; noise and parking are well-controlled; it helps me afford the mortgage and increasing taxes on my historic home, allowing me to keep and maintain it, instead of selling to developers. My defense garnered some empathy and support from locals who replied with things like: That's the "right way" to do an STR, and they are "totally fine with STRs where the homeowner lives on the property." A few other host-present STR owners also chimed in to defend themselves and me. No host-absent STR owners have spoken up.
VERY IRONIC:
While navigating this vitriol, trying to defend my STR and others like it, I haven't been able to ignore the sad irony that mine is exactly the type of place that was once the core of Airbnb's positive reputation--charming, unpretentious, budget-friendly, with the host on-site--but is now the opposite of what the company seeks to be known for. Small, suburban STRs with an on-site host were drastically devalued and/or decimated through Airbnb's Summer Update fiasco. Airbnb now only really cares about glossy, professionally-shot, images of high-end properties that bring in giant payments.
I remember, some years ago, when the hotel industry was railing against Airbnb for disrupting the hospitality industry (like taxis railed against Uber), and so many of us defended Airbnb (and Uber) because they had a "by the people, for the people" sensibility to them, along with hostels and other online platforms, like "Couch Surfing," which were all part of a "community-based, budget-travel" revival. That was such a fun time to travel! I was a mid-career education professional (read: working hard for low pay), and thoroughly enjoyed staying in Airbnbs and hostels around the US and world, meeting friendly hosts and other guests, loving the exchange of budget-friendly payments for quaint, rustic, basic, community-feeling accommodations! I gained so many great memories and friends from those times.
As a traveler, Airbnb has lost that former appeal for me, and I've lost confidence that its search engine will help me see all that's available among those types of accommodations (it doesn't allow me to sort by price; defaults my searches toward glossy pictures of higher-end properties; etc.). And, of course, as a host, I've been very negatively impacted Airbnb's new direction. The Summer Updates:
A) halted my and others' bookings for several weeks, without sufficient explanation or support from Airbnb
B) made finding small, suburban, "non-category" STRs like mine impossible for a few weeks, then permanently less-likely to be found than it was last year (I maintain a 4.99-5.00 start rating / had more than 100 5-star reviews over the past year)
C) drove prices down for all STRs in my area so drastically, my current nightly price is still 50% or less of last year's at this time. This is still the trend throughout my area.
D) increased my overhead, forcing me to pay for a channel manager, because I had to list my place on other platforms (booking.com, VERBO, etc.) to get bookings.
While I am hearing from my community that my host-present model is the ONLY type of Airbnb they support and want to allow here, Airbnb has decided my value is insignificant and unworthy of its focus. Cities like mine have been changing their laws to prevent STRs with absent owners from "taking over" communities, so STRs like mine--under-appreciated by Airbnb--could become the only type allowed here. Time will tell...
We cant blame Airbnb all the time, it would be interesting to see if possible where all the trouble come from, Does it all come from Remote Host? To my knowledge in Bangkok, Thailand which almost every condo project have banned Airbnb, it's not so much Airbnb it's the condo owners and guest running wild and I do know people with condo's in Bangkok. They even have signs in the entrances "No Airbnb"
Airbnb is getting a bad rap over this for a few years, when to me it's the owners who are causing this.
Owners are taking it for granted the condo management will take of check in and check outs, and airbnb guest complaints when they dont get paid for it,
Myself have never done self check in we always meet our guest and we let them know that, plus it is in the listing, we live on the party island of Phuket we stop it before it even starts, Many years ago we had a booking for 4 guest and nine turn up, Where do you lot think you are going?
I think Airbnb should now boot off the platform any remote host, It's giving Airbnb a bad name and spoiling it for good host who play bye the rules, like me hahaha,
Many people in Thailand think airbnb is banned in Thailand and it is not, I stick up for airbnb what is banned is STR anything less than 30 days all brought on by GREEDY host.