You may have seen just last week in the press, the conviction in London, UK of an airbnb guest who raped a host in Croydon, on her very first hosting experience. This combined with other press reports of deaths of airbnb guests in fires, Carbon Monoxide deaths in double figures, begs the question, would now be the ideal time for Airbnb to enhance their security for both guests and hosts before the UK/London moves towards legislation or mandatory registration of airbnbs?
The New badge (strapline – One of the most loved homes on airbnb based on ratings, reviews and reliability) was introduced in October/November 23.
Whilst I understand the need to promote new properties as we all have to start somewhere. Are just a handful of recent 5*reviews a good barometer of “most loved homes based on ratings, reviews and reliability?
This is in my opinion is giving a false sense of security to guests.
The current algorithm is promoting these New Guest Favourite hosts based on just a couple of recent 5 star reviews above established hosts. We have all encountered hosts who got their friends to book their rooms, reimburse said friends and get them to write 5 star reviews when they set up their listings.
Whilst it seems hosts who achieved the previous badge of Superhost* are no longer featuring in the search function. It seems the Superhost search button has now been removed and replaced with Guest Favourite as the only search button. It would appear that this new selection criteria has been created to encourage all guests to select, as it implies to provide an additional sense of security. Apparently Guest Favourites have a 4.92 rating or above (however, I am sure my recent searches uncovered places with less ratings) the other barometer is a 1% host cancellation rate. All very attainable when you have just a few 5 star reviews.
Airbnb have also removed some of the hosts’ other safety features recently on the Instant book function which could enhance host risks.
Since November my enquiries and bookings have dropped off a cliff, I used to run at 95-100% occupancy with just a few gaps (mainly due to my own minimum night stay policy). I also haven’t had a Four Star review since about 2018. My performance on air bnb was consistent. I did all the things they recommend to keep the algorithm working. Luckily I had some bookings that were made prior to the introduction of the new badge that saw me through for a few weeks.
As a result of the massive decline and daily watching my number of views and wish list additions drop like a stone, In January, I started researching other hosts activity and I checked out if similar well established hosts had lots of availability and very few recent reviews. I was initially reassured yay……. It seemed we were all in the same boat as they too had little or few guests and had hardly any recent reviews so not many recent bookings, it must be an economic downturn or a blip in the system, or so I thought. We all saw the rates dropping and reacted accordingly, I dropped mine too (15-20%), I also reduced my minimum night stay to 2 nights in the hope it would pick up.
However prompted by other established hosts postings on social media, I like many others, started doing our own research and many of us are coming up with same results/conclusions.
Many established hosts have contacted customer support about the downturn, however, in most cases your support team seem unaware of the downturn. Who is measuring hosts leaving the platform or resorting to long term Spareroom guests to fill their calendars?
Airbnb: your core established hosts are suffering with this change in strategy. They will start leaving in droves and where will this leave airbnb when mandatory registration is introduced and *fire/electrical/guests security is paramount?
It seems to me that airbnb are neglecting the people who helped build your business.
You have not replaced the Global Head of Hosting (essentially the hosts spokesperson), you are under investor pressure to show growth and one of those strategies includes hosts supply……. But at what cost? Surely safety, and established reliability are key.
A bit about me:
I am in my twilight years before retirement and I have been hosting two spare rooms in my home over the last 10 years. It is my only form of income before my pension kicks in. So I am established hosts with almost 700 reviews, 10 years of hosting, one room had a 4.98 rating with almost 370 reviews and the other room has a 4.96 rating with 312 reviews. 10 years a superhost with 0 cancellation rate over all those years, a 100% response rate and over 1250 guests. I also achieved the Guest Favourite Badge. As a previous senior director in the hotel industry I have always had guest safety at heart. Established hosts like myself invested to meet the new fire regulations which came into force in UK in October 23. We invested in fire risk assessments, hard wired fire or heat alarms, new door locks, night lights and torches, fire extinguishers, carbon monoxide alarms etc. etc. Having been in hospitality, I had always wanted my own hotel but couldn’t afford it – but, for me, being an air bnb host was genuinely the next best thing. I loved it. We own our home, I declare the income and pay the taxes. I am not a property developer, multi listing host or a rent to rent host, I believe I fit your initial core sharing economy values. I am not social media Savvy – just joined X/twitter yesterday and this is my first attempt at posting on Threads and Instagram too. If you can help me get this to the attention of the senior execs at air bnb please
