Have any Superhosts received an invite to apply for the $5,000 grant scheme?

[Robin4]

It seems each time the CEO has a video session he has some grand offers he is so exited to share with his partners.

I believe some hosts who are active here on the CC have received the promised compensation for reservation cancellations from a $250 M  compensation fund.

I can understand that the $25-$50 offered here or there would not be too onerous for the company to honour baring in mind the claimable window was set to very narrow parameters.

What I would be interested to find out, has any Superhost received an invitation to apply for the (up to $5,000) compensation grant that the CEO went to great pains to promote back at the start of April. 

There is a certain psychology behinds words and statements and the way they are formed!

I smelled a rat when I read the first line of the eligibility criteria........

"There are hundreds of thousands of Superhosts around the world"........really!! All reliable estimates suggest their are between 650,000 and 700,000 Airbnb hosts around the world of which 10-15% are Superhosts.

Obviously an opening statement like that is designed to prime Superhosts up not to be too disappointed if that invite doesn't come.....there after all 'hundreds of thousands' of Superhosts in the mix here.

There may have been a dollar or two on offer here robbed from the employees incentive scheme but it would be really interesting to hear if any one of Superhosts who are active here on the CC have received that illusive invite! 

I am active on a couple of other sites so I will keep hosts here posted if I should actually come across anyone who has received one of these mysterious invites!

Cheers......Rob

[Sarah977]

This is why I'm no longer wasting my time watching any more of Mr. Chesky's videos. When 'We'll be issuing grants to Superhosts most in need' somehow morphs into "We're issuing grants to Superhosts who've held that status for 4+ years and also Experience hosts and you probably won't even get an application to establish need because the first criteria is how much money we see you lost from last year as compared to this year, instead of how losing your reservations has impacted you financially", it becomes pointless to believe anything that issues from this company.

[Robin4]

@Sarah977 

Yeah, once again I'm with you Sarah, I didn't watch the last Chesky rev up session and I have no intention of watching it or any future ones....there is just no point. 

If something comes to me that interests me or requires me to take action, it will come to my email and I will consider it and address it.

To sit there and listen to yet more grandstanding does nothing but confuse peoples minds.

It's a bit like using the bloody Sat/nav in the car! You want to get from A to B, and if offers you this multitude of choices.....

Do you want to avoid toll roads?

Do you want to avoid current congestion hotspots?

Do you want to avoid current roadworks?

Do you want to use service routes?

Do you want the shortest route or the quickest route?

In the end you just think F...... it I'l go by the road signs!!!

All Mr Chesky's addresses do is confuse us. I need to plan my future, not consult the 'chocolate wheel' each morning when I get up....give a spin and see where the arrow lobs today!

I would venture to say a high percentage of hosts financial problems have been compounded by listening to Mr Chesky's briefings. He keeps on making hollow nebulous statements that give users false hope that they don't need to take responsible action to help get them through their current dilemma.

It's in the same bag as the host protection scheme......."Look how great we are, host with confidence we have your back covered"!

Oh yeah, what have I been reading here, and on valuepenguin,  airbnbhell and wisebread over the past few years?

Any companies statements should be cohesive, accurate and responsible, they should be designed to inform, not confuse.

I have hoped that there would be a subtle shift in emphasis and that we would become more of a close knit organisation, come together in times of crisis but, as @Susan17 says there is not an element of society that Airbnb have not p*ssed off .....

And to line up for more of same-ol, same-ol each week or so........ no, I am sure we have all got something better to do with our time!

Cheers......Rob 

[Kangie0]

I tool, have not received any invites for the grant and no 25% on the canceled reservations made prior to the cut off. Reaching out to anyone in the Support team is completely useless.

[Stephanie]

Hiya @Kangie0 ,

Thanks for sharing your concerns here. Please note that invites will continue to go out until mid-May so there is still time for you to receive it. 

Many thanks,

Stephanie

[Kangie0]

So it's mid-May now and since we still haven't heard anything I doubt that they're sending more invites. I think by now I'm pretty convinced this whole $5000 grant was just meant for the press as not a single superhost here has reported an invite to the grant (not to mention a successful grant). I think Airbnb should now publicly report the real statistics (including how many superhosts were actually granted) to everyone. @Stephanie 

[Stephanie]

Hiya @Kangie0 ,

We updated the time line a couple days ago as we had only sent out 2 thirds of the invites (takes time for some superhost to complete the invites too) so we are still inviting out until the end of May. You can find out more here: https://www.airbnb.co.uk/resources/hosting-homes/a/answers-to-your-questions-about-the-superhost-rel...

Thanks

[Kangie0]

@Stephanie

I saw no more updates after their latest post on May 13 at https://www.airbnb.co.uk/resources/hosting-homes/a/answers-to-your-questions-about-the-superhost-rel.... Any more news? Still hearing nothing but silence.

[Carl12]

I am not a superhost longer but I know someone that is and no invitation sent at all. I am also waiting for the refund, I got 3 months of full rental wasted and my job is in great risk so not sure how someone can be affected more than me.

Airbnb have handled this crisis terribly in every single possible way. Do not write in a way that we will hope for some kind of economic compensation or relief. It would have been better to communicate that we are contract workers and if there is no work, no pay, hard and simple. At least that would have been honest.

[Ivan1534]

Dear colleagues, Airbnb,

I am writing to you because I am frustrated and I will most likely quit doing business with Airbnb and I am in a desperate need for help or advice.

I didn't get the inivte for Superhost Relief fund although i meet all the criteria that the are requesting. And it's clear that there is no doubt about it. Not only I meet the base criteria I am probably a classic example for the Super relief funds cause my incomes came from really big ones in 2019 to zero in 2020 and I am a Superhost from 2015 i think. I am living out of this and have no other income. For all others criteria i meet as well.

On all my phone calls nad messages to Support agents they are answering me the same al the time - that they cannot do nothing about it and that this is automatically generated and they are not giving me thorough explanation.

Has this happened to somebody and can this be solved, can somebody give me an advice?

Thank you,

[Robin4]

@Ivan1534 

Ivan, I am sorry you are in such desperate need but now is the time to approach those who finance you and work out a support package to help you through this, that does not involve Airbnb assistance.

CS have essentially answered your question Ivan, the entire platform revolves around algorithms, and you can safely say, that 1900 staff that got terminated were not going through Superhost accounts to see who is the most needy.

A computer is assessing who is worth keeping the most from Airbnb's perspective. Which Superhosts are going to continue to be the most financially beneficial to the company.

The company realised early in this crisis that they did not and could not have the resources to support those hosts who have a significant number of listings! It stands to reason the more listings a host has the greater the level of support they require.

That is why they set the limit of this assistance package at hosts with no more than 2 listings....their funds pool would go further and they were more likely to have those hosts remain with them. They are not offering this to help hosts, they are offering it to help themselves. They are trying to hang onto as much of the cream of their single listing hosts as possible with a limited amount of funds they have.

Ivan, your guests love you, your reviews are glowing and you are obviously a wonderful budding host.....but mate, with 21 hosting reviews over a couple of years, I would say the chance of you getting an invite is......zero!

I wish you all the best Ivan and hope you can get through this current time and come out the other end, but please, don't look towards Airbnb for any help. I think they are after bigger fish!

Cheers......Rob 

[Ivan1534]

@Robin4 haha thank you for your comment, I can agree with all that you said 100%. I knew from the beggining that they are doing this for themselves, but i can agree that is also good for hosts.

what i really cannot understand is that i called them like 5 times and wrote them also few times and in every phone call amd every written answer that i get from their Customer Support they said that i am elegible and that I will get the invite as i meet all the criteria, that i just have to stay patient and that they cannot do nothing about the invites. But if they clearly said yes you meet the croteria and you should get the invite, i strongly believe that they are not so unproffesional and that they are saying that just to say something. I honestly think this is not allowed.

[Pilar1]

@Ivan1534  

Has this happened to somebody?

Yes, of course it must have happened to many, we are all in the same boat, I’m sure many that fulfil the published criteria won’t be even invited to apply. Time is running out, only one more week to go, as they said by 15th May all invites will have gone out so no long to wait now. 

and can this be solved?  

what exactly is “this”? Being able to get a clear response from a CS rep? If it was difficult before I very much doubt it will now be possible. 

[Donald28]

So, If I do happen to get one of these "golden ticket invites", I have to beg, grovel and plead to the man behind the curtain,,why I need the money more than the next host? I have to write an essay and include bank statements? This is all just absolute bullshirt. If I get the invite, I'll probably delete it. I'd hate to waste the time and effort "applying" only to have someone at airbnb deem me not quite needy enough. 

[Sarah977]

@Donald28  There was a host on another host forum who got an invite- she didn't post the actual questions asked, but she said the questions were "vague". At least Airbnb is consistent 🙂

[Fred13]

The $5.000 Superhost Grant program may have some long odds to it. Though the numbers are indeed all over the place, a rough determination of the odds of this program may be:

~There are 750,000 hosts x 20% that are Superhosts = 150,000 eligible to apply.

~If Airbnb divides the $10 million reserved for this program equally among all 150k Superhosts = $66 each.

~IF Airbnb chooses to select only 'certain' Superhosts so they get $5k, then $10m / $5k = = 2000 hosts will be chosen.

~So the odds then are 75:1 a particular Superhost will be selected (150,000 SH / 2000 selected).

You never know, but darn, discouraging odds.