Personally, would like to see more emphasis put in a few things, in the future.
1. More education of hosts as to the do's and don'ts of hosting. It is a business, which requires a certain finesse and wisdom than just being a consumer or an employee. Most people do not have experience how to run a business. Maybe this forum could help in that department - 'The Dos and Dont's of Hosting'.
2. Conversely, sooner or later Airbnb should graduate from the 'everyone is beautiful lovefest' mentality and accept the fact some guests are nothing short of mean-spirited scoundrels and should be treated as such once it becomes obvious. Society is general as we speak is 'discovering' the phenomena that - the more you cuddle the more aggressive, the meaner this lot will become without mercy.
3. If I was Airbnb I would slowly divorced myself from giving the impression they are offering any type of 'guarantee' as to damages for this is predicting human behavior of people they also have never met, which is similar to predicting future weather. The real reason why this is so important is because Airbnb charges only a 3% booking host fee and that is the main reason why it has been so successful with the best of offerings (which leads to where people go), and that will no longer be the case if administrative costs go up, as is the case with other listing agencies.
Speaking of administrative costs, then there is the CS Department: This should be looked anew but backwards; reduce the reasons for it by education of hosts (See #1 above), holding certifiable-crazy guests immediately responsible (see #2) and lastly eliminate the whole claim department over-damages quagmire (see #3). Perhaps how all this could be accomplished is by having available a place were any and all questions are covered by guides available in the Airbnb web page and/or in this forum where guests can find answers to most questions immediately. Those too lazy to read have always been impossible to accommodate anyway, so let them waste their time calling a useless 'customer service department'.
(Note: I have never talked to a single guest on the phone in 7 years (700+ bookings) because it is usually a monstrous waste of time and effort. I rather meet them in person when they finally arrive. Given that chance I will have them happily laughing and wrongly thinking I am a great guy in a few nano-seconds. 🙂
Note #2: Elaine701 is a very smart host!
