As someone who has spent an inordinate amount of time over the past several years scanning scores of local, regional, national and international Airbnb-related groups, forums, blogs, youtube channels etc for research purposes, I can attest that they're pretty much all the same.
Whether they have a couple of hundred members, or tens of thousands of members; whether they're mainly comprised of homes hosts, or "professional" operators, or a mixture of both; whether they're long-established or more recently set up - the same issues, grievances and complaints arise again, and again, and again, and are discussed ad nauseum, day in, day out, often for years on end.. with no answers or solutions ever forthcoming.
Invariably, you have the p*ssing contests on every group, with certain types of hosts lording it over others on all manner of things - be it eulogising on their own "unique" hosting styles, lecturing on how much better they treat their guests than every one else, boasting about the size/cost of their properties, posting screenshots of their weekly/monthly/yearly Airbnb earnings, etc etc, there are always those who love to tell others how hosting should be done (their way, of course), despite the fact that many of them are clearly somewhat lacking, themselves.
That said, the over-arching takeaway from all the various groups and forums is that the entire Airbnb "community" as a whole, is utterly clueless about even the most basic of things when it comes to Airbnb rules, guidelines, policies, practices, terms and conditions. Nobody ever really knows the definitive answer to anything (including myself), misinformation and disinformation abound, and there are constant epic - and often vicious - battles over (what should be) the simplest of queries. It ain't pretty.
But how could it be any other way? Airbnb zealously neglect to make anything clear to users; move the goalposts every 5 minutes without updating or informing anyone; will never give a straight answer to anyone, on anything; hide behind a veil of secrecy and obfuscation, and work tirelessly to keep us all completely in the dark on just about everything. Which of course, inevitably results in everyone fighting and squabbling amongst themselves over who's right and who's wrong, and what's truth, and what's lies. Classic diversionary, divide and conquer tactics.
What you don't have, sadly, is any real sense of strength or solidarity or unity within any of the host groups - just a clear indication of how truly fragmented the mythical Airbnb "community" really is. (@Patricia55's list in her OP is a perfect example of that, and just scratches the surface of how many "categories" of host can be classified, if we put our minds to it). There's very much an "every man for himself" mentality throughout all the groups, with the majority complaining bitterly when anything negatively impacts them personally, but perfectly happy to turn a blind eye to all the other wrongs and injustices being routinely visited on so many of their peers, on a daily basis. And unfortunately, that's exactly how Airbnb's tyranny has been allowed to propagate, why the operating conditions for hosts have deteriorated to such an extent, and why the hosting environment has become so hostile for us.
In my book (and it would appear, in Airbnb's book), there are really only two types of host - the hands-on, personally-involved "amateur" homes host (be they homesharers or entire home hosts), and the hands-off, fully-automated "pro"/commercial hosts. Two very, very different animals, that should be completely separate and distinct from each other on the site. Yet Airbnb continues to lump us all together, despite the fact that the enormous benefits and advantages they bestow on the Pros, are slowly but surely facilitating and enabling the obliteration of Homes hosts in every market. Whether we choose to see it or not, the evidence of our impending demise, is everywhere we look.
So I strongly disagree that we need even more tabs, or labels, or categories to divide and segregate us even further. What I do feel needs to happen, is that all small, independent hosts - homesharers, entire homes hosts and co-hosts alike - should realise that we're all in this together, and we're all in exactly the same (sinking) boat. And instead of spending our time picking holes in each others hosting styles and methods, we should learn to respect each others choices - whatever they may be - celebrate our differences (and similarities!), and start standing together, as one, to demand fair and ethical treatment from Airbnb, and fight for our survival on the platform. Because the way it's going now, we're all out the door soon anyway.
