Dear Airbnb,
I am a Superhost, have excellent reviews, and today my 3 listings were suspended because I declined 6 reservations in a row (please note, the penalty takes effect for 6 declined reservations for ONE listing, I have 3). I would like to explain below why I believe suspending my listings was not the right thing to do, and suggest some improvements for the airbnb site. Thank you for taking time to read this.
As I have already mentioned, I am a Superhost, have an excellent response score (usually I respond immediately), 90% 5 star reviews, and about 90-95% occupancy rate (most bookings do not come through Airbnb though, but through local sites). Total for my bookings through Airbnb for 2017 was more than $16,000.
I declined reservations for short stays, as our minimum stay is 2 weeks (the majority of our guests stay with us for 3-12 weeks). In my description, in the very first paragraph, I clearly state that our minimum stay is 2 weeks. I understand that since our minimum stay is 2 weeks, Airbnb prefers me to change my settings to reflect that. Unfortunately I can't have my settings set to two weeks, as I often have gaps between longer bookings, and I feel these gaps with a few days stays. If I switch to shorter stays, the occupancy rate will drop from 90-95% to 50%. Short term rentals is my primary income, so I check calendars of other local hosts at least twice a month to see trends. I see that in our area with short stays they are at about 50% occupancy rate overall, vs about 90-95% for me.
Despite a clearly stated warning that our minimum stay is 2 weeks, I still receive many requests, which I Very politely decline, often providing an advice when needed. Please keep in mind, that some of these requests are not even for the dates available! The only way for people to get in touch is through making reservation. So sometimes they make reservation to ask me about other dates and properties.
I understand that you try to standardize the bookings and the style of communication between the host and the guests, but each Airbnb host is unique. If a host has excellent ratings and shows a steady income, he probably knows what he is doing, right? 🙂 Based on the above, I would like to suggest some improvements for the Airbnb site.
1. In case the properties were blocked without the sufficient reason, Airbnb help team should be able to unblock them manually. Right now I was told twice there is no way to do that. Really? There is no way for the human to override computer? Doesn't seem like a good decision to me...
2. Before the computer blocks properties, it would be helpful to have somebody have a look at the proposed block if the host has excellent ratings (seems like a common sense and easy to do).
3. Could you please update your algorithm for suspending properties to include the number of properties into account? Please do not punish people for having more than one property on the site 🙂
4. When the reservation is declined, could you please make the blocking of calendar optional? It is an extra inconvinience to unblock it, and we all want as little inconvinience as possible.
5. Can you make it possible for the potential guests to ask the host a question without submitting request for reservation?
6. Could you please implement the Dog Cleaning Fee and Taxes like VRBO site has? They actually have a list of fees you can add, including your own. So convinient...
Thank you so much. I hope the support team will be able to implement at least some of my suggestions. By the way, I am on VRBO and Expedia as well, and Airbnb is by far my favorite. Keep up the good work! (and let hosts make you even better through their suggestions 🙂 )
Best,
Olga