Why is Airbnb "ARCHIVING" threads opposing Instant Book?

[Cathy65]

By far the most prevalent topic on this forum has been hosts' opposition to Instant Book, which is currently being imposed by means of a default filter -- if you don't have IB turned on, your listing disappears.  At least a dozen threads have addresssed this matter, with basically unanimous opposition to IB for shared homes. Those of us who share our homes -- the founding concept and life blood of Airbnb -- have been objecting strenuously to being forced to accept unvetted guests.

Like many others protesting, I am a Superhost and have been welcoming guests for almost 5 years. I am widowed, 63, and live alone. I depend heavily on Airbnb income, which has been my salvation since my spouse's untimely death.  So, this is crucially important to folks like me, who can't just accept any potential weirdo into our homes.

And depite the importance of this issue, Airbnb is DETERMINED to impose IB, and is now silencing hosts' voices about it. My previous post was at the top of the "Popular" section, with 76 likes and 3 pages of comments, all opposing IB. It was suddenly "archived" -- although it was newer and more commented upon than the remaining threads.  I just noticed that another, very recent thread opposing IB and garnerng lots of support, was similarly "archived" without any apparent reason other than Airbnb's refusal to hear our concerns.

Airbnb, get your head out of the sand and give up this awful imposition of IB!  And stop censoring the very HOSTS' VOICES you say you want to hear on this forum!

[Cormac0]

@Cathy65

“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.”

Now do you understand?

[Dede0]

@Cathy65 and @Cormac0 Actually, as explained elsewhere in the Host Voice forum, suggestions made here are forwarded to AirBnB if they receive 20 or more (I think that's the number) up-votes (thumbs-up) within a certain amount of time (a couple weeks, maybe a month, I don't recall). If, after the specified interval, a suggestion hasn't gotten a sufficient number of up-votes, it gets archived.

That approach makes total sense to me, BUT I happen to disagree with the number of up-votes required. I've seen a lot of well thought out suggestions get archived for lack of votes. To me, a more reasonable number might be about HALF of what's currently required.

I've also noticed that the more technically complex suggestions don't get many votes, that less-technical but still worthy suggestions tend to get only a few more votes, and that vague "gripes" often get tons of votes. It's an imperfect system, but at least AirBnB is trying it out.

[CarlandDiane0]

@Cathy65The Host Voice is forum reminds me of a kind of surreal story where desperate citizens of dystopic futureworld gather in a "Feedback Lounge" to air their very real grievances. They feel better at the time but ultimately realize that no one in power is listening -- that the whole thing just a ploy to let the disgruntled masses complain to the point that they become fed up with that, too, and so they give up and give in.

My two issues with Airbnb are defaulting searches to IB and not providing a separate line for occupancy taxes.

Both of these can be fixed with some coding changes on the site and mobile app. I recognize that Airbnb doesn't want to fix the first; I don't understand why it won't fix the second.

I will say that two of the posted suggestions currently listed as "Under Consideration" do relate to IB. But your point about archiving a very active thread is interesting.

[Cathy65]

My previous post had 76 likes. It was at the top of the heap of "popular" threads. The only reasonable explanation for its archiving is that the moderators did not want the host community seeing how much opposition to mandatory IB was being expressed.

Based on what I have read elsewhere, Airbnb has decided at the highest levels to impose IB regardless of our concerns. I suspect that is why they have been so aggressively recruiting new hosts, in excess of demand. They knew hosts would rebel, and wanted a glut so a large defection would not matter.

So, yes, this is an "echo chamber" for us to vent, with no intention of listening the "the community."

[Cathy65]

They've done it again, censoring a week-old thread, NO to mandatory Instant Book, which had 13 likes and over a dozen comments, when older, less responded-to  threads were left up.

[Sean119]

ABB apparently has not addressed these concerns as it continues to bias towards IB listings.  The most successful/booked properties in my market are non-IB.