Host Voice

There is such a diversity of properties on Airbnb that one size fits all for cancellation policy is never going to work. Why not let hosts choose the % of cancellation fee and timing of penalty to suit their particular context? Rationale: The policy is now global of having 100% refund to guests for hosts with Flex or Moderate cancellation policy - ie there used to be a disincentive of paying Airbnb service fee, but that is now refunded to guest. The only option to provide disincentive is to have a Strict cancellation policy that means that guests pay at least 50% on cancellation - a harsh penalty, and a glaring gap between this and other policies. Home lettings are not hotels! Some hosts will be affected much more than others with this ease of cancellation, especially remote, seasonal locations. ... View more

From the November newsletter: "Infants (under 2 years of age) will not count toward your guest maximum"   Please, please don't do this! I charge for extra guests because they mean more work for me. I have no problem with babies at all, but my experience has been that parents of babies leave the place messier, I assume because they are busy with baby-related matters. That's totally understandable, so I don't want to downrate them for it. I just want to be compensated for the work I do.   This is not giving us "more control" -- it's taking away control. Under this policy we would not even know if there is a baby. It's just another surprise guest and more work for us. I would either have to say "no babies" which is unfair to parents, or write in some complicated, awkward workaround in my rules.   This change is totally unnecessary. Let the guests fill in the ages of any children and let us set who we count as extra, so the guests can make their choice. ... View more

Speaking for the US, Id say that MOST areas not only have some sort of State charged tax, (hotel, occupancy, sales, use etc), but also have some form of city, county or local assesment zone that also has a madatory tax/assesment that needs to be collected.   The current suggested solutions to this are: Add the amount of the charge to the rate.  This is a poor option as then that additional amount is taxed for the state tax that AirBnb charges which is incorrect. You can exempt that amount on your annual statement but that is a huge pain. Also it inflates what it looks like your charging when infact it is a mandatory tax.  Also legally in many state an invoice to customers has to have these diferent taxes broken out. Send the guest a "Special Offer".  Seriously?  What kind of PR is that to send a customer a "Special Offer" saying that you owe more money? Put in your description/rules that the customer will be charged more in person once you arrive. On the outside this seams like an option except that if everyone in your area doesnt do this on their listing chances are you lost that booking. My Suggestions: Just scrap Airbnb tax collection.  Allow the hosts to add a couple % charges so that the customer sees what these charges are that Airbnb is collecting and flowing through to me and let me file and pay the taxes. Similar to suggestion 1 just let AirBnb continue to collect the state portion as its the same throughout each state but still allow hosts the option of an addition % based assesment that is not taxed for the state portion so that our customers have a clear sense of exactly what they are being charged and the host doesnt have to have a complicated tax formula to pay a simple tax.   ... View more

There are people out there who travel without own vehicle. They need to know, if the place is reasonable accessible by public transport or not. This needs to be integrated in the filter options. If you prefer to go on holidays without a car, it's impossible to find a suitable place. I have been in that situaiton many times myself. (Finally had the brilliant idea to only search for a place on a traffic free island - worked perfectly well and I knew that all listings on that island will be ok! But would also like to go somewhere else sometimes 😉 )   Thanks for listening to our experiences. ... View more

I find it very difficult to clearly convey to guests that we charge a slightly higher rate, a surcharge, for a one night stay. Many properties don't allow a one night stay so, in doing so, we are trying to comfortably accommodate the many folk who are passing through, don't have much time and so need to stay just overnight. However, given the way that most websites are designed ie with the price shown as so much per night, it is sometimes quite difficult as folk note the price shown very obviously on the listing but choose not to read on where we do describe our one night surcharge. So, then I have to explain and, for a few people, this comes as a surprise. Perhaps airbnb can have a one night stay charge tag or section which is more obvious and clearly 'up front'. Thank you. ... View more

Why should a guest valuate the position of the house when is recognizible by the map or by the address through google maps or similia? This just distort the rating system, I lost twice my superhost status just because some guests haven't read carefully the listing (where every time or movement from or to the stations/citycentre... is described) and give me four stars insted of five. It happend just with the position.  ... View more

PLEASE, please change the hold music on your support line!  It is driving everyone crazy.  Delete the song, and use other songs on rotation.  Hosts who have waited hours upon hours, have a gross pavlovian response to this hold music!!   ... View more

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!     ... View more

I don't get the location rating. We generally get high ratings for location but have had locations as low as a 2 and a 3, but only when the person booked without either asking or checking out for themselves the proximity of where we are with the place where they wanted to be. It really isn't the hosts fault if the guest can't read a map or doesn't have the gumption to ask the question.    I certainly don't get the point of ratings for "location" and "accuracy". Listings include a pin point on a map, saying where a place is, surely a host should check this for accuracy and be able to raise any problem with airbnb. The issue of location is (or should) surely be dealt with as a question of accuracy. ... View more

Please provide Multi Calendar view feature in mobile app to avoid double booking, etc. This is so basic and causes heartache and potential problems. Please move this up your queue of future features. Thanks Airbnb ... View more