AIRBNB PLUS bad program

France45
Level 3
Montreal, Canada

AIRBNB PLUS bad program

I have experiment to put my apartment on AIRBNB PLUS. I have begin this process beginning of may and we are now end of September and the announce is  not in line.

All the process has been terrible difficult, very long, no support, impossible to join person who working for airbnb plus, even for the personnel who answer you at the phone. They apologize but answer you " we can not reach the airbnb plus team because they are too busy ". They were not ready to put this program on line, they did'nt have enough worker and I have loose my time because of that.

Thit program control all your information. You can not choice the picture who will represent your apartment in the new site. They control all your proposition with out letting you having a personal way to welcome your guest or present your apartment. If you don't do it as they request you can not go further in the process. If you are unhappy as I am, no way to be refund.

When you have problem to complete there request, there is nobody to help you,  no explanation and no tutorial.

If you thinking about join that program, don't do it. You will loose your patience, your time and your money and you will loose the possibility of changing your site as you want. Every thing will be control by AIRBNB  PLUS.

Tell me why having a personal apartment to rent if airbnb take all the control of your presentation and force you to accept all further reservation? and that for 180$.

For myself I have 4 apartement on listing and I will never join AIRBNB PLUS for the 3 other one I have.

 

75 Replies 75
Kathy-Frances0
Level 2
Cape Town, South Africa

Can someone from Airbnb Plus please assist us.   We have not had a single booking for our incredible apartment since Airbnb Plus loaded the overexposed, dismal pictures the Airbnb Plus agent took.   They are amateur and unattractive.   We are losing income and so is Airbnb due to this shortsightedness.   All we want is to be able to use the incredible professional photos we paid for and remove the bad photos.    I see that this issue is upsetting many hosts but nothing is being done to address it.    As an owner I know what guests love about our apartment and as an owner I want to show my property off at its best so why am I unable to?   

 

I have spent hours reporting this issue to Airbnb Support to no avail.    They either do not respond and when someone called Massimiliano did respond he did not understand my complaint and told me that Airbnb can only afford one lot of photos.   I don't want another photographer - i have paid a professional photographer to take pictures and want to be able to change the overexposed photos to the excellen tone.   HELP!

Hi Kathy, 

 

we are experiencing the same type of issues. I went from a 95% booking rate to no bookings since Airbnb Plus. Did you end up opting out of the program?

Like you I am keeping a close eye on Plus. As a business, mine relies heavily on human contact and bespoke features along with some down home craziness.

 

What I am seeing is total control in a firm that is supposed to be arms length. And that, my friends, is cree-pee. No, I am not moving a 16th century blanket chest for Ikea. 

 

Further, your rate of refusing a guest is very limited. This means you are stuck even if your instincts ancommon sense are screamng NO WAY. tis a slippery slope......

I just opted out of Airbnb Plus. The photos they posted were inferior to the professional photography we had originally. Ironically, we hired a photographer who shoots for Airbnb and his photos were excellent. In addition, the new description was absurd...beginging with...and I'm not exaggerating: Behind old wooden doors....

 

Seriously?

 

 

Jeremy341
Level 1
New York, NY

I couldn’t be more unhappy with Airbnb plus. It’s been over 2 months now and I have yet to receive any reply. The photoS were terrible. The photographer took no photos of the outside, which is our largest selling point. Zero response. Terrible way to treat hosts. 

We are a very busy Airbnb home and were happy to see that the Airbnb Plus Program had arrived to our location, Marin, California. After speaking to Sonam P. at Airbnb support, we were told that we did not qualify because we have a 3pm check-in time. This is necessary in order to properly clean our property in between guests. If we have a guest check out at 11am, then we would need the time from 11-3pm to get the home ready for the next guest. Your Plus program is labor intensive because the "solution" from Sonam was to select the preparation date before each reservation or manage the check out time for each reservation. This causes us to "leave money on the table" as we would not be able to host any more back-to-back guests. For a busy home like ours, this does not make sense and I feel that you are punishing us because we are a successful business. Your 24 hour check-in time is not feasible. Perhaps this is a marketing tool for Airbnb to make extra money from hosts by highlighting homes that are not getting rented as much. Make no mistake. Our home is a perfect fit for the Plus program if you did not have the 24 hour requirement.  

Bizarre.  I have a 3pm in check in time on the house I rent in Hawai'i and they invited me.   Still, that is the least of the issue.    Unless you are willing to list exclusively with Airbnb and delete your listing from every other platform, you can't be part of the program.  They bury that very key requirement back behind twelve layers of 'learn more' links and clicks and are not transparent about it up front but it is, absolutely, a requirement.   Total deal killer from my perspective.  Would it be from yours?  Does anyone else know about this requirement because I don't see anyone mentioning it.

 

 

We are Superhosts and really take pride in our listing. We dipped our foot in the Plus pool and are so unhappy that we did. They are SO overwhelmed and disorganized. It's a mess! We busted our ass and spend a lot of money to make sure the fixes were done and then haven't been reimbursed and our listing isn't up. It's been SIX MONTHS. And then when all our fixes were in...they just sent a message that we still had 14 more fixes?! There system is broken. They bit off more than they can chew. The fact that the Plus department doesn't have a direct phone line or a way to contact them on the phone...yeah, that should have been a sign. VRBO...this is your in!! Do it better and we will follow!

Sari15
Level 1
Boulder, CO

I've had a TERRIBLE experience with AirBnb plus. I have been booked solid for years and when given the "opportunity" to join plus, I felt I had to accept it because the penalty for not joining is that your search results drop.  I felt coerced, to say the least. In the middle of winter they sent a photog who took worse photos than the initial professional photographer had. And, since it was mid winter, they did not photograph my pool or tennis courts or patio.  When I tried to get pictures posted, they said I did not have the ability to post my own photos.  For months, I have been sending them photos and every time, they come back with some excuse about why they aren't good enough to post. And, they won't send one of their photographers. Meanwhile, I've had a HARDER time booking my place and make less money.  AirBnB plus is a sham as far as I'm concerned. 

Amber1
Level 7
Key West, FL

I don't think I've seen a single posting on the forum that says they are happy with Plus. Airbnb should scrap the program and spend the resources FIXING the tech problems that keep plaguing hosts, and streamline their program so that it is actually easy to use. 

Richard1346
Level 1
Brighton, United Kingdom

I'm the same here in Brighton UK. I joined last year thinking it would help. Since joining my AirBNB bookings have collapsed and I no longer rely on AirBNB for customers. I am still being 'reviewed' for Plus and the latest fix is just a farce. I am being told to remove an antique French clock, my listing is all about antiques. This clock came from Bordeaux and is worth over £3k! Its taken the 'plus' team 3 months to reply to my last feedback on their suggestions! What a diabolical mess this program is and I am really starting to give up on AirBNB. I would like to exit the PLUS program and get a full refund but of course there is no way of getting this back. Shame on you AirBNB, I pride myself on customer service, you obviosuly dont!

DId you know that -- if they FINALLY accept you to the Airbnb Plus program you are obligated to delete your listing from every other platform where you list it and are legally obligated to list exclusively with Airbnb Plus?   (Yeah, my guess is you didn't know because they bury that mandatory requirement back behind a bunch of layers of 'learn more' clicks and are not up-front or transparent about it).    Would you have even started the process if you knew, up front, that it was a requirement?   I ask because I didn't know and have spent an absurd amount of time and money following up on their invitation to join Plus, flying 2500 miles to the house, finding live in child-care for my school-age daughter while I traveled (single mom!), getting the house ready, meeting their professional photographer and spending FIVE hours with him in my home.   I am trying to figure out if everyone else is as clueless about this obligation as I was.  No one else seems to be mentioning it and that either means that I'm the lone person who cares or -- my guess -- that no one is at all aware.

Ali432
Level 1
Oak Beach, Australia

We got asked to join Airbnb Plus for free but are questioning whether to join (and this is after only 4 reviews)! Basically every room came back with a problem. Most were to add personal items but unfortunately we have had a guest from hell before who damaged & stole many things so we’re wary of leaving anything of meaning.

For the shoot no lights were allowed because all Airbnb Plus places are to be photographed the same but it was a gloomy day so the photos are awful.

We live in the tropics and were asked to put in a furnace - my reply to them was “Are you serious?” and fix the tv on the patio (there isn’t one).

We have original artworks throughout, loads of books and magazines. All the design hints seem to want to homogenize all listings - ours is a holiday house in the tropics not an inner city apartment. 

Hugh0
Level 10
Sydney, Australia

I have 1000+ reviews and 950+ 5 star reviews. One of my 5 apartments was listed on Plus. It was the most stupid, frustrating, infuriating process ever.

 

I assumed is was a drive to reward quality hosts and ensure a common level of amenities for guests. I was wrong. 

 

I have just lost my Plus rating and have been told I have been banned.  My crime? I sent a message to a racist guest after they left that I did not review him because I could not think of anything nice to say. Ironically - I could have published this in a review and it would not have been an issue.

 

 

Kira32
Level 10
Canary Islands, Spain

Thank you @France45! I already had a feeling that it was too good to be true.

 

I am happy that I didn't do the plus program!