AIRBNB PLUS bad program

[France45]

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.

[William708]

Moving goal post is the perfect analogy. Initially gave us 17 items to correct. 14 of which were reasonable things like clean this or touch up that and were done immediately. The remaining three issues were about the kitchen design and the living room design (I know that only makes two but they said that the living room design need attention twice).

There was no direction as to what they didn't like or what they wanted changed. They only said something about the design elements lacked continuity. I intentionally was gong for a whimsical eccentric look and was clearly onto something as my place enjoys a 90-95% occupancy rate. After months (and about $1000) of trying to understand what they wanted (literally guessing what they might want changed) they finally named three items. I changed those three and then they came back with three more. I changed those and they want more changes, one of which was requesting I remove an end table that they requested I install the previous month! It's nuts. What's worse now they are requesting I make changes in rooms that heretofore had been accepted.

It makes me want to give up. I mean if they keep coming up with new things how am I to believe that I'll ever meet their "high standards?" If my place was such a train wreck why did they ever invite me to begin with? I don't get it. Frustrating, confusing and borderline depressing. It seems that the reviewer du jour doesn't bother to read what the previous reviewer requested/demanded. The communication is miserable.

Also the say they want hosts to express their own unique personality in the design but its obvious that they want more of a vanilla look with a ton of stuff filling the rooms. Sad.

[William708]

One more thing. I was invited in early January 2019 to join Plus, it is now late August and I am no closer than I was in January.

[Liz696]

Hi William, your experience is a mirror of mine. I have given up now. It has been extremely dispiriting. 

[Travis-and-Mackenzie0]

This is exactly what happened to us. We went back and forth over 6 months and then they decided to kick us out of the program. So we spent a lot of time guessing what they wanted, purchased a ton of vanilla stuff that we don't need and now they said that it took to long and we are not being considered anymore. Oh and the incentive to finish they will no longer release to reimburse us.

[Fred13]

"Brian C. mentioning a typical Plus listing would cost less than $ 250 a night".

That is interesting, so they are somewhat 'pricey' listings, but in Airbnb's vision? I wonder who they are targeting - business people? 

[Gillian151]

Waste of time and money. I am angry. They did not tell me they would be deleting all my photos and that I would lose control of my photos. They changed my well though out written description, which I changed back, which they then changed again, so I changed it back again! The new photographs are a total disappointment, and I cannot add any of my own or re-order them,  or change the cover photo. I also cannot reach anyone from the Plus team directly.

It's as if they hired some interior designers to control your site. Now I have a cover photo that consists of the back of the dining room chair and my neighbor's roof instead of the cathedral ceilings and views of the lake. And apparently a close up of a throw pillow on the couch is their idea of a great photo.  We have lake views from the bedroom, but the photographer took a photo of the bedroom window with our neighbor's house instead of the one with the views. ???

I also tried to get my money back. Haha.

[Letti0]

@Gillian151  Join the growing list the have discovered the Plus program is just not working for them. They control all descriptions and photos. A 2-3 sentence description will have guests constantly sending inquiries to get answers, so more of your time is spent responding to them. The majority of Plus hosts are saying they get lots of views, but no bookings. 

[Kathy-Frances0]

 It took a long time to qualify for Airbnb Plus.   We did very well prior to qualifying but once they made us use their overexposed, bad pictures bookings stopped and we have not had a single booking.   The reason is the photos taken by agent of Airbnb Plus are just terrible and Airbnb Plus won't allow us to change them to the excellent professional photos we have..   It is difficult to take a bad picture of our apartment which is stunning, right on the beach and beautifully decorated to the highest standard.   We get amazing reviews but the pictues are putting guests off.    I have spent hours with Airbnb Support trying to find a way for us to revert to the outstanding professional photos we had on our Airbnb listing.   I either get no response from Airbnb Support or they tell me they can't afford to send another photographer.   I don't want another photographer - I paid a professional property photographer to take pictures and I simply want to load them onto my listing instead of the terrible pictures Airbnb Plus took.  Help.

[Justin271]

Hi Gillian, I just wanted to follow up and see how the program is working for you now? I noticed your listing is on the Airbnb Plus program and it looks great!

[Lizzie]

Hello @Gillian151,

Great to meet you.

I am sorry to hear your frustration with the Airbnb Plus process and your listing. I want you to know that I have passed your feedback over to the Plus team directly, as you are hightlighting some really important points here. Some of hosts have mentioned similar points regarding photography. 

I hope you get this sorted soon and you can get back to focusing on the fun part of hosting.

Thanks,

Lizzie

[Topher3]

Since I can't seem to get approved, I want to opt out.  What no one will answer me about is whether I get my $150 back after I do so? I paid it nearly 2 months ago and have not gotten even a single photo (or approval despite a ton of approved fixes).

[Letti0]

@Topher3  You do not get it back it's non-refundable. 

What should I know about the Airbnb Plus application fee?

When you schedule an Airbnb Plus home visit, you’ll be charged a one-time, non-refundable application fee of $149. This helps cover the in-person home visit and a personalized report on ways to get your listing ready for the program. Terms and conditions apply. If you need to cancel your home visit, the fee won’t be refunded.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2203/what-should-i-know-about-the-airbnb-plus-application-fee?ib...

[Topher3]

Wow, it really seems like airbnb is going out of its way to alienate as many hosts as possible with this whole terrible process.  Can't believe I paid $150 for some unemployed millenial to waste 2 hours of my time snapping iphone pics of dusty baseboards in my house.  I mistakenly read into it that the fee included professional photography, of which I got none.

[Lizzie]

Hello @Topher3,

I'm sorry to hear your frustration around this program.

I wanted to check, you mention the photographer has already been to take photos. How long ago was this? I understand it can take around a month for them to be uploaded to the site.

Hope to speak with you soon.

Lizzie

[Michael3312]

How do we get hold of our photos? We want to leave this shoddy "plus" service?