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
Dan151
Level 2
Dubai, United Arab Emirates

This is crazy.  I have my plus inspection scheduled for Friday and after reading all these comments, im seriously thinking about cancelling it.  Also, when i was invited to join, it didnt mention the $150 fee anywhere.  I was also sold on the idea of a dedicated helpline with faster support yet everyone here says there is less support?!?! 

 

Surely, if there is a high number of superhosts complaining about this it will have to be fixed or dropped completely right?  Air Bnb is meant to be about community, this looks like a piss poor attempt to take it more corporate and less personal.  They are framing it as a premium product but clearly havnt made the planning or investment required to deliver a premium service.

 

AIR BNB - ARE YOU LISTENING???  

Leonie29
Level 2
Bondi Beach, Australia

DON'T do it!... the whole process takes WEEKS if not months... photographs are TERRIBLE ... and your listing will lose all of its unqiness and charm! TRUST me

 

In my experience, Airbnb might as well be a robot.  Their responses are canned and typical of customer NO-service.  There are several issues that I and hundreds of other hosts have repeatedly sent feedback to Airbnb with zero, nada, zip, response.  So, is Airbnb listening?.....  a resounding and unqualified, NO!

 

Debbie84
Level 2
Phuket, Thailand

I was invited to join and appointment booked for 22nd November, no mention of a fee or new photos being taken.  After reading the various threads on this I asked for clarification and have been informed that I would have no control over the photos but would have control of the description and rates.  I decided to cancel as we are continually improving the villa so updates to photos are necessary and I do not see how a 2 hour photo shoot can cover 15 indoor and outdoor spaces nor would there be any night time shots.

Waiting to see if I will be charged for cancelling the appointment.

In case it hasn't been discussed yet, AirBnb is now inviting hosts to join the Plus program for FREE.

 

We had applied to be a part of the program earlier this year when it first caem out, but were told that our place basically wasn't good enough, even without an inspection. Fine, no sweat off our backs. And not sure if this new promotion would just be for people who applied before and didn't make the cut.

 

We just got an email the other day saying that our place looks great in the photos... Mmmhmm. Weird, since that's what they must have based their 'no' on earlier this year... They are saying that we can join at no cost. Here's a screenshot of part of the email:

 

Screenshot 2018-12-14 at 4.50.43 PM.png

Based on people's reactions to the program, I don't see any way that we would do this, but figured it might be good for other Plus hosts on here to be aware of this new promotion they are running.

 

I can't believe that they control pricing!!! That is absolutely insane. (Unless I read that wrong in other comments.)

As a side note/question... for hosts who are currently a part of the Plus program...

 

Putting all the frustrations aside, have your bookings and revenue increased or decreased?

 

Thanks!

no increase for me...my home was always booked before and always booked now..I have seen no benefit from the Plus program and loss of all control and support

Martin819
Level 2
London, United Kingdom

Dont do it.

 

Blocked off my property for 2 days for a full extra clean, check over etc etc. Photographer due the next day.... no show! No call, no message. So I paid my housekeeper for 3 full days and lost 3 days rental! Aaaghh.

 

Managed to arrange a visit a few weeks later. Blocked off the property again - for two days, again impacting bookings across that period - then got a bull**** list of dozens of trivial items (its a 1950's historic house for christs sake!) that I have to address before I get to the next stage.

 

So far my cost is over $1000 and Im nowhere near getting approval. Then I read about all the control thats taken away - eg see this thread - and Im out of there! 

 

Im already booked pretty solid anyway - as are probably most of those invited - ie the best properties. So its just not worthwhile.

 

Life's too short for this rubbish.

moved to separate posting.

Thor6
Level 3
Berlin, Germany

hello all. happy new years, and a wonderful weekend.

 

so let me get this straight. what we've learned so far (since October 2018) is that:

 

a) nobody (hosts) in here has had anything but trouble with the plus program

b) the concept is that hosts cover all costs - and give up autonomy

c) there's no proof of any increased income - whatsoever

 

so basically: AirBnb wants to turn into a franchise global hotel chain, having their hosts (us) covering all costs - with no upside? ok. that's shocking.

 

but nice to know. thanks for all the info, fellow hosts. it's appreciated.

 

cheers,

T.

Hoping for more inquiries, we accepted a free implementation of Airbnb plus. We echo all of the complaints, frankly embarrased for the Airbnb people who have implemented this with, evidently, no knowledge of the business. 

 

The photographer did a poor job. A highlight of the property are incredible views from multiple windows. The photographer took one bad photo of a partial view and and failed to take the other obviousl photos. Then we were told that the system chose the main photo not a human, choosing a picture of a perfectly ordinary dining table instead of the view as the main photo.  Missed the money shot totally. AND neither we nor Airbnb can change this. Nor are there enough photos, there are 10. Then Airbnb organizes things in this order: bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and finally living and dining. Duh. The photographer took more photos of the bathroom than of the bedroom! So, a) poor photos, b) insufficient photos and b) can't sort them in a good order. 

 

They refuse to allow us to provide better photos or to send back a better photographer.

 

There are 600 characters to describe the property that are not adequate to describe and to include the special notes required that Airbnb has told us must be included in the description in addition to the house rules section because people don't read the house rules. Yes, I have it in writing from them!

 

There is no way to further describe via photo captions.

 

The presentation of amenities is ignorant. For what property is an iron more important than airconditioning? They put the iron in the summary of amenities but not a/c. Evidently they cannot be organized in importance for the property.  

 

They chose to present distance to a remote, regional airport where cheap regional airlines go. I asked that they present the airport where all of our international guests come in (we know because we get the flight info of all guests) and they refused. They said the remote airport is cheaper. It is hard to interpret that. "Airbnb specializes in cheap properties so we recommend you use cheap airlines."  "Airbnb is ignorant about what is the main airport and refuses to listen to people who actually know." 

 

Airbnb plus is an embarassment for the company. 

Tom-and-Lisa0
Level 10
Kalispell, MT

I now consider Airbnb in the "STUPID UNTIL PROVEN OTHERWISE" Category.  I am not interested in any of their new programs until they've proven that they aren't full of problems and hassles and that guests have voiced their pleasure.  I'm not optimistic about anything "Airbnb new and improved" and won't be joining "Plus".  I do however say in my listing, that we meet or exceed all items required for the Airbnb "Plus" program (which hasn't launched in our area yet). 

Lisa34
Level 10
Murphysboro, IL

Our experience sounds different than those presented here, so I guess I wanted to share a different perspective in a detailed- read long - response.

 

We were invited to Plus in mid-December (so we did not pay the fee). Our photo shoot and inspection was scheduled for early January. Over that time I did a ton of research about the pros and cons of the program. I called CS, read chat room posts all over and thought about the between the lines messages of what the program required. Most of what I heard about the program was not encouraging. I also searched for the opposite perspective of those who had Plus come to their market and they opted out. Most of the results in that case were not good because they moved down in ranking. Like people here, we didn’t want to get in and hate the program and we didn’t want to get left behind either.

 

We are in a rural area, 50 minutes above Asheville, not one of their selected markets. As a matter of fact we are the only property that is Plus in our tiny market. Because of this I had several concerns in particular because of the limited space available to describe what we have to offer. After all, everyone knows why they’d go to Paris or New York, but almost no one would know why they’d want to go to our area of western NC.

 

When the day of the shoot came I had managed expectations. I found the photographer experienced and  easy to work with. The shoot went smoothly. Having done several photo shoots in the past I tried to be ready, but I knew that no matter what I did, when the photos were delivered some would miss the mark. I also knew from customer service I would not be able to choose which I wanted. And, I would wish there were photos that just were never taken. That all turned out to be true. It took me 3 years of constantly taking pictures to get the ones I felt best captured our place. No way was that going to happen with a professional shoot.

 

We had a list of things to fix that took about a week and $200. Not too bad. We were actually hoping for more feedback than we got so we could really hit it right from the start. We wanted to see our place through someone elses’ eyes. Oh well.

 

We went into this thinking we probably wouldn’t sign on but would be open minded and wait to see the listing. One month to the day we got our new listing. While we didn’t love all the pictures, you can delete them just not add to, from a guest perspective they looked good though. Couple of things I learned:

 

1. Editing in the app was frustrating. It’s glitchy and doesn’t show all your options. The character count is also wrong in the app, so you’d get to the end of writing your copy only to have it save some of it or stop typing midway through. This was corrected when I finally moved to the website.

 

2. Similarly, you cannot edit check box features in the app, so again went back to the website.

 

3. I did call customer service for help getting started. They never told me to use the website instead of the app, which knowing what I know now is surprising. The Plus associate started out making all of the changes for me, which was fine but then that person ghosted (maybe she took some time off, don’t know) but by then I had figured out the website, so I made the changes myself.

 

4. One thing I heartily disagree with is that they sell the space and not important features like our “million dollar view.” The view can be seen, thanks to a technique called bracketing, through most of the shots looking out through our windows, but I felt they were missing the mark by not having a straight on photo of the view. After all, it is like a pool to me. People book specifically because we have a good one. That said, I think it would pose problems for them and they new it. You have to get up at sunrise at our place to get the best picture of the view. No way would that work for an affordable photo shoot like they supply.

 

All our reviews talk about the amazing view, we talk about it, so I guess right now I view it as one of the stunning bonuses guests will get that’s even better than they saw on the listing. So It is an under promise over deliver thing. However, I do think they are missing the mark by not letting the owner add at least one picture, or a section of pictures from their catalog. They could be presented differently, like as snap shots or something. That would go a long way toward making hosts feel they have more control while also preserving their brand for the Plus program.

 

4. I thought I would find the copy writing process frustrating, but actually found that, from a guest perspective (because they don’t read), the new format could work really well. I tried hard to write with concision and found I was able to get all the important, descriptive information in. The way the process works with Plus also afforded me the opportunity to rethink how I communicate things to do in the area to guests, so I am working more on my booklet which is currently about 25 pages with photos. I have also added a lot more to the Airbnb book about the area. I also make sure all of the emails, my hosting page and everything we use to promote the property leads with a picture of the view.

 

6. In the end we tried to focus on what works about the program. We are getting more views. We stay pretty booked except in off season. So far we have gotten bookings in off season and for higher than I ever would have thought.

 

Time will tell, but I do think Plus is a good concept. I know hosts who haven’t been accepted yet are frustrated and so are the people who are in process. It could be viewed as a slap to Super Hosts, but equally it could be viewed as another way to grow. Frankly, we got Super Host early on and I felt that there was no where to go. I was glad for another challenge.

 

Not to mention from a guest perspective Airbnb wasn’t addressing the needs of all types of travelers. Those who want a more vetted experience or those who feel burned by a bad experience with one Airbnb’s properties needed a different approach. For instance, I spoke to guests recently who said they had a horrible experience with a Super Host property. They wanted a high end experience and the property just didn’t deliver on several points even though the host was nice. They said next time they’d book with VRBO because they have more elite properties and hosts with a lot more experience. Whether VRBO is better could be debated, but I am sure Plus was designed specifically for this type of traveler.

 

Plus just one that has to be fleshed out a bit. We are willing to hang with it. If it doesn’t work out we can also go right back to our old listing. We are usually early adopters though, so I think you have to know yourself. If you don’t like being a part of the evolution of something, getting in this early might not be for you. We feel it is worth the risk, because of the increased exposure so we are going for it.

 

Hopefully this helps someone who is on the fence. I wish you all the best.

Jim437
Level 2
Oakville, Canada

Airbnb plus is a complete mess! There is No customer service, little staff, no one to talk too and they tell you this.....Two of my 3 listings were moved and one of them the photos are terrible and we the host lose control of the listing with no photos of the Lake or surroundings!! I can't get them fixed. I had also paid for professional photos which were better than what they provided. Now they are gone. I have given up trying to call or email them as there is no answer or response.

 

I had 3 appointments scheduled which I flew back from South Carolina to Toronto for and the photographer never showed up!! Then they told me they had to drive 100 kms across the city to get to my place. Airbnb plus had no idea!! 

 

Please think twice before switching your listing. 

Jim I have the same problem.  The Airbnb Plus agent took amateurish, over exposed photos which have resulted in our not getting a single booking despite our having one of the most beautiful apartments in Cape Town - its right on the beach and decorated to the highest standard.    All I want is to be able to change the amaturish photos for the Professional photos I paid loads for.     I am suffering as I am getting no bookings as a result of Aibnb's shortsightedness.     Can someone help please.