AirBnB Plus

[Chris-And-Monica0]

Hello all, I am curious the experience any of the new AirBnb Plus hosts are having with this new designation. Have you seen any increase in bookings? Was it complicated? Do you feel it was necesary? 

[Matthew285]

@Chris-And-Monica0 this is an excellent topic for discussion.

I also am curious as to whether guests are less generous with their Star ratings because the guests' expectations have been raised too high by the "Plus" designation (and its promises of luxury).

[Cor3]

Hi @Chris-And-Monica0, @Matthew285,

I can’t tell (we are not in plus location yet).

But the funny thing is that the number of Plus accommodations is actually slightly going down at the moment!

According to Airbnb there should be over 2,000 Plus accommodations globally, but it is now actually less than 1,650!

For instance: 2 weeks ago in San Francisco: 50, and now 47!

What’s happening to this program?

The aim is to have some 75,000 accommodations on the program by the end of the year. So I would expect a significant increase over time. But over a month has passed by, since the announcement. And the number of Plus accommodations is actually going down.

[Matthew285]

@Cor3 @Chris-And-Monica0 I noticed the same thing.

I search our local listings all the time and I did notice that we used to have more Plus listings in San Francisco.

I wasn't sure what to make of it. Where did the statistics for the global Plus listings come from?

[Cor3]

Hi @Matthew285,

I just looked them up, via the map-function.

And when you enlarge the area far enough (but not to include Los Angeles).

It will give you currently 47 Plus Accommodations.

When I did the same thing, 2 weeks ago. There were 50 Plus Accommodations.

Most Plus locations are slightly going down with their number of Plus Accommodations at the moment?

On the 21st of March, These were my conclusions:

Austin 95
Barcelona 48
Chicago 52
Cape Town 241
London 196
Los Angeles 286
Melbourne 150
Milan 67
Rome 146
San Francisco 50
Shanghai 95
Sydney 139
Toronto 84

Total: 1.649

[Matthew285]

@Cor3 this is really an interesting mystery.

Thank you for compiling that information!

[Rebecca181]

@Matthew285 @Cor3 @Chris-And-Monica0 Someone posted here over the weekend who is a 'Plus' host. They are wanting to know other 'Plus' hosts' experiences. This host said that views doubled but bookings are the same - no noticable increase in revenue and price is also the same (what the market will bear, I took this to mean). This host is in Los Angeles. If you did not see this post yet you might look for it. 

[Cor3]

@Rebecca181,

Yes, I've seen that post: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Airbnb-Plus-Results-Do-Participants-Experience-Increased...

Increased views are nice, but they don't pay the bill 🙂

[Cor3]

Hi All,

The numbers are still going down.

Just quickly checked Chicago and Cape Town.

Cape Town now on 238. 

[Pete28]

I believe the new 4.8 avg score over the year may have a detrimental impact since plus needs superhost 🙂

You do wonder if one hand of Airbnb knows what the other is doing. I have noticed uber drivers are really clear that two 4* reviews leads to suspension. Maybe plus folks should try communizing similar...

[Matthew285]

@Cor3

Well, if nothing else it would seem hosts might not have to worry that the Plus listings would take over and push all other listings off the page.

It would take quite an effort, but it would be interesting to find out what is behind the shrinkage of the aggregate number. For instance: the drop in numbers in Cape Town from 241 to 238 could be:

a) 3 hosts being dropped.

b) 3 hosts asking to leave.

c) 20 hosts asking to leave, and only 17 new hosts being added.

d) some combination of a, b, c

There are only 47 Plus listings in San Francisco. Maybe I will try to see if I can track how much turnover there is, beyond the aggregate number.

[Roderick8]

The process is terrible and poorly designed. For example, they have 'fixes', many of which like bottled water and carbon monoxide detectors really don't provide value in Hungary where the tap water is fine (and at least of bottled water is tap water injected with CO2) and the chimney inspections are extremely stringent. Moreover, there is no way to enforce these fixes long term (how do they monitor whether you are providing bottled water to each guest?) and cheating on the fixed relatively easy.

The whole qualification process appears to be run out of their California headquarters when it should be local to the market. Furthermore, it will be difficult for AirBnB to create better photos than the current batch which were accepted several interior design magatines or to create better text.

It is a centralized Soviet style system and just as effective!

[Cor3]

Hi @Matthew285,

I can imagine there will be drop outs.

But I would have expected, that one wouldn't have noticed. Because of the huge increase of new Plus listings.

But there don't seem to be much.

Maybe they are spending all their time currently on the new Cancelation policies 🙂

It's been close to 2 months, since the announcement now.

[Matthew285]

@Cor3 I will try to figure out if the change in number of Plus listings in San Francisco is due to just hosts dropping out, or some combination of hosts dropping with new Plus listings being added.

It may be a fools errand, but now I am curious.

I have some ideas to maybe make the Plus listing program work better... maybe the data will help with that.

[Matthew285]

@Cor3 @Rebecca181 @Chris-And-Monica0 so I finally got to do a litte analysis.

First of all, I realized maybe I should have chosen a different city; San Francisco has a limit on how many days a host can book if the host is not on property, and some of the Plus listings are "Whole Home" listings.

Anyway, on 11 Apr 2018, there were 47 Plus listings showing.

On 20 Apr 2018, there were only 45 Plus listings showing.

Of the 47 Plus listings from 11 Apr 2018, 4 are no longer visible.

Of the 45 Plus listings from 20 Apr 2018, 2 are new.

I looked at the 4 "missing" plus listings: they are still designated as "Plus" listings, but have zero availability on their calendars. 3 are "Whole Home" listings, and 1 is a Private Room.

I don't know what that means. Is that what a listing looks like if it is Paused? Snoozed? Made inactive?

Thoughts? Should I choose a different city to track (one without a limit on whole-home stays)?