Airbnb PLUS

[Sue_John0]

Hi All, I have never used this forum before - but wanted to know if anyone else has experienced this kind of a problem with Airbnb.

 In October 2018 we were contacted by Airbnb to see if we would like to upgragde to Plus status - there was to be no cost for photos, it was at Airbnb  invitation. The photographer came along on October 25th 2018 and photos taken, in Dec 2018 Airbnb made contact via our listing, we were asked to upgrade a few things, which we did and also spent out on a Carbon Monoxide detector - even though we do not have gas on property, this was a  manditory requirement from Airbnb. All improvements were done improvement photos sent off to the Airbnb team who duly told us they were approved.

We were advised via internet from Airbnb that the Photos that were taken in October would be sent for us to approve. We are still waiting for the photos - it's now April 2019.

I made contact in January 2019 via the internet chat line to ask what was happening and was advised someone would be in contact within a few weeks.

What then happened was the reference to our Airbnb Plus status  on our listing details page disappeared and our Superhost listing, which was always prominent for our area dropped back a few notches. I'm too scared to make contact again incase we get knocked down even further. Weare superhosts and have a 5star rating and get amazing reviews from out guests. Has anyone else experienced this kind of treatment????

[Alexandra316]

@Sue_John0I'm afraid that quite a few hosts on here have reported issues with the Plus program. If you search Plus in the  Seach the community box at top right hand corner of the page, you'll see many other people have had problems, unfortunately. 

[Sue_John0]

What a shame, I would have thought this program an important one to get right not only for the hosts and travellers but most importantly the people that run the Airbnb platform (owners). Sometime when things are meant to improve it just doesn't work out as it should. 

[Robin4]

@Sue_John0 

Hi neighbours, Plus is the latest version of the 'Select' program that was rolled out in 2017 and failed to gain enough support to make it worthwhile. As hosts, we could see issues with it then....the main one being it would breed a more difficult to please guest resulting in it being harder for us to maintain our status.

Where Plus and Select differed....Select was only by invitation and you had to be at least a Superhost to be considered even for invitation. Plus on the other hand did not start off with such a stringent requirement.....All a host had to do was front up with 150  bucks and they could buy their way into the Plus scheme. I have screenshots of Plus hosts with less than a dozen reviews of which one is a host cancellation.....no kidding.

Plus service seemed to get bogged down when Airbnb stop charging for entry. Only guessing of course but it appears a lot of wind went out of the Plus 'division's ' sails when there was no money in it any more.

Sue....or John, you will find many posts here in the CC with host disatisfaction relating to Plus and the time it is taking to even go live let alone get any alterations done to what they choose to display about a listing. 

Your call of course but, even if it was free, it may not turn out to be one of your better decisions.

We shouldn't criticize the company but, this is a forum and our duty is to advise each other with the collective advice we can offer.

All the best guys.

Cheers.......Rob

[Sue_John0]

Hi Rob, Thank you for the information, it has been most welcomed. Hubby and I have come to the conclusion after reading some of the problems hosts have experienced, that maybe we are better to carry on the way we are, simply as Superhosts. Maybe we have been done a favour by not hearing anything since December 2018. It just seems really strange that the company go to the trouble of paying for a photographer to come and photograph a property and then don't follow things up. Too many properties and not sufficient staff maybe.

Appreciate your time. Regards Sue and John.

[JooHo0]

Hi, I was wondering when did Airbnb Plus program start to include exclusivity(take off listings from other websites) as one of the requirements to become Plus? When it was launched in 2018, Airbnb did not have the exclusivity requirement, as I remember.