Airbnb 'Plus' disaster

Ursula145
Level 1
England, United Kingdom

Airbnb 'Plus' disaster

Hi

I am sooo frustrated with Airbnb right now.  At the beginning of the year I decided to accept their invitation to upgrade to 'plus' status.

This is what has happened

 

The photographer arrived to take the new photos and an inventory - I told him to ASK if there was ANYTHING he needed to know.  He didn't, but he should have.

Eventually I got a list of fixes that needed to be done which were mostly the removal of marks on the wall and removal of stains from carpets.  the marks and stains were in fact shadows cast by the light and makes me think that the photos had been analysed by a computer.

There seemed to be an obsession with the number of bowls in the kitchen cupboards - there were, in fact, four in the photo they sent me, but again the computer didn't recognise two of them.

An obsession with having boittled water available - I am in London; the water is perfectly drinkable and what about all that plastic in landfill - do we really need to add to it?

I was told to upgrade my wifi speed to more than 5mbh.  I did a speed test and it came in at anywhere between 54 and 72!

 

Once I had sent explanatory photos of the shadows and extra bowls and bottles of water and my 'fixes' had been verified I received an email saying my listing had been approved and that they were really excited to show me my new look.

 

The photos were dreadful

My listing title had been changed and I hated it.  Also, I get quite a bit of repeat business - how would people find me again??

Any personality had been removed from my listing

 

However, there is an invitation to review and edit - I tried to do this and it would not let me.

I could not reply to the email as it has a 'no reply' address

I rang Airbnb, but of course the girls on the phone can't do anything except say that they will send an email to the correct department.  In my experience getting a response from anyone this way can take three weeks or longer and as I have only one week to make the changes (that the site won't allow me to make anyway) before the listing automatically updates I can't afford to wait three weeks for an answer and risk the new listing going up.  The girls on the phone are not allowed to share the secret email address that they use.

The only solution is to press the 'Leave Airbnb Plus' button.

So I'm doing it

What a waste of 149 dollars

 

 

 

12 Replies 12
Ben551
Level 10
Wellington, New Zealand

Sorry this has happened to you @Ursula145 , sadly it's not unlike all the other "Airbnb Plus" stories I have read on these forums.  In fact, I have yet to read a positive story at all.  I think the thing people don't like the most is the lack of control over pictures, description, title... etc. 

 

My impression from reading people's feedback is that joining the programme puts everything into a clone-making sausage machine and comes out the other end, sans personality and everything a host feels proud of.

 

Rip that bandaid off and take back your business.  There are more expensive lessons in life than $149 so don't sweat it.

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Ursula145

Unfortuantely Ursula, a very familiar story here, hardly a day passes when we do not see a similar post to yours.

The decision to join the Plus scheme may help you because it fits in with the more corporate stance Airbnb appears hellbent on pursuing at the expence of its core business, so it is possible that as Airbnb remove more and more support for rank and file hosts, you may be able to leverage some benefit in being with Plus, so I can't tell you to abandon it. But you do lose control of your listing by being involved with it....that is something you have to justify!

 

The platform is at the crossroads at the moment, lack of competent personnel in key roles within the company over the past year has seen some poor outcomes for the company. It is to be hoped by close to 2.5 million of us that they get their act together this year and put a little more faith in the formula which saw the dramatic rise of Airbnb. 

In my 74 years as a business owner and a sharemarket trader I have lost track of the companies who outgrew the principals that made them successfull and eventually saw them spiral into collapse.

Airbnb are not re-inventing the wheel here, they are just a part of it!

 

Cheers.....Rob

Melissa9
Level 2
Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Another unhappy Airbnb Plus host here!  I had a bad vibe when speaking to the woman to confirm my photography visit.  She was in London and it was very clear that Airbnb Plus was being managed by a contractor and not Airbnb.  Today I received my Airbnb Plus listing and was extrememly disappointed.  I could not be there for the photo shoot but the photographer managed to miss full room shots of the kitchen, guest bedroom, both bathrooms and completely skipped the balcony.  As they delete all of your photos, I now have no photos of the balcony,  pool or beach.  This is a holiday destination so the pool and proximity to the Trip Advisor-rated best beach in Thailand are major draws.  The professional content writer deleted the lengthy detailed description of my home and surrounding area and replaced it with a short generic paragraph.  The new listing has almost no written content.  It is shocking.

 

If it is true that you cannot add photos to an Airbnb Plus listing then that alone is a deal breaker.   I simply can't have a listing of a beach condo with no photos of the beach, pool or balcony.  

 

So it looks like I am out $149 plus the money and time I wasted 'fixing' the Airbnb issues.  I had to import a carbon monoxide detector to Phuket.  This was absolutely ridiciulous as we have no heating system and propane stoves are baned in all condos in Thailand.  I have paused the Airbnb Plus listing and if it goes live, I will simply delete it and return to my original listing.  I have almost full occupany and am a super host but was hoping to gain this extra edge in my supercompetitive market.  I am sure we all had similar aspirations.

 

There is no doubt that Airbnb made a lot of money off this scheme but to me it just feels like a scam.  I agree with the comment above; that in Airbnb's attempt to 'stream line' the listings, they have taken away any originality or character imbued by the hosts.

 

 

 

Ben551
Level 10
Wellington, New Zealand

@Melissa9 That’s terrible! I completely agree, pictures of the view are essential in your area!

 

I had a similar issue even using a non-Plus Airbnb photographer. Our biggest selling feature is the stunning view of the harbour. But the Airbnb photographer wouldn’t take a picture of it. I asked why and he said Airbnb had very strict rules and wouldn’t accept any photos he submitted that had other people’s houses in them (roofs or windows, he said). Now, we are talking about several acres of bush, stretching across the valley and weeeeee tiny dots of houses across the other side, followed by the sea.... but no, rules were rules he said. 

 

So so even though we paid for photography, we had to mix in blurry iPhone pictures of the view. Our competition all have the harbour view as their main picture and they constantly appear higher than us in search results, so we know already it’s a problem. We have another photographer on the way, just waiting for a sunny day....

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Ursula145@Melissa9@Robin4@Ben551

 

hm...it seems this PLUS scheme is a total disaster  ...I mean, lack of photos of key amenities like the pool or balcony is bad for everyone - hosts, hotels, guests, and Airbnb and non existing description doesn't help either.

 

It's like someone inside Airbnb is deliberately obstructing the entire PLUS idea

 

 

Larissa112
Level 8
Boulder, CO

@Ursula145

I am sorry to hear you had a bad experience...ours was similar to yours and we opted out of Plus before the listing even went live!  

 

Hopefully AirBnB is paying attention to all this valuable feedback, clearly the Plus program does not work for hosts. 

Rob-and-Bob0
Level 2
Hawaii, United States

We just got our photos and new listing descriptions. It’s all just awful! The cover photo is a shot of a window with an electrical outlet!  Is that what people are dying to experience on their vacation? It should be a shot where a potential guest can picture themself in the scene enjoying what you offer. The pics chosen are dreadful and filtered to take the color out of our bright and cheery cottage. The description is generic blather and too short to give any detail. I can add exactly 24 characters to it if I want! But we are careful to explain where we are and what the local attractions are in the description. Not with Airbnb plus though! No room for all that. We are definitely opting out. I can’t imagine anyone would book our place after looking at the Plus listing. 

Wendy228
Level 1
England, United Kingdom

We have spent 2 wasted months and lot's of cost, jumping through the hoops getting Airbnb + accrediation and  I will not be using Airbnb + They have missed why 99% of guests book our apartment and that is the sea view we have, which apparently doesn't fit the format, we now have the hosting page as a picture of our bedroom!!

Would you promote Paris by a photo of hotel room? No it would be of the Eifel tower! The Introductory photo is of our bedroom which is nice, but not selling our apartment to its greatest advantage, I can't believe the time and effort it has taken to get to this stage to discover the photographer has not taken a photo of a stunning sea view we have, I've got to admit I am furious!!!!!!!!!!!
There is no flexibilty to use any of our own photos or ask the photographer to return and photograph "The Seaview" we got a load of corporate BS to justify someones ridiculous decision.
The descriptions were laughable I understand it's all being edited in France, which might explain the terrible English.
Wendy
Sudsrung0
Level 10
Rawai, Thailand

I also declined and deleted it especially after the two clowns they sent out to inspect my property I could see the photo's they took and totaly missed the facilities we have 2 swimming pools a gym and a restaraunt but we did get offered it for free so it didnt cost us anything.

I have heard from a couple of other host it has not improved their business,

David3063
Level 2
Los Angeles, CA

 have had exactly the same experience. My first property which is a garden apartment near the beach was greatly benefited by going on the Plus program, but unfortunately my seconde property which is an Ocean View apartment suffers the same fate as yours. They overexposed the photos so much that a guest looking to book cannot even tell it is Ocean View. It actually looks foggy outside although the photos were taken an a perfectly clear day. The Plus program people who wrote the description must have only seen these photos because nowhere in the description did it list the Ocean View. I called in and got luck from a support member not associated with the Plus program who was able to update the title to include "Ocean View" but other than this I'm worried that my listing has been severely negatively effected by this program. Prior to Plus this listing was booked consistently 95% or more of the month, now I am seeing bookings reduced. 

 

I wish AirB&B would put more resources into their Plus program because the consistent reply I hear when I contact customer support is that "the Plus team is extremely busy and understaffed and replies can take up to 3 weeks".

Kim955
Level 1
Memphis, TN

I'm so sorry to be hearing all of this! I love Air Bnb. This makes me feel discouraged. I was hired by them to do photography - I'm a film maker/photographer/editor - there were so many glitches in their program - I jumped through hoops, did all of their testing, submitting test photos from three different locations, had everything set up - was told to hurry so I could get assingments - I even bought my dream camera (I had been renting it - I'm mostly an editor/producer who rents gear). I don't expect reimbursement for the camera fyi - I'm so happy this prompted me to buy it! Anyway, i got the green light, waiting for three weeks and nothing. Then I got an email saying it would be 6 months. Two days ago, I got an email saying I would be terminated from the program because I had originally applied to work in France (again, there was a glitch in their questions - it asked, "Where would you be willing to travel?", I wrote France. I speak some French. it ended up listing me as living in France.... oh geez. )- I love the individuals who rent their properties through Air bnb. I hope they're not on the verge of ruining something that was special and unique. 

Rich95
Level 2
Seattle, WA

I have a high-end listing and was invited and implored to list as "Plus".

 

Given the inability, incompetence, and lack of empowerment of customer service agents on the Superhost number, and the company's clear bias toward the guest rather than the host (for example, as a host, we allow strangers to come into our homes and the platform allows guests to use pictures of their dogs on their profile) I decided to decline the offer.

 

I assumed, correctly after reading these posts, that I am a better photographer and writer than any contractor that airbnb would dispatch. Seems from these posts that they can't tell a shadow from a stain or count bowls. Glad I saved the time and money.