Airbnb Plus is a SCAM

[Ami12]

So we're a month into our plus account and what was once a booking a day went to LITERALLY ZERO bookings. We gave it a month, chalked up a little time for the holidays, but when we noticed our hosting accounts on other services where still performing, we knew the plus platform was NOT working. After speaking with an agent, I was told there is no refund on the plus service, so we basically paid $150 to kill an entire month of potential bookings and lost thousands of dollars in guest stays that could have been booked for the spring.

I feel scammed. The switch to plus is only for those who want to basically start from ground zero while paying an additional fee for it. Also, the lack of control of the marketing and the photo presentation is **bleep**ty too. I felt like we went from Super hosts to super controlled. Not the best business plan. Not the best business ethics either. 

Just letting you all know. Don't buy it. Literally.

[Pete28]

Or it could be that if you try the Airbnb web site they have screwed up all the pricing - everything is listed by base price only. If your base is high you will get lost in the 300+ property's...

[Ami12]

If it were only that simple.

It was listed much lower ($131 a night) than many of the other listings in the area, and also much lower than the rate we booked at ($257+ a night).  I work in publicity and marketing in my day job so I was very aware of that part of the listing on the first day it launched.

[Paul1535]

Don’t Do PLUS!!  After waiting six months for the photos to be loaded up there are six rooms/spaces in my house that have no photo so they say “ incomplete.“ This has led to 4 to 5 guest inquiries per week asking about the incomplete listings. Unfortunately as others have said in this string when you go to plus you have no control over the photos. You can’t even see the entire collection of photos that were taken at your own home. I have called Several times a week for six weeks and have been told every time that the plus team would get back to me - but they are overwhelmed. I’m sure that some prospective guests are not inquiring about the incompleteness of the listing and that I am loosing out on bookings.  100% disappointment. DONT DO PLUS!!!

[Inna22]

@Ami12  thank you for sharing! and sadly so many stories like this here. Being in marketing, why do you think this is happening? After all, the plus listings do come up first in the search and you would think with all the bright photos and the promotions would be booked first. 

[Lucia152]

It also seems like they are using BOTS to verify our listings because they flag completely nonsensical  things as needing "fixes." Eg., we have a SKI vacation home in the Catskill Mountains and they asked us to prove we have a heating sytem. REALLY??? Our pipes would be frozen, not to mention the skiers, who would then have not written 5-Star reviews.

We have a lockbox for guests to enter and they flagged that and said "Please provide proof that you have a lockbox." YOU JUST SENT ME A PHOTO OF IT!

Also, the same "fix" was flagged twice for numerous rooms, so I had to upload and explain twice for the same item. Then, one would be approved and the other would sit there for weeks not being approved.

We have art in every single room but apparently the photographer didn't take enough closeups because they flagged our room as not having art.

Since we're not there in winter (we atarted this Plus nonsense back in OCTOBER when we there) I had to ask our housekeeper to take photos of the heating system, artwork, etc...

My question: if we are unhappy with our Plus listing, can we change back to our previous listing? I am saving all my photos and description.

Lucia

[Ami12]

Hey Lucia - 

We did. If you log into your dashboard you can revert. However, you may want to try and reach out to your photographer to see if they will give you the photos, since you will lose those. I spent like 7 hours with the photographer on each of our listings and lost all the photos. Airbnb won't even give them to you for your time. 

annoying.

[Ami12]

I think people see PLUS and they skip right by it because it's assumed its more expensive. If you allowed users to have a Plus account and a regular account then I think your users will be able to retain their hard-earned algorithm and listing level, as well as gain new potential higher end renters. Then it would achieve both. The prices could be required to be the same, but the images are better at Plus, along with the storyline. I am not sure, but it seems like the minute we moved to plus bookings STOPPED. 3 months later we are finally getting back to where we were listing wise. It really hurt us. I mean it killed us. We almost didn't make the mortgage after months of making double. It was HARD. Airbnb needs to recognize that this is actually a money stream for people and it's not to be gambled with on services that don't match what we are getting. And, on top of that, requiring us to pay more!  

[Michele937]

Hello.  Are there still problems with the Plus program or are they getting better with performance?  I have been trying to get INTO the program for two months now and, unfortunatley, get disconnected from the support call EVERY time I ask about the status.

Is someone out there is getting a benefit from the upgrade to Plus (though it looks like Plus may be standard now?).

Confused and befuddled,

Thanks!

[Lynn68]

I have been waiting six months now to get Plus approval and have been frustrated by the inability to contact the Plus team directly. I'm repeatedly told that they are very busy and I see that others have been told the same thing. Why they don't employ more people to deal with the approvals is beyond me! 

Within a very short time I fixed all the items that are required to qualify and was then told that the fixes had all been approved. Now there seems to be a problem but no one can tell me what it is. 

I called Airbnb again this morning and was told that an email would be sent to the team to get an answer to my questions about the delay and to find out what is stopping me from qualifying. Unfortunately my experience has been that the people I speak to are apologetic and they try to be helpful but it seems that they too are powerless. It's very disappointing as I've been hosting very successfully for years and think that Airbnb is a wonderful idea but perhaps it's just got too big for its boots. The people at the top need to shake things up and look after the people (hosts) who are doing all the hard work them. 

[Carin395]

The same thing happened to us! They congratulated us and approved us sent us $500 then took it away. We have been hosting for years also.  This has been the most frustrating experience I’ve ever had in my life. There’s no one to talk to. They have shield themselves from communication with the public and or the hosts .  

 Foul to Airbnb 

[Jessica1425]

I made a HUGE mistake trying to this route of Airbnb plus.  They told me I needed to make tons of changes. My house was professionally decorated and I updated by professional and photographer.  They picked about and now I have spent a lot of money I didn’t need or really want to do.  DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE. it’s a scam to get you to buy their decorating.  I MOVED MY ACCOUNT OVER TO VBRO