Hello,
just wanted to know if i were the only one facing this issue:
My airbnb space is in Chowara, Kerala (India) and became a superhost in just 6 months from our opening...unfortunately we remained so for only a few months until, in June airbnb changed many of their wonderful policies. This made everything much more complicated and competitive.
Just after that famous Airbnb international meeting which was held in London, they changed the star ratings needed to remain/become superhost, taxes upon booking (for airbnb India) and many more amenities were expected from hosts, photo quality had to be at high res. or clicked with a pro camera. I feel they have adopted a "guest supremacy" policy instead of an equal host- guest protection. I have had several issues with guests who purposefully complained and wrote bad reviews for silly things which they expected (but that were never mentioned in our listing description) thus making our month-long hard work and efforts completely collapse. Again i've had guests writing messages and sharing their telephone number in letters so as to directly book without having to pay taxes, and later on complaining that we are purposefully rising the prices on airbnb when they are about to book, when it is actually the indian GST+ airbnb tax (33% in total) which gets added. Though airbnb gives a list of how taxes vary according to the listing price, it doesn't help hosts in India at all! Meaning that, if I wanted to maintain a certain standard for my guests and give them a wonderful and very personal stay (which i think is what airbnb's first mission was when it first started) instead of a hotel treatment, obviously I would have to raise my prices a little bit. But with the amount of taxes imposed, guests (especially indians) prefer to avoid paying heavy taxes as prices don't coincide with the general pricing standard of regular homestays.
I find this a huge problem! I was faced with constant cancellations, complains from guests, bad reviews because of the heavy taxing issue. I have never been this disappointed with airbnb as I have for the last 1 year. It's as though, to be able to host now, you need to be VERY wealthy and have a GREAT place so that you can make even more money, but this was not how airbnb was! It was based on the intention of letting people rent out to travellers their extra room so as to give them a DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE than conventional hotels. If this is how airbnb wants to evolve into a website for only luxurious hosting, then it should just change it's "friendly community policy".
