Airbnb needs hosts-- how about making some changes first?

Laura2592
Level 10
Frederick, MD

Airbnb needs hosts-- how about making some changes first?

I keep seeing this on my phone:

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/16/airbnb-ceo-says-company-is-going-to-need-millions-more-hosts-to-meet...

 

I can honestly say I would not recommend that others home host on this platform. When people ask or think about becoming a host because they know I am one, I steer them to other places. Airbnb, if you need more hosts, here is what I suggest. Some of these are EASY fixes and would do wonders to attract others to  your community.

 

1. Include a button on reservations where individuals can list pets staying with the ability to charge a pet fee. If the person booking has pets and the host does not allow pets, a pop up should appear asking the guest to look for another accommodation.

 

2. Include a space for guests to fill in the names and info of everyone who is coming OR require that all guests be registered with Airbnb.

 

3. Publish rules for being a great guest. Include things like not bringing extra people, not overstaying their reservation, etc. Include these with EVERY BOOKING MESSAGE.

 

4. Allow hosts to truly collect a security deposit. As in, put funds on hold until after a reservation is done just like hotels take a credit card number for incidentals.

 

5. Publish protocols for a mismatch reservation-- this is the situation where the guest shows up with extra people or pets or in some way is just not a fit for the host based on posted rules (and vice versa).  So often I see people saying "well they arrived with 10 people and the reservation was for 2 and I couldn't get ABB on the phone so I let them in." This is SUCH an awkward but sadly common occurrence, it would not be difficult to come up with some protocol for handling it that made sense. 

 

6. Give superhosts 3 cancellations a year without penalty. 

 

7. Rethink ratings. They are absurd and pretty much meaningless. When guests are parsing a 4.98 vs a 4.91 or a 4.8 to determine which is the best place to say you know your system is broken and measuring nothing. 

 

8. Redefine your "infant" category. If a host is childfree, again, a pop-up should be enabled so that a guest who wants to book with an infant has to look elsewhere. 

 

What else can you think of?

58 Replies 58
Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

For me:

1. Drop the Host Guarantee program, oftentimes is a guarantee for hosts to be nothing but lazy. Is practically unreal anyway.

2. If replaced by a true deposit system, let it be implemented with very tight controls in place, as in deductible levels, etc. It will not serve the brand well to have too many hosts charging for minutiae.

3. While still on hosts, drop any hosts who have a history of constant problems and confrontations with guests. Clean your host ranks.

4. Hold guests accountable, based on their behavior and common sense probability. Hire CS personnel with true people-dealing talents, without inherent bias or one-sided instructions. 

5.  Switch to a 10/10 star system to divorce it totally from a hotel-rating type, lessens the confusion.

6. Get off the political podium, you are not in business to 'fix' the country or promote political causes. Do so on your own, like everyone else. Time to grow up, the real world out there is not one big silly college campus. 

7. Start a system that separates levels of Superhost status, with +s (ex.Superhost ++); by now that system is too diluted and loosing its meaning.

8. Stay out of my way and leave me well alone, and we will get along famously.  🙂

      

 

@Laura2592  Great list!

 

I, too, find that I can no longer recommend Airbnb to friends considering getting into the STR game. Hosting now feels a bit like being married to a famous Scientologist, and the minute they tried to bully me into signing a Pledge I was ready for a divorce.

 

There will always be a small subset of hosts who really buy into the cultiness of the Airbnb brand and stay loyal to it. But if mass recruitment is their goal, the most important thing they have to understand is that most people who would consider hosting deeply value their autonomy and independence as business owners. They're not interested in joining a cult, and they don't want to be emotionally manipulated by a bot - they want a listing platform that stays out of their way and respects their right to run their business as they see fit, with tools that make their jobs easier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right on, Andrew.  I agree 300%.  I am sensing a change in AirBNB, to market and not take the TLC with the hosts that support their paradigm.  I'm seeing a remoteness.  I am NOT a MOTEL.  With Covid, I've lost lots of customers because I am thoroughly SAFE and work my behind off to make it safe.  There is a shift int he wind, and I don't like it.  We should have far more ability to communicate.  Twice today I received last minute bookings and absolutely no information given by the client.  Nope. doesn't work for me.

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Laura2592  That there are posts here almost every day from hosts saying they are leaving Airbnb in disgust at the way they treat hosts, and that the company sees the solution to that as being to just recruit more hosts to take their place, rather than address and fix the issues, really says everything one needs to know about Airbnb's attitude.

Ute42
Level 10
Germany

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English isn't my first language so I'm asking all the english native speakers out there what the meaning of the sentence is, that we can read in @Laura2592 's  link:

 

  • Chesky said Airbnb isn’t likely to offer “a lot of incentives” to bring new hosts on board since there’s already a huge demand for service.

 

 

What is this „service“ he's talking about? An how is the „huge demand for service“ related to the announcement, that airbnb isn't likely to offer „a lot of incentives“ to bring new hosts on board.

 

Does anyone know what that sentence means? Is my english really that bad that I don't get it?

 

 

@Ute42 no I think you understood. He intends to attract new hosts without doing anything to keep or reward the existing ones he has. Sort of "hosting is its own reward" and maybe we should all feel privileged that we can list our places here? Perhaps we should start thinking about ways to pay the guests for the pleasure of cleaning their sheets, flushing the toilets they sometimes forget etc. 

The sentence is not correct. Especially since I get the "...invite new hosts to the platform and get $552 when they book their first guest.." message.

Before recruiting, they have to fix the problem of asking us to approve anonymous guests with no photo and no last name or city into our private homes. Who thought that was a good idea?

Put host safety first

 

Make it clear to guests they are staying in someone's home.


Make it clear we are not cheap motel equivalents.

 

Verify new hosts to make sure they aren't sham listings with "stock photography" bios.

 

Do NOT list Airbnb's in areas requiring licensing if the owner hasn't bothered to turn in paperwork.


Make sure the host follows the law (Kansas City limits to 2 per bedroom plus one with a maximum of 8. There are a lot of local hosts who are hosting groups 2-3 times higher than the max account and who haven't registered).

Verify a listing actually exists (I posted one night and had bookings the next day - I was legit but Airbnb didn't do anything to prove it).

 

Demand hosts prove they own the property OR have notarized permission from the owner. (Read the article about the couple who bought a house, their tenant put it on Airbnb and then the guests stopped paying and changed the locks claiming pandemic non-eviction rules.)


Don't let people sign up and book same day without vetting (Note the local woman who hosted a known felon in her house who did disgusting things in front of her and was in a 12-hour stand-off with a SWAT team a few days later). If I were allowed to see the full time I could at least look them up on FB or look for legal cases on state networks.

Commit to more customer service reps who are not working for a third party. Put back the dedicated superhost line.

 

Make it about forming relationships and get back to the core business. Then facilitate that by allowing us to talk to potential guests without "bots" deleting half the information.

@Ute42 your humour is so fab.

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Ute42  No, your English isn't bad, Chesky's is. Or rather it's an example of the obfuscating speech that Airbnb has perfected, IMO. How to say something with really saying anything.

 

I read it as there are so many people wanting to be Airbnb hosts, that no incentive is needed as far as using the service. They're trampling each other for the privilege of listing with Airbnb. This is Chesky's conceit.

 

@Sarah977 I wonder if they knock down his door....or line up outside his Silicon Valley manse to beg for the opportunity?

Ute42
Level 10
Germany

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@Laura2592 @Sarah977 

 

 

Ok, maybe that's what he wants to say:

 

  • There's a huge demand for service, especially service from the CX departement, generated by the existing host base already.

  • He's not offering incentives for new hosts, because if they are like the old hosts they would then also demand service he can't or won't provide.

  • But he's more than happy to welcome now hosts who don't need any service.

 

Is that the meaning of that sentence? Is he looking for a new generation of „host by Your own and never call us“ hosts? Maybe what he wants are host-bots running on autopilot?

 

 

@Ute42  Well, isn't that pretty much what it's devolved into- handle your own problems and don't bother us? And if you do expect us to support you, we will quickly make it evident that that was a really foolish notion.

@Ute42  As someone said, it's not your English that's bad, it's the writer's.

 

The reporter has used the word "service" differently than we use it.  When Airbnb hosts hear the word "service," we think mostly of Airbnb Customer Service.  The reporter doesn't understand that, and furthermore - he's lazy.  He got the first part of the sentence right - he reported that Chesky isn't going to offer new hosts any incentives to join the platform.  He went sloppy on the second half - he said that Chesky would not offer incentives to new hosts to join the platform because "there's already a huge demand...for service."  The reporter should have been more precise.  He should have written, "because so many people are signing up to become Airbnb hosts."

 

But the reporter might have thought that if he wrote that, his headline wouldn't make any sense.  If there are so many people signing up to become Airbnb hosts, why is Brian Chesky saying they
"will need millions more to meet surging demand"?

 

This is what happens when corporate doublespeak meets sub-par journalistic ability.  The site reporting this "news" got a press release and decided to make an article out of it.  They went ahead with the article even after realizing it was just part of Airbnb's advertising campaign.  They need content and Airbnb needs free advertising.  It's a symbiotic relationship.

I took the time to find this since I recall it annoyed me at the time. It’s an actual quote. Ute isn’t wrong. 

1B28F5C3-8100-4163-B91F-93752922DA54.jpeg

 here is the full article 

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/16/cnbc-exclusive-cnbc-transcript-airbnb-co-founder-ceo-brian-chesky-sp...