Airbnb’s Growing Disregard for Hosts Who Share their Home

Jessica73
Level 10
Los Angeles, CA

Airbnb’s Growing Disregard for Hosts Who Share their Home

I've been an Airbnb host since 2012 and a Superhost ever since the Superhost program started, mostly as a home sharer who rents out the guest room in my L.A. house. It pains me to say that Airbnb is devolving now that its corporate status has raised - showing more and more disregard for hosts who share their home, and favoring instead real estate investors who lists houses/apartments they don’t live in, and rent out like hotels (because of course, the latter is what brings Airbnb the most $$$.) This is obvious from the way Airbnb’s algorithm works: 1) It greatly reduces the visibility of listings from hosts who refuse to do “Instant Book”. And agreeing to instant book is easy for someone who is renting a space they don't live in, but much more problematic for hosts sharing their own house with their guests. 2) Homes with pets (almost always home shares) are automatically disqualified from Airbnb Business and Airbnb Plus. 3) Hosts who deny requests get punished for doing so by having their listing’s visibility reduced, and pushed down the list. 

 

It is unfortunate (and infuriating), because true home sharers are the type of hosts that Airbnb prides itself for in all its PR campaigns, and whenever it comes to fighting in favor of short term rental legislation: the retired couple opening their homes to friendly strangers from around the world, the person who lost their job and for whom Airbnb becomes a way to help pay the house mortgage etc… And, on the other end of the spectrum, their biggest PR nightmares often come from hosts who list homes they never live in - often the type of hosts who have less reasons to be selective with their guests, or considerate when it comes to their “neighbors”, or the community the home is in. 

 

Airbnb needs to decide: is it a vacation rental platform for passive real estate investors, or the home sharing platform it advertises itself to be? Because, for hosts who are opening their own homes to strangers, using Airbnb only feels safe if they are allowed to deny some reservations and not be “punished” for doing so. They could be denying reservation to prevent sharing their homes with guests who they feel might be inconsiderate to their neighbors and their community, guests who they feel wouldn’t like the space, or even guests they just wouldn’t get along with. In my case, I get a lot of requests for month-long rentals, so most of my denying requests simply come from the fact I need a bit more than 24 hours and a single communication to decide to rent to someone who will be my housemate for a month. As a reminder: not accepting or denying a request within 24 hours makes you lose your Superhost status, and denying a request greatly reduces the visibility of your listing, and eventually disqualifies it from Aibnb Plus.

 

For me, the solution is simple: eliminate the automatic selection of “instant book only” (guests should be able to select that option if they want, but it should never be automatically selected, which is often is - without the knowledge of guests or hosts), and stop "hiding" listings of people who have denied some reservations (as long as the host responds to requests quickly.) I’ve tried to talk to Airbnb multiple times about this but, unlike a few years when Airbnb actually listened to their hosts, I did not get a response. A few years ago, I even spoke in favor of short-term rental – at local community events and even L.A. city hall. I will not speak in favor of Airbnb again until it starts showing appreciation for the hosts that are actually saving their reputation, and until it modifies their algorithm so that it doesn’t favor greedy real estate invertors over true home sharers. I encourage all other home sharers (or anyone who agrees) to do the same.

 

Thanks for reading my long rant...

51 Replies 51
Rob243
Level 3
SF, CA

Sounds like the honeymoon with AirBnB is definitely over.  I went from liking them to being disgusted in 2 weeks.  

What's the alternative?  Maybe I should tell my friends at Couchsurfing to expand and start offering guest room fee rentals, since their homesharing infrastructure is already in place.   

Does anyone have VRBO experience?  Do they get the traffic that AirBnB gets? 

@Rob243   That's a great idea- for Couchsurfing to expand, since they already have a platform, altho that platform doesn't include money exchange, which is a whole other huge level of infrastructure.

The problem with VRBO is they only handle entire house or apartment rentals, not individual rooms in peoples' homes, so it's not an option for in-house hosts.

 

I think the problem for couchsurfing would be maintaining their free hosting services if peopl got greedy.  I have hosted CSers for 8+ years, but slowed down when I started hosting for AirBnB. Couchsurfing has gotten "too big" with to much demand in popular markets.  Idealist couchsurfers who joined to make human connections all over the world seems to have given way to lots of kids who just want a free place to stay.  

I'd hate to see people charging travelers $50 to sleep on their couch, though.  Then it would really be over 😞 

Here's yet another way Airbnb says screw you to their hosts: Unless you have Instant Book turned on, you are no longer permitted to require guests to have a govenment ID on file. They are no using our security as Blackmail to turn on IB. Great times we are living in, folks. Here's what I wrote to them today - I encourage you to reach out as well:

 

"A year ago, without any notification to hosts whatsoever, Airbnb automatically filtered out listings who did not have Instant Book turned on. After a month of having little no bookings and wondering how we were going to pay our bills, we stumbled upon this fact and only then learned that we had essentially been hidden from all users without any warning. Your company has forced our hand into turning on Instant Book just so we can continue to use this platform, causing major inconveniences (such as limiting our ability to choose when to accept one-night stay is available to fill a gap, or when it is booked three months in advance in the middle of an entire week).

 

Now today, I go to turn off Instant Book so that it a booking does not occur during a time when we are out of town (and no, your reservation requirements for specific dates do not work in the slightest), I see that your company is no longer allowing us to protect ourselves securely in our homes since we have turned it off. Apparently security is only offered to a select few.

 

Just to give you a bit of a backstory here: before our hand was forced into Instant Book in 2017 to make even $1 on this site, we were ALWAYS permitted to require an ID for guests to book with us. This was a no-brainer. Now, Airbnb has decided that security is only for the folks who fall into the ploy of Instant Book (or, for those of those who can actually manage to do it), and has removed the right to requiring a government-ID. This is shocking, and disgusting.

 

For such a PR ravaged company, with countless stories of thefts, unknowing sex parties in private homes, major damages and incidents, and physical and sexual assaults (and even a false imprisonment case!) that have made the news, this comes at a huge shock. I'm not entirely shocked that such a big company like Airbnb doesn't care about a host's safety anymore; I'm entirely surprised that you don't care more about your image.

 

I have been a fiercely loyal Airbnb user and host for 7 years. In fact, we have just received Superhost status today for the fifth time in a row, and this news of removal of security was the congratulations I received. I was on the fence last year, but it's clear the time has come for us to seek out Vrbo, Tripz, Homeaway, Flipkey, and Wimdu when welcoming strangers into MY HOME. I will now book personal trips through others venues at every opportunity I can get, as they do what is right by protect their hosts' security. I will encourage others and my media contacts to do the same until this horrible policy is reversed."

 

 

SCREEN SHOT:

 

Airbnb unsecure platform.jpeg

Mandrake-And-Karen0
Level 10
Silver Spring, MD

Jessica,

 

I agree with what you are saying.  We have been Supershosts since 2016, just a short while after joining Airbnb.  Twice, this year,  we noticed that our listing wasn't showing up when we logged out and did a search in Silver Spring.  I called Airbnb and they did a search and could not find it either! Unexplainably, our listing reappeared in a few days.  Airbnb said they didn't know what caused this to happen.  The same thing happened again nearly a month later!  Our listing was appearing very prominently prior to these occurrences and we have done nothing, no reservations cancelled, etc.

 

The hilarious part is that we keep getting updates on our host rewards and how Airbnb favors Superhosts by making our listings more prominent.  Hah! That's certainly not the case.  What worries me is how often before has our listing or possibly others have not appeared?!

 

I start tuning Airbnb out when it starts trying to control what hosts do and how they do it.  Airbnb is a software marketing and financial processing company.   It should stick to doing that!

 

That's all I have to say.  Oh, and one another thing.  It's never a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket.  Especially if the basket is starting to smell wrotten.

 

Good luck!

 

Karen

Hi Karen, I just posted a minute ago and was continuing to scroll through this string and saw your post. I agree. We are not far from one another, I'm in bluemont Virginia. I've had the same problem particularly because I refuse to instant book. Take a look at my reply to Jessica's post. Susan

Susan377
Level 3
Bluemont, VA

Jessica, I have just had time to check out the community and saw your post. I agree with all your points, and believe they are the core of the Airbnb dilemma. Differentiation among hosting styles and properties is a key to the success or failure of Airbnb in my opinion. I am also an Airbnb investor. I purchase shares at the ipo. I actually came on the community site to look for other investors. I'm thinking of creating a website or a blog for others to discuss how to support and grow the core Airbnb concept. I've just purchased hostairbnb with org. Take a look and tell me what you think. It's my first draft.