Good day fellow hosts!
I was informed today that airbnb will from now on only show profile pictures after a booking is confirmed.
This prompted me to leave feedback in their help center, I'll paste it in below.
I feel that airbnb has drifted enough from the original idea to make it uncomfortable for me to further share my home with guests referred by airbnb.
I think it's time to start a new service that will live up to the idea of a real sharing economy and not get blinded by vast sums of money.
I am certainly not willing anymore to support airbnb's endeavor!
Good luck to all you hosts, and hopefully I'll see you all soon on a new platform!
Feedback:
Good day! I've been a host, mostly a superhost, on airbnb for 5 years now. In the beginning hosting was a lot of fun and I met great people, some of which became my friends. Lately though, inquiries have dwindled to a trickle and I've had an increasing share of problematic guests. And now you also hide profile pictures! It's already quite a gamble, inviting strangers into my home, and profile pictures have given me "more than a thousand words" in deciding who I invite to stay at my home. It also seems that airbnb tends to favor guests' accounts of events in case of disputes and problems. I understand, they are the ones that bring the money, whereas we hosts, while sticking out our necks, are merely enabling airbnb to make the vast sums of money they collect from guests. I think it's time to say goodbye to airbnb! I've had my share of fun, thank you for that! But I just don't feel much support anymore for what I do, from what has seemingly become another mindless, heartless corporate money machine. It was a great idea to give people a chance to make some extra income from renting otherwise empty rooms to travelers on a tight budget but it unfortunately evolved into just another starbucks, walmart, home depot kind of operation. So much for the sharing economy! I guess it's only a cloak to be worn on the way to selling out. I certainly don't want to have a part in it. I won't wish you good luck since I don't want such companies to exist in the first place, but I do wish the individual who will hopefully read this all the best and a lovely day!
