I joined Airbnb 3 years ago,
100% rate within the hour
0 Trip Cancellations
62 families over 3 years with an average of 4.8%
Yet I am being penalised for not accepting people whom I sense could be trouble. I understand the reasoning behind the Airbnb criteria, but as a host who is offering my main home with all of the commodities (some are of value and can easily taken away) I believe that I should be able to have the final say on that criteria without being penalised for my good judgement.
After 62 accepted trip, I use common sense from past experiences when refusing guest. I lay up front on my listing all of the suggestion share by guest in their reviews, to ensure that my place is suitable for the person wishing to book my place.
I have been Super Host since the begining and lost my Super Host status for a combination of factor:
- Accetance rate at 78% (Airbnb says that it should be at 88%). An objective that I cannot achieve if I want to keep using common sense in selecting the guests that I believe are suitable for my listing... i.e. in my home / friendly relations with my neighbours)
- Review rate at 4.7 (Airbnb requests a 4.8). I have had only 2 out of 62 guests who have lowered my outstanding average and provoked a downgrade from Super Host. (See another post on that subject in the community)
I live in a very quiet neighbourhood and allow guests that might not be suitable, could lead to other owners voting at the General Assembly for me to stop renting out to guest on Airbnb. I have an acceptance rate of 78%, which I consider reasonable. Airbnb should give Hosts some slack on that criteria, or set up another mechanism that allows host to reject a request to book without being penalised for super host.
I hope that Airbnb can take into consideration the fact that for many of us, this activity is not about making money. We are renting our own home to complete strangers in order to be able to cope with the mortgage loan. I suggest that the "acceptatance rate" is not taken into consideration for Host who have o cancellation. Or maybe differentiate when it is a host's primary or second (rental) residence.
