This is the stern message I just sent Airbnb. I will be interested in both their response and yours.
To Whom it Must Concern:
My name is Colin and have been offering our vacation home to Airbnb since 2014. In fact, I do believe we have been granted the title of Superhost consistently over the years ever since then. This very high-end home can accommodate as many as twelve people at a time. Since 2014, we have accommodated 886 guests from 5 countries, with groups often coming from multiple countries as family reunions.
Let me start out by saying that we have been extremely happy and impressed by the level of detail and consideration Airbnb has implemented into the hosting platform and overall host and guest consideration … until now.
We are not at all happy with your change in policy regarding the visibility of guest photos. The two most important features that used to separate Airbnb from its competitors was the ability to ‘see’ who was renting from you and their record from past hosts. The cliché ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ stands true and we as hosts require as much information on a prospective guest living in our home as possible. We rent out our $2M home through Airbnb on a regular basis and up to now had a certain level of comfort seeing who was wanting to rent it before the reservation was committed. Why do we feel the need to hide behind a mask? Or be even more anonymous than we already are? What are we hiding? Would you expect someone to rent a home simply based on a text description? No! Of course not. They need to see what they are getting. They need a comfort level that the product is worth what they will be paying. They need photos. Would you rent a home based on text alone without photos? Well, we as hosts are in the same boat.
It is extremely important, and I can’t express this enough, the importance of putting a face to a name. Your reasoning of inclusivity is going too far. For us, it’s a level of comfort. We are allowing total strangers to reside in our homes and when we are deciding who should and shouldn’t have that privilege, a photo of that person goes a long way to instilling that level of comfort we need. We deserve the right to choose our guests based upon as much information as we can get on them. Photos and host reviews are vital to our comfort level and feeling that our home will be taken good care of.
The other reason why a photo is important is we can see new faces verses the familiar faces of guests who have stayed with us before or of those who made previous requests or inquiries, or those who have previously stayed. The photos connect to the first name and we can see immediately who they are by going back over previous inquiries as to just how easy or difficult that prospective guest was and will be. Without the face, all we have is a first name. I see the name but is it someone I have dealt with before? I can’t tell. Then I have to spend extra work digging through all my files to see if they have made an inquiry before, but can’t tell. Then I have to open up their profile and again, no photo. The name is familiar or is it just a common name? I can’t tell. Is the person male or female? I can’t tell. How old are they? I can’t tell. This is upsetting to be working in a vacuum like this. I am so much less easy now renting out my home to someone I don’t know and can’t see. I want to see their face. What are they hiding from?
Many names today do not identify the gender of the person and that is important. I have to treat a group of males differently than a group of females and when you have the ability to accept as many as twelve guests at once, well in our experience, this has to be treated differently. If twelve males want to rent my home, red flags go up. I have to read them the riot act before we both commit. It is so different and of less concern when twelve females want to get together. This is important.
And I can’t tell how old they are and that is important, too. From a photo, I can immediately tell whether I’m dealing with a grandmother, a responsible looking parent, or a university student (they usually have a drink in their hand and other guys and girls hanging off them in the photo.) If I can see that the male in the photo is mature and by that I mean in his forties, fifties or sixties, and there are twelve of them, I have no fear that they will be responsible and treat my home and neighbours with respect. Noise on the lake cannot be tolerated and the age of the group is important. I can’t see that without a photo. Do I have to now ask them how old they are and what gender? That’s not right. How would you feel if someone had to ask you that question? Think about it.
The way you dress and act in a photo is priceless information to us when dealing with inquiries. Is the person dressing like they are a responsible human being or ready to party all night long. I will no longer take that chance. If I can’t see them, I am much more on guard and less likely to accept them. I am now so much more on the look out for trouble and this is stressing me out. Are you hearing me? I’m getting stressed out just thinking about it as I write to you. Please, bring back the photos. This move will NOT bode well for Airbnb.
Please change the site back to the way it was. The photos are a prerequisite.
I’ve said my peace. Airbnb must do the right thing in assisting and protecting the interests of Hosts and their property by bringing back the photos.
Thank you,
Colin
Airbnb Super Host since joining in 2014
