Guest Photos, Age requirement, Pricing suggestions,

[Katie269]

Does anyone else feel as if we should still require guests to have photos when booking? I notice most of my booking requests do not have a filled out profile, they have no picture and I am lucky if they verfied more than their email address. Why has airbnb gotten rid of the hosts sense of security? How do we know the person we see or meet at our house is the one who booked? What if someone booked the listing for someone else?

On another note, my home is located in beach town that is a tourist destination and becuase of that I sometimes get spring breakers i.e. college kids who try to book my home. I called airbnb and asked if there is a way we can require a min age to book i.e must be 22 or older but they said you cannot do that. So you have to be 25 years old in the United States to rent a car but you can be 18 to rent someones house?? I have had college aged kids stay before and ended up with the police at my house and almost got a noise violation amogst other things...

Also regarding pricing I have been hosting now for 4 years and have been a superhost since I first started. One thing I notice this year is the suggested prices are lower than ever before yet there aren't more homes in my area for rent on airbnb. Is the platform driving down suggested prices because I refuse to rent my 3 bedroom 2 bath home 1 mile from the beach for $70 a night. If I rent it to cheap I am then competing with the run down motel 6 downtown plagued with crime and drugs and I am sure my neigbors would not apprecate that. You can only rent so cheap until it backfires on you or is no longer worth it to rent your home short term. 

Food for thought. Anyone else have similiar feelings?

[J-Renato0]

Hello

Airbnb has changed its police regarding phots on guest profile.

Now, the photos are only displayed to us (the hosts) when the potential guest books our accommodation.

It is a very controversial matter. Lots of hosts are not satisfyed with this change, since there are some topics in this community about this subject.

[JoAnn79]

In my opinion this change seems reasonable. A host should not need to see the profile picture until the potential guest book. Most folks who have a short term rental are considered small business owners, so this rule is protecting the host from a discrimination lawsuit. It is also protecting the guest from being discriminated against based on their profile picture.

I regularly use Airbnb when I travel and I know for sure that Airbnb does a good job of verifying a guest. Also as a host, I have stated that no one under the age of 25 years may make a reservation nor can anyone make one for them. This is under house rules. Now there are all kinds of ways guests can go around this house rule, but there is only so much you can do. 

JoAnn

[Mariann4]

Well then @JoAnn79 .... You are in breach of Airbnb discrimination regulations yourself... You are not allowed to discriminate based on age. The age limit is 18.

Mariann 🙂

[Katie269]

Not true- I have called airbnb and asked about this. Age is not a discriminating factor when hosting or having someone rent your home. So rental car agencys like Hertz and Enterprise rental cars are discriminating in the United States as well as you have to be 25 years old to rent a car here.  It all has to do with a maturity level, we have rented our home to people under 21 and have had nothing but parties, throw up, destruction and the police called. Never happens when people who are older than college age rent our home. Call it what you want. Its my home my rules. 

[JoAnn67]

@Mariann0I’m afraid you have misread the AirBnb policy regarding age discrimination. You are probably thinking about the Age Discrimination Act, which addresses age (over 40 yrs) discrimination in the workplace 🙂

• “Airbnb hosts may not:
  • Impose any different terms or conditions or decline a reservation based on the guest’s age or familial status, where prohibited by law.”

JoAnn

[Katie269]

I think I should maybe take my photo down as well. I mean discrimination goes both ways. 

[Rae43]

I was upset about the change. I even have in my requirements that you must has a photo. 

I declined a guest last week for no photo and they contacted Airbnb who called me to notify me of the change. I understand there reasons but a face says a lot! As a single woman in a house I want to know who is coming in and out ! You do get the picture after you book but I feel I should be able to see before I allow them into my home 

[Tom797]

I agree, Katie,  we're very unhappy that guest photos are no longer shown before accepting a request. I understand AirBnB sees this as a way to minimize profiling, but it doesn’t help Hosts trying to rent a room in their private home. I’ve always relied on seeing reviews, a profile, and a photo. Few people have all three of these, and now AirBnB has removed one, too. I won’t be using AirBnB as much because I get requests with no reviews (or one generic review) and no profile description and that doesn’t make me sufficiently comfortable allowing a stranger into my home. I’ve been an ongoing SuperHost and this hurts my ability to continue on AirBnB.

[Sammy35]

i think photos provide a false sense of comfort to people.  and while i prefer having a photo, it really doesn't tell me anything.  people can, and do, post whatever they wish to project.  i understand the concerns of potential minorities who feel they may be discriminated against having photos.  or names for that matter.  i don't know if i feel that should translate into a platform functionality change especially if the host pictures are still available.  doesn't seem fair--which is why mine is burried behind la tour now.  but trust me, this is a civil rights and title vii (discrimination) risk and liability mitigation measure by airbnb.  employement and housing and every other kind of law indicates to not make choices based on blah blah blah....eventually airbnb is gonna not only adopt that motto but systemize it.  and did.

age?  yes 25 to rent a car.  that used to be mine and what i likened it to.  apparently it wasn't old enough.  now its 35 but with an exception for select inquires.  there are ways around it without actually posting it though but i don't think that's what you're concerned about.  few guests reads anyways so it won't matter.  i upped mine (after some 27 year old (professional  job white male with suitable linkedin profiles) stunts at my home that got them ejected with no refund but it says grown adult) qualified with:  not infant baby kid child proof based on safekids org minimum standards. and yes, up to interpretation but you can easily manage that in the message threads age and relationship of guests along with reason for visit (vacation/resort town you're kinda already screwed) and a before i accept reminder "REMINDER you may be asked to show ID upon arrival and if age blah blah blah...no checkin"  no more 20s in my home.  unless they are in attendance with parents.  we are always as in control as we exert out (except if you get duped at guest occupancy)

for airbnb ans soon to be shareholders when it goes public, any money is good money.  the goal is to generate revenue at just about any cost.  i don't even pay any attention to suggested pricing. i shop my comps and fluctuate my price with supply demand events weekends etc.  it won't matter with search results unless you are top tier or your geo gets honed in on with zoom.

the new functionality of this platform and the shift to guest over host leanings, especially given the host is supposed to be the business partner, deters this from being a source of income for me, primary or otherwise...i use it for play money when there are convenient host/guest matches.

for all the people who use it as primary and secondary income, i applaud them.  it can be a fun main or side business for some but not me.  if i were to ever run a proper airbnb cottage like place i would feel compelled to enforce the same way and be no less skeptical of the bad apples that ruin it for everyone guests.  upping prices can help with that UNTIL there is a capacity/occupancy max situation, then you get hit with every dreg on earth...

[Ann72]

@Katie269 Excellent food for thought all around.  I've also been a host for four years, but never paid attention to pricing suggestions or even looked into them much until recently.  Of course they're always lower than what I charge, and the longer I do this, the more I'd like to understand why that is.  For instance:  I used Smart Pricing this year for the first time, and saw the nightly rate go up on all three listings.  Okay, good!  Now, in early May, my booked earnings for 2019 are already at 82% of my total booked earnings for 2018.  Again, yay!  And yet, the pricing suggestions never say, "Hey, it looks like you're getting plenty of bookings at a higher rate - why don't we stop suggesting you lower rates for some of those unbooked nights?  I mean, it's early days yet!  Keep going and see what happens!"  Strangely, I haven't gotten any messages like that.  🙂

As for keeping out the partiers, I can tell I don't need to tell you to make it too expensive for them.  But it's hard with a house that sleeps more than 6 people, as one of mine does.  I've had two groups of 10 20-somethings in the off season recently.  I was nervous, but each group booked for only one night, so I thought they probably wouldn't be able to get up to much.  They couldn't have been lovelier, luckily.  But it was easy to see that they figured that each person would only have to pay about $50, so they went for it.  It's hard to make the rate too high for a group like that but not too high for a family of 5 or more who are taking the place for a week's vacation.