How can Airbnb offer I.B. when their service is non-existant?

Steve-and-Dawn1
Level 2
Isigny-le-Buat, France

How can Airbnb offer I.B. when their service is non-existant?

I've been with AirBnB for 4 years.  Superhost status at the moment.  The service they offer is now appalling.

The Instant Booking is clearly flawed. The price tips is so ludicrous as to be laughable.  Do they seriously expect me to rent at rates that cost me money?

It wasn't so long ago it was possible to actually contact Airbnb if a problem arose with a booking or potential booking.  Now the only way I seem to get a response is to make some disparaging comment on Twitter.

Compare the service to Booking.com.  Instant book, yes, however an email or phone call is quickly responded to and the situation resolved in a most professional manner.

The AirBnB experience?  Finally contacted after 3 days, matter not resolved, then emailed to ask if I was satisfied with their responce. This elicited a not very flattering reply from myself...which generated another email asking if I was satisfied.  It is laughable really.

Still it is a shame as I did enjoy the whole AirBnB experience but my bookings through them have nearly dried up so it's basically a case of so long and thanks for the sausages I guess!

 

 

14 Replies 14
Valerie27
Level 5
Victoria, Canada

Ignoring feedback doesn't work today. Either Airbnb will realize that their business model isn't working with the costing they've set up and have to adjust it to fit, or they will return to serve all their customers (hosts and guests) respectfully and offer choices on such important issues. I'd like to stick with one service but if they are forcing me into arrangements that aren't safe or logical for me personally then I'll take my business elsewhere. I hope they don't shut you down by archiving your feedback immediately S&D. And thanks for posting this. Its an important discussion.

Michael594
Level 1
New South Wales, Australia

Can somone please contact me from Air bnb what an absolute joke, that there is no obvious 

- Contact air bnb staff for problems button

 

 

Cathy65
Level 10
Bloomington, IN

Thanks for your trenchant comments, Steve and Dawn. I too am dismayed and alarmed by Airbnb's rather sudden plunge into an abyss of host-hurting policy changes and no support service whatsoever. Have they out-sourced everything including policy-making to a hovel of Stone Age peasants in Outer Mongolia?

As others have reported, my requests and inquiries have suddenly plunged from DAILY requests to ZERO for the entire last month. I don't know what is going on with guests, but I suspect many are turned off by the flophouse atmosphere created by the combo of IB and the disappearance of descriptive titles for the listings. When I recently tried to search a European city with hundreds of listings, it was a HOPELESS task with nothing but a picture to guide my choices.

As a host, I am dismayed by the sudden onslaught of:

1) Compulsory IB -- implemented in the most sneaky, manipulative way, so that many hosts did not even realize for a while that their listings had disappeared.

2) Compulsory accepting infants for free  ( I do it as a courtesy, but no one should be forced to make this concession).

3) The disappearance of descriptive titles which strip out what is unique and valuable about your place. In my case, I am next door to a world-famous Music School at IU, but all that appears is "private room in Bloomington" like every other place, so now I just look overpriced!

4) Aggressive downward pressure on prices, via having created a glut of hosts in most places, and then telling everyone to lower their prices.

It's no wonder all the quality, savvy hosts are desperately seeking alternatives. Get it together, Airbnb, or you will crash and burn!

@Cathy, Also worth mentioning is their policy on assistance animals for US users. Did you know that guests are not required to tell a host they are bringing an "assistance animal" with them? And that airbnb defines assistance animal to include emotional support animals (pigs, cats, dogs, goats, you name it).  ESAs are easy to fake, especially because Airbnb does not require any documentation for said animals. So guests are allowed to sneak any type of animal into our homes and there is no way to disprove the animal is just a pet. Of course, there are some "extenuating circumstances" but if a host is not aware of this policy, they aren't even able to be considered exempt from the policy. My posts on the subject were archived after 3 days, with over 40 comments.

 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1869/what-is-an-assistance-animal

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Host-Voice/Assistance-Animal-Policy-Part-1/idc-p/602139#M12804

My rant is about the way they market IB, giving it preference in ranking.

 

If someone has IB they are promoted in search rank apparently, even if they are a terrible host with major complaints and low star ratings, whereas great hosts with majority 4 and 5 stars and great reviews who refuse IB come last,  if at all.

 

Talk about a screwed up model!

 

Obviously this is all about the money, sell it quick and cheap with smart pricing instead of building a reputation for quality spaces and professional hosts.

Cathy65
Level 10
Bloomington, IN

Ange, you are quite right about the emerging model of cheap, volume, rake in the corporate earning while jettisoning almost overnight the home-sharing ethos of quality, thoughtful places. One of my  listings is even shown below a cheap motel  

Cathy65
Level 10
Bloomington, IN

But it's even worse than you describe, Ange, because the site is now often turning on IB as the default filter so that ONLY IB listings show -- many hosts don't realize that their listings have disappeared. 

Angie43
Level 2
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Good to know I'm not the only one out there who is slightly frustrated, worried and a little sad after 4 years hosting on AirBnB. AirBnB seems set to crash as a victim of their own success. It's only a matter of time. Even though - thanks to AirBnB - our listing is almost fully booked well into September 2017, (superhost and no IB on by choice) I am going to be making preemptive moves to avoid dependancy on a company that I have seen move SO far away from their original humble beginnings that the writing on the wall is loud & clear. And I'm hearing more and more of those sounds around me...it's a shame no one's listening.

Just to be clear, Instant Book and Smart Pricing are not the same thing.  You can turn either on or off, depending on how you like to utilize the services of Airbnb.  Personally, I appreciate and use both.  My bookings are up year over year and my income increased in 2016 from 2015 by more than 50%.  These products, to me, are a benefit of using Airbnb.  If they are not the features you like, you have other options - it's like choosing between a BMW and a Cadillac - both lovely, both with great options, but you have to choose which one best fits with you and your preferences.  

Cathy65
Level 10
Bloomington, IN

Alice & Jeff ~ you are not "being clear" at all -- you are willfully ignoring the realities of both Instant Book and so-called Smart Pricing. IB is no longer a CHOICE -- certainly not a matter of choosing "between a BMW and a Cadillac." If you don't "choose" it, your listing DISAPPEARS for the most part. So, it's a matter of caving in to IB, or effectively being frozen out of the site.

 
Nor is "Smart Pricing" just a matter of whether you yourself choose to use it. Other hosts -- especially impressionable newbies -- feel pressure to adopt these extremely low prices, creating downward pressure on rates for everyone. Compounded by the fact that Airbnb has aggressively recruited more hosts than most markets can sustain. I have a lovely place in a super-desirable location, and Superhost status, glowing reviews, and it looks like I will have one guest for all of December and January. Because I am not willing to knock myself out pleasing guests (and thus building Airbnb's reputation) for next to nothing.
 
Let's get real here.
Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Alice-and-Jeff0, It is not at all like choosing between a BMW and a Cadillac. Both have wheels, and get you from point A to point B.

When guests do not realize that they aren't seeing all the listings because they haven't turned off the IB filter, and Superhosts are penalized by having their listings buried if they aren't comfortable with instant book, that is a whole different ballgame.

@Sarah977 - this thread is over a year old and but I still stand by IB and Smart Pricing as good options for me.  When you choose any product, you take the features that go along with that product. We don't own the platform, we choose to use the Airbnb Platform and can use other platforms instead, or in addition to this one, to make it work for us.  You buy a BMW or a Caddy, or both, but you take each of their limitations when you use them.   

You are brushing aside the objections and serious problems faced by those of us who came to DEPEND on this site, then they change the rules in ways that hurt us badly. We’re being frozen out because some of us — e.g. older women — are in no position to take unvetted strangers into our homes.

And, they are price-fixing by burying those of us who won’t lower prices as they dictate. Hope you enjoy the race to the bottom in terms of the rates you can charge!

@Alice-and-Jeff0  I said nothing about IB or Smart pricing being bad options. They are obviously good options for some hosts.

 

It was your analogy of choosing one high-end car over another that I was referring to.

 

When a platform changes the rules mid-game, fails to notify hosts of the changes (airbnb is SUPPOSEDLY built on trust and respect), penalizes even Superhosts by burying their listings if they aren't willing to accept guests before exchanging a message or two, that is just plain nasty business.