How do you think Airbnb hosting management system can be improved?

[HyunYoung1]

Hi. I am a graduate student doing research on how the Airbnb hosting management system can be improved. 

The examples are adding cleaning schedules and adding more visitor information to accommodate the visitor properly.  I would like to hear how you would improve the system.

I will appreciate it especially if you can talk about the time when you had trouble providing a visitor a good experience because the system was poor.

[Nancy26]

I would like the option of charging a minimal fee for early or late check in/out.  This could be arranged with the visitor beforehand or during their visit if they want a few hours more and the place is available. I already offer that at no charge.  

Also, I would like a variety of icons available at the top of a listing for things like if you are kid friendly, dog friendly, LGBTQ friendly. 

[Julia315]

You mention accommodating the visitor better. As far as I can tell, Airbnb spend the majority of their time doing just that. They need to focus more on improving the host's experience! 

Why do they not allow for the owner/host to charge extra for a dog staying?? It would help the host enormously as more cleaning is needed when a dog stays. I had to clean up dog mess in my garden only this week. Imagine if a young toddler crawled in some dog poo??! Could be really dangerous. And the owner could face real stress from the fallout. Anyway, why do they not have a box to tick if you're bringing a dog...? Because their focus is firmly on the guest not the host. With nothing to officially 'book a dog in', any problems from having a dog stay will be the owner's problem and will never cost Airbnb any money! They seemed to very slickly add the 'service' fee... which is basically money for them for nothing... but they can't add a dog fee because it would go directly to the owner and they can't see the point in that if there's no money it it for them. My opinion, and maybe I'm cynical, but why else would they refuse to request the guest ticks a box to let the host know they're bringing a dog?? People do not mention they're bringing a dog either so it would help the host a lot if there was some sort of comeback for failing to mention a pet when booking. 

[Donald28]

I totally agree with this. How hard would it be to add a pet fee feature like they did with the cleaning fee? Pet owners will gladly pay a reasonable fee to have the freedom of bringing their pets with them instead of costly boarding or having a friend or family member watch them. And yes it absolutely takes a lot more cleaning after a dog has stayed. 

[Sarah977]

@HyunYoung1  More visitor information? That's pretty funny. Hosts have full listing descriptions that guests don't bother to read ANY of. Guests just look at the photos, the price and instant Book. 

Perhaps you should do a study of "Why guests don't read the information provided".

[Donald28]

Host managment could be bettered by airbnb by allowing hosts to have ALL the info on the potential guest/s BEFORE booking... not AFTER! 

I hate that I am supposed to make a "ruling" if a potential guest named "kelly" is OK to stay at my place. I have no photo of kelly, I don't know if Kelly is a man or a woman, there's no last name or anything that would allow me even a tiny bit of research on this person that I am supposed to allow in my home. 

Airbnb has stripped hosts chances to research a potential guest in the name of "percieved racism". It's ridiculous.