Long-Term Rentals Penalize Superhosts

[Melisande0]

I just lost my over 2-year Superhost status because due to new local zoning,  I can now only host long-term.  And though my place has been booked solid ( 3 separate "trips") since January,  and my overall rating is 5.0 (see below), they revokes my Superhost status. This is because Airbnb requires 10 bookings to achieve or keep Superhost status.  This is no doubt affecting any Superhost who is no longer able to do short-term rentals.

This policy is completely unfair, and in no way reflects my hosting quality.  I want it changed now!!

Overall rating

5.0 󰀄
Response rate

100%

Cancellations

0/yr

Trips reviewed

66%

[Melisande0]

@J-Renato0  Perfect!  When I first started the forced 30+ day rentals, I wondered if the guests would be able to review me each month.  Turned out that was not possible. 

So, for the Long-Term Only category, guests should be able to leave interim reviews to tell the Hosts how we're doing so far.  That would be helpful to me as a Host, and give Airbnb more data for the Superhost requirements.

[Inna22]

@J-Renato0 @Melisande0 how will check in be reviewed on monthly basis? And cleanliness if you do not provide cleaning during stay? It is not that simple. What about communication if there is simply nothing to talk about? One of my properties is long term only and there is simply no reason for me to communicate. How would accuracy change? And location? This can go either way. If someone is not happy with your location after check in, they will ding that star for you month after month

[J-Renato0]

@Inna0

The @..... thing is not working again...!

Well, in case of more than 1 month rental (mid and long term rental), from the sencond review on Airbnb should abolish some redundant items such as:

-Cleanness

-Location. Note that, Location does affect the Superhost Status. Moerover, I think that if one does like the location, one certainly would discontinue its stay instead of ding location star month after month.

-Accuracy 

-Value  (If the guest think it is not good value for money, the guest will leave the property after the first review. Otherwise it would not make sense)

As for the other items, it make sense to have a monthly review:

-Communication - If some problem occurs the guest may have to contact the host. If no problem happens, no contact. The communication is fine, with out problem.

-Overall Experience - If anything is changed, the overall experience will tend to be fine.  

[Inna22]

@J-Renato0 how would it be fair to the short term hosts if long term is rated on 2 factors and short term on whole bunch? Are you also going to be leaving the guest monthly reviews? 

[Melisande0]

@Inna19  In response to your question, my suggestion is that there be a separate category for Hosts who for any reason can only host 30+ days at a time.  Guests (and hosts) could have the ability to review each month. Since long-stay guests routinely book for several month at a time, Airbnb should adjust the trip limit for these Hosts.

I have had 100% occupancy since January when my city told me to "cease and desist" short-term rentals.  Of those 3 rentals since January, my rating is 5.0 stars. The only factor that caused me to lose my Superhost status was the 10-trip limit.

[J-Renato0]

@Inna0 and @Melisande0

Inna

I agree that some complications may arise, considering your points.

However, the host that are running long stay are not being rated only on 2 factors. He is being rated on 5 factors. The only difference is that, the redundant factors  does need a monthly evaluation.  In fact, those redundant factor would be still being evaluetad, but in a kind of "invisible" mode. If the guest does not like the  "cleanness, value for money, location and accuracy" on the following months, the guest certainly interrupets its stay. It does make sense that a guest continue in a place where he does not feel comfortable.

Inna and Melisande

Considering some complications raised by Inna I think there is another alternative (suggestion).

Instead of considering the abolute number 10 bookings, Airbnb could change it for number of days booked or occupancy rate that was very well reviewed by the guests.

For example:

Host 1  (Last 365 days): Has 10 booking, being 3 days stay for each booking and overall rating 4.9 . This host has reached the current SuperHost requirements regarding this factors.

Occupancy rate:  8% in the last 365 days

Host 2 (Last 365 days): Has 2 bookings, being 80 days stay for each booking and overall rating 4.9. this host has not reached the current SuperHost requirements regarding this factors.

Anyway, please note that, the occupancy rate of the Host 2 is 43%.

Note that:

Host 1 has had 10 reviews, and Host 2 has had 2 reviews.

The Host 1 has had 30 days rated 4.9 (overall rating) and Host 2 has had 160 days rated 4.9 (overall rating).

Do you think that, the Host 2 that offered a great accommodation for 160 days and have only 2 reviews does not deserve the Superhost badge?

In fact, the Host 2 has 160 days rated 4.9 and the Host 1 has had only 30 days rated 4.9 !

The logic say the Host 2 also deserves the Superhost badge.

[Huma0]

I'm also worried about this. I have three rooms in my home listed on Airbnb. One of those I targeted at long-term guests (and by that I mean stays from a month to six months) and now I'm targetting another at them too. My experiences with long-term guests have all been great and having short term guests coming and going every couple of days has really impacted my work, so I would love to have all three rooms primarily listed for long-termers, taking short-term bookings only in the gaps between them.

BUT, it would need to total at least 10 trips a year. Maybe it still would, but I have a six month stay coming up for one of the rooms so that's going to drop my number of stays per year significantly.

I agree that there should be more flexibility for this. The problem with changing it to number of stays to number of nights, e.g. 30 nights a quarter, is that for some hosts in  some locations, they are not legally allowed to host as many nights as that, e.g. in London, Airbnb applies a 90 day maximum to complete unit rentals.