@Rebecca0and @MichaelandJill and so many others who care enough to speak up, and we must...
Thank you for your efforts. I have also contributed, followed up with feedback, appeals to Support (replies are scripted), and to be honest, with no reply from management after thousands of posts from upset hosts in various threads (other then more sanctions), I doubt this will be replied to either.
TWEETS and CONTACTING THE PRESS WORKS.
This is a multilayered situation that touches everyone involved and goes deep to the heart of Air BnB. There are seasoned guests feeling the shift as well.
Many hosts are leaving. Others have gone dark. Others have become even more cautious they're not booking anyone without a solid positive review history with ABB (unfortunately shutting out perfectly wonderful newbies)...also knowing if they cancel, they'll be penalized with ratings, financially, they'll be relegated to the last pages of searches and more sanctions...so they're listing elsewhere.
Many have not caught up to what's going on or are afraid to speak up.
This isn't just about a "no photo" policy and it isn't about racism. Its about revenue.
According to the press, ABB changed the business model over the last year in preparation for an IPO scheduled for 4 months from now. This is the final quarter to boost their appeal for the stock market...which isn't in great shape. This agenda explains the secretive rollouts of policies trying to force hosts into instant booking, the "no photo/valid ID (guests can now register and book only revealing a first name) and now rolling towards us; hosts being required to pay guest booking fees. ABB gets thier fees regardless, and we get penalized if we cancel due to safety concerns. Period. Even Instant Bookers only get 3 cancels/year.
The racism card is a conveniently timed strategy based on a handful of allegations that are most prudently and profitably handled by an algorhythm with scrutiny and appropriate policy if there's an actual red flag.
I've spent most of my life in Customer Service. The way this has been handled is not cooperative or thought through except the short term. It's more reminiscent of "playground politics" than the "win-win sharing economy" that made ABB a game-changing Unicorn. The vibe has become that of "politics as usual." Every way you look at this, it's the antithesis of what attracted millions of private homeowners to open thier homes to billions of guests all over the world that built this unique, thriving community.
Based on independent host feedback, declines are increasing under this new policy becuase we don't want someone we don't feel ok with being invitied into our homes, having contact with our families, knowing where we live, and having our contact info. Historically, declines in accepted bookings result in being relegated to the bottom of searches, as the multidwelling management companies rise to the top (even with poor reviews).
If ABB wants to boost bookings, the long term solution is to implement better safety protocols to increase bookings by building confidence, relationships, and return bookings for ALL hosts and guests.
ABB has well publicized issues with safety/screening and costly backpedalling from bad press due to undiscovered criminal/sex offenders, stalkers, abusive guests/parties/liability, and "charitable donations" synchronistically timed with elections involving short term rental policy in New York and elsewhere. There have been a handful of actual racism allegations against hosts by comparison. These new policies go beyond racism to include the whole global platform.
Did you know ABB has also just begun rolling out another previoiusly unnannounced policy of making hosts responsible for guest's booking fees if we choose not to comply? In a criminal setting that would be classified as a felony in the US, and violates numerous labor laws.
Here's an approach that could have created a win-win and avoided this unfortunate internal and what will become a huge PR mess:
Added service to justify a general increase in booking fees, notifying us in advance via messaging/notification of all hosts and guests registered with a statement such as "We're listening! For your confort and safety, we're stepping up our safety protocols by requiring all guests to provide the same information as hosts; ID/profile photo matches/criminal background checks. It will resullt in a ___% booking fee increase of ___ to cover costs but we're doing our best to keep everyone safe. (This does not guarantee we can completely filter out sophistocated criminals and we are not responsible for...")
ABB could have eased the minds of millions of independent hosts, increasedbookings, and offered a huge market share potential to infogeek providers to outbid one another, resulting in the least expensive, almost instant electronic responses for pennies on the dollar en masse. They could have rolled it out with a wonderful press release and won everyone over with thier historical zeitgiest of collective good will (except for the criminals).
I'd actually be OK with paying more for this added win-win service. Anyone else?
Making this platform increasingly miserable for independent hosts ( the reason ABB exists and people love it) is breaking the backbone that helped build this company. It's bad PR from any perspective and they will try to fall back on the "racism card,"...old school politics/business as usual rather than the upbeat community innovation that created this platform.
Even those of us who are highly booked with 5 stars are being inspired to leave, most of all by the obvious lack of simple courtesy and respect for our safety, that of our families, and our homes that have become so unimportant...just so many other big corporate players in the news.
ALL of this is at our expense, financially, safety-wise, and with the liability issues buried within these changes.
There is no backup for us and rather then being a global community we've been "commodified" and even with tens of billions in profits... we're not profitable enough.
Independent hosts are the backbone of ABB, and cost more in Customer Service because there are more of us. The alleged $Million Host backup policy, which, according to many recent posts is not being enforced, becomes null and void with the "the 3rd party rule" if someone books for another person. 3rd party bookings are on the increase in the IB area of the platform and will also increase without clear facial photo and basic photo ID requirements to accompany all bookings. Puppies and kitties and landscapes exacerbate this. Would you stay in the home of a private host who wasn't willing to provide ID or show thier face? Guest/host cancelling after booking (as suggested by ABB) isn't good either, for customer service, PR, the "racism" issue, and because then the guest has our name, phone#, email, and address and can choose to burgurize homes (especially vacation homes)... as ABB keeps all the booking fees, and is absolved of liabity again because they didn't actaully check in ---another loophole they forgot to mention---
In short, any criminal can register on ABB and for less than $10 have our information and visual access to everything we own. ABB could care less because they've paired all this new policy with a mass guest recruiting campaign...again to boost profits, and they keep the fees regardless of the outcome with no liability.
It would appear the founders have sold their souls to shadow capitalistism and sold us out.
But ABB has also been copied by others who offer more security, so with "customer service" like this and an impending IPO, ABB will make billions more for the short term and either fade way, or be bought out and put on a shelf to collect dust like Lycos and Myspace.
Either way, the 1% will profit more than ever, so the demise of something awesome and unique (that sharing win-win economy that the world could truly benefit from expanding upon), gets sacrificed on the old school economy altar.
Here's my reality:
About 30% of my bookings are return guests becuase they love what I offer. I know who they are. Win-win! Under this policy70% of my new requests to book have been from people with no photo, incomplete profile, newbies/have never done a home share, have 1 lukewarm sounding review (or none), assume they're booked when they request, ooze entitlement, and have no idea why I'm asking questions because they're used to hotels and don't actually read the listing or they'd know my house rules and how much more I offer.
I've spent a lot of time educating newbies, which in customer service is known as "relationship building." It boosts bookings, and good will and profits for ABB (win-win). Many of my repeat bookings are the newbies I spent time on who feel comfortable, appreciate my willingness, and the expereince I provide.
I'm declining most of the other 70% right away because there isn't enough data or discourse to discern a safety (very different than discrimination). That's more declines for me since this rollout than the last 6 months, as indpendent hosts are discriminated against and penalized/intimidated by ABB in multiple ways.
In reality, we're the ones being discriminated against by this company's unsafe policy forced on us after being made totally vulnerable, with no backup from this "booking agency"---which is what ABB has reduced themselves to with these actions. There are amny "booking agencies" to choose from.
We're the ones on the short end of "playground politics" because the boss wants all the best lunches and pocket change. This is why labor unions were created.
It's also eroded the great vibe and mission we all created in a win-win community over years of time.
My guests are noticing a difference too, so if this is all about the guest, it;s effecging those who also helped build this company. They are uninspired by having to sort through the plethora of management company logos and motels in the listings and the lengthy and confusing registration, and more cumbersome and confusing review process. These are platform issues, not host errors, yet the result is a decline in my completed guest review rates...and along with that terrible "location" category add on, I'm receiving notifications it's effecting my previously pristine "progress" agorhythm stats...which pales in comparison to honest safety issues, which seems to be insignificant to the management when compared to profits.
ABB is heading down a path they previously soared above. Something important to the soul of this community has been lost. The words "safety," trust," and "integrity" come to mind first. Once earned, it's worth more than gold. Once lost...
