Should ABB do more to incentivize hosts?

Answered!
Laura2592
Level 10
Frederick, MD

Should ABB do more to incentivize hosts?

I had this discussion with a friend who is considering hosting.

 

She asked "what do you get?" meaning what does ABB do to incentivise hosts to  begin/keep on. And I couldn't think of much. A $100 gift certificate for super hosts once a year? Maybe a photo shoot (that seems to be off and on?) Obviously we get paid to host, but more and more I debate whether it is worthwhile. 

 

Do you think ABB should do more to reward or incentivise hosts? 

 

If so, what would be worthwhile to you?

1 Best Answer
Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

Personally,  would like to see more emphasis put in a few things, in the future.

 

1. More education of hosts as to the do's and don'ts of hosting. It is a business, which requires a certain finesse and wisdom than just being a consumer or an employee. Most people do not have experience  how to run a business. Maybe this forum could help in that department - 'The Dos and Dont's of Hosting'.

 

2. Conversely, sooner or later Airbnb should graduate from the 'everyone is beautiful lovefest'  mentality and accept the fact some guests are nothing short of mean-spirited scoundrels and should be treated as such once it becomes obvious. Society is general as we speak is 'discovering' the phenomena that - the more you cuddle the more aggressive, the meaner this lot will become without mercy.

 

3. If I was Airbnb I would slowly divorced myself from giving the impression they are offering any type of 'guarantee' as to damages for this is predicting human behavior of people they also have never met, which is similar to predicting future weather. The real reason why this is so important is because Airbnb charges only a 3% booking host fee and that is the main reason why it has been so successful with the best of offerings (which leads to where people go), and that will no longer be the case if administrative costs go up, as is the case with other listing agencies. 

 

Speaking of administrative costs, then there is the CS Department: This should be looked anew but backwards; reduce the reasons for it by education of hosts (See #1 above), holding certifiable-crazy guests immediately responsible (see #2) and lastly eliminate the whole claim department over-damages quagmire (see #3). Perhaps how all this could be accomplished is by having available a place were any and all questions are covered by guides available in the Airbnb web page and/or in this forum where guests can find answers to most questions immediately. Those too lazy to read have always been impossible to accommodate anyway, so let them waste their time calling a useless 'customer service department'.

 

(Note: I have never talked to a single guest on the phone in 7 years (700+ bookings) because it is usually a  monstrous waste of time and effort. I rather meet them in person when they finally arrive. Given that chance I will have them happily laughing and wrongly thinking I am a great guy in a few nano-seconds. 🙂

 

Note #2: Elaine701 is a very smart host! 

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51 Replies 51

@Sarah977  It might if the garden was lawn with 2 little evergreens and a bunch of white rocks, with  4 seasons of annual containers.   Pansies, petunias, 'mums and snow 

 

As it is, I have native and perennial plantings which pretty much do their own thing, and the garden changes all the time.  It doesn't present well in photos, but is pretty nice in person. 

@Michelle53 Ok I defiantly wish you the best with your listing! We were discussing risk and you mentioned cleaning and insects in your garden that had caused it to be suspended, so was just curious what was going on. I personally use absolute minimal spray inside for insects and manage to keep 98% of them out. As far as cameras well yes I have been here for 2 years and fully aware that some guest might complain but still a lot of host keep them and CS also recommends host to have them. I'm not sure why you decided to bring all that to my attention but its fine. I only mentioned that my risk involves guest who can't get a full refund if they want to cancel the night before and wasn't responding to anyone else or any other perceived risk so apologies for any confusion. I've enjoyed reading many of your comments here and believe it or not I'm fully aware of common risk here mentioned daily.   

PS.. for spiders I've researched this and the best remedy is cleaning and removing them. I vacuum every inch of my place especially behind doors. Even when I was growing up in a B&B I recall some guest wondering why we didn't to anything about roaches outside. For my outside shots I do include seasonal pictures. I did this before posting my listing and year before commenting here. 

I'm just thankful I'm not leaving my warm house up this morning at 5:30 to clock in to work at the cabinet shop that had no AC or heat. So this is a major imorovement for me and I'm just used to fixing problems for a living so that's that. 

@John5097  I did not say I got suspended, and I didn't mention cleaning at all.  I don't know where you read that.   I have never been suspended. 

 

What I said was that I have had people book a garden listing with a fear of insects, and that IF such a person made a complaint to Airbnb in order to get themselves a refund, that might cause  a suspension for no good reason in the current climate.

 

If I had thought for a minute that you would misunderstand me so completely, I would have refrained from bringing anything "to your attention".   

 

 

 

 

 

@Michelle53 

Sounds good to me! By the way this is exactly what you posted. 

"I'm getting better at "picking" guests, but every now and then, I get a "spider" complaint - I have a garden space - which, if turned over to Airbnb CS, could, these days, turn into an immediate suspension without warning.  The most recent being someone who was terrified of the empty shell of a cicada on an outside wall."

Its not like I just made all this up. Whatever. You want to post that and tag me don't be so offended with an honest response. 

 I most defiantly clean every inch and look for places spiders might hide between every single guest. 





@Michelle53 

 

Not sure how this got off track but the reality is that with a 4.7 and ** I just don't think most people change, as I said in my first post. I really hope that does not happen to you. 

@Laura2592 I will never have a 4.7 for cleanliness. I grew up in a B&B and have had guest ask why we don't do anything about roaches outside when they would be the only thing that survived a nuclear blast. I appreciate your very considerate responses. 

**

 

**[Personal remarks hidden in line with - Community Center Guidelines]

@John5097  Who said anything about a listing being "infested" by bugs and spiders? Certainly not Michelle.

"A spider complaint" does not equate to "infested". And what you quoted above from her post does not say she was suspended. Not even close.

You are digging yourself a deeper hole here. 

@Sarah977 

I didn't specifically say her place was infested with spiders and bugs. 

"Not sure how this got off track but the reality is that with a 4.7 and a listing infested with spiders and insects puts a host at very high risk of being delisted."

All of us are subjected to the same policy. 

This isn't the first time Machelle has raised the issue of spiders and bugs at her apartment with me. I've responded and don't even what to hear about it anymore. I simply made some suggestions to keep them out and possible consequences if guest complain. 

Life moves on.  

Now that you mention it, I also find some of your post harsh and unnecessary including the one to Shephanie below as well as others. So moving forward feel free to ignore me, and I will do the same. 

I would like to see some minor changes but for Airbnb to survive I think it will need new host and listings, which doesn't seem like a problem. I think the hosting community and Airbnb would be better off without a lot of the regulars here and their guest feel the same way. It doesn't matter what other host think of you. That's not how it works.

If you all want to discuss insects and spiders at YOUR listing please feel free to start another topic. I don't want to hear about it anymore. And wish some of you who constantly are consigning and don't like me would just ignore me. I don't need you at all in my life. 

Liv
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

@Sarah977 @Michelle53 @John5097 

 

Hey everyone,

 

Can I please ask you to refrain from posting personal remarks? As you know, it goes against our Community Guidelines and it usually leads to discussions going off-track.

 

Thank you for sharing so many insights on this thread by the way - feel free to keep them coming 🙂

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Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Stephanie  "Customer support is an issue we collectively hear a lot about not just on CC so the message is being heard."

 

With all due respect to you, the message being "heard" is something we hear a lot from Airbnb. 

 

Being heard is not of any consolation or interest if no action is taken to deal effectively with what is heard. 

 

Customer service has been going down for years and has now effectively fallen off a cliff. Users, both hosts and guests, have been complaining about it for years. It's now so bad that the CS reps don't even know Airbnb policy, give out completely erroneous information and terrible advice, and seem to be making things up as they go along. 

 

Ignoring what is being heard is of no use whatsover. 

 

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

@Sarah977 I appreciate it can get tedious being told you're heard and not seeing change in a manner the community generally feels is timely, so you can of course feel it's like shouting into the void.

 

That being said, a company the size of Airbnb cannot exact change as quickly as most would like. Some things take years to figure out how it should behave, be developed, go into test and rolled out - that's true of most businesses. 

 

And, this is where we capture every scrap of feedback, complaint or praise and deliver it to the appropriate team as early in that process as possible to try and ensure what is being shaped answers the need described. 

 

It's also true that some updates/products/changes can be altered, pushed back or even scrapped along the roadmap depending on the impact is has on the business and Host community in iterative tests. 

 

And finally, we the OCM team, are not also able to share details of upcoming items that we know are what the community has been clamouring about. It really has to be set in stone before we can get you all informed. So it could be "we are working x that the CC have been asking for, hurray!" but we can't go ahead and post about it until it's a done deal. 

 

As always, I appreciate your thoughts.

 

Thanks

-----

 

Please follow the Community Guidelines 

Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

Personally,  would like to see more emphasis put in a few things, in the future.

 

1. More education of hosts as to the do's and don'ts of hosting. It is a business, which requires a certain finesse and wisdom than just being a consumer or an employee. Most people do not have experience  how to run a business. Maybe this forum could help in that department - 'The Dos and Dont's of Hosting'.

 

2. Conversely, sooner or later Airbnb should graduate from the 'everyone is beautiful lovefest'  mentality and accept the fact some guests are nothing short of mean-spirited scoundrels and should be treated as such once it becomes obvious. Society is general as we speak is 'discovering' the phenomena that - the more you cuddle the more aggressive, the meaner this lot will become without mercy.

 

3. If I was Airbnb I would slowly divorced myself from giving the impression they are offering any type of 'guarantee' as to damages for this is predicting human behavior of people they also have never met, which is similar to predicting future weather. The real reason why this is so important is because Airbnb charges only a 3% booking host fee and that is the main reason why it has been so successful with the best of offerings (which leads to where people go), and that will no longer be the case if administrative costs go up, as is the case with other listing agencies. 

 

Speaking of administrative costs, then there is the CS Department: This should be looked anew but backwards; reduce the reasons for it by education of hosts (See #1 above), holding certifiable-crazy guests immediately responsible (see #2) and lastly eliminate the whole claim department over-damages quagmire (see #3). Perhaps how all this could be accomplished is by having available a place were any and all questions are covered by guides available in the Airbnb web page and/or in this forum where guests can find answers to most questions immediately. Those too lazy to read have always been impossible to accommodate anyway, so let them waste their time calling a useless 'customer service department'.

 

(Note: I have never talked to a single guest on the phone in 7 years (700+ bookings) because it is usually a  monstrous waste of time and effort. I rather meet them in person when they finally arrive. Given that chance I will have them happily laughing and wrongly thinking I am a great guy in a few nano-seconds. 🙂

 

Note #2: Elaine701 is a very smart host! 

Elaine701
Level 10
Balearic Islands, Spain

Well, @Fred13 that's quite an honest and reasonable summary 😊

 

And thanks for the compliment. I also believe that you match that description. However, I do feel there are quite a few very smart hosts that contribute to this forum, and I've learned much from them. In fact, I'd go even further and say there doesn't appear to be all that many truly dumb hosts, just inexperienced ones. This is why we have communities like these.

 

But your compliment also strikes me as a kind of defence - which is also appreciated, yet I didn't sense anyone was attacking me. Did I miss something? 

 

Anyway, I'm sure we'll all continue to offer knowledgeable advice and wisdom to those who haven't yet had their awakening (or are just waking up). Wisdom is a matter of learning from your mistakes (and those of others, if you're inclined to learn from them) . 

I am always impressed  by those that read situations 'well' (meaning based on reality and with little emotion) and decipher the essence of situations or issues correctly. Beautiful to watch.

 

The compliment has nothing to do with anyone else's posts nor opinion;  I am always inner-directed not other-directed by nature.

 

There are also many 'smart cookies' here, needless to say; just happens that yesterday was your day. 😉

Michelle53
Level 10
Chicago, IL

@Laura2592  @Stephanie   I think the most dis-incentivizing thing of all is a system which says one has to have a 5.0 perfect score across all categories, and if one doesn't, one is automatically lower than dirt, and not worthy of consideration. 

 

It's really sad to see this behavior exhibited by participants in the CC, and, as a long time CC participant, myself,  personally very disappointing.   I'm hard pressed to know why anyone would continue to participate under these conditions. 

 

Anyone with any tenure at all in hosting knows perfectly well that one is always only a heartbeat away from a vindictive and damaging 1 or 2 star review, whether true or untrue. 

 

Personally, I've run (I believe) a very successful listing for 7 years, under some difficult conditions, and continue to get bookings from great people who don't, apparently, put a lot of stock in Superhost Status, or perfect ratings, and for that, I am thankful. 

@Michelle53 I absolutely agree. The whole rating system is absurd and meaningless. It does seem to beget an attitude among some hosts that anything less than high 4.9s or even perfect 5s means that there is something inherently wrong with that listing. In reality, it could just be that there was one poor guest who got caught not following rules, or one entitled person using ABB for the first time and not understanding that most listings are not Four Seasons Maui. As I said before, we are ALL just one bad guest away from tanked scores. There are so many great hosts who have posted about this very same issue. No one is immune, no matter how confident they are that it will never happen to them. To repeatedly state that is just inviting the inevitable. 

 

A great way to incentivize hosts would be to get rid of the ridiculous review system. As a guest I really don't even pay attention to scores. I know how little the review scores actually tell, and how subjective they are. I look at the substantive feedback people leave and things that are mentioned over and over as an issue or perk. I think ABB could totally revamp their entire review process making it simpler and more meaningful to both guests and hosts (get rid of that absurd "location" rating first and foremost).