So only 5% of superhosts will get the superhost relief fund!

Bob40
Level 10
Montevarchi, Italy

So only 5% of superhosts will get the superhost relief fund!

After an estimated 5% of hosts being entitled to the 25% payment, which turned out to be 12.5% anyway, it's now clear that about the same miserably low percentage will benefit from the superhost relief fund. Can I suggest to Airbnb that instead of releasing upbeat PR stories, they keep quiet? Why raise hosts' expectations at a time when we're badly in need of income? It's just sailors' promises!

89 Replies 89

"I write for a living so Airbnb has become a primary source of income "

 

What does this mean? Writing doesn't provide a living?

Perhaps a better way to phrase is that i am a writer and Airbnb is a significant source of supplemental income.

But yes - there was as time when writing in the children's market provided a steady income, but now I'm seeing compensation rates drop as publishers drop their compensation to authors and illustrators to keep profits up. I've also learned that many well known authors are not making as much as the public perceives. Almost all of my peers are now holding second jobs.

Hence, Airbnb was not my sole source of income, but a pretty significant part of it which allowed me to continue advocacy for literacy in schools and libraries.

Ian-And-Anne-Marie0
Level 10
Kendal, United Kingdom

@ Everybody

 

All this bickering about who was eligible for a payout is just BS. 

 

The root cause of all this is Airbnb administering an EC policy biased against their 'partners', us hosts, by removing their - our - only advance planning tool - the cancellation policy. Covid-19 is a difficult circumstance to navigate, but hosts are more than capable of reaching whatever agreement would have been necessary, and those who have experience of direct contracts with guests will understand that amicable solutions are easily found without advantage being taken by any party.

 

All other platforms, in the majority of cases, allowed hosts to administer their cancellation policies in line with the contracts set out between Guest and Host. 'Being in this together' does include Guests being in the mix with many of those benefitting from furlough schemes, welfare support and a variety of other income replacement schemes. This support is not available to many Airbnb hosts so those hosts are financing guests' lack of insurance policies after having had their income significantly reduced, this imposed by Airbnb.

 

Airbnb are no way any benefactor in this, they are Highway robbers. Unlike 'Robin Hood' - stealing from the rich to pay the poor, they're robbing from the poor to pay a percentage back to the poor they first stole from, and distributing that in a discriminatory  manner.

 

Would anybody really be arguing about their eligibility to be less abused should the right decision have made in the beginning of this whole pandemic (not endemic as EC then stipulated)? I doubt it. Each host would be responsible for their own actions. Whatever they turned out to be.

 

Every host is eligible for a grant equal to the amount of income they lost. Simple. Fix that Airbnb.

 

Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

This whole pandemic situation is a very tricky since it is inter-whined with local realities, legalities, economics and even politics. I bet Airbnb has learned from this experience, as have hosts also. Perhaps the greatest lesson to Airbnb is to stop social micro-managing which they have a tendency to do and to keep things simple. To hosts the reminder perhaps is that there is zero guarantees that their STR future will match past experience (btw that is the classic definition of the word - gamble), especially applicable to host whose primary income is from their STR business. The abrupt effect of this whole pandemic virus is not much different than an HOA making running a host's STRs illegal overnight, it has always been a chancy affair.

 

For starters,  Airbnb instead of getting into a reimbursement  program that is dependent on when a cancellation occurred and walking into an accounting nightmare and establishing the need for every hosts having to call because their own 'accounting' didn't match what they figured they are 'entitled' to; perhaps  a flat amount to every host from the beginning would have served everyone better. Would a $1000 check to every host at the better beginning with two qualifications -  been with Airbnb for at least one year and have had a minimum of say X reservations - would have been better received? Perhaps would have even been a lot cheaper. 

 

One thing I never understood was Chesky's instant 'easy' invitation to cancelling, perhaps Airbnb should have put primary emphasis on rolling reservations into the future first with guests. In this way Airbnb's finances wouldn't have been turned upside down overnight, and had to then scramble for borrowing at exorbitant interest rates (10%+). Perhaps then my idea above would have been possible to have happened, if not been made even more attractive by giving say $1500 to those with Airbnb for 3 years +, and $2000 to those of 5 years+, and so on.

 

A most wild idea indeed I grant you, but always count on me for 'creative', outside-the-box economic thinking. 😉

@Fred13  I had that same thought, although I never expressed it on the forum- that it would have been far better to just send the same goodwill sorry you're hurtin'  amount to all their tenured hosts. A year sounds about right. Divide the amount of funds they sent out for the 25% refunds plus the Superhost grants by the number of hosts. No one gets "chosen" as more worthy than others, no accounting nightmares and thousands of host posts wondering or mad because they got nothing, or $8.46.

@Sarah977 I send such a suggestion a few times last month to a few I know there - Imagine how clean this could all have been at a time when people needed it most. If only Airbnb composed a 'think tank' of sorts with some cool-headed hosts that only have being helpful in mind.

 

I did roll all my guests forward, except one reservation in April from a fellow from Israel that I gave a full refund to and Airbnb did send me 25% on it, so no complaints.

@Fred13 

By far the best solutions reached between Host and Guest have been without Airbnb involvement and their incitement by email towards guests to cancel. They just screwed it up from the very beginning and have been trying to scratch their way out ever since, just making things worse.

 

They won't listen, they never have and still don't - not even those who you sent your suggestions to. Not even in 'Listening sessions'. What exactly came from those suggestions you sent apart from just wasting your time? 

 

Didn't you used to be talking about some "Host Global Advisory Panel" or something like that? You gave some impression that great changes would come from that, but I don't ever remember hearing exactly what improvements were actually made? Over the years, from before I even joined, it just seems to have gotten worse with a greater pinch on Hosts rather than any improvement to their situation or status.

 

Many on this forum have listed changes beneficial for hosts which I would agree with, but the reality is that none of them will ever happen because most of them involve empowering hosts and giving them autonomy, control and responsibility. This relationship will have none of that.

 

@Sarah977 

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 Ian, I have a son slightly younger than those that run Airbnb and I often wonder why is he and his generation are so convinced in their way of thinking, as if the world & and human nature changed abruptly because of their arrival to society. 'Lucky' us.

 

They are not a dumb lot at all nor are they malicious in nature, but I get the impression they are just total non-believers in any of the 'old ways' of thought, as if the world started totally anew in the year 2000, when they were in college.

 

P.S. My son went to St Andrews, not too far from you, it has taken me years to deprogrammed him. 😉 

@Fred13 

St. Andrews has a good reputation for its medical teaching, although friends of mine who went there wouldn't vouch for their compassion. One of my daughters is a doctor and she is wholly familiar with compassion and other peoples wellbeing. To think that those type of people don't exist in Airbnb would be wrong, but like another daughter of mine, her associates and her friends - they adopt the corporate culture of the company they work for. Airbnb culture between Guests, Hosts and themselves has been likened to an abusive relationship, nodding in the right places, making the right noises, looking like they are considering input, but never delivering the goods and just twisting the screw tighter. I can easily see that.

 

Older people become great at mumbling their way through difficult situations by obfuscation, kids will just state it outright, to your face and argue the consequences. Sometimes I'm like a kid. You tell me I'm wrong about there being no improvements resulting from your Host Global Advisory Panel discussions or meetings or emails, by maybe offering some positive examples over the years of improvements for Hosts, because I just can't see any and I would really like to believe they exist or that there might be some hope for a positive change.

 

Ian, I can't say I seen any evolution, if not the opposite. The inherent desire to be 'big' and 'important' is a goal, but hardly a value per se. Humility only comes when one accepts we are all temporary custodians and all our names are written in pencil.

 

Extraordinary wealth sometimes outstrips one's formal education, world experiences, original culture, and even intellect, and one then is a 'person without a country', belonging nowhere and one's values drift with the wind; the scorecard of wealth then being the only god. 

 

Glad to hear your kids are doing well; both my kids also, now their their next step should be wisdom.

@Fred13 

Ian, I can't say I seen any evolution, if not the opposite.

 

Thanks Fred, so I'm not delusional. Even after your in-depth involvement with an optimistic outlook, you still found no positive outcome from your efforts over the years. Plenty of nodding, making noises, and a 'supposedly' considered approach but never ever actually delivering any real 'on-the-ground' improvements.

 

This discriminatory Superhost payment is just one example amongst the many.

Bob40
Level 10
Montevarchi, Italy

We may have different viewpoints but we all agree on one thing, Airbnb's treatment of hosts since the start of this pandemic has been rubbish. It could not have been more badly handled. Deafening silence now from admin, @Stephanie ? @Liv ?

Stephanie
Community Manager
Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hiya @Bob40 ,

 

There is no new or differing information that what I have provided both to you specifically, to others in this thread and in several other topics across the CC. 

 

For the latest updates on these initiatives and the EC policy, you can always refer to the Resource Center here: https://www.airbnb.co.uk/resources/hosting-homes/t/coronavirus-updates-34

 

Many thanks,

 

Stephanie

-----

 

Please follow the Community Guidelines 

@StephanieI just meant that you weren't contesting my calculation of 98% of superhosts receiving nothing. This after a similar majority receiving nothing or pitiful sums under the much vaunted 25% compensation scheme. Fortunately I have received some money from the Italian government but € 1,200 over 4 months still won't enable me to renew my car insurance.

CAN I get a raise of hands WHO has received this supposed grant?! I call PR Bull honky. I wanna see the wire into your bank account.