Superhost Criteria Applied Unevenly --> Favors Short-Term Hosts over Long-Term Hosts

[Paul359]

I started hosting on AirBnb in October of 2014 in a region that hadn't quite caught on to AirBnb yet.  Not long after I started, I easily achieved my Superhost Badge after 90 days based on 90 days of Superhost stats-Criteria.   After 6 months, I maintained my status based on 6 months of that same criteria.  The same for 9 months.  And the same for a year.  Then, after that, my status is based on a rolling 1 year window of statistics.   All seems great and fair, right?

Actually, not at all.  Here's why...

As part of operating legally in my region, and in order to fulfill AirBnb's terms of service, I needed to collect sales and occupancy taxes that hadn't been collected AirBnb at the point of sale.  (In my region, this is 10% sales tax and a $2/night occupancy tax.).  I added info about these taxes into all of my listings, and started a system of tax collection per the council of AirBnb support reps.

While I found that nearly all of our guests had no problem with this, understanding that taxes are a widespread in the lodging industry, but we found that a small number of guests would react rather unpleasantly -- leaving us a 1-star review with manufactured reverse-engineered complaint, even though during their entire stay they reported having a wonderful time with us, only to turn into monsters once they were reminded of the tax info in our listings.

As a result, after a solid year of Superhost status -- and having the benefit of showing up higher in the search rankings -- we barely missed meeting superhost criteria two quarters ago as our number of 5-star reviews had dipped slightly below the % requirement.  

Now we found ourselves demoted in the rankings -- and learned that it was an uphill battle as we were being judged a rolling 1-year window of review stats, while newbies on the block were being judged by another standard -- as little as 90 days worth of Reviews.  If I were to mess up, the law of averages was against me, and it was much easier for a short-term host to achieve superhost.

Superhost Status is, in effect, a certification process that provides a financial advantage (more sales through higher search rankings).  As such, To avoid unfair business practices, a certification providing financial incentives needs to have a baseline set of criteria that is equally applied to all hosts across the board.

These are Fair Business Practices:

* Making New Hosts wait for 1 year to be considered for Superhost status -- then judging all hosts equally using a rolling 1-year window of review statistics.

        - or -

* Judging all hosts equally on the past 90 days of review statistics.

This is an Unfair Business Practice:

- Judging some hosts using a 90-day basis of Reviews -- and other hosts for 1-year -- in order to award Superhost certification -- providing financial incentives (increased sales due to in teased listing visibility) to hosts with the least experience and providing a financial disincentive to hosts with a long-term commitment to AirBnb as a partner in their business model.

I welcome your comments.  Thanks for reading.

       -- Paul

[Bed-and-Bijt0]

Hello Paul, this is Anna Maria, host too. In the beguinning I was vrry happy being a superhost, which disappeared shortly after. Now I find myself very happy when I see my guests leave in a good, comfortable state of mind and do not really care for the status superhost. Making my guests happy gives me more pleasure and reading their reviews, I can only say : come again,always welcome. Bye.

[Robin77]

I was suppose to be a Superhost this month and had all above, high percent.  I do not have automatic check in.  I declined one guest, very bad vibes, wanted to cook in my kitchen and watch tv in my family room.  I have tv's in all bedrooms.  Anyway, I declined this one guest.  I was told this would not hurt me, and it has.  Now I have to wait till commitment rate goes back up.  I'm ready to just rent rooms myself.  I'm the one who checks these people out, not Airbnb.  I ask first and last name and where they are from.  No one is staying in my home, around my family without checking them out.  This Airbnb is BS.  I have excellent reviews from my guest. 

[Susie5]

@Robin77, it seems you actually canceled on one guest (Resat) - that is the one unforgiveable sin according to ABB, and that will prevent you from getting SH status for one year.  If you canceled for reasons of safety etc. you could take it up with ABB but I don't rate the chances of success that high.... Sorry!! 

[Tradewinds0]

What we are seeing is big business in the Billions of dollars, begin to insert themselves into the vertical market.  These are people's homes.  They are not hotel rooms of major corporations.

Recently VRBO/HomeAway that used to be for Homeowners has become more like Airbnb.  The phone number is now gone of the guests.

Expedia is treating people's homes like a commodity.  Your home is just another rental car, just another seat on the plane, just another hotel room.  They insert and then control the money flow, pulling it out for themselves then host deals with the guest.

I do  not think this was the intent when this began or maybe it was for them.

[Andrew395]

The best way for Airbnb to award super host status is to review every 90 days, as you are only as good as your last review, regardless of how well you actually did. However after 1 year an extra assessment can take place to average out all your 5 star reviews.

[Megan210]

I agree with this.  Also I would like to propose a separate Super Host Status with different parameters for those of us who are forced to host with a 31 minimum night stay.  Some cities within Los Angeles have their own rules making short term rentals illegal.   It is VERY hard to host 10 x 31 day stints within one year.  I think it should be called a SUPER DUPER HOST BADGE, considering the additional challenges long term hosting reqires 🙂