Superhost and Airbnb Plus: What are your thoughts?

[Kay61]

Hi everyone!

I am an avid Airbnb user (a guest in specific) for a couple of years now, and I am currently a Masters student in the UK. Because Airbnb's growth story and their business model have been quite phenomenal, so I thought I will focus on Airbnb for my dissertation. While most people focus on the consumers’ behaviour or the company itself, I thought I will put attention on you guys, the hosts! So I just thought it will be great to have your input in my research, hope you guys can help!

I have not hosted before but I have met many amazing hosts from my past 34 stays with Airbnb since 2013. Lately, I have noticed a surge of the Superhost badge on many host’s profiles while searching for a holiday home. To me, as a guest, I find the badge has lost its true meaning to honour extraordinary hosts (or maybe I am wrong, there might actually be way too many extraordinary hosts out there). With the newly announced Airbnb Plus, I feel it’s just an extra layer of polishing for some outstanding listings to attract even more bookings.

So my questions for you guys are these:

From your hosting experience, have you encounter any positive or negative impacts from the Superhost and/or Airbnb Plus programme?

What are your views on these two programmes?

[Kirti6]

kay16 - Can you share your dissertation? It would be great to learn about your research and findings.

[Alex851]

I will give you quick take on superhost from my point of view. I attained superhost quite quickly in the beginning as I was going to great lengths to satisfy guests. Once I became a superhost the only thing I noticed, people,who I now attracted not with anything different or higher prices(maybe slightly higher prices but not more than 10% higher) were more picky about small stuff, like one person had commented the ceiling wasn't painted professionally(whatever that means, we have an older popcorn ceiling). Another guest mentioned the house had too many personal belongings which made them feel they were staying in someone's home(again they left a 4 star review).  Staying at an AirBnb is staying at someone's house, that's the whole point. Then I lost my superhost. I was again earning all 5* star reviews, just because the people who know about superhost and looking for it expect a really exceptional home and would leave a less than perfect rating for anything at all. Really once you're a superhost you lose it with only two 4 star reviewas, in other words 8 out of 10 reviews with 4 stars and everything else 5 star losses superhost.

In summary, from my experience, superhost might not be worth the extra effort as guests seem to be very spoiled and have unrealistic expectations, maybe they expect an Airbnb plus experience. When the superhost doesn't mean the house is designer and perfect in any way. A guest is getting a 3 bedroom house(in my case) for cheaper than a small hotel room but they expect higher quality than a hotel room, which is where the problem arises, mismatched expectations of what Airbnb is. It is someone's home.