Surprise, surprise

[Sarah977]

So apparently verifying our listings is going to cost us $. That is, if we don't want to end up on the bottom of the pile.https://skift.com/2019/11/15/airbnb-hosts-will-be-able-to-pay-to-fast-track-verification-of-their-li...

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

Of course, we can't connect all the pieces if we watch them from a close distance. We have to climb to the higher ground and look at the bigger picture to see where the money goes.... then, suddenly, everything becomes clear.

[Susan17]

Now... let's roll back the clock a few years to the last major "trust crisis"/scandal  that rocked Airbnb's hallowed halls..  the #AirbnbWhileBlack episode..

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/05/airbnbwhileblack-hashtag-highlights-potential-rac...

While nobody can (or would) deny that racism, discrimination and bias existed (and still exists) on the Airbnb platform - as it sadly does on every platform, and in every strata of society - Aitbnb's immediate response to the crisis was to loudly and publicly tar all hosts with the same brush, make us all look as if we - collectively- were the problem. (Deja vu, anyone?)

Their "solution" was to make us all sign a "Community Commitment Charter" pledge not to be racist, biased or discriminatory in the future, in order to gain access to our accounts..

I agree to treat everyone in the Airbnb community—regardless of their race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or age—with respect, and without judgment or bias.

They also introduced several new mandatory measures that would ultimately force hosts to bear the brunt of the reputational damage suffered by the company (penalties for those who refused to use IB, removal of profile pics, immediate suspension/delisting of hosts who had been reported - truthfully or untruthfully - for discrimination etc etc).

As a happy coincidence for Airbnb, many of the new Non-Discrimination measures also conveniently removed pesky barriers to booking for guests, thereby making it quicker, easier and simpler for guests to complete reservations, and consequently, of course, enriching the company's bottom line.

So, while Airbnb revelled in the glory and accolades they received from the worldwide media for taking such progressive, noble, revolutionary steps to curb and control their racist bigoted host community, hosts themselves paid the heavy price by losing even more of their rights and their autonomy over their own homes, their own income, their own homes and their own safety and security. (Starting to sound familiar yet...?)

One thing you can  always count on ... Airbnb falling in sh*t, and coming up smelling of roses. 

[Robin4]

@Susan17 

Susan, my feeling is, like global warming , Airbnb's situation is irreparably damaged, and I can only see downhill from here. I am active on a few social sites and from the tone of conversation, all talk of Airbnb is bad/negative. Everyone is jumping on the 'curb Airbnb' bandwagon. It is to the point where I don't want to admit to being an Airbnb hosts any more. I am just a B&B host, and how that comes about is not relevant!

A year ago I would not have agreed with you Susan, I thought you were a toxic influence on what was a great platform here on the CC. I have always respected what you say, but, I felt you were going about it the wrong way. I now have to admit you are right and I am wrong and this platform that I have loved over the past few years is literally falling apart at the seams!

Instead of taking their success under their wing and learning how to keep that success flowering, they have sought to alienate their hosting base by fragmenting and punishing it. 

Even now in their darkest hour their mindset is still on money.....'If you want to get verified quickly, you will have to pay to jump to the head of the queue'! It's still all about money, looming IPO's, bottoms lines. How can we turn a tragedy into dollars! The character, the outstretched hand of friendship has gone. Brian Chesky, that's a sure-fire way to see my full Airbnb calendar disappear to another platform!

And speaking of that, my hosting on another platform is slowly but surely reaping rewards, they don't hassle me, they don't tell me others are doing better than me.......... I might add, I am currently ranked No 6 in my state for Airbnb reviews.....but that doesn't mean jack sh*t, I am still under pressure to accept unknown packages I can't verify day after day at my door! And if I decline these unknown packages my stats will take a battering!

*

Susan, I have taken a bit of a backward step over the past few months here on the CC, I love you guys but, I have always been a glass half full person, and the amount of negativity here makes me feel like an outsider. This platform is becoming bogged down with problems, Airbnb problems.

I get paid to answer questions, it's no big deal, I get 1 cent US per upvote on answers I give. Here is one of my current answers......

That answer has in the past week earned me $310.58 ($450.00 AU) to this point and shows no signs of stopping. And this for simply talking about something nice. 

I wish for change of attitude at the top here with Airbnb, but, it's not going to happen.

I am always going to be a successful host because I know what guests want. Airbnb will either support me, or they will browbeat me, that is their option! 

But Susan, I hate to say it but.....you were right!

Cheers.....Rob

[Rebecca181]

@Robin4 Bless your beautiful heart, Robin. I wish you nothing but success and all the best. Your humility and sincerity in your acknowledgement of @Susan17's prescience and correctness in her evaluation of the stinking rot now permeating Airbnb is an example to us all. 

[Susan17]

In mid-July 2016,  former Attorney General Eric Holder was hired (paid) by Airbnb to advise on their new Anti-Bias policies. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/21/technology/airbnb-hires-ex-attorney-general-eric-holder-to-advise...

Mr Holder's input and expertise was also heavily relied upon during the commissioning of the  "Airbnb's Work To Fight Discrimination And Build Inclusion Report" - the recommendations of which ultimately led to the relentless push for IB/removal of profile pics/suspension for (allegedly) non-compliant hosts etc, etc

As it so happens, just days after Mr Holder was hired by Airbnb, and just weeks before the Anti-Discrimination report was released, with great fanfare, to the media, Mr Holder's former Chief of Staff was also quietly hired by Airbnb as its Global Head of Policy, with responsibility for overseeing and implementing the new report, and its recommendations. 

So who was Mr Holder's former Chief of Staff, and the brand new Global Director of Policy? None other than our very own Margaret Richardson, now Airbnb VP of "Trust",  Leader of The Ten Day Sprint and Skift Short Term Rental Summit Keynote Speaker. 

Same sh*t, different day... 

[Nikolai12]

Susan, thank you for all the info and for taking the time to share.  Hopefully one day we’ll have some better options and competition will come up rising!

[Helen350]

@Sarah977  @Branka-and-Silvia0 @Susan17 

Why do we all have to be tarred with the same brush?

- Home sharers are not at risk from huge unauthorized parties.

- Those of us with hundreds of reviews have been verified by the guests already, have we not? (So have places with half a dozen reviews.)

[Susan17]

@Helen350 

While you're correct that homesharers are not at risk, thousands of small, independent entire home hosts have also had their homes thrashed and destroyed by guests throwing unauthorised parties (they don't only happen in mansions) - aided and abetted by Airbnb's inadequate and incompetent veriification systems, their lax, negligent, guest-centric policies and practices, and their abject refusal to hold guests accountable for criminal, destructive and anti-social behaviour in our homes.

They tar us all with the same brush because in doing so, they can cunningly shift all the blame for their own faults and failings onto us, while taking the heat off themselves (and if they can turn it into a nice little earner for the company in the process, then that's a win for the company, and a win for their VC sugar daddies). Simple as that. 

[Rebecca181]

@Susan17 Thank you for providing us with some of the missing pieces to the puzzle. My assumption is that Airbnb is gunning for commercial listers only down the road, perhaps with a smattering of compliant home-sharing hosts (?) - People desperate to make a buck, so they will risk their property (and maybe even their life) without making a fuss (hence the very handsome host referral fee currently being offered...) - Do I have that right?

[Jennifer1421]

@Susan17Thank you for connecting these nefarious dots for us all. The amount of research you're doing is astounding.

Also astounding (but not in a good way) is the ugly cynicism and duplicitousness that you've exposed.

I am well beyond trepidatious around the sprint results.

[Susan17]

@Jennifer1421 

This is just the tip of the iceberg. I've been observing and documenting Airbnb's dark underbelly for years, so most of this stuff, I was aware of - and have posted - already. However, almost all of what I've posted previously, has been on specific issues/incidents, at specific times, and it would have made things too complex and confusing for readers, if I'd started linking them to other, seemingly unrelated issues on different threads. So I stuck to sketching and outlining just one small subject at a time, rather than trying to paint the bigger picture, in a very tiny studio. 

However, in the light of how Airbnb has very publicly and very humiliatingly sold us all down the river - yet again - I have no qualms whatsoever about connecting all  the dots now, so everyone can finally take the scales from their eyes and see for themselves how the company has been routinely and systematically using, manipulating, betraying and deceiving its "valued host community", (and in many instances, its guest community too), for the greater part of the last decade. The time has come for the whole truth to be told. 

[Ann489]

@Susan17   I have been following your posts with great interest; someone has to be

truly blind not to see what is going on here.  The question now is: what can we do about it?   As a small-fry host who is luckily not relying on the extra income from Airbnb, it is easy for me to pull my listing(as of last month, I have blocked my calendar completely for the time being).  But there are millions of others who do rely on the extra income their STR generates.  That being said, I think your findings deserve some media attention.   There has been gloriously little in the media about the "other side of the Airbn coin"--especially in the light of recent events.

[Susan17]

@Ann489 

As with all the biggest, dirtiest corporate scandals that involve global companies with enormous wealth, power and influence, the media, the regulators and indeed the general public are notoriously slow to accept (and act on), what's been staring them in the face for years. 

Enron, Valeant, HSBC, VW, Theranos, Madoff, Barclays, We Work (and even on a much smaller level, the Fyre Festival)... just a few examples of where whistleblowers were shouting loud and clear for a very long time, about the pervasiveness of the greed, misconduct, deception and corruption within those entities, before growing public and consumer scepticism finally forced the tides to turn. 

It will be no different with Airbnb. But the writing is on the wall. 

[Rebecca181]

Anyone have Rowan Farrow's contact information? @Susan17 

[Mark116]

@Sarah977   I suppose if you always assume the worst then airbnb will not surprise you.  I really thought they would do something tangible this time, but obviously not.  They're basically recycling their existing behaviors...verification that isn't really a verification, refunds for guests...with an overlay of charging the hosts more money.  The more you listen to what Chesky says, the worse it all sounds.  

Oh, and the call with the VP never happened and I never even got a 'sorry scheduling conflict' email from her assistant.  The whole thing simply went into the airbnb void.  

If they are charging hosts for verification, doesn't that eliminate the advantage they've had over VRBO?