Tips for a Growing Host

[Jason855]

Hey hosts - my property in Atlanta is starting to pick up steam! I've recently completed my 50th booking and things are going really well. Do you guys have any tips to get me to the next level? I'd love to maybe one day be a super host. I've been listing on Airbnb for about two years.

Thanks guys 😎

[Suzanne302]

@Susan17 

I KNEW something was off! Good catch!!!

[Cathie19]

Hi @Jason855 .

No profile image...

No advice....

No exceptions.

You seem to forget, CC hosts and guests, offer advice freely. If you want to “plug” a company, have the courage of your conviction. Be authentic... just like a real super guest or super host! 

This side show ploy? A super turnoff...

[Susan17]

@Cathie19 

Had Jason just been a regular co-host, looking for some business, I wouldn't have even bothered commenting. After all, with Airbnb abruptly disabling split payments and effectively pulling the plug on its own onsite Co-hosting Marketplace last year, in order to funnel all that lovely lucrative business straight over to the "professional" arm of its operation that it's been quietly building up behind the scenes since 2015, what other choice do small co-hosts have but to use the CC to try and find some work? 

However, Jason and crew are a very different kettle of fish. Hux and Rented .com just happen to both be located on Peachtree St. in Atlanta - and of course are both mentioned in "Chris'" response to Jason above - so it's a fair bet that they're at least acquainted, if not closely connected. Hux is an "Airbnb Cleaning Services" company, and Rented .com is a rental arbitrage company, that allows property managers and big real estate investors to buy and sell future rental rights. (And coincidentally, Rented also has a portfolio manager called Jason)

Through its $125 million Rental Capital Programme, the company guarantees a fixed income to property owners, but only those operating through property management companies - they don't deal with owners directly. So Rented .com pays the owner a set amount every month, the property management company collects the earnings, subtracts its own commission, and ships the sizeable profits to Rented .com. Fracking for the vacation rental industry, as its often referred to. 

Since its launch, property management firms and travel-tech companies like Vacasa, Sonder and Stay Alfred have used Rented Capital to scale and break into new markets. With huge success, apparently. Vacasa is now one of Airbnb's most prolific hosts with 10,600 listings in 16 countries, and Sonder also has thousands of listings in the US and Europe, and is still growing rapidly. Both companies totally dominate the Airbnb search results in the cities in which they operate, pushing the vast majority of small independent hosts out of the rankings completely. 

So to all the regular hosts who posted here in the CC wondering why they couldn't get bookings for the Superbowl in Atlanta - now you know. 

Nice try Jason, but please sod off with your snide, seedy spamming. The small fry hosts are still desperately trying to scrape a living here. 

[Cathie19]

Solid and special spy use of your research skills Susan. Oh, and the astounding alliteration was outstanding, and pretty darn good as well!  🙌🏼👍🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[Susan17]

Lol! Thanks @Cathie19! To be fair though, there was very little research needed on this occasion. Atlanta is one of the markets I've been observing for some time now. I was already familiar with Rented .com, and have posted here a few times previously about Vacasa, Sonder etc 😉

[Catherine577]

@Susan17   "sod off with your snide, seedy spamming. The small fry hosts are still desperately trying to scrape a living here. ".... WELL DONE, SUSAN!!! I had no idea this kind of thing was going on. Crap! ONCE AGAIN, A GREAT IDEA- booking rooms/homes  (which the Europeans have been doing for decads) is bloody corrupted by the WEALTHY people and virtually every little guy is either squeezed out or making a pittance. I just saw a  video  about  how to make money on Airbnb by subletting a home. I, for one, will not rent a place by a Host/Company?Property Mgmt Firm that has hundreds or more listings. I will only support the small fry. We could start a small grassroots campaign called "Small Fry" where Hosts, like us, commit to only renting from the true Airbnb Host. 

Thank you for explaining. I am so disgusted that I'm going to eat a pin of ice cream. :-(. Hoorah for  people like you, Susan. CHEERS! Catherine,. BTW- my home is in the 'burbs of Atlanta..lol!

[Susan17]

I think I'll join you in that pint of ice-cream @Catherine577! 😉

To be honest though, it's not really the PMCs or VRMCs themselves that I have a problem with. With $4.4 billion in venture capitalist funding and a $1 billion debt facility to service, and Airbnb squandering shedloads of cash on ill-conceived and abysmally implemented vanity projects like Airbnb Plus, Experiences, China etc, the Pro's are now the lifeblood of Airbnb, and the whole thing would come crashing down without them. 

The real travesty here is that, in clear breach of anti-competion and abuse of dominant position laws in many jurisdictions, Airbnb continues to list small individual hosts and commercial operators in the same searches, while favouring the "Pros" with preferential policies and practices, giving them a hugely unfair advantage. 

It also incenses me that they still use the small hosts as a "front" in their regulatory battles around the world, by trying to mobilise us to fight their corner with politicians, and convince lawmakers and regulators that the vast majority of their hosts are still the little guys using their Airbnb income to get by, when in reality, they're literally - and deliberately - putting us out of business. That's the most despicable part of the whole sh*t show. 

#AirbnbHome  #AirbnbPro 

[Sarah977]

@Susan17   Yes and more yes. That they haven't separated small hosts from the big boys in the search is unbelievably wrong. Many airlines have a budget version- those options have lower prices, but less frills and the airlines have different websites for them- they don't just list all the flights on the same pages so you don't know what you're getting. A month ago my Porter app told me there were 139 listings in my search category, which there have been, more or less, since I started hosting. It's gone down to 80 sometimes, but comes back up again to the 100-120 mark. Three weeks ago, that number suddenly shot up to 535. From one week to the next.

I still get great guests, but this company is hateful.

[Susan17]

@Sarah977 

"That they haven't separated small hosts from the big boys in the search is unbelievably wrong"

It's wrong. It's unethical. It's unprincipled. It's immoral. And in many regions, it's downright illegal. But it's 100% deliberate. 

Everyone should be asking themselves WHY Airbnb would be willfully engaging in a practice that hugely disadvantages and penalises its "core host" community to such a disastrous extent? And being honest with themselves in their answers. Because what affects one small host now, will ultimately affect all small hosts. 

[Stephanie]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for you contributions on this thread. I'm going to close it now as I believer everything constructive possible has been said. A gentle reminder to all that the CC is for hosts and guests to share tips and advice to each other and we do not permit solicitation.

If you're unsure of whether your content is relevant, check out the Community Guidelines before posting! You can review them here: Community Guidelines.

Thanks again,

Stephanie