What I have learned in the 4 years of being a Superhost

[Ron-And-Stacie0]

We have been with Airbnb for a solid 4 years and have just entered the beginning of our 5th year. We have hosted over 450 reservations and maintain a strong 4.9 star rating. It is RARE that our home is not booked. Our home is near Red Rocks Amphitheater and thus brings mostly a concert-going crowd.
Throughout most of our time hosting people, we have had outstanding, respectful guests. However, this year, things seem to have shifted to a younger crowd that lacks respect for rules and integrity. We usually have 2 'bad' groups of guests per year and consider it a wash because of all of the great people that we encounter.

But this year, we have just finished round 5 of 'bad guests' and have grown weary of hosting people as Airbnb does NOT value their hosts.
The title of Superhost is nothing more than a word to make a host feel valued and as if they have some special clout with Airbnb...at least this has been our experience. Round 3 of bad guests brought one of the most manipulative persons that I have ever encountered. I had ALL of my documentation in black and white, on the website, security camera shots to prove they had extra, unapproved guests, but Airbnb found in their favor???? Cost us $500. We had a similar situation last year that cost us $2000.
There is no dialogue with the 'Case Managers', they give their side, you give your side, they say they've made up their mind to not find in your favor and they cut off the conversation. Incredibly RUDE.

One would think that being a Superhost (definition: Superhosts are experienced hosts who provide a shining example for other hosts, and extraordinary experiences for their guests" would already 'prove' that we as hosts are dedicated to the best experience for our guests and would offer some benefit of the doubt to Airbnb. I have been told by Airbnb that they consider each reservation an individual situation and don’t consider the overall host rating. So why then offer a title of Superhost?
It is a difficult decision whether or not to remain with Airbnb as we do make a considerable income with them. However the bad is beginning to outweigh the good. I feel certain that Airbnb has a legal loophole to escape EVERY situation. Thus the $1,000,000 “we got your back” logo in my mind is as valid as the term Superhost.
For now, we are pursuing renting to medical professionals who travel. While it may not bring as much income, we won’t have as much headache either. I know that losing our business does not affect Airbnb but if they keep up with their poor customer service, in time, they too will suffer.
Thanks for listening and Hosts be mindful:
1. Airbnb is usually going to side with a guest
2. The front-line customer services reps that first answer the phone are USUALLY quite inexperienced and don’t know how to handle situations. If you really want someone out of your home, tell them that the neighbors are complaining or use the word party. That usually works.
3. The Case Managers seem to have more knowledge, but not much. They can be quite unreasonable and rude.
4. Airbnb likes to work in black and white and has difficulty operating when ‘gray’ situations arise.
5. If you have security cameras, you must disclose them.
6. If you already have bookings but have just installed security cameras, you need to go back to those reservations (prior than the night before check in) and disclose that you have installed cameras and request that they confirm that they acknowledge their presence. Otherwise, if the guest complains about the cameras, you will lose money on that reservation.
7. We have stopped allowing ANY other guests in our home except for those booking. Guests must also confirm the guest count before checking in. I can’t think of any other way to avoid unapproved and unwanted guests in our home.
8. Isn’t babysitting adult’s fun????

[Emilia42]

@Kevin1322 I can agree with that.

[Sandra856]

Hi @Kevin1322 🙂

I totally understand why people who are not familiar with the internet platform companys would rate 3-4 stars when booking ordinary non-deluxe places.

We can only try to educate and explain that in the eyes of airbnb 5 stars means nothing but that everything was as described. 

When I started out in 2014 it was only possible to see the overall rating. I couldn't see all the sub - category ratings that each individual guest left. When I received less than 5 stars I was showered in "you need to improve" and "you are falling below what is expected" messages on my phone. Thank god it only lasted a couple of month. 

It was incredibly stressful and completely unfair - I worked my ass of - my prices were very, very low and all of my guests were happy with their stay. 

I have added an explanation on how the system work on my listing and it has worked really well. I didn't feel comfortable leaving an explanation for my guests to read after booking as Europeans seems to be kind of entitled when it comes to things like that. People from the US and Asia seem to be much more low key and relaxed.

Best, Sandra 

[Lan1]

@Ron-And-Stacie0 My recent experience with Airbnb case manager was a nightmare, here is the sequential order of this process:

1: Guest booked for 2, but arrived 20+ set fire, left burned marks on my furnitures and hardwood floor, burned spoons in bathroom and toilet etc

2: I called Airbnb immediately, they advised me to request money from guest first, after 72 hours then apply host guarantee program 

3: I followed properly their advise: waited 72 hours, then file host guarantee payment request 

4: they let me waited about one week, suddenly closed the case, without any communication 

5: I contacted them again, they reopened the case

6: after 5 days, 2-3 routine copied emails stating that they were working on the case, 

suddenly closed the case again 

7: I contacted Airbnb again, they responded that I am not allowed, because it passed 14 days. They advised me that I should have filed host guarantee payment request immediately after guests checked out....

Is this a joke?  I feel I want to laugh...

I kept properly all the documentations: conversation thread, email communications, pictures, Neighboor’s witness, but Airbnb just not interested those, only closed the case.

I am going to take off one listing, and modify other listing. We have to protect ourselves!

Lan 

[Ron-And-Stacie0]

Lan, I am so sorry to hear that.  Like I said, airbnb always has a legal loophole somewhere.  Make sure you leave a bad review for the guest so that they don't disrespect others going forward.  It sounds like you filed the host guarantee program in a timely manner?  At least it does according to your timeline description.  Can you keep trying to recover monies lost?  

[Jawad10]

Closing the case by airbnb without any actions is real frustration. I missed payouts and raised the issue to them. But nothing done yet even after more than 7 months. What shall i do?

[Sean433]

@Alice595, @Lan1 

Hi Alice and Lan, I have seen some previous messages from you where trashy guests damaged your listings. I empathize with you because it has also happened to me in the past. I don't know if there is a 100% full proof solution to prevent bad guests who want to throw parties, but I have learned some great ways to help prevent them. And I think if you follow them, you are at a much much lower risk of having such incidents happen again.

1) If you aren't desperate for bookings, only accept guests who have had a few good reviews and have left their previous hosts good reviews. I know that for many of us, it is hard to reject reservation request but remember that this isn't just about money, it is about managing risks.

2) If you have a great listing, one that is better then the vast majority of airbnb's near you, you can and should be more strict with your screening. That is why I think it may be worthwhile to spend a little more attention or money to make your listing the top 10% in your area so that you can easily reject the "risky" reservations to accept the "safe" reservations.. And guess what, the bottom 10% of hosts will likely pick up those reservations you rejected and it will be their problem.

3) Screen LOCAL GUESTS a lot more then you have before. In the past year, I declined 75% of local guests in my larger listings and this has saved me. 

I guess the main message is, don't chase "bad" money.

[Alice595]

@Sean433  Thank you very much for your valuable suggestions.

There were two parties being held in my Airbnb listing. Both of them were not really local. One was from Los Angeles while the other was from a city 75 miles way. I have rejected locals who intended to have parties.

Those two group of guests who had parties might have stayed nearby before. That is why they escaped from my screening:-(

Fortunately in both cases, I was able to "fight" with Airbnb to get partial compensation for the damage claims due to the party.

[Sean433]

@Alice595 

Sometimes, you also have guests with great reviews book on behalf of someone else ( a local) and you don't even know about it. I write in our house rules that third party bookings are not allowed but some still try to get away with it.

The thing with location is that a guest can also lie about where they are from in their profile and you would think they are from another city. Or they may have since moved to your town but their profile still shows their old town.

You never really know but if you ever had doubt, what you can do is say "I will meet you on your check-in to hand you the keys and oh, I hope it is ok but my sister will be passing by the home at some point in the evening to pick up her mail since she still has some coming their. I once said this to a suspicious guest and he kept asking me "what time will this person be coming". I knew then that he just wanted to know so he can hide the party at that specific time. It was also sort of fun to troll him and keep him on his toes.

[Cormac0]

@Ron-And-Stacie0 

How in all honest Airbnb can claim that hosts are anything thing other than employees is beyond me, we are not self-employed when a third-party Airbnb can have a direct impact on our income by decisions they make, essentially being trial, judge and jury.

Additionally, we do not disburse the income we earn as Airbnb takes their fee at source, which in my opinion further enforces the idea that we are not autonomous.

Question: has any host become a billionaire being part of the Airbnb company, I lost money on the Airbnb platform because I know how to account for costs and establish what my profit really was.

When I was a young man the mantra was removing the middlemen was a way to further prosperity, The noun “middlemen” has now been replaced by the “gig economy” but at the end of the day is the same old stick, a company earning vast wealth on assets they neither own or maintain and people they claim are not employees but at the same time making financial decision on their behalf.

Any income you earned on the Airbnb platform you've work you ssa off for, no medical benefit or holiday pay, gym membership etc or any of the usual benefit associated with being an employee but all the down sides of having to take dictates.