What is your opinion regarding SuperHost?

[David1424]

What is your opinion of SuperHost classification and requirements?

I personally don't think it is fair or really achievable. It is specifically for people who are running a bed/breakfast or hotel like revolving door, they should have a different classification to that extent.

I would think that the first requirement to be a SuperHost, would be to actually have repeat business. 

It really annoys me that they get further preferential treatment in the search filter. I could care less about better support or a $100 travel voucher (I want a dozen more $1000 bookings!). The qualification for SuperHost is quite difficult to achieve if you aren't running a hotel-like revolving door of nightly stays. Most of my bookings are weekly, 7-day minimum rentals. Only during the rental season (January through March), do I typically get near 100% bookings.  Not only am I limited seasonally, 98% of those bookings are through VRBO, which gets a LOT more traffic for vacationers. I am already 100% booked from mid-November through March of 2017 in one condo and only 3 weeks available for the other condo, all through VRBO, with one, weekly booking from AIRBNB. 

I would love to be able to bid to manage other peoples properties for them as a SuperHost (I am not sure if they implemented this yet). 

A little background: I have been renting my two vacation rentals for over 20 years. First using a local management company and online myself for 15 years. I have been through it all. There is very little I haven't had to deal with at one time or another. I have spent over $50k on upgrades in the last 5 years alone to keep my condos updated. In the very rare case that a tenant has a problem, I cut them a check and mail them a partial refund. Things do happen; cable/internet cuts out, power goes out, A/C stops working, etc. You just have to roll with it and do your best to keep people happy. Most are understanding. You would think that experience would be important to be a SuperHost, it is not.

I always wonder why companies like this aren't actually filled with management that actually have/has real-world experience running their own rentals. It's one thing to think you know, it's quite another to actually be experienced in doing it. 

[David1424]

That is my point exactly. I offer hassle-free stays but can't get superhost based on a number of bookings because of the my seasonal location. It would greatly benefit travelers to find me, but they can't.

[Marit-Anne0]

@David1424

I think you have a point about airbnb and vacation rentals. I have one of my own and two that I manage, and hardly any bookings come through airbnb. Maybe a week per season when there is a single gap week to fill. Old habits die hard-travellers look elsewhere for vacation rentals.

My 4th property is a city center apartment on a 3 day minimum, on airbnb since 2012. In this case airbnb has really been bringing in the bacon and a Superhost badge.

[Eric437]

Seems like you're doing fine. You stated that you get the bulk of your bookings through another channel. Focus on that platform.

The superhost designation isn't that great where I'd stress out about it. The bulk of my bookings are via Airbnb. I don't market on the other sites mainly because of the paperwork hassle. It makes more sense for a Host like myself where airbnb is the only channel I'm using.