Will Brian Cheski's new Q & A answer the burning questions

[Brian68]

I've just looked back at the previous Q&A and it seems to me that since then not much really has improved in certain areas and many of the answers I felt digressed from the original topics.

1. Regarding guest profile photos (still), I had a cat paw last week and refused the booking on the grounds of having no clue who this was.

2. Will he really address the review system and allow a review to be struck down by a guest who failed to mention during their stay that something was amiss and then gone on to use the reviewing system as stick to beat the host with?

3. Why can a guest cancel within 48 hours for free? Yet if we cancel within a 12 month period we lose superhost status for one year, have a cancelled booking comment on the review and cannot then rebook that cancelled time slot. Far too heavily weighted on the guest side in my honest opinion.

For me this will be another well orchestrated PR stunt that will probably fail to address the real concerns of hosts who go out of their way for guests and find little in the way of reward back.

To counter act what I feel is guest bias I now send all of my guests a welcome guide .pdf and in it there is a page dedicated to reviewing.

I make sure the guest knows how it works from the host side and how hard it is to maintain a superhost or 5 star rating with one disgruntled review.

I also explain that we can assist if you have any complaints during your stay and implore them not to leave it until review stage.

There are other mark downs that we cannot change such as location, which incidentally I think should be scrapped.

Everyone has google street view and it takes 2 minutes of online research to read the listing thoroughly find out if an area or place feels suitable for your stay.

By making my guests aware of the host side it has helped their understanding and also consideration when really thinking more about the actual experience and their review.

[Mike340]

I think many of these issues are beyond the capabilities of the current Airbnb board to deal with,with satisfaction, due mainly to the fact that they are a global business, despite being a relatively young company.

As such they just push the big issues to one side for an extended period of time.

The company definately needs more investment to improve its IT system and the lack of this continued investment, or the roll out of new improved systems if they are indeed in development, is making the company fall seriously behind in what it should be achieving.In my opinion.

Things just take far too long to advance and improve and that cannot be so for a company doing business in a "world" market that Airbnb has attempted to be part of.

Whilst Experiences and Plus are new additions there continues to be a trail of unfinished problems that have been left behind, which one hopes will reach the head of the queue sometime soon.

I am not aware of one single Airbnb market area where you could say they have "best working practices" in which they could then even launch these out into other areas bit by bit. 

They must clearly have ideas as "works in progress" but it's a long,slow road to bringing them into the model.

I mean can you believe that at this stage there are such few amenities listed for outdoor spaces...no summer garden furniture, terrace furniture etc....everything still has to be seen via a photograph and description. Amenities should by now be at an advanced level but still looks somewhat primitive.

Like any company they have made mistakes but because of this "world" market they appear to be fire fighting rather than developing in a highly sophisticated and professional manner.

The issues to be dealt with and improve just keeps growing in number and the feedback and suggestions just appear to be unmanagable and overwhelming. 

Whilst they may indeed have "nice" people working for them that does not in itself get things done and serious problems solved.

They supposedly have 5 billion dollars in the bank ( depending on where you read) from investor funding but the small profit they make from such a large annual revenue is concerning. It is obviously an expensive business to operate, with as yet a small profit margin.

With all this in mind I can see that for Brian Cheski some of the issues we continually mention may seem somewhat low down in his list of "things to do". He is also well aware that anything he says is quickly picked up and spread around the net, so a PR exercise is for me the best one can expect unless there is serious changes to be announced.

I hope that Airbnb does go public and then the board of directors will have to be more accountable to shareholders and more transparent.

They do not have an easy road ahead but the lack of communication and progress is of course frustrating for all to see.

[Brian68]

Great answer Mike and so true thanks.

Yes it seems that rather than attending to current issues the solution is to invent more product and hype, a classic marketing trait.

That's a bit like painting over your rusty balcony railings to make everything look new again, only to find out that one month later the rust is back.

Airbnb might be the global go to for rentals but they really are inviting opposition now who can simply look at the failings and structure their business to accomodate without needing to re-invent every year.

An IPO would be of interest, meaning a host coud buy 1 share and attend the AGM and raise their point rather than a watered down 30 minute Q&A that actually proves nothing is done. 

Profile pictures of guests that include cats, landscapes still exist despite that being one of the topics in the last debate, leaving you with no real confidence that things for hosts will improve

[Mike340]

Brian,

yes..there are now new sites catering for example for the Over 50's only and sites having a membership to attract a more professional host/guest. These niche sites may well be the way to go rather than this unwieldy beast that finds itself too big and inflexible to manage well enough what it has created.