Women Hosts are Rocking the Platform

[Peter1]

It's amazing how Airbnb has become an empowering force for women around the world.  I doubt that the three men who founded the company would have imagined this result at the start, or imagined how a global pandemic would be a catalyst. 

But the facts speak for themselves and women Hosts are outperforming men in terms of joining the platform and becoming Superhosts.  That's terrific!

If you are a female Host, please share your story here.  We'd love to hear how hosting has affected your life.

"Last year, about 20% more women joined the platform than men, according to company data. Now, 56% of Airbnb’s global hosts identify as women, and 59% of hosts in the United States are women, the data show. New women hosts made more than $1.1 billion last year, including $550 million in the United States.

Airbnb has always done fairly well bringing in and retaining women hosts. The percentage of global hosts who identify as women has always hovered around 55% over the past several years. Nearly 60% of Superhosts are women as well."

https://bit.ly/3ihb8am

[Laura2592]

@Peter1 I thought about not responding at all, and I mean this as gently as possible. 

When a man says "Hey ladies! You are rocking this!" it feels a bit condescending and disingenuous. I know you are trying to highlight the contributions of women to the platform and don't mean it that way. But I have to say, it rubbed me a little wrong to read that. 

I view myself as an incredibly capable human. I rarely like my gender to be called out/called attention to in the context of my contributions. I am so glad that women are doing the same work as men (or any other gender). And I know you didn't mean to make anyone uncomfortable but rather to celebrate them. But I would prefer not to be seen as a "woman host" and merely as a "host." 

[Kelly149]

@Laura2592 Totally agree. I also thought “makes sense” since women are often the unfortunate ones to work in roles where they are expected to subsume their interests and their desires and their safety for the sake of their consumers and this is often in arenas where they are also told it would be lovely, & humanitarian, & more like a “team player” if they could do more emotional and physical labor for less money. You know like in childcare, or education, or healthcare, or elder care, or homemaking, or PTA, or administrative roles, or food service... Or really anywhere that a bunch of men sit in ivory towers and decide the policies that will determine if the work of women will be valued. I dare you to find a workforce that is overwhelmingly women & ask them if they find their contributions valued or if they find themselves there bc of sexism that you don’t recognize bc it doesn’t touch you. Hmmm yes, women fit the abb cog, I wonder why….

@Peter1 I’ll take note when the board and exec stats match the workforce. Until then, nah. 

oh, and that article is rubbish & not at all a good look for abb. I’ll let someone else make the list of why. 

[Amanda1775]

@Laura2592 @Kelly149 

You both took the words right out of my mouth! 

However, I like being a host because it's not too demanding of my time like other jobs are.

While I understand Kelly's suggestion that she'll take note when the board and exec stats match the workforce, I don't agree simply because I (and perhaps other female hosts) don't want to have to surrender that kind of time to ABB!

If the ultimate goal is to give women more opportunities to make decisions, perhaps, ABB could increase representation at the table by paying said hosts to be consultants. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

I wonder if Silvia and I count as 1 or 2 women? 🙂

I also wonder what's about the other 45%? Are they a mix of men, couples, hotels, agencies and companies?

I also wonder how many agencies use stock female photos and fake female names for their profiles?

[Sarah977]

@Peter1  Sorry, but I also had the same reaction as Laura and was so turned off I didn't comment until I saw that others had. 

I find your post disturbingly condescending. Airbnb has not "become an empowering force for women around the world" and it's incredibly arrogant to put forth such a notion- as if Brian Chesky and his male buddies gave us some opportunity to get out of the kitchen and become entrepreneurs and want to take credit for that.

And "women" is a noun, not an adjective. The term would be "female hosts", not "women hosts". At least you could have gotten the grammar right.

[Peter1]

@Sarah977Thanks for your reply.   Of course, my intention was to celebrate and not to be condescending.  I think a fair reading of my original post bears that out, but I won't argue the point.

And yes, "woman" is a noun, but it can also be an adjective, as used in the article I quoted, and as stated by the Miriam-Webster Dictionary:

Other Words from woman

woman adjective

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/women#other-words

[Quincy]

Hello @Sarah977, thanks for sharing your thoughts here. Please note that there's no need to correct fellow members of the CC on their grammar.

The community consists of people from all over the world and with different backgrounds where English might not be their first language.

Let's try to keep this conversation respectful going forward. 

Thanks,

Quincy

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Quincy Whilst @Anonymous has disagreed with me on spelling in the past I do think grammar is important. People misusing apostrophes, for example, can totally change the meaning of a sentence.

[Gillian166]

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@Quincy wrote:

Hello @Sarah977, thanks for sharing your thoughts here. Please note that there's no need to correct fellow members of the CC on their grammar.

---

Sure, and we would be empathetic of that, however we can see Peter's profile. Despite growing up in Australia I'm sure @Peter1 's English passes muster (onya mate, nice gig you've landed). 😂  And so calling out some dubious grammar on what possibly could turn into a marketing campaign is helpful. 

[Gillian166]

Honestly, I kinda did an eye roll because whilst my hubby isn't on my profile, and myself and my daughter do 95% of the work on our airbnbs, he's also a big help doing all the "man" things (yikes, someone's offended I'm sure) like general farm jobs and fixing things, cutting up trees, moving heavy furniture, and making sure we don't get ripped off by tradies. He just doesn't want to do this side of the business, (frankly he's not good at the people side of things, and being organised), and typically,  the admin falls to me. So i'll take the compliment thank you, we are indeed rocking it and having a wonderful year.
 

However, despite the comments from us Western (liberal) women, I'd like to think that women in less privileged parts of the world have found AirBnb to be a wonderful opportunity that lets them use their talents to earn money and live fulfilling lives.  What some might forget is that if you plan on being a mother that's a BIG spanner in the career machine, (or in some places, it means you will never have a paid job), a major reason why we see such "disproportionate" stats that somehow assume that genders are equal when really, only women do the 9 months of pregnancy and (however long) subsequent breastfeeding that kinda makes a f/t job impossible, equality is impossible, each sex has different life journeys. ABB actually gives women a great opportunity to have it both ways, you could stay home to be with your kids AND still run a business and reap all the mental challenges and fulfillment that comes with that. I wish it had been around 20years ago when my little ones were born. 

For us it's giving us a great opportunity as a family, and we are looking for a 2nd farm somewhere on the east coast of Australia so we can create another wonderful slice of heaven in which to live and welcome guests, and hopefully involve another daughter in the business. For me personally I have been a freelance photographer for 10+ years, and of course during covid that business dried up for 2 years, so starting up our ABB was wonderful, as well as giving me a real opportunity to do something meaningful with my life, because in your late 40s a woman like myself, who took 10 years off to birth and raise 3 kids, is not going to be able to find a good job, and to be honest, my tolerance for the BS of workplace politics is basically zero so this job is perfect for me. 

[Ann72]

For the second time this morning I've thought "nailed it" after reading one of @Gillian166's posts.  And it's not even 7 am 🙂

Reading @Peter1's post my imagination traveled past the headline and the Airbnb press release to women in difficult circumstances all over the world who with COVID suddenly had all the work of family and home squarely back on their shoulders, with schools, day care, and elder centers closed or severely limited.  Only my imagination can take me past my white privilege and see how beneficial hosting on Airbnb can be to them.  

My experience has been great, for many reasons and one surprising reason - it's shown me how skills perfected after many years in one industry can be applied to another, completely different industry.  That's a real gift to a woman in her 60s.  

[Gillian166]

@Ann72 oh you flatter me. Thank you. 

[Kirsten266]

I work 32 hours a week and my husband works over 40. 

I don't have regular hours ( early,  late and nightshift) so I'm at home more often. That's the reason I do more for our airbnb compared to my husband. But I don't think it's based on me being a woman 😉  

[John5097]

@Peter1 

As a single guy I was worried that I wouldn’t get any reservations. I am very thankful for all the great reviews especially from women guest and host who stay with me. I find that women more often make the reservation. I find that both guest and host have high standards and consider Airbnb to be a professional environment. Often women host on the forums are candid and honest about a problem guest regardless of gender. 

I aspire to be like other professional host, but the reality is that if I’m jogging down the greenway or walking across a parking lot I’m just another rando. If I’m hanging out with a female friend everyone treats us differently. If we get locked inside the park, for example,neighbors give us the gate code, where as if I was alone they would be calling 911. 

In fact I could go up in my rates 30% if I just had someone pose with me as my girlfriend in my profile picture. We have co-host why not co girlfriends? 

Just kidding. I’m very happy to have more people in my life, especially female guest and other host who stay with me. For that I love Airbnb and the reviews. It really changes you when so many people think you are a threat but that’s the reality. 

I’ve often wondered about this and wouldn’t be surprised if women host have higher ratings. Guest almost never mention me in the reviews but I manage to use other skill set to maintain high ratings.