I'm so happy i am not a superhost no more lol

[Claudia406]

I have been a superhost since when i started, 2 years or so, and i recently lost it , not for some reviews but because i did a sequence of cancellations, and well, i feel so relieved.

Being a superhost means people expect a lot from you and your place, means they think they will ask for things not listed out of the fact you're never gonna say no, it's a dog eat dog thing.

My kitchen is not listed but hey if i say no they'll never give me 5 stars cause i said no to that...so you'll say yes and you'll hate your guts lol for doing it cause your kitchen is NOT listed!

Anyway...glad to be not a superhost anymore.

Now if the lights goes off or ac is not working or the wall is scratched I won't feel like I'm a falsario and if people get noisy i will be able to say something. I feel like everyone is much more mature now, generally speaking, plus there are really no diff between the service given to host and superhost.

I right now have a guest who had just 5 stars...yeah, sure. never remember to turn off anything, stays in the shared bathroom for ever and didn't read ANYTHING of the description, she was prolly a pain the ass for other hosts too but that's what wanting a good review does to you.

[Emiel1]

@Marko74 

You don't need the Superhost status to have happy guests. It's even more likely you have happy guests without the Superhost status.

Hosting is about passion, not dictated by some obsolete star rating system and running around with a medal around your neck.

Best regards,

Emiel (not a Superhost, 4 of 5 listings marked as "in need your attention", but with happy guests !)

[Donna240]

@Claudia406  @Emiel1  I don't see a medal when I look at the super host logo... just a carrot we are supposed to run after. Superhost has more to do with numbers of reviews than how you treat your guests or conduct your business. Anyone who provides the service they offer in the description should qualify, and they don't need a title to provide good service. @Claudia406  anyone complaining about a scratch on a wall in Rome seems much too provincial to be traveling. The real problem here is that people don't read the description. Enjoy "unbridled"           ( sfrenata) hosting!!! 

[Cheryl389]

I tried really hard to become a Superhost during my first 15 stays, only to realize it was going to be very hard for me to get a 4.8. Everyone has completely different expectations, and I have found that not everyone fully reads my listing or rules. It's easier to not care. It seems like it's partially something that could be controlled and partially something that's luck, and sometimes luck gets the best of us. For my first 3, someone said my house was dirty in the kitchen and bathroom. I spend 4 hours cleaning between guests, which includes bleaching most of these two spaces to kill anything that dares grow there. However, my house is really old, and advertised as historic. Some people still think it's 'dirty', even though I would eat a meal off of it. Kind of crazy.

[Elizabeth1262]

I have the same problem with my antique farmhouse.  Some of the floors are worn or stained wood, some are painted and the paint is chipped in places.  That doesn't make it dirty, that makes it have character.  

[Susan1188]

Thanks for this post.  After 2 years hosting I've starting wondering every day if I can deal with the pressure of remaining Superhost.  Your story lifted my spirits thanks!

[Alice595]

@Claudia406 , @Susan1188 @Cheryl389  As a few hosts mentioned I some other posts in the forum, Airbnb uses Superhost badge as a way to manipulate hosts in order for hosts to provide low price and high quality service to guests. Thus Airbnb can achieve fast growth by attracting more people to use Airbnb service.

Therefore, take it easy. What matters is if the service you provide is up to your standard and benefit to guests while you can make income to help you paying for your mortgage and other expenses.

[Claudia406]

Just as airbnb send us emails that remembers us that guests are about to arrive and to clean up everything they should do the same and remember people they re going to a house for a very nice price 

[Susie111]

@Claudia406  LoL!

I would love that 😄 !

[Helen-And-Mario0]

"Dog eat dog", right on!! 

[Ute42]

.

@Claudia406 

@Justin271   wrote:

• one large perk of the superhost is getting much better placement on the feed.

That is not true. Even airbnb says on it's help-pages that being a superhost has no influence on the positioning in search results.

I am not a Superhost, I have only 4 reviews, and my most recent airbnb-hosting was in 2018. But my listing shows as No 2 out of 95 in my area. Why is that? That's because I had 430 clicks on my listing in the last 30 days, and that's a lot for a house that sleeps 10. The clicks on the listing is the criteria that moves You up in ranking. And that is very logical. Bc the more people click on Your listing the more likely it is that someone will book Your place.

I am completely booked out through other distribution channels. If I ever get an airbnb booking again that's fine with me. If the guests are nicce I will tread them nice. If they are demanding, they will get to know me.

On the long run I'm planning on a 3.5* average rating on airbnb. This will have no concequences at all for me. Neither will this move me down in search results nor will they delist me. I've seen 2* listings being active on this platform.

Last year a did a research on the search result ranking during the Munic Oktoberfest. No 1 in ranking was a place with a 2.5* avarage rating, No 2 in ranking was a place with a 3.5* rating. The red bars show the superhosts. Ranking places without a bar are listings that have not enough reviews to show an average rating:

Search Result Ranking for the Munic Oktoberfest – Oktober 2018

[Justin271]

@Ute42 Obviously there is a lot more factors that help place you higher on Airbnb feed for ex: fast response time, approving all requests, lowering your rates to more competitive prices etc etc but for my area (Taos NM) when you go to Airbnb.com without putting in dates they have places to stay and under that is stay with a superhost. So I have seen from my experience that it does indeed help but only with the other factors as well.

[Ute42]

.

@Justin271 

airbnb states, that there are apprx. 100 criteria that factor into search result ranking. I don't believe that at all, bc the airbnb software is full of bugs everywhere.

Recently in Germany Superhost where told in their dashboard, that they had review-rates from 20 or 30% while in reality they had 70 or 80%. Meanwhile we were told that it is no longer a requirement for being a superhost to have a reviewrate of 50%. That is just because the airbnb-Software all of a sudden lost it's ability for percentage calculations.

If You look at my calendar You will see, that almost the entire month of october 2019 is available to book. That is completely wrong. The very only dates I have opened to book are september 23 and 24, I have blocked all other dates. But the airbnb software is opening new dates in my calendar every second day automatically. I have already complained about this, but they are unable to stop it. Look:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Gastgeber-unter-sich/Airbnb-schaltet-ohne-mein-Zutun-Buchungszei...

The airbnb software is so full of bugs that I do not believe, that it is able to consider more than one factor for searchresults and that is the number of clicks.

[Elizabeth1262]

"If they are demanding, they will get to know me. " I love that bit of inference.  🙂

[Franz26]

I am surprised that a sophisticated, high-tech, IT-savvy organization like Airbnb has not figured out that, given the fact that a small percentage of people are either negative

**bleep**s or positive hysterics,  they ought to regularly throw out the top 5% and bottom 5% of ratings.

I have both super-host status (I was a bit surprised to see the badge appear there one day, but who does not love a prize?) and perfect stars and reviews of impeccable and unmitigated praise, but...I currently have what may turn out to be the guests from hell when it comes to the review state.

The irony is they have the same number of reviews I have as a host, as guests, and they are all perfect too.

So what to do?  I think they are going to trash me, so do I have to trash them preemptively?

This is where the system breaks down.

My suggestion to regularly remove the top and bottom reviews would make this post entirely unnecessary.  It would also simplify people's search for a good host, and good guests.

If that is not the goal of Airbnb, I do not know what is.

[Lorissa0]

@Franz26 I totally agree with this logic! We can’t let the idiot outliers determine our business success!!