Is there a Guest Forum here?

[Uchenna8]

Hey everyone, I've been looking around and haven't been able to find any access to a Forum for guests. Does one exist? If not, how come?

Having a Guest Forum can be a great resource for learning what guests want, trends, and what would make a host space more aligned to their expectations. We can also learn from each other about some of the tactics of bad actors that abuse the Airbnb platform, flag them for investigation so we can all be confident in the listings of potential new homes. Also the Guest Forum can provide insight to platform usability issues that guests might experience and prevent them from carrying out a booking. The team could take action on things like this.

[Helen3]

This is a forum for hosts and guests @Uchenna8 

[Uchenna8]

Thanks for your response and sharing @Helen3 

There is nothing on this page that denotes guests are able to participate here. I wasn't sure myself. Rather there are special icons for the discussion sections under "Explore topics for Hosts like you".

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Uchenna8 As far as I know guests are welcome on the CC. It does seem to be heavily host biased but I think this is more a function of hosts experiencing guests daily/weekly rather than guests who may only travel a few times a year.

[Uchenna8]

I see where you're coming from @Mike-And-Jane0 

Thanks for your reply.

[Sybe · Accepted solution]

Hi @Uchenna8 , I love your idea and I can definitely see the benefits of this. Like @Mike-And-Jane0 and @Helen3 already mentioned, even though the Community Center seems more focused on the day-to-day life of Hosts, guests are as much a part of Airbnb and as welcome to share their questions, concerns, feedback, and of course their amazing travel stories!

[Uchenna8]

It's good to know @Sybe . From my perspective it isn't really obvious especially when you look at the categories within "Explore topics for Hosts like you" in the discussion groups. I came here looking to find out if there was some advice on booking a home with no reviews or newly listed. I wanted to get tips for things to watch out for to avoid being scammed. Any advice to make me better educated on this?

I have found listings on the platform that are priced very low and have pictures that are really well furnished but don't look authentic - looks to good to be true. I believe these are also noteworthy concerns of the guest experience on Airbnb. I could be incorrect, wouldn't these types of incidents be a financial liability for Airbnb? Guests that are better educated could save some $$$ and headaches.

[Ursula374]

But it is heavily focused on hosts such as the tabs, business etc nothing relating to guests so it's not very inclusive of guests no wonder they don't post much it seems to favour and cater to hosts but without guests there wouldn't be any hosts.

[Illa3286]

Currently, there isn't a Guest Forum available. However, your suggestion is valuable and worth considering for future improvements to enhance guest and host experiences.

[Linda2652]

@Linda2652 Apparently the last post re a 'guest forum' was almost a year ago and nothing has been done to facillitate this since then.  But I'll take a chance and post something from a guest's perspective now.

IMO unless there is a major malfunction at a venue, most guests will not report something's wrong to the host while they're staying there. i.e. Mildewy/smelling shower curtain; excessive dust & dirt in vents; filthy oven; greasy, food caked pans/dishes; insufficient towels; toilet paper; no instructions for tv, thermostat, fireplace;location of breaker panel.

This leaves the host to either never be informed of the problem or informed after the fact. Then the host complains that if the guest only reported it while they were staying there, the host would have either attended to it themselves or sent over someone/a crew to take care of the matter while the guest was still there.

Therein lies the reason why most guests won't report a problem while there: They don't want someone or several others disturbing their stay and privacy or worse (IMO) coming in when they are out for the day.  Many of us (guests) leave our things around for our convenience and even move some furniture around also for our convenience  despite the fact that everything would be correctly replaced and cleaned by the guest before they leave. Basically, we don't want either the host or their reps traipsing around the place amongst our belongings and seeing the place rearranged or (probably in their opinion) a mess.

So other than a host being as pre-emptively diligent as possible in attending to details (and I realize no one is perfect and things can be overlooked especially if cleaning is delegated to a hired crew),   I suppose it just leaves the host to understand why a guest doesn't communicate certain problems during their reservation.