Laura’s Letter: What I learned staying with private-room hosts

[Laura_C]

May 20, 2019

Hi everyone,

Congratulations to all of you who achieved or maintained your Superhost status in the April assessment! The longer I’ve worked at Airbnb, the more I realize what an incredible accomplishment being a Superhost is. Thanks to all of you for providing wonderful experiences for guests around the world, and for setting the standard for hospitality for Airbnb.

As many of you know, my role at Airbnb is to look after the team that builds products, community, and resources for home hosts like you. When I joined Airbnb last July, one of my top priorities was to quickly immerse myself in the world of hosts and hosting—in particular, to learn more from some of our amazing hosts (and Superhosts!), gather some great tips from them, and bring those back to our host community (and our teams here at Airbnb). There’s nothing quite like firsthand experience, so as part of my journey, I decided to stay in a private room once a week. I have three small children at home, so it was a pretty big commitment, but it ended up being such a delightful experience in some fun and unexpected ways. I’m excited to tell you about what I’ve learned over the past few months.

Getting to meet Superhosts like you was one of the highlights of my recent adventures staying in private rooms. There are more than 161,000 Superhosts who share private rooms on Airbnb— that’s 29% of all Superhosts. And private-room listings are popular with guests, too. In 2018, tens of millions of bookings were in private rooms, which was a significant share of all bookings on Airbnb. Private-room hosts and listings are a really important part of our community.

I had 3 goals for my private-room stays

1. Experience variety (staying at listings with different price points, and different types of hosts: new, Plus, Superhosts, etc.)
2. Have personal interactions (I reached out to hosts ahead of time and invited them to chat with me more about their experiences, and share thoughts on how we can help them more)
3. Gather learnings (What was my experience as a guest? How can we support hosts more? What is the host doing brilliantly that other hosts can learn from?)

So, what did I learn? Well, the first big takeaway was that we need to do more to help you better set guest expectations (which can help with better reviews). This is something that’s really important for all hosts but absolutely crucial for private-room hosts, many of whom share a bathroom or kitchen with their guests. On our end, I think that starts with categorization. How can we better differentiate different types of listings on Airbnb (need a room in a castle, anyone?), especially as we begin to welcome more bed-and-breakfasts and boutique hotels alongside homes and rooms? How can we help you make it clear to guests that there are cats in the listing? (I am much more of a dog person than a cat person, but I have to admit that I made friends with many cats during my stays!)

Next, I learned many things about what can make a stay great from a guest’s perspective. I appreciated a lot of different things—clarity on where I could go and what I could use (shampoo? fridge space? through that random unmarked door?) was a big deal. Having some information from the host on who else was going to be in the house was also hugely reassuring. Knowing the hours of the other people in the household was also great so that I could be a respectful guest (I get up early, and always wanted to be thoughtful of not waking up everyone else in the house!).

In fact, many of you have already shared some wonderful tips for hosting a private-room listing here in the Community Center. (This thread really impressed me, and I enjoyed the comments on this article, too). I’d love to continue to hear from you on this subject, and I’d love to learn more about what we can do to help you as private-room hosts succeed. Please tell me your suggestions in the comments, below.

And finally, and perhaps most importantly, I was reminded again of what an incredible community of hosts we have. I met one host who started hosting so that she could have more flexibility to support her children with special needs, and another who took a big pay cut to follow their heart and work in the non-profit sector … hosting helped them have the financial flexibility they needed to make that move. I met one host who has developed extraordinary relationships with her guests (many of whom come back often to visit) and another who started hosting so that she could afford to keep her family’s home while her children went to college. I love that Airbnb is helping people around the world build wonderful connections and support their goals and passions in life.

Congratulations again to those of you who are Superhosts, whether you’re sharing the spare wing of a castle, an entire home, or an extra bedroom in your apartment. I hope to meet you on my next outing. Until then…

… Happy hosting!
Laura

[Ken-And-Kea0]

We would love for Laura to spend a night with us to give us her feedback and impressions.  We have been very happy with Airbnb's customer support and response to any queries we've had  - this is yet another example of the high level of their professionalism and attention to deail.  Thank you!  

Ken and Kea ***

[Personal information hidden for safety reasons]

[Lizzie]

That sounds like a lovely invitation @Ken-And-Kea0, I feel @Laura_C  is going to be very busy with all these amazing offers.

It's fantastic to hear you have had such a great experience with Customer Support. A lot of resources are going into supporting hosts more with CS, so it's great to hear it's going in the right direction. 🙂

Just to add, I hope you don't mind, for safety I've had to remove your personal information from your post (address, number etc.), I hope this is ok with you.

Thank you for being such great hosts.

Lizzie

[Ken-And-Kea0]

Thank you for your response - if your schedule does allow, we'd love to have you be our guest here at Suite Serenity on the Sunshine Coast! 

Re. our Customer Service experience, up until now it has been totally positive.  Unfortunately we have a current issue that's been ongoing for several weeks:  we were thrilled to learn late last year from Airbnb that we were being awarded a free photo session.  Since this offer was during the winter months, we requested/received approval to have the session deferred.  When we redeemed the photo session last month, we received an email saying that the cost would be deducted from our account...  we have been trying (unsuccessfully) to have this oversight resolved so that we will NOT be charged for this "gift."  Is there anything you can do to help this resolution along?  Many thanks.  Kind regards, Ken and Kea

[Helen427]

@Lizzie @Laura_C 

Lizzie, I'm sure  those who have invited Laura to stay would happily have you tag along as her baggage handler.

You could both do the share a Private Twin room together & be up all night like naughty little school girls on camp!!

See you both soon in Auckland.

All the Best

[Sarah977]

@Laura_C   I think that most hosts make a huge effort to describe their place, the amenities, and house rules, etc, as accurately as possible. Hosts don't require more tools to prevent mis-understandings, the problem is that

1. Guests don't bother to read through everything. 

2. Airbnb clutters up our listing page with non-essential things and hides the text so guests have to click on "Read More", which many don't do, and hides the House Rules way at the bottom of the page, which guests don't scroll down to.

So the issue for Airbnb to address is to make our text more accessible, and to require that guests have to check a box marked "Have you thoroughly read the listing description, house rules, and cancellation policy for this listing and agre to all?" before they are able to proceed with a booking.

If you really want to help out private room hosts, please address this and the following, too much of which was promised long ago and never acted on:

Address the issue of outlier, revenge reviews as well as mistake reviews (a guest accidentally clicks 1-3* when they meant to check 5*s, and then is not allowed to change it, even after contacting Airbnb to say it was an error)

Stop the corporate threatening, condescending tone used with hosts.

Bring back the ability to see profile photos before a booking is confirmed.

Advise us of upcoming changes by email, not after the fact or hidden where no one reads.

Separate us in the search engine and listing pages from property managers and hotels.

[Pauline74]

Yes Sarah!   Great thoughts!  Excellent suggestions. 

I had a “friend/acquaintance” not show up at my Belize Villa Airbnb due to his own travel issues. But he did not cancel the reservation because he wanted to support my little business. Crazily, he gave me poor ratings anyway!   I asked him why he would do such a thing? 

And he said that because he didn’t actually come he couldn’t tell how good my place was. I asked him how he could tell how bad it was for the same reason?

ludicrous.  With friends like that who needs enemies? 

And he couldn’t change  the review. 

Ugh 

[Sarah977]

@Pauline74  OMG, that's ridiculous. It would have been better for him to just cancel the reservation or not write a review at all. It's hard to grasp how illogical some people can be.

I had the exact opposite happen. A good friend who has come to stay with me before was planning to come down earlier this year for 3 weeks. I had blocked my calendar for her visit (she's not someone I would charge-I stay at her place when I go up to Canada in the summer), but she insisted on booking 3 of those days through Airbnb, as she's also a host and wanted to give me a boost in terms of bookings and reviews. Turned out she couldn't come, but she left the booking and also wrote a nice 5* review. And it wouldn't be a fake review since she's been here before a couple of times, just didn't make a booking for those visits.

[Michael1981]

Sarah,

I really like your feedback.  I would amend it as following regarding the check boxes:

AirBnB should make the guest check several boxes...

__ (Check here): I acknowledge that I am renting a private room, NOT AN ENTIRE HOME

__ (Check here): I have read all of the house rules and have asked the Host all of my questions and concerns before booking this listing.

__ (Check here): If I encounter a problem at Check-in, I will seek resolution with my host immediately.

__ (Check here): If I encounter a problem after check-in, I will seek resolution from my host, and if no resolution can be found, I will contact AirBnB for help.

[Laura_C]

Hi @Sarah977 ,

Thanks for the feedback - as always you provide invaluable insight from host perspective which I greatly appreciate. We are in the process of rolling out several changes to existing features, including the review system. I've also been strongly advocating internally for ensuring that homes hosts are clearly delineated from hotels. You'll start to see a few changes in the next months and more coming soon here. Thanks for your ongoing support and patience as we learn and grow together! ~Laura

[Carmen802]

I turely hope that there will be more support for super hosts in your plans as I recently found myself pressured by Airbnb to give a full refund when I had signed up to the non refund policy - there was no thought for the fact the possible reasons why I had started Airbnbinb only concern for the guest. What made the situation worst was that I had been speaking to you re the lack of bookings since becoming a superhost in quite a short time...there needs to be more support for hosts.

I hope a that you are going to keep the host/guest feature as it is really good.  Howver, please can we allow guests, if they wish to write a review after 14 days - expecially when they take the time to contact you and ask to do so.

[Susan17]

 @Sarah977

Excellent post, as always, Sarah. 

[Michael1981]

Hi, Laura,

I have a private room and a semi-private room inside my home in which I live.  I made sure to state that I live here on the very first line of my listing and that they are just renting 1-2 rooms in my home in which I live; yet, every month or so I get a booking from someone that shows up and I show them all of the areas they have access to, and the first question they have is, When are you leaving?  They ask me, the host, when I'm leaving.  I tell them that I live here, and they tell me that they were under the impression that they were renting an Entire Home, mind you for $50.00 a night I don't know where you can rent an entire 4-bedroom home with a Pool, Sauna, Hot-Tub and a full cash bar for $50.00/night, but I have gotten some really ugly reviews, even though I spell it out in my house rules what they are renting and what they have access to, and AirBnB still lets their review stand.  I've had them stay 2 days without complaining, then after they leave they give me a 1-Star review for false advertising, and AirBnB calls asking if I would be willing to refund them for their stay because they thought they were getting an Entire Home.  I tell the AirBnB customer service person NO, they cannot have a refund, as they stayed their two days, and my listing spells out about 3 different times that I live here and they are just renting a portion of my home, not the entire house.  Even though I don't have to refund them, I'm usually stuck with a very negative review from the guest because of their mistake, not mine.  I explain to AirBnB that the guest is leaving a negative review based on them mistakingly booking my shared home rather than an entire home, which I cannot make these people understand any clearer what they are getting when they book with me, but yet AirBnB allows the negative review to stay, even though my listing description was accurate.  

Why doesn't AirBnB hold guests accountable to the House Rules, so when the guest calls after they have already stayed and checked out and then call in to ask for a refund, why doesn't AirBnB  simply explain to the guest that 1) You stayed at the listing and checked out, and if there was a problem, it should have been addressed upon check-in; 2) You booked a listing that clearly lists itself as a shared home, so if you wanted an Entire Home, you booked the wrong type of listing and it is not the hosts fault that you did not read their listing description, and 3) Once a guest leaves a bad review based on saying the listing description wasn't accurate...if the listing description is found to be accurate, AirBnB should immediately remove the bad review as an incorrect review.  Or, if they want that incorrect review to stand, AirBnB can put a small message right after their review in BOLD RED stating AirBnB reviewed the listing and the listing description, despite what this guest stated as incorrect, was found to be correct.  This would at least let future guests that read that review to see the review as not correct.

Thoughts???

[Sheryl57]

 I TOTALLY agree with MIchael. I haven't had any really bad reviews but it is so annoying when guests don't read the listing correctly! I have a Bnb 2km from the Hobbiton Movie set in New Zealand, it states this in my listing. I have lost count of how many times I've been asked 'How far from Hobbiton are you' and so many other STUPID questions that are clearly answered in the listings. They don't read the directions to our place and get lost or want to check-in at lunchtime (or 11pm) when it clearly states check-in is between 3 and 9pm!!!! How do you make people read the listings?

Would love to see you 'Down Under' Laura, come see us 🙂

Sheryl

[Svetlana111]

Hi Laura, 

Great to hear your first-hand experience of being an Airbnb guest in a private room. It is my fifth year since I've started having long-term guests in our private room within our loft/apartrment. I am the one who keeps realitionships with my guests, and even more, I feel like we become relatives and real friends for life after they left. This week I'll have my first long-term Airbnb guest from Finland, who'll come to visit as a friend for two weeks. I am always surprised how people find me and ask to stay longer periods (that I love), as that is not written on my forehead. But they know! I am happy to be member of the Airbnb community and being labeled as a superhost. Even people who stay short, they are coming back to my place. I am proud of that. When I travel I also use Airbnb and definitely there is a differnece when you just rent a flat and use a private room. Renting a private room gives more closeness and personal touch...you really get to know people. Hope you'll come to Serbia and visit me in Belgrade one day. Greetings from Belgrade, Svetlana

[Joyce149]

Hi All,

I am Joyce and I am in Liverpool Uk. I have found the clearer you are with house rules and information to guests the smoother it is to host. I really enjoy hosting on Airbnb and meeting people from all over the world, it's a great way to earn extra income. Joyce