New Superhost criteria – unfair to long-term hosts

[Katie---Sean0]

This is just a vent -- I don't think there is anything I can do about it 😕

The new Superhost criteria seems unfair to Long-Term hosts.

We will lose our Superhost 1st April due to the following new criteria:

Host 10 stays in the past year (or 100 nights over at least three stays for Hosts with longer-term reservations)

All of our stays have been 1 to 3 months -- but we've had an increasing number of stays for 6 months or more, including one for 11-months.

We have always received 5-star ratings in every category, for every stay.

We've held Superhost status the ENTIRE time we've been hosting Airbnb (apart from the first 3 months of course). 

The problem is the "100 nights over at least 3 stays" criteria. The longer our stays, the less likely we are able to meet this.

So our ratings will very likely continue to be 5-stars across the board -- but we we will lose Superhost status. It doesn't make sense.

It seems odd to penalize Long-Term Hosts in this way. Since the pandemic Long-Term stays have become much more popular.  Airbnb is the top method we use find all our guests, and we use it almost like a property management service.  It's been a great "hybrid" solution for us to offer Long-Term furnished rentals.  

I'd like to hear from any other Long-Term Hosts affected by the new Superhost criteria -- and also any comments about how Airbnb could be making it easier for Long-Term Hosts and Guests to arrange Long-Term stays -- currently it's unreasonably difficult.

Katie

[M199]

@Katie---Sean0 

No use sweating over SH staus. It's unfair in many ways. 

For example, because of weather and cost to winterize our place we are only able to open 7 of 12 months of any year, yet we are judged on 12 months of the year. So we are always losing compared to permanent 365 days a year competition.

Yes, I am also losing SH status, already guaranteed 6 weeks ago by CS.

Keep it in perspective, is my best advice.

[Katie---Sean0]

Airbnb states that long stays have doubled in the last couple of years, so I don’t understand why they are penalizing long stay hosts. I’m sorry to hear you’re also losing the SH status. Thanks for the good advice. 

[Kelly149]

I'd guess that hosts allowing 11 months stays aren't in great supply, you're likely still booked SH or not

[Katie---Sean0]

The 11 month stay happened during the pandemic, it was a one-off. I posted because multiple emails from Airbnb state that many more reservations now are “Long Stays”. Double what it used to be. In which case I don’t understand why they aren’t making things better for Long Stay hosts. 

[Jennifer1774]

It's frustrating for sure.  We will also be losing our SH status because we had to cancel a guest who made a 2 day reservation in the 30 minute window we opened the dates to allow our long term guest to book his next month.  He was a contractor working for the state to combat Covid-19 and stayed with us 5 months but could only book a month at a time and only a few days before the next month began.  We blocked our calendar for him and would open it when he knew he was staying.  I've already tried to explain the situation to customer service and they told me a cancel is a cancel.  We meet the rating requirement and the stays but our cancelation rate is 6.5% because of that one cancelation.  Oh well.  Moving on....

[Katie---Sean0]

@Jennifer1774 — I’ve had to do a couple of cancellations, one CV-related, the other due to unexpected major construction next door to us. Both times Airbnb CS was able to set up the cancellation so that there was no negative impact or cost to either guest or host.

What I did was first reach out to the guest in a message explaining the situation and asking if they want to cancel. Once they say “yes” and this agreement exists in writing in between you… have the guest call Airbnb, request the cancellation, explain why, and state that there is a message thread agreeing to it. 

Then CS will look at your message thread, and then set up the cancellation. This is the key part, that Airbnb does it for you. The host receives a “cancellation request” and then needs to click thru to “agree”. Once agreed, everything is cancelled both sides, with no “penalty” meaning no cancel fees, and no cancellation on either record. 

Hope this helps. 

[Jamie362]

Hi   I too have held Superhost status since I started in 2013 but we rarely have long term guests.  We are on the Coast a bit north of you but only 60 miles from LA so we get lots of weekend visitors from LA and only occasionally host longer than 30 days since our county prohibits this for our permit.  I do however agree that the new rules do seem unfair.

[Katie---Sean0]

@Jamie362 — greetings from a little ways down the coast 👋 the rules aren’t “new” so much, they are a return to rules that existed before 2020. However what increased dramatically is the number of hosts offering stays longer than 30 days. The SH criteria has not been changed to accommodate this, so Long Stay hosts are being unfairly penalized.

It’s interesting to hear your local restrictions are the opposite to ours. Although we live in a quiet neighborhood, we are right on the edge of a particular zone that only allows us to offer a 30 day minimum, nothing less. It makes sense for the zone, but not for us, we shouldn’t really be in it but… them’s the rules. At first we thought this would be a huge problem, but then we discovered Long Stay furnished units were a good space for us. 

[Sarah977]

@Jamie362 @Katie---Sean0  Just so you know, those are not "new" requirements. Those stay requirements have been like that for years. Airbnb just suspended all the stay requirements back in the spring of 2020 due to Covid and knowing a lot of hosts were closed due to the pandemic, either because they home share, or because of so many travel restrictions in their area or not wanting to deal with constant cancellations and pleading and demanding for refunds from guests who couldn't travel.

[Katie---Sean0]

@Sarah977 — I am fully aware the requirements are not “new”. However the amount of Long Stays going through Airbnb has doubled or even tripled according to Airbnb themselves, they have mentioned it in multiple marketing emails. So I strongly feel that the SH status rules should be adapted to accommodate this and make it more fair to Long Stay hosts. 

[Sarah977]

@Katie---Sean0  I agree. But Superhost requirements are only one aspect of the way Airbnb has been promoting long stays to guests, yet not providing any of the safeguards landlords normally employ when taking on new tenants.

In other words, aside from the long term stay cancellation policy (which doesn't even assure hosts of future payments- if a guest's payments don't go through, they just tell you, ""Oh sorry, the guest didn't pay, tell them to leave" and wash their hands of it), they are treating long term stays just as they treat short term, which isn't viable for a lot of hosts and the reason why so many hosts will not take LTRs through Airbnb.

[Karla533]

@Katie---Sean0   Yeah I think I would be a Super by now except for a couple of 30+ days stays. It's yet another reason I'm limiting stays to 21 days now.

[Emilie]

Hi @Katie---Sean0,

Thanks for starting this discussion, there's a lot of very useful feedback in here from you and other Hosts for the team responsible for the Superhost program. I'll make sure to pass all of this on to them! How would you imagine the Superhost status being fairer to Hosts who do only long-term stays, or a mix of short and long term ones? 

Emilie

[Lorna23]

 Hi Emillie,  One of my bookings is for 100 nights, he leaves on July 10,  and superhost status will be calculated on July 1st. The airbnb host support is no help. As airbnb pays out the booking monthly, they should then update the nights hosted at the same time. This is most unfair to hosts willing to do longer term stays, which airbnb is promoting. regards, lorna