Superhost filter gone?

[Jessie90]

Appreciate the new filter for guest favorites, but that is not equivalent to booking with a Super Host, which gives  me a lot of comfort when booking in an unfamiliar location.  Guest ratings are always a little suspect.  I hope this filter is reinstated, I may never book on airbnb again, too risky otherwise. 

Any one else have this issue, it's gone both on the website and app.

[Basha0]

I was a Superhost for years but because I didn’t have so many bookings thru ABB I lost the status. Guess what, in my mind I am still a Superhost. Nothing has changed 

[Ryan3422]

@Jessie90 @Sharon1557 @Tony-And-Una0 @Christiana72 @Adriano78 @Breanna 

Reading through this, I'd like to mention that the Superhost badge is a much more reliable and safer way to filter than the Guest Favorite badge.  ALL of the 2million guest favorites average out to "above 4.9", and are not held to a higher standard than the superhost firm 4.8 rating.  This also opens the door for fraudulent reviews, because the guest favorite is actually just based on your overall rating and cleanliness rating of the listing's LAST 5 REVIEWS.  This means if I get a one star review, I could easily solicit 5 fake reviews (flashback to the early Twitter days with #TeamFollowBack), and be a guest favorite the following day.  Also, it's completely run and monitored by AI, so once someone figures out the algorithm (hence the fake reviews technique), it is going to get over run with a network of people providing fake reviews for each other to maintain the status.  This is going to be very easy, because the admins and support have no ability to make any changes in the Guest Favorite category (no backdoor access, no manual input access) which has been confirmed by 12 support reps (so far to my count - trying to find one that will give me better info).  On top of all that, qualifying properties are being missed by this algorithm, so who knows what other mistakes the AI algorithm is already making. 

It's a sales play by Airbnb.  People before could search for reliable places by using the Superhost filter to gain access to 1.4million trusted properties.  Now, they can only use the Luxe properties (essentially non-existant) or the Guest Favorite filter, which now provides access to 2million (+600k difference) "trusted" properties, plus all the qualifying Superhost properties that are possibly deliberately missed in the algorithm to widen this scope further.  

[Adriano78]

@Ryan3422  The most worrying is for the hosts who had the superhost badge.

Many guests were looking for an apartment by putting the Superhost filter.

Now this is no longer possible, superhost now has a "guest favorite" badge, which is not a guarantee of the quality of an apartment because as I already explained there are "guest favorite "apartments with low ratings.

Superhosts in the future will have fewer reservations and fewer views of their ad.

[JustOne0]

I agree.

In certain circumstances, such as when traveling to a familiar place or with a large group, I am more willing to try out newer hosts. However, in an unfamiliar place I prefer a Superhost. 

As someone who has hosted on other platforms, that have similar rankings for top hosts, I can understand how much effort and consistency is required to achieve the Superhost badge.

To reduce guests’ visibility of Superhost, by removing the option to filter for “Superhost”, seems a disservice to these hosts and guests. 

[Clayton64]

This is a another very confusing move on Airbnb's part. As a host I spend a lot of time and effort to provide the best experience possible and as guest would only want to stay at places where the hosts were also held to a high standard. Even though my listing maintains a consistent very high 4-5 star review I never based bookings on reviews because they are not reflective of the kind of quality place / service I am looking for in a place to stay ex. there are lot of 5 star reviews on really crummy looking places I think just because they are cheap / good deal.  With the Superhost filter gone how can we gauge the quality of an experience? I feel like this is a big disservice to us hosts that have made customer service their mission and as a guest feel like it makes the booking process that much more risky. @Brianchesky Please bring back the filter. 

[Casey397]

I agree Clayton. The only good reason to do this is to be able to broaden the number of places that are going to make Airbnb money. I used to be a host and the reality is that being a superhost guarantees not only that a place is rated highly (which on it's own is a pretty unreliable measure on it's own) but experienced, reliable that any issues are resolved quickly and that the host communicates responsively. Very frustrating, and dare I say unethical, that Airbnb took this away as a search filter. Maybe I won't use Airbnb anymore if I can't search this way. 

[Bill1578]

I totally agree with this.  I don't host anyone but have stayed many places.  I had a nice chat with someone who had a massive place with at least six different suites of all types on my last trip in November 2023.  She was very into her Superhost rating.  It means a lot.  I will only stay where the host is a Superhost!

It looks like everyone here is in agreement that this is something that needs to be brought back.

I only discovered it because I wanted to take another trip.

[Rachel2757]

I agree with Jessie90 on this one. My preference is to book properties with SuperHost status because there is an expectation that those hosts are being held to a higher standard based on a particular set of requirements they need to meet in order to achieve and maintain this status. Guest Favourite status is too ambiguous and doesn't provide me with the information I need to feel safe and secure booking an Airbnb property. 

I have stayed in some very ordinary apartments with some very ordinary hosts who have little experience with guest communication and guest expectations and this has usually ended with a very ordinary stay. I can only assume you've done this to allow more properties through the filtering system. I want to be able to filter by host capability not by guest rating which is often misleading as their are too many variables. I hope you reinstate the SuperHost option as it's an important feature for guests and for hosts and you are doing us all a disservice by removing it.

[Zheng49]

Yes, I agree that superhost filter can be useful for guests. A brand new listing by a rookie host can attain guest favorite after 3 stays (or 5 stays, not 100% on the exact number), but there is no guarantee that the host is experienced or knows what he/she is doing. 

[Angela3800]

I concur with what almost everyone else who has already posted, saying that we want the Superhost filter back. I came on here planning to look up some spring break travel options, and now I don't even want to try because I can't use the Superhost option. This decision on Airbnb's part muddles things for conscientious travellers and hurts the many hosts who have worked so hard to attain and then maintain their Superhost status. Guess I'll go to TripAdvisor and look for more mundane but reliable lodging options there instead.

[Stephanie3046]

That is exactly what I did (Angela3800). I went back to TripAdvisor for FlipKey options, my old go-to before I used airbnb. The SuperHost filter was the only reason I began to use Airbnb, it was a considerate option to give the consumer and a great incentive for the hosts. Handling it the way they did, no apologetic, thoughtfully versed note to explain their changes, just an abrupt, forced, interruptive change.  In her response, Breanna relays, they wanted to "simplify" the search for us is a generic response to placate their customer base. 🙄Makes no sense, it became complicated and time consuming. Good news is we have other sites we are going to!

[Ash6469]

Removal of the superhost filter has caused unnecessary and extra work. Now we must read through several listings' reviews and decide on a stay. The answer by Breanna makes zero sense as to why the filter was removed. The search results get flooded with new and low rated listings, and unless you click on a listing it is not possible to tell whether the host has superhost status. Every listing started out as "new" at some point in time, and of course they must also be listed. But airbnb must give us the option to sort the results by rating and host status. Airbnb is going to start losing customers because of this.

[Angelique31]

Agree with you! Bring back the Superhost filter, please.

[Marissa246]

So disappointed that this filter has gone! It was how I chose where to stay.  😞

Bring it back.  Guest favourite sounds like it can be bought!

[Sharon625]

I Agree

We have been hosting on Airbnb exclusively for five years now. We love receiving guests and ensuring they have the best quality experience. 

The removal of this filter has significantly reduced our average monthly bookings.

The super host search function was a differentiator between Airbnb and other platforms, allowing guests more confidence and rewarding good hosts with more bookings.

Sadly, if this stays the same, we will be forced to list on other platforms to increase our occupancy, which, if others do, will, over time, ultimately dilute Airbnb's unique offerings. 

We also used this function exclusively when booking a place to stay on Airbnb to ensure we stayed with quality hosts. 

I hope that they bring it back.