Superhost status

[Paul875]

Anyone out there receive a message saying that super host status is in jeopardy due to data from the last year?

You know - that last year in which Covid pretty much shut down travel; lowering the number of stays and those stays that did occur were of much longer duration  (see @Chesky 's many letters / press releases)???

It is a bit hypocritical that Airbnb announced that 2020 / 2021 were  years that were difficult and required flexibility on everyone's part but then uses the same data from that "difficult" period  to calculate the "regular" superhost ratings going forward.

In chats with support staff they say that the metric that is impacting our super host status is still calculated the same way as always - 1% cancellation hurdle is on a booking basis and has nothing to do with the number of days of bookings cancelled vs the number of days of overall bookings.  It should be added that most hotel metrics are based on a day denomination basis. So in our case a single cancellation of a last minute insta booking at the height of Covid should be denominated by a booking number that is down 40%... Not really fair or reasonable.

I know enough about about programming to know that a change to the metric is a pretty simple SQL edit and propagation.

So support simply telling me the system is automated and cannot be changed is laughable.

Any takers on this?

[Emilie]

Hi @Paul875, 

I'm sorry to hear you might lose your Superhost status in April, and appreciate your honest feedback on the status' criteria.

Throughout the pandemic, we’ve worked hard to help our Hosts adapt to the changing conditions of the pandemic, including changing the way we assess Superhost status for existing Superhosts. As travel continues to recover, and after two years of automatically extending Superhost status, we will resume our regular assessment process.

Hosts will have until March 31, 2022 to meet all four Superhost criteria to maintain their Superhost status at the April 1 assessment. For more information, please visit our recently published Resource Center article.

I hope this helps, and stay safe!

Emilie

[Paul875]

Hi Emilie,

Thank you for your response.

No this does not help.

As a superhost the continuous publication of empty platitudes by AirBnB is frustrating.

To use rolling data from the same period for which AirBnB was "automatically extending Superhost status" in deciding who is to be a superhost is illogical.

The basis for that extension was that travel volume was lower; both guests or hosts needed more flexibility in choices and the environment we were operating in was completely different.  So to use data from that period against the superhost criteria in place prior to the outbreak of Covid is illogical. 

A number of more more equitable solutions for superhosts exist: extending the period for superhost status to the end of 2022; or assess the superhosts status on a more frequent basis. Both of which are a few SQL statement edits and and not that hard to do.

All this to say - it is incredibly short sighted for Airbnb to relegate a superhost of 5 years into the same group as newly starting out hosts without the knowledge and experience or track record of a superhost.

Guests will suffer the consequences.

Please reach out to set a time for a call to discuss.

[Emilie]

@Paul875 I understand you'd like more support, and we will continue to monitor the impacts of COVID-19 and make updates as needed.

I'm not part of the Support team so am unable to arrange a call. However, after April 1, Hosts will be able to contact Airbnb support to see if they are eligible for an additional extension of status through July 1 so please reach out to our Customer Support team then if you think is necessary. 

Thanks, 

Emilie

[Paul875]

Emilie;

I did reach out to Airbnb support several times after April  1. Complete waste of time!

It appeared that the folks that write the scripts for banking and insurance companies call centres are writing the scripts for Airbnb call centres.

"Rules;  rules;  rules;  we're here to help; rules; rules; rules. Thanks for your message.  But no. We're here to help. Do you need further help?"  

We have witnessed a significant decline in our inquiries and bookings since loosing the status. This is unfair for us and equally (if not more) unfair for guests. 

Guests are no longer being given the "best" information about previous guest experiences and thus the Airbnb model is starting to break. 

We have started to look at alternative platforms to list our houses. The switching costs are not as high as seniors at Airbnb think.

[Forough2]

I had the superhost status with over 46 reviews. Covid happened and owner sold the property. In my opinion, air bnb should have been considered to extend the title beyond their regular quarterly basis. In my case, I stopped because there were no home to be host due to covid and sell out. In May 2022, they were reviewing the status, but the new home and new air bnb started mid June. So my superhost title has been removed due to inadequate rule of quarterly review.

[Lorna23]

I also find it very unfair that I will lose my superhost status. It was great that they extending it though the worst (hopefully) of covid. But the period between January and April for ending this is unfair. Especially for ones like me that rent rooms out in our home, so shared space, different if you are renting out separate place. As we are older and had to wait to be fully vaccinated to feel safe about starting again. The governments are just opening things up this past month or so. There was no way in January with the rising rates of covid, that I would have considered it safe to hosts guests in our home. July 1st would have been a more reasonable date for this. I have contacted the superhost support and it was useless, they just repeat whats written  and say sorry, when I ask if they will be forwarding my concerns to someone in charge, nothing. Its been a waste of time and extremely frustrating. 

[Emilie]

@Lorna23 Thanks for letting us know how you feel about this, appreciate your feedback here! 

We recognize some of our Hosts may still not be ready to resume hosting, so after April 1, existing Superhosts with health and safety concerns related to the pandemic can contact Airbnb Support to see if they are eligible for an extension of status through July 1st. 🙂

[Lorna23]

Thanks, I will, suoerhost support should be told this, got nowhere with them

[Sandra957]

@Emilie  Could you read my post on this thread and perhaps you may know the answer ? Hope you can explain .

[Emilie]

@Sandra957 Apologies for the late reply, I was out of office and am only seeing your message now. I can understand this was puzzling, though as I do not have access to your account details I'm not able to dig into what happened.

Did you get a chance to contact Customer Support to ask them to look into this with you? If not, you can find more info on how to reach out to them in this handy guide. 🙂

[Lorna23]

I just wanted to thank you for your reply and say I did again contact airbnb support and was surprised by a phone call yesterday, to say they were extending my superhost status. I would recommend others to do the same. The first 2 times I contacted them were frustrating, but now I am happy I say it was worth the time to get my point across,  (with your help)  as we rent rooms out in our home, so different than renting out a separate space. Hopefully things will continue to improve, as we did miss hosting, meeting people from all over the world.  Thanks again Emille, for your help, regards lorna

[Emilie]

@Lorna23 That's great to hear, thanks for circling back and letting us know!

[Lorna23]

Hi Emillie, I now have another problem. I am  back to hosting again. 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

[Emilie]

@Lorna23 I've read some similar feedback previously from Hosts who, like you, welcome guests for longer stays, and although I'm afraid don't have an immediate answer or solution, I'm passing all those your comments to the team!

Thanks,

Emilie