Superhost status

[Julia271]

If my place isn't available 12 months of the year, there is no way to gain SuperHost status, even though I consistently get 5 Star reviews.  Doesn't seem fair since most SuperHost places in my city are run by realtors or hotels or Bed and Breakfasts so individuals who just want to make their place available so they can afford to live there part-time don't have a competitive chance to survive!

[Debbie210]

We hear you!! We’ve been superhosts,  for 5 years. When our house wasn’t available for 6 months, we were updating our house. We lost our Superhost status. I feel penalized for doing upgrades. What about the last 5 years and the 60+ great reviews? 

[Pat271 · Accepted solution]

@Julia271  It’s quite possible to retain Superhost status even if you don’t host 6 months out of the year.

Host performance is evaluated over an entire year, and you only need 10 stays over the previous 4 quarters, plus a 4.8 rating and no host cancellations to obtain or retain Superhost status.

[Julia271]

I tend to have longer stays, so never reach 10 in a calendar year.....IMHO number of stays should NOT even be a factor if all of them are 4.8 or above.

[Pat271]

@Julia271  Airbnb heard you and others in the same boat, so they made the alternate criteria of 100 nights over 3 stays.

100 nights of hosting over 3 different groups of guests seems a reasonable Superhost requirement to me, to show both your current hosting frequency, and your flexibility with dealing with different types of guests.

[Julia271]

I object that Superhost status seems to be based on how the host promotes earnings for Air BNB, although guests think it means the host provides super accommodations.  I repeatedly get 5-star ratings and glowing reviews, so guests who are looking for a super host should know that my place is more desirable than one that hosts multiple types of groups (and what does that mean anyway when I can only accommodate 2 guests at a time?) at least 3 times in 100 days. 

I am normally away from my home for less than 3 months or 100 days. AirBNB rental helps me pay my house insurance and property taxes, which is important since I am a senior living on less money than the rental agencies in my town who buy up low-income properties, do minimal upgrades, and then rent through AirBNB and become Superhosts because they are in it for a low-cost way to make money. The term Superhost means desirable to most Airbnb guests, not that the property is managed by rental agencies.

My argument is that the term Superhost is misleading. I am a Superhost based on my ratings.

[Helen3]

I wouldn't worry about the vast majority of guests won't even know what a superhost is @Julia271 

[Maurilio14]

Hey, you are totally right. I've tried many times to bring up the problem with the customer care but they don't seem to understand or care about the issue. In my case for example, the rental season lasts no more than two months (it's a seaside place) and there is no way I can get 10 stays in two months. IMHO the superhost status and in particular the requirement for minimum stays should be normalized by the months of activity. e.g. 10 / (12/months_of_the_season) and that makes to 2 or 3 stays for two months...  I don't remove the listing during the rest of the year but no one goes to seaside rental during winter and they know this very well. They don't have to take my word for it but they could build a statistic of rentals in the area where I have the listing.

[Pat271]

@Maurilio14  In your case, though, isn’t it true that anyone looking up an accommodation in your area would find 0 Superhosts, if the area has a short rental season?

[Maurilio14]

There are some, very few. These are people managing large structures with a number of apartments within the same structure. In any case my point was an absolute one and not relative to the local competition 🙂