the very first question asked of the guest in the review is...

[Lawrene0]

Hello, fellow hosts!

Last week I was a guest for three nights. Not keen on travel right now, but I had to for work. 

It was interesting to see, though, what guests are asked these days.

So, first of all, the stay went very well. The host sent daily messages asking whether everything was okay, and I replied as soon as I could every day that, yes, everything was fine. Lots of thanking each other on both sides. The usual. 🙂

I opened the review link at the end of the stay. The first question was,

"Did you feel unsafe during this stay? We would like to know what happened."

Good lord. Shouldn't I have notified someone immediately if I had felt unsafe? Why would I leave it to the review? Do they want me to be that sort of guest? 

Anyway, the second question was all about whether the host was misleading or I had any issues.

Screenshots of both are below. I took them because I was appalled that the accent is on the negative. "Unsafe", "misleading" -- what's that all about? 

In my own case, I am waiting for a review from my own guest a week ago, a local who thought I should have notified her that she might hear rumbles of thunder in the distance during her stay. Oh goody. Now she can report that she felt unsafe because she didn't think to check her weather app.

I feel like this is a trap. I feel like there are enough traps with the reviews that we don't need another one. 

The rest of the questions were about whether the amenities were provided, etc., but I have seen those before. It was just the first two questions that were different from last time I was a guest. Just to be clear, this was not the "survey" at the end. This was the start of the review, before the stars, before the written portion.  Here are the screenshots:

[Maia29]

@Denice0  I got one of the reviews as well.

[Laura2592]

This confuses me from a business perspective. 

What strategy is Airbnb using? Its as though hosts are being treated as competition. I remember a comedy sketch with Bob Odenkirk and David Cross where they played competing grocery store owners.  One was always coming up with slogans that implied the other was unsafe "Shop at Cross's Groceries! Where Children Don't Get Abducted " The other was then forced to address the spurious claim that children may get abducted at their store.

Airbnb is now planting the seeds that hosts are creating an unsafe environment.  But what possible earthly reason could they have? Arw they going to start opening hotels to compete with us? Do they want to get long term hosts to quit the platform and attract only new hosts  (do they have an endless supply of new hosts?)  I mean,  this is SO WEIRD.

[Mark116]

@Laura2592  I'm every day amazed that Airbnb ever became successful.  Truly I am. 

It just occurred to me, that possibly this is some backwards, incompetent way of collecting data to use w/PR to say that XX% of guests felt totally safe in their Airbnb?  But even if that is the case, it should be the last question and it should ask if they felt safe not unsafe, and not have the big brother follow up 'we want to know what happened' 

I'm not sure why, given the massive regulation of STR over the last 3 years why Airbnb would think they have an unlimited supply of new hosts, but that does appear to be how they view their biggest asset.  So odd.  Airbnb will one day for sure be a Harvard Business School case of how to destroy your own success.

[Anonymous]

@Mark116  Airbnb has never been shy about completely inventing data - i.e. steadfastly refusing to attribute any source other than unreviewed "internal research" -  to support its argument. Ask for the records to back up its claims, and they can conveniently cite privacy concerns. I don't think this question is oriented toward skewing aggregate data, because they're going to lie about that stuff anyway.

There is one thing though. The current IPO gambit is hinging on the notion that Airbnb is going to radically outpace the hotel industry in growth/recovery over the next years, because - and they keep driving this home - they say travelers in the time of Covid-19 find an Airbnb "safer" than a hotel. 

Presumably, they believe investors want to see that they're doubling down on Safety Theater and holding hosts' feet to the fire over it. 

[Laura2592]

I think I am going to start advertising our cottage as Bodycondom Cottage. 

We will give out Hazmat suits at the front door. There will be one guest for one 24 hour period per month. All walls will be padded. All neighbors will be quarantined during the 24 hour period when guests are there. 

I will install one of those filtration systems they used at NIH for Ebola where the space has its own closed air supply.

I will make sure the windows are boarded up and the key code opens with a touchless eyeball scan. 

I will never see or meet any guest. Snipers will be placed on the roofs of neighboring buildings should a stray cat, chicken, fox or other possibly disease carrying or threatening animal wander into the space. 

A fully armed body guard will be installed a safe distance away and check in with guests by radio every 20 minutes to ensure nothing unsafe is happening. 

[Emilia42]

@Laura2592 Also, don't forget to transition your neighborhood so that everyone shares the same gender, race, ethnicity, and social class as your guests. 🙂

[Michelle2137]

he'd better be a covid enhanced trained fully armed body guard

[Denice0]

@Anonymous  I think you answered the question.  The "current IPO gambit" and Airbnb is "doubling down on the safety theater and holding hosts' feet to the fire" may be why Airbnb would prompt a guest with such a negative question -  did they feel unsafe!  The following is from the covid cleaning protocol:

How will Airbnb verify that hosts are following the cleaning protocol?
Hosts who want to participate will be asked to attest to following specific guidance outlined in the cleaning protocol. Our review system offers additional checks and balances—if a host isn’t following the guidelines, guests can bring it up in their reviews of the space.

As I recall one of the moderators asked awhile back, what the major concerns were since reopening from Covid.  Many hosts commented that guests weren't overly concerned about cleaning.  If the new Covid guests weren't reviewing cleaning / safety, which has caused Airbnb's to rebound quicker than Hotels, then Air is going to force / manipulate a response on safety from the guest.   This is their means to get info on why the market is trending to home rentals.  We can get negative reviews and we won't see the data, but they need the data.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Laura2592 

Arw they going to start opening hotels to compete with us?

They already have that. It's called 'Hotel Tonight'. They're a bit low on marketing budget at the moment, but still working on the numbers.

[Laura2592]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0  maybe if you answer that you don't feel safe you get redirected to Hotel Tonight. 

It will be interesting to see if Airbnb starts competing in local real estate markets for "unique stays." That's really their bread and butter and we all own an asset they would probably love to have. Buy me out, Airbnb! I'll only charge you 200% above market.  

Actually  maybe thats the plan after the IPO. Buy a bunch of properties cash in different markets,  bundle them,  hire a "cohost" property manager and then sell them back to us as franchises.  

That would be devious and actually smart. They could control everything to a much higher degree.  

But I don't think they are that organized  

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Laura2592 

With it being a review and 'already departed' maybe not like that, but certainly those "party people' Airbnb have their sights on and who they won't allow to be booked into hosted accommodation will certainly - and have - been directed to Hotel Tonight accommodation.

Obviously 'doing hosts a favour' taking the larger groups, even though some hosts who rely on and cater for such, still want to accommodate them.

All these unauthorised parties are directly the result of inadequate ID verification. Thats where efforts to undermine the problem should be, not three steps down the booking process. Sixteen guests - no problem! Sixteen sets of ID's please... Address there.. sign on the line. Mess around and you all get banned. Every other group party you've ever attended, those  acquaintances will be more closely scrutinised. At least put all that data collecting to some good use.

[Yadira22]

@Laura2592 though an interesting premise, I doubt it. Being a marketing platform only, though expensive to create and maintain it is much more lucrative plus they have no major risks (ie. insurance, restoration work, etc), their biggest thing would be brand identity and placement (via emotive marketing) and legal (STR laws, etc which they handle quite nicely by having very wishy washy ToS clauses as to provide leg space for it to open to interpretation and specific for when it solely benefits them).

I think they have been bleeding money since the pandemic started and have read somewhere they have taken out 2x 1billion USD loans at 6 and 10% interest rates (can't find the article as to verify numbers) so I think its main purpose is to alleviate any actual cash flow issues they have currently. I imagine this is why the constantly changed their COVID-19 EC policy from full refund, minus fees, credit refund, to whatever it is now. 

PIus their new online experiences inititive must be an added hurt (to the stopped in person experiences and reduced travels, listing availability, etc)- not only from a development side but also from taking it to market, recruiting hosts etc. These things generally don't start making profit till several years in, I mean look at Disney+. 

I really hope they get their act together and soon, I feel as if they are expanding so much that its de-stabalising them and slowly they are moving away from their original USP; live like a local. 

Anyway, stay safe. 

[Ute42]

.

@Yadira22 

They pay 12% interest for a 1 Billion USD loan.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-airbnb-debt/airbnb-secures-new-1-billion-loan-on-top-of-1-billion...

12% from 1 Billion that's 120 Million USD in interestpayments per year. As the loan is for 5 years, they also have to pay 200 Million USD redemption anually. All together we are talking 320 Million USD per year they have to pay. That's a lot of money.

[Helen427]

@Ute42 @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 @Emilia42 @Dave52 @Mark116 and @everybody-else

One must also factor into account the financial & economic crises of the banking Institutions with re/payments...many are caught up in our various Governments World Bank Loans triggered by Scientific Academics who are also "Advisors" to World Bank...

Strict terms & Conditions.

That's if you can find or access a bank these days...

[Huma0]

@Laura2592 

Erm, they have already started dabbling in hotels and competing with hosts. It's called Hotel Tonight and it's run into a few serious problems, so no, I wouldn't be that surprised if Airbnb employed tactics that helped them promote those hotels instead of our  homes.

Here's what they were putting out when blocking guests from booking with some hosts. One could speculate that this was to try to stop unauthorised parties, but some hosts reported on the CC that long-term guests and middle aged guests were also getting this message. Interesting wording.