Get to know our 2022 Host Advisory Board members

[Stephanie]

First off we want to wish a heartfelt thank you to last year’s board members, in the inaugural year of the board they played a pivotal role integrating with our teams and helping us keep day to day Host perspectives front and center in our work.

As we move into 2022 the Host Advisory Board mission remains as important as ever, giving Hosts a seat at the table to represent the voice of the community in shaping the future with Airbnb. They will continue to influence key Host policies, programs, and products that we launch.

We’re excited to have @Anna1403 , @Merrydith0, @Nutth0, @Omar202, @Pam3 , @Peter1, @Shinya0, @Susan208, @Till-and-Jutta0, @Vinícius0 and Pooja  all returning from last year to continue serving and I hope you’ll join me in welcoming the new members…

@Claudia331, @Daniel1651, @Delphine348, @Felicity11 , @Jennifer3225, @Kirk124, @Michael-O-Reilly0, @Ted--Pauline-And-Keo0 , @Ronaldo-And-Carla0, @Francisco-and-Yajaira-Ho0, Sebastian, Deirdre and Nadia

You can expect to see our HAB members’ voices and perspectives represented in education and announcements we share throughout the year. We’re looking forward to seeing what we will accomplish together this year. You’ll probably have noticed some of the members posting around the CC already and contributing to our Hosting discussions.

HAB members represent the wide diversity of backgrounds and are selected due to their tremendous contributions to our Host Community. In order to get to know our 2022 HAB members better please visit the HAB landing page for more information.

Thank you,

Stephanie

[Диана5]

здравствуйте 

[Sarah977]

@Stephanie  

"...giving Hosts a seat at the table to represent the voice of the community in shaping the future with Airbnb. They will continue to influence key Host policies, programs, and products that we launch."

It would certainly be enlightening for hosts to be privy to how our voice is being respresented and what policies beneficial to hosts the HAB has influenced. So far we have been told that we are not allowed to know what the HAB actually has and is working on, and policies have become worse for hosts. 

Telling those who are supposedly being represented that how we are being represented  is some closely guarded secret is unbelievably odd.

[Huma0]

@Sarah977 

Yes, it's all rather mysterious. I randomly clicked on a few of the returning hosts listed above and noticed they all stopped posting on the CC several months ago. Have they been sworn to secrecy and are no longer able to comment here? Does seem like a strange coincidence. Also rather odd if they have been chosen for their contributions to our community that they no longer contribute here on the CC...

[Quincy]

Hello @Sarah977, I've noted your points. I can safely say that much of the work that HAB is working on alongside with the wider team are part of longer term roadmap. While they cannot always share updates on what they are working on you will see their voices and perspectives present throughout future launches this year.

Perhaps this is not entirely what you would like to hear at the moment, however, I can assure you that Hosts are being represented whenever the HAB is involved. 

[Laurelle3]

@Stephanie I would like to welcome @Till-and-Jutta0 to the Host Advisory board as Till is the only name that I recognise from the list of other hosts named from the community forum pages. Along with meeting him on the community forum zoom meetings and I am sure he will continue with his positive approach and advise on any issue.

Welcome to all the other host joining the Advisory board.

[Till-and-Jutta0]

Hi @Laurelle3 and all!

Being a Host Advisory Board member in 2021 was very moving for me. My 17 colleagues and I worked on a lot of topics and it was very interesting to get to know the different perspectives of the global community. I am grateful for everything I have learned that year as a Board member and for the voice I have been given. We discussed many topics and influenced company decisions, amongst them the huge area of Belonging, Covid Safety, Community Initiatives (such as sustainability and community funds), Marketing Initiatives and Host Empowerment (such as pet fees, AirCover, customer service updates, reviews, cancellation tools).

For those of you who don't know me already through my community works on the various forums, besides improvements in host diversity and representation, and the hot topic sustainability, my personal focus is directed to “good hosting” with host empowerment and education plus listening to hosts including an improved feedback system and an arbitration board for unsolved support issues.

Airbnb already helps strangers quickly feel at home, and this war is showing more than ever before how important Belonging and inclusive travel through host education is.

I am really happy to be one of the 24 members of the 2022 board again, to advance the host issues and to serve the community.

[Helen3]

@Till-and-Jutta0 

Would you be able to give us a summary of what work has been carried out by your group since you were appointed  with outcomes in terms of any changes that have been made, particularly what work has been done around these areas. 

1. Hosts having their listings suspended automatically when a guest registers a safety issue, particular issues like CCTV where it is clear the host has met Airbnbs T&Cs for notifying guests about this on their listings

2. Revenge reviews - Airbnb refusing to remove what are clear revenge reviews when a host complains about guest behaviour/damage

3. Host concerns about Airbnb Guarantee process

It would also be good to understand @Stephanie  how new members of this advisory group were recruited. What critieria does Airbnb use to select hosts to be a member of the advisory board. 

[Quincy]

Hi @Helen3, HAB members are chosen due to their tremendous contributions in Host community programs including engaging in the CC, Host Clubs, ambassadors and others.

I hope this clarifies. 

[Quincy]

Hi @Till-and-Jutta0! Glad to have you with us in 2022 as well! 😃

[Till-and-Jutta0]

Thank you – and all the others in the many forums which I follow – for sharing your thoughts and ideas! You can be assured, that – “sitting at the table with Airbnb” – I (as well as my HAB colleagues) keep all the subjects and issues in mind when we are asked for our advice, and even when we express our thoughts and concerns beyond the many sessions.

Maybe I just have been lucky that until today I didn’t need the host guarantee or the new AirCover personally as a host (knocking on wood). As a community leader and a person who is interested to read the host (and guest) stories and discussions, it is interesting to see a growing number of positive experiences with AirCover. I have no statistics, but the reports saying that AirCover is working much better than the previous host guarantee give me some hope.

I know there is still a lot of work waiting for us. I personally think the most important topics are sustainability, diversity and belonging. In this world of war and destruction, kindness still exists.

[Mark116]

@Till-and-Jutta0   With all due respect, I have to disagree that 'sustainability, diversity and belonging' are the most important topics for the Airbnb community. 

Far ahead of those utopian ideals are things like anti-short term rental legislation, poorly trained customer service staff, enhancing safety measures for guests and hosts and increasing usability of the web site.  Airbnb has not done a great job on any of this real world critial issues, and should probably work on improving in those areas as a priority.

[Till-and-Jutta0]

As a community leader in Baden-Württemberg Germany I know very well the challenge to find fair STR rules for all sides. We are inviting politicians to our local meetups, visit them at the city halls, and talk to them in order to give homesharers a face and voice.

And I know many of my colleagues do the same. I’m really thankful for this tremendous voluntary community work, which they do for free. Whenever needed, Airbnb provides us with help and advice. Whoever is willing to support this community work, could look on https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Get-Local/ct-p/en_clubs to find and join a local host club.

And I personally think, that belonging - during this time of escape and displacement and - is more important than ever.

[Mark116]

@Till-and-Jutta0  My experience is different. 

Jersey City's government went from a positive welcoming relationship with Airbnb, in fact a  model of how Airbnb/city government relationship could work,  to within less than 2 years,  installing numerous mandates that limited STR to owner occupied dwellings.  That's a huge failure of government relations.

I saw firsthand that Airbnb's grassroots/community outreach response was disorganized in the extreme.  We would get emails about city council meetings with only a few days notice, sometimes only 1 days notice.  Not a single one of the email messages we ever got included the email/phone/twitter/contact information of the relevant local officials or any boilerplate messages that hosts could use when contacting the mayor or city council. This is like Grassroots 101 level stuff that was missing.

Instead, Airbnb apparently spent all of it's money on an ad campaign which failed to sway the voting public and the anti STR referendum passed.  Given that they had already lost all their legal battles with New York City, losing again in Jersey City was a huge failure of both strategy and execution.

[Sarah977]

@Till-and-Jutta0  What about one of the basic issues for all hosts which hosts have been complaining about for years- the constant revamping of our hosting pages, which become mmore and more difficult to navigate with every pointless change.

Why do we have to search for the monthly calendar view, for instance? Why is there not just a line in the menu which says "monthly calendar" to click on? Why does getting to that calendar require clicking on the name of our listing to the left of the monthly calendar, which is completely non-intuitive and no one would ever figure out on their own?

Why has Airbnb not listened to all the posts here saying the changes to that  calendar are terrible and it's very hard to read for anyone but young  people with great vision?

Why are programmers designing the hosting pages and always fiddling with them and changing things when they have no idea what works for hosts? Why are they not being advised by hosts?

We still have zero idea what the HAB is working on, but "launches" are not how we need the HAB to represent us. We need things fixed which don't work for us as they currently are.

[Stephanie]

Hi @Sarah977 ,

We've talked about this before but for the benefit of any viewing the thread - changes, fixes, new products etc all the things that the HAB are consulted on for their representation of the Host community don't always happen immediately or even launch at all. Part of any product roadmap (for any business for that matter) is accepting that most things don't make it to market.

This can be due to legislations and laws specific, not just the territories it's launched in, but around the medium as a whole (sorry to share a UK link but there's some great reading on how online reviews have to be handled, for example https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-reviews-and-endorsements-advice-for-businesses/onl...).

It can also be because along the way the product changed to a degree that it no longer resolves or answers the reason it was being created for so has to go back into development.

And then there are small rollouts or pilots where the product/service can be put into Hosts hands and both the user behaviour data and Host feedback can be reviewed to better understand the real world application.

As it stands, Airbnb does not make public what products/services are currently in the pipeline for several reasons - managing the Host community's expectations with what a product can and should do before it is finalised, ensuring we are prioritising any products/services to fit the whole user bases needs, and ensuring we are able to be adaptive as a company as unexpected things emerge that need support. This also means @Till-and-Jutta0 , Host Advisory Board members, and indeed many of our CC community that have attended our Host Workshops, are not able to always share as much as they want (no matter how exciting what they are working on is!) 

The same goes for us, your community management team. 

Thanks!

Stephanie

[Sarah977]

@Stephanie  I'm sorry, but hosts have been complaining about the constant pointless changes and increasingly user-unfriendly design of our hosting pages for years and it only gets worse.

I beg to differ- fixing this state of affairs has nothing to do with it taking time to make changes- it has to do with ignoring host feedback.

[Stephanie]

What may seem pointless, may have an increase on usability, or a positive impact on Hosts finding and using a tool more successfully, for example.

This is where it would be amazing if we could start to share more information that shows, quantifiably, the impact of updates. Currently, as far Hosts like yourself @Sarah977 see, is a change for the sake of changing things.

[Mark116]

@Stephanie  I would love to see data on a quantifiable positive impact to various updates, because from my perspective, I don't see that the vast majority of changes have improved functionality from the hosting end. 

I very strongly suspect that Airbnb has made some changes in the last year that have decreased functionality from the guest end because I have problems with guests replying to messages and being confused that 'request to book' is the same as booking that never happened in previous years.

There have also been some really crazy things that went live, like the template that asked guests during the review process if they felt unsafe [now gone], and it beggars belief that any host would have seen such a screen and not raised a red flag about it.  And the same goes for Airbnb's idea that hosts should be hosting 5 infants for free and 5 pets for the price of 1....these things are even now 'live' and it's again hard to understand why any host would think that a guest bringing 5 infants and 5 pets should not have to pay for it.

[Huma0]

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@Mark116 wrote:

@Stephanie  

I very strongly suspect that Airbnb has made some changes in the last year that have decreased functionality from the guest end because I have problems with guests replying to messages and being confused that 'request to book' is the same as booking that never happened in previous years.

---

@Mark116  I have also noticed this. Guests used to (in general, at least) understand the difference between IB, request to book and an enquiry, but I have had numerous instances in the last few months where they had no idea. I've had people instant book thinking they were just enquiring, then asking me to decline the request when they had already booked. I've had guests IB and then send me questions about really important stuff, stating that they would 'pay' once I had answered. I've had guests who think that repeatedly sending me enquiries about whether the room was still available, without any attempt to book it, mean it was reserved indefinitely for them.

While you used to very occasionally encounter a guest like this, it used to be very rare. Now it happens all the time. When I have in recent months looked at listings from the guest perspective, I myself have found the booking process (I mean how it is presented) as extremely confusing. If I didn't already know how it worked, I would have no clue.

On another note, there are sections of the listing that we as hosts are required to fill in, yet they are mysteriously absent from view from the guest's side. I used to be able to tell my guests where to look for certain information on the listing but now it's a minefield. Not only does it keep changing (well, that was also the case), but some of it is so obscured (why is the 'you must acknowledge' section now under the 'read more' about health and safety, which frankly no guests read, for example?) or simply gone...

[Mark116]

@Huma0   My two biggest issues are people who Instant Book and then disappear, right up until I have to have Airbnb track them down the night before their arrival.  once these people had finally responded, again, the night before or even the day of their arrival, 100% of them expected to check-in hours before the stated check-in time.  In the past, that was practically the only benefit of IB, is that guests were shown prominently the check-in and check-out time so you could be reasonably sure they didn't plan to arrive 5 or 6 hours early, now they do.

The other issue is guests who make a request to book and then disappear, seemingly thinking they have actually already booked the place.  So they don't see or answer follow up messages, which now we have decided this year to ask guests to confirm they read and agree to the rules is a problem .  The last request we responded in FOUR MINUTES from the time of the request with our standard XXX we're happy to accept as soon as we back from you XXX and still  had to decline because the person never responded until after we declined them.