Losing my superhost status

[Maria188]

After nearly 10 years as a superhost with over 100 5 star reviews and exemplary stats (100% 5 star, 0% cancellation rate, 100% response rate), I am about to lose my superhost status. Why? Because I gave shelter to someone during the covid pandemic and they are only just able to move on.  This means I have only been able to host 7 stays rather than 10 over the past year as only one of my properties has been available , and of course, business is still not back to pre-pandemic levels. I have tried to explain this to an Airbnb supervisor but she told me that, although she agrees with my situation, neither she not anyone else within airbnb cannot override the algorithm.  Does anyone have any suggestions? I feel I am being penalised for helping someone.  Should I have kicked out my tenant and made her homeless in order to keep my superhost status?  Surely not?! 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Maria188 

You can meet superhost criteria in one of two different ways, depending on whether you host longer or shorter stays:

10 completed stays between Apr 1, 2021 and Mar 31, 2022

- or -

100 nights over at least 3 completed stays

so, if the person you gave shalter booked through Airbnb then you wouldn't lose your SH status.

On the other hand, almost every lost status is due to something out of the host's control - either it was revenge review from a fraudulent guest, or the host got sick, or the property get damaged in a flood or earthquake or hurricane... and the listing has to be paused for some longer period of time.

Don't worry, you will get it back in 3 months

[Beverley107]

This hasn’t been the case in my experience. I lost superhost status last year because I had to put one of my properties up for sale. I gave the guests 7 months notice to find an alternative and offered them my second property. I was fined for cancelling and was told by an Airbnb staff member that I shouldn’t have given the guests so much advance notice. Business has been quiet over winter but despite 99% 5* reviews, my superhost status has not been reinstated. 
I’m becoming quite disenchanted with Airbnb

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Beverley107 it will take a year for the cancellations to be removed from the superhost stats.

[Sarah977]

@Maria188  If it's any consolation, there are thousands of hosts about to lose their long-held Superhost status on April 1st. Why? Because we are home share hosts who normally share some common spaces wirh guests, who consider our health during a deadly pandemic to take precedence over meeting Airbnb's number of stays criteria. 

My last guest checked out in early March 2020, and I closed to bookings after that as Covid had reared its ugly head. I just opened to bookings again, and my first is not until the end of April, so as Airbnb has reinstated the number of stays criteria without any consideration as to home-shares vs. entire homes, I and thousands of other home-share hosts who care about not spreading a highly contagious disease will no longer be Superhosts.

Apparently Airbnb actually caring about not being a party to spreading Covid only extends to guest safety, not hosts'. So guests get fully refunded if they claim they got a positive Covid test, hosts have to adhere to the largely pointless enhanced cleaning, hosts get their listings suspended if they do what they feel is the responsible thing in either reporting that their guest, or they themselves have  Covid, and home share hosts who feel the responsible thing for both guests and hosts is not to host while Covid is still an issue are penalized by losing their Superhost status.

[M199]

@Sarah977 

Thousands to lose SH?  I would respectfully, think,  globally, tens of thousands of SH, if not more.

[Sarah977]

@M199  Probably. But as I don't know how many home share hosts closed because of Covid (or because of local Covid regs preventing them from hosting), I was trying to err on the side of being conservative and not being accused of exaggerating. 

I might check to see if I can find the stats on how many Superhosts there currently are compared to how many there are after April 1st. 

Kinda like assessing Covid death rates by looking at the excess death rates. 

[M199]

@Sarah977 

Agreed, earlier this year I tried to figure out how many will lose SH, if I recall I mentioned it previously or asked CC Admins.  Since I never got a response, I gave up.  Maybe the lack of response says more than any other response from Airbnb.

[Sarah977]

@M199  I just did a pretty extensive google search and while I can find articles and blogs which mention anywhere from 7-19% of  hosts with Superhost status, I can find no actual official stats anywhere. I'd conclude that Airbnb doesn't want anyone to know that info.

[M199]

@Sarah977 

Agreed!!!!

[Julia943]

I lost my super host status in April because I'd had more than 1% cancellations. But that's cancellations by my guests, not me! Why am I being penalised? I have superb reviews, I always go above and beyond, I really work at being a super host... and now I am going to fall short again at the July review - because other guests have cancelled. I am getting less business (and it's my main source of income) which I assume is because I am no longer a super host. If I had made the cancellations, I could accept it, but this is beyond my control. I'm really gutted about this situation as it's so unfair.

[Pat-And-Bar0]

I feel you! A guest came knocking on my door at 0800 wanting to check in although check in is not until 1500. I told her the room is not ready for another 2 hours because i'm washing and cleaning sheets from a previous guest. She didn't want to wait so she said she is cancelling the reservation. Because she canceled the day of, she mentioned partial refund but I called Airbnb right away and told them to give the customer a full refund. After everything was settled, I get an email from Airbnb that I just lost my SH status I didn't quite qualify for Superhost status during this assessment period. But that's okay, I'm sharing my home to help travelers not to be recognized.  

[Loren2879]

I am I the same situation,  lost my superhost status during COVID. I was told "not to worry because everything else looked great", I just didn't have the 10 nights. I've worked hard to stay healthy, keep my guests safe, hosted someone for the entire month of April and still lost my superhost status. AirBnB needs to go back and review their policies. 😡