Airbnb Plus - Dont Do It

[Elizabeth24]

I, like many of you thought I needed to go on plus to get back at the top of the listings bc I was getting buried under the plus listings. So I got approved and very shortly realized it was a bad idea, I’m still looking for that “leave Airbnb plus” button. The photographer that comes is under very strict guidelines of what they can photograph. So he missed 50% of the things that make my rental unique and desirable and that people comment on most. I was there during the shoot, so I told him what additional photos I wanted. He was very reluctant and did some of them, kind of, in the way Airbnb wanted - aka only full room shots from a straight on angle. Then, when your listing is put up by them, they are the ones to pick the photos used - not the owner. Which is nuts, bc the owner knows the space best and what the guests gravitate to regarding the listing. Not only that, you can’t move the photos around in different orders and they chose the cover picture - of which was a ridiculous choice in my case. Oh, and they want you to re-word your whole new listing rather than transferring over your old and allowing you to make changes - much easier. (After several emails they finally got it and somehow transferred my old descriptions over - not sure if they’ve made that standard yet.) On top of that, in my listing in general, I tended to under promise and over deliver naturally. Guests were always surprised by the unexpected touches and amenities. Now, bc its a plus listing I feel like I am having to over promise and am under delivering - even though I’ve changed nothing. Everything is the exact same as before except these guests come with a new set of expectations and more entitled attitude. Not to mention, I didn’t even raise my rate when I changed to plus so it’s not as if they are paying any sort of premium for their heightened expectations. So, if that wasn’t enough - I went from being booked 28 days last month prior to plus, to getting 2 - 2 day bookings - after being on plus. My guess is bc they dont pick the most alluring cover photos. By the looks of it, they default to a bedroom shot. My kitchen, living room are way more beautiful and appealing to the average guest. And last but not least, guests used to leave reviews immediately, without me ever asking bc they were so excited and in love with their stay. They were communicative when they got there and it was an actual pleasure to host them bc I knew they were grateful and loved my home. The few plus guests I’ve had... radio silence and no reviews. Oh, and I’ve rec,d more spam/ annoying questions from random people that put in a fake set of booking requests just to ask me questions or try to wheel and deal than ever before. Anyway, I preferred the early Airbnb days of humble house guests who felt the community of the experience, who were grateful and gracious - rather than the snobby guests plus attracts. Bottom line, don’t feel bad that you are not plus. Just keep being a superhost, pick your best cover shot, and reply quickly and you will make your way back to the top. Plus has been a headache and killed my bookings by 80% ... still searching for that dang button.

[Guy-and-Gaby0]

We are trying to leave Airbnb Plus but the link doesn't work and Airbnb is not helping us at all.  It has cost us many bookings.  All of our other lodgings book very well on Airbnb but this one and is our best apartment.  The photos are terrible and many of them are incorrectly associated with something else.  We have found the link but it does not work.  They advised us to go to another browser.  We are using Google Chrome, the most used browser today and also they advised us to use our laptop/desktop which we are doing. Nothing works. Has anyone else had this problem?

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Thanks

[Inna22]

Thank you for taking the time to post! I do see kitchen as your first picture. Your home is incredible 

[Elizabeth24]

Thanks! Yes I just found the “leave Airbnb plus” button tonight actually after I posted this. I had to update the app and it showed up. So I was able to have it revert back to my old listing with my kitchen at the front  🙂

[Toni173]

Hi Elizabeth - I've recently become an AirBnb Plus host when they invited me to join for free. At the time, I was not a Superhost and had only started hosting in November 2018. I now qualify but have to wait for the next review. 

I am thinking of leaving AirBnb Plus too as whilst my views have increased, my booking/enquiry rate has dived. I didn't get any enquiries or bookings for several weeks. I wrote to support telling them I was thinking of leaving and they must have done something in the background as all of a sudden I got 4 bookings in one day. I've had another one since. It looks like they dropped the $1 so it ended in a 9 - but then again it's different again now so I'm unsure what's happened there.

Another frustration I have is with the photos - whilst their nice photos, they don't allow you to add area/location photos. While my apartment is lovely, I think my location is even better. In fact most of my bookings are from people who have lived in or visited the Manly area before and don't want to stay too close to the centre. Previously my main photo was of the boatshed below my property where we leave a kayak and I think this appealed more than the Plus photo of a chair on the balcony. I stupidly thought the Plus listing was going to be a separate listing and my old listing would stay up. I also didn't read the feedback here before I went ahead..... I've also had several guests say they find the Plus site hard to navigate. One booked before I switched and told me she never looks at Plus properties because when comparing like for like properties, the photos appear as the main feature and she likes to read about the properties and what's included, etc. 

Can you tell me if you leave AirBnb Plus - can you switch back at any time? Do you think it might be best if I hang in there until I qualify as a Superhost? I struggled finding my listing before as all the Superhost listings appeared first - the same frustration Superhosts seem to have with AirBnb Plus :). I'd appreciate your thoughts - I won't blame you if it all goes pie shaped.....

[Elizabeth24]

Thanks for sharing your feedback! Very interesting regarding the jump in bookings after you called with your concerns, I wonder what that’s about... that seems especially scary if they have that much control over your ability to get bookings or not. I have to assume that was just random coincidence bc if not I will lose all faith in the ethics and integrity of Airbnb and I’m not quite there yet with them, still giving them the benefit of the doubt that they will come out on the right side of all of this soon. 🙂 

What are you meaning regarding the $1 and the 9? 

Regarding my advice to you, I think you are in the unique position of the group that plus may be helpful for - the not yet superhost group. Bc in that case, it is actually quite hard to get visibility. So I would probably just hang on until you can get Superhost bc Plus is probably going to be better for you than nothing. Although from what you are saying it hasn’t helped, I would say that theoretically it should be at least a smidge better than nothing. I believe you have to reset everything up with plus if you opt out and decide you want to go back. They just told me “it wouldn’t be easy to come back” if I chose to leave, not exactly sure what that thinly veiled warning meant, but I didn’t really care to press that anymore bc I knew I wanted out and wouldn’t be coming back.

But I will say this... as I mentioned in my previous post, my rentals prior to Plus were fantastic with hardly an open day in a month, but during the plus they went way down, but now that I have quit plus my booking have remained way down as if I’m still on plus.  This has really puzzled me over the last month and makes me really wonder, now that you say you called up and then you randomly got 4 bookings, if they have some way to manually manipulate the algorithm when they want to. I would really hope testing plus out didn’t mess with my search visibility but I’m seriously wondering about this now that you share your experience. I was already planning to set up on vrbo this weekend bc others I know that have both Airbnb and vrbo get 85% of their bookings through vrbo. I never thought I needed another booking site bc I hardly had an available day on my Airbnb calendar... this was, until I went on plus and then quit...

Keep us posted, this is all beneficial info to older and new hosts alike - we are all in this being affected together! 🙂

[Toni173]

Sorry @Elizabeth I was being a little criptic, basically my property appeared on the search page as $180. At the time I got the 4 bookings, it appeared as $179. It is now $181 so I'm not sure if it automatically changes daily or weekly? I hadn't noticed this before. I just wonder if it meant that people search for properties up to $179 per night or $180+ and I therefore appeared to more searches?

AirBnb Plus came back to me with "As this program is new, the exact results are still unknown, but the number of bookings isn’t expected to decrease. The program was designed, in fact, to help your listing get more attention and to increase your earnings." They then went on to say not to adjust my price drastically - although I thought people were happy to pay more for a Plus property! They also sent a link so I can give feedback to their Operations team, which I will do. When I queried adding location photos, they mentioned their requirements around photos may change as they learn more about what helps hosts succeed.....let's hope they do.

Anyway I've found this forum very helpful and will continue to monitor host feedback on the AirBnb Plus program until I make my decision.

I will stay with AirBnb Plus as suggested at least until I become a Superhost. My listing was near impossible to find and didn't even appear on the map prior to Plus but I still managed to get bookings somehow - I think it was because it had a big red NEW in the corner when it first went up. Anyway, I'll stop speculating why these things happen - I am curious though. Thanks Elizabeth for your advice.

[Luisa252]

Hi Toni,

Have your bookings increased since joining airbnb plus?  Has the program met your expectations? 

Obrigada!

Luisa

[Kat27]

I am a Plus host for quite awhile and all seemed fine, except for those dang pictures they take, until recently or I should say the last couple of months. I noticed my bookings have gone way down, so I recently did a search, as if I were a traveler to my area. If I added no filters to the search and just my location. My listing did not even appear. When I added the filter “ private room,” which is what my listing is, I still did not appear. It was only when I added the Superhost or Plus filter that my listing appeared. It would seem to me that as a Plus Host or Superhost my listing would appear in all searches for my location whether or not those filters were added to the search. It feels as if I’m being punished for being a Plus host. I certainly don’t believe that all travelers would know to add the the Superhost filter when doing a general search for an area. I’m I missing something here? I’ve reached out to Air regarding this. 

[Robin4]

@Elizabeth24

Yes Elizabeth, you have summed up pretty well what almost all other plus users who come here are saying.

And from what we are hearing it no longer cost $150 to be considered for inclusion in the Plus program....they are giving it away for free now to try and entice hosts to come on board.

The company are shooting themselves in the foot here by fragmenting their hosting base. The main issue for hosts is the sense of heighrachy has been totally lost! You forgo that wonderful past you have built up to get lumped in with listings like this lot......

Being in the superhost category meant something it gives guests a sense of security that the host knows what they are doing!

Four listings above with a total of 13 reviews between them.....how exactly have these hosts been verified as having a proven hosting record? I host more guests in a month that this lot combined have hosted since going live!

I congratulate you on a nice listing Elizabeth and I hope you can salvage something from your current position!

Cheers......Rob

[Elizabeth24]

Amazing capture there, that is crazy! You’d think that with the numerous strict criteria that it takes to have a plus listing, at the top would be having hosted “X” amount of 5 star stays - as it is with the Superhost. Agree that being a superhost should be enough for someone to have confidence to book with nearly all the “amenities of plus”, ie. clean, well appointed etc etc - otherwise their reviews would show it, no need to separate us again. And the separation between the two can be as trivial as not having as fast an internet as they require. For me, my internet was the fastest available with my current carrier at the time, so I had to completely change my phone company to appease this program. But it didn’t seem to bother the 200+ happy guests I’ve had. Airbnb  just simply has their priorities mixed up with this program and it hurting both the non plus and plus hosts and hopefully they will realize this soon. Before I came on here tonight,  I thought I was alone in this but happy to know I’m not 🙂 Thanks Rob

[Kathleen1]

Rob, thank you for posting that!  

Airbnb completely lied to me on December 15 2018. I had 5 perfect reviews for the last quarter,  but due to the issues with Airbnb, I have been moving away from Airbnb and I am finding it easy to get private bookings. They told me that I would receive Plus if I got 4 more stays with 90% 5 star reviews.  I was booked in December with a private booking.  

I am glad you confirmed that they company lied about getting more bookings......Plus is whatever Airbnb decides they want it to be. 

[Doug-And-Diane0]

We went through all the Hoops with Airbnb Plus and were accepted. We declined when we found out we were losing control of the photos. Since then, we have not received any bookings on Airbnb. We finally called them and they said they are checking to see see if there is a bug in a bug in their system. We had our son-in-law and my sister, who is an Airbnb super-host look for our listing with specific criteria that we gave them. They could not find our listing at all. We don't know if this is somehow related to our declining the Airbnb Plus or what. We expressed a fear of losing our super-host status because of lack of bookings.

[Koral1]

@Doug-And-Diane0

We are in a similar place with one of our listings and I'm wondering if anything has improved for you?  We haven't opted out yet, but we have postponed the Plus listing going live until we can figure out the picture situation (they've said we can supplement with our own pictures).  In the meantime our apartment which is usually booked to 90% occupancy hasn't had a booking in ages.  Makes me wonder if we're being punished for not upgrading to Plus?  Hoping you guys have gotten things worked out!