Have any of you seen this? Do you plan to participate?
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I won’t be participating because I’m “blocked” for a direct booking anyway. But if I weren’t I’d be willing to “strike” in solidarity with my fellow hosts.
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I would totally do that.
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Done. And I snoozed my summer only rental entirely.
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I snoozed as well on the idea that they can see the metric for snoozed listings. Maybe it has no effect but I did what I could.
If anyone else wants to know how to snooze, here’s the instructions.
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Already completely booked out on all 4 listings due to the flood events here
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Why are some Hosts doing this? Airbnb treating Hosts like dirt is hardly news. Anyway I know how much they value us because I keep seeing their lovely “Made by Hosts” tv ads we paid for.
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Already booked for those dates and won’t cancel people. That is prime time here. I suspect this may not gain enough traction to cause the intended reaction with Airbnb. I think that they really consider hosts replaceable except in their highest demand markets.
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Nope.
Correct.
Indeed.
As far as we’re concerned, Airbnb is now a junior player amongst the channels we use to obtain bookings. I don’t like the way it’s changed over the years, which is just my opinion and to be honest, none of the changes they’ve made have really affected us. It’s more the attitude towards hosts that I don’t like.
New hosts are simply cannon fodder and sign up without really knowing what they’re agreeing to and expect Airbnb to have their back at every turn. We see it all the time here:
Help! Guests have turned up with ten extra bodies and are having a party. Airbnb are on coffee break, what should I do???
To those who are participating, you’d be far better off looking for another platform if Airbnb isn’t for you. It’s a bugger for in home hosts, their options are somewhat limited, and on the basis Airbnb (to a certain extent) created this sector, maybe you’re stuck with them, until other OTA’s decide to seriously tap into that market.
JF
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What specifically are hosts objecting to? I’ve read the new policy changes and sort of feel like most of it already was happening and I never trust Airbnb To backup a host vs a guest.
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Two troubling components
72 hours to complain & receive refunds
Host must pay is guest re-homed due to a cleanliness or other problem with the rental.
For example: guest claims bed bugs. Instead of Airbnb finding guest a different accommodation & cancelling current while refunding unused days, airbnb will back charge the original host if the new rental is more expensive
Here is a link to a more detailed explanation of the issue around refunds https://vrmintel.com/risky-business-using-airbnb-for-bookings-just-got-even-riskier-for-vacation-rental-owners-and-managers/
It is what we in the banking business call “a race to the bottom” or “churn and burn”.
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Thanks. I had a feeling that might be it.
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For the 72 hours to complain, my welcome note asks if everything is ok and as expected. I think in the future, I will add to my house rules that they have to respond to the question.
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As for other issues, I’ve started to video tape the suite with a program that date stamps the video and then I post it to a Facebook page that I created to store these video. (I did this because I need an easy way to store the files without taking Space. I even lift up the bedding and show that the mattress is encased in a bedbug enclosure and that there is no bedbug poop in the mattress pad.
I realize it’s not fool-proof but I think if you let the guest know that you have the evidence to shut down their claims it will help. Yes, it’s more work for me but we do what we have to do.
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@KKC , @Christine_Shirtcliff The strike is to snooze your listing for those dates so guests have fewer options to book. The possible financial impact to you is the loss of bookings that might have occurred during those days, not stays.
That is a more work but I think very smart of you. Storing it on a Facebook page is even more brilliant.
While I agree that this would help, we don’t have to do this for other platforms (like Vrbo or direct). My housekeeper has a hard time with email - there’s no way she’s going to be able to make videos! I’m going to have to hire someone else - so my AirBnB prices just went up - and I shortened the availability window. No way am I putting Christmas week on AirBnB!
There won’t be any financial impact to me since I’m direct booked for the month. But I went ahead and snoozed for the target days on the speculation that metric would be visible to Airbnb and they might not cross reference to see who is blocked then anyway. Like lots of political actions, it’s symbolic, by itself it doesn’t do anything. Just like other strikes, sick outs and walk outs.
Airbnb is for me. I’m just doing this as a symbolic gesture of solidarity. Just like my Black Lives Matter sign. LOL. I don’t want to list on another OTA, and I don’t want to pay for a channel manager. For my kind of listing Airbnb is the only way to go. But for the people with whole homes who make tens of thousands a year and who can easily book on VRBO or Booking dot com, I agree that they should leave.
I agree that I think it’s much ado about nothing. But I like the idea of trying to pushback. Maybe like the extenuating policy snafu of 2 years ago, Airbnb will make a change.
What pushed it over for me was the response of the Global Head of Hosting for AirBnB. She responded to hosts’ criticisms with the suggestion (guidance?) that we list everything that might be less than absolutely perfect about our homes in our house rules to make sure that guests’ expectations are aligned, then used the example of a leaf in the pool. It clearly shows that she has no idea of real life or the realities of hosting.
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She also put forth the erroneous notion that guests wouldn’t be refunded for frivolous things, only legitimate issues, which also shows how clueless she is about all the refunds the CS reps give out for not only frivolous, but manufactured issues.
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