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I think they do it by region.
AirBnB is still a tiny player in our area.
The market for management companies is dominated by BDC, HRS and some very region specific players like Belvilla.
If AirBnB wants these companies to list on their platform, they have to get in line with the other OTA’s.
What Xena and I offer is not like an Austrian B and B. I looked at a few listings and they were all rooms in a guesthouse type listings. For my city there are zero listings in the homestay section of BDC. That’s not to say I could never get a booking on BDC, just that it’s no competition for Airbnb for my kind of listing yet.
I’ve not seen your Airbnb listing, but from what you’ve described on here I suspect you could list it as an Apartment. In our area, the Homestay category rarely has more than a few listed any time, no idea if that’s because they’re always rented or there are only those three or four listings. They do seem to have plenty of reviews though, so maybe it’s the former!
JF
This is a strange reasoning pattern.
Because there is no competition on BDC, BDC is no competition for AirBnB.
Especialy because there are no Homestay listings in your area on BDC this is a huge business opportunity.
I am listing my homeshare rooms on booking (beach area) and in my very particular market, that is where the majority of the reservations are coming from.
I did have to plaster the ‘we do B&B’ …this is a ‘shared space’ all over the photos to make it more than clear it is not an entire + private apartment for peanuts.
Homeshare can pick up some slack, especially if you get a few reviews and it did one year quite nicely.
I took a quick peak and HomeStay looks like a good option for those who want to rent a furnished guest room on a month-to-month basis.
I searched my own city and found three guest rooms that were listed as “dormitories.” From the pictures, they did look like bedrooms i,n a house. I expanded the dates and was getting hotels instead.
I’d be open to listing on another platform if it is clear to guests what type of space they’re renting, but I think there is potential for confusion right now. I don’t want someone showing up thinking they’ve rented an entire house. I’m at 80% capacity from AirBnB so I don’t think I’m leaving money on the table–least not enough to be worth learning a new platform’s policies, paying for a service to sync up my calendars, and dealing with cancelation fees if I accidentally get double-booked.
However, if AirBnB eliminates our ability to review guests, that may be what finally drives me to list elsewhere. Or just go back to what I used to do: find month-to-month tenants on Craigslist. I’ve also considered hosting exchange students.
The opportunity is there for another platform to embrace the model Air started with - home stays in real homes.
I always follow up any reservation with telling the guest what they have actually made a reservation for, e.a. a room with a shared bathroom. I learned this invaluable tip on this forum and it’s really useful: It causes some hassle, but it also saves me some trouble.
The last one that caused me hassle was a lady enquiring about one of our rooms with shared bathroom. She wanted one night in probably the most important week of the Latin-American year, easter:
She: “Are you in the tourist zone? And is it a private bathroom?”
Me: (Just read the 
listing and look at the map.) 
“We are super central in the tourist zone, in probably the best possible location. The room you enquired for shares a bathroom with one other room, we do however have the (X) room with a private bathroom. Follow this link (link)”
Three days later she reserves the room with shared bathroom.
Me: “You have made a reservation for 1 night for 1 person in the (Y) room with shared bathroom from…”
She: “I want the room with private bathroom!!!”
At this moment, after she shouted (!!!), I already didn’t want her as a guest anymore unless it was worth the money, so I upped the price to $US 90 for the (X) room with private bathroom. We realistically hope to get US$ 70 for that night, but $US 90 for a room that our last guest called a 5-star hotel isn’t exaggerating either.
Me: “Hi, you have reserved a room with shared bathroom, but would prefer a room with a private bathroom. This is no problem. You can cancel this reservation for free and make a reservation for the (X) room with private bathroom through this link (link).”
I know that I can do a change of reservation, we do it a lot, but as stated above, at this point I didn’t want her as a guest anymore.
She: “And how much would the other room cost me?”
Me: “To know the exact price, you will have to enter the following link (link) and put the required dates in the system. We use a dynamic pricing system that continuingly adjusts price to demand, and also AirBnB adds a percentage to the total that is unknown to us.”
I guess that at this moment she FINALLY opened the link.
She: “It says that it’s US$90!!! That’s an outrageous price!!! I don’t want the room anymore and I want my money back!! Thank you… but US$ 90 is exaggerating! I want to know when you will return my deposit.”
Me: “According to our cancelation policy you can still cancel for free. Shortly after AirBnB will return the amount paid. You will have to cancel, as AirBnB doesn’t permit us cancelling without punishing us for it. Thank you for understanding.”
Lots of hassle but in the end I think we dodged a bullet. Who starts screaming at you for a reservation they made themselves after being informed really well about our listings?
If I hadn’t already been booked almost every available day problem free for the last 2 plus years I’d consider it. I just don’t need it. I’d love a pure one host, one home type site. I don’t want to go towards the hotel model.