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Your situation may expose a flaw in the system. With such long average stays, it would be nearly impossible to obtain, as it requires 10 trips in the previous 12 months. In all honesty, the target market of the site is not necessarily those looking for such extended stays, so, this is probably why hosts who take on such long bookings aren’t a target of the program. Still, I’m sure you’re glad to have a source of customers and they’ll gladly collect the commission on the stays.
The most noticeable benefit is placement in the search results, but people searching for such long stays probably wouldn’t find too many listings open to accepting them anyway. Another claimed benefit is more rapid access to a customer service agent, but they are quick with responses anyway. If you keep the status for a whole year, you get a coupon toward a stay in an Airbnb as a guest.
That is not possible… because the most of guests don’t want to tell you face to face…they don’t care your goal and your superhost…they think only what they get.
Superhost is meaningful when it comes to search engine rankings. That translates into more eyeballs which translates into more bookings at the price point I want. It’s also a good way to measure whether or not my property is meeting the expectations of my customers. I definitely saw an uptick when I made Superhost so, for my situation, it’s valuable.
I don’t agree it does not take a lot of effort to keep people happy. A warm welcome into a clean home and clear rules. See our listing and maybe read our reviews which will show it is possible. Takes a little effort but it works. We have been super hosts consecutively for the last 7
I completely agree. I am also a superhost, for three seasons now, and I really regret I started going the extra mile to please the picky guests I attracted!! I’m gonna loose the status next season and I feel both disappointed and relieved…
I’ve been SH for almost a year and I didn’t notice the difference when I qualified. However I saw an increase in bookings after they add the Super host filter. I think being SH counts when you don’t have the best of locations, but maybe the Sh status confuses guests about location. I always got a 5* on location until I become SH. I think it might make some guests think a SH listing means a super location.
I agree with author 100%.
One guest gave me 4 and 3s , and when i asked him why, what did he find so bad that he gave me 3 on overall experience. He said, my sheets were not high quality. I asked him if he realizes that he paid half of what the cheapest motel in a neighborhood was that night. He said, yes, but nice bedding would make a big difference. I asked him again if he realizes that if he rents a motel 6, he can not expect bedding and comfort the same as In Sheraton.If he rents a room in someones house for dirt cheap, the last thing he can expect is high quality sheets.
Mind you, my sheets are all 300 counts. They are not bad or terrible quality, they are just not the highest quality. I also told him that he really brought my rating down by his review and that his demands are totally unreasonable.
His answered was for me not to take it personally and that he never gives 5* to anyone.
Some periods I’m super host, sometimes I’m not, guests have never commented on it.
One thing I did get airbnb to do, is to stop sending me emails saying I “got demoted” from my super host status.
As I said to them:
“I am not interested in getting a messages telling me I was kicked out of a club that you never asked to join in the first place!”
The cancellation thing seems like a particularly demanding aspect of being a SH. As I understand it, if you cancel once, you lose SH status for at least a year. Harsh. Though (also as I understand it) you can plead extenuating circumstances. So cancellation due to the death of a relative may be forgiven.
So, a followup question for people who’ve been Superhosts in the past. What is the most common reason for losing SH status? Is it just that sustaining 80% 5 tar reviews is very difficult? Or does the reason vary?
For me personally, I think SH status would be useful to improving visibility. I’m currently at 4 5 star reviews. I’ve currently got 7 reservations before 1st October, though mostly short stays. So, if they don’t cancel, and most of those guests are not psychos or lunatics, I might hit SH status on 1st Oct or whenever they get around to updating.
I’ve checked, and Bombay only has 40 rentals listed under Superhosts. Some of those people have multiple rentals, so the total number of SHs is well under 40. Possibly around 30. This is out of 1200-1500 rentals (my guesstimate) for Bombay. So, yes, that would be a pretty effective filter. Assuming people use it, which they probably do.
While the SH program may have looked marvy when AirBnB set it up, it does have one moronic aspect, the one were you are not ‘allowed’ to cancel anyone, ever. That is absurd, If someone that booked starts sounding like an exhausting nutcase after having booked, I will personally have no hesitation to cancel them and be right back to ‘SH Purgatory’, with pleasure.
I think there are some clever ways to get people to cancel so you don’t have to.
Like explain there will be major contruction under their window for the period they are visiting “hope thats ok” “but if you want to cancel, I totally understand”
