Got my Good Conduct badge, but

Well, I was pleased to get my SH badge as the last badge I won was my Birdwatcher’s Badge in the Girl Guides! And at least my husband was impressed …

However, I don’t think it’s going to be much use to me. We only host from mid-May to the end of September so there was quite a short time available to attain SH status, particularly as the majority of our guests stay 1 week or more. What I’d like the definitive answer to from you clever people is: since we will not be having any guests for the next six months will we lose the badge? Presumably, since the review period is quarterly the answer is yes? And yet the Air website specifically says

hosts can gain, keep, or lose their Superhost status based on their activity within the last year.

So, colour me confused …

Following on from this, would it be better to snooze/deactivate (and what is the difference?) my listings or keep them up but block all the dates until next May?

I can’t answer what the best strategy is if your goal is to keep the badge.

I have high and dead seasons, and I also list on multiple sites. So it is 10 bookings within a year you have to have - and (I believe) half those guests need to leave a 5 star review?

I was superhost for a very long time and was stripped of my badge last semester - the reason was because I didn’t meet the 10 booking requirement. So like you - many of my bookings through Air can be a week long stay - unlike some places that have an average of 1 or 2 night stay max.

But this semester I was reinstated and I barely, barely met the 10 booking requirement (by several days). I think it will likely last me through end of Spring though. It’s when winter time comes and not many bookings come through (overall) and maybe one or two will be through Air …is when I start trickling off the 10 bookings requirement. So when summer time rolls around I might be demoted.

I don’t doubt that Air will use the Superhost designation as a means to charge more to those who don’t have it.

Obviously because someone doesn’t have superhost - doesn’t mean they are not an excellent host. But someone who is always dinged on location or value (just because) will never achieve it. Also, people who use Air as just one of many places to list - or only during off season - they may likely never achieve it. I foresee this silly badge as just another way to extract more income by trying to force hosts to reduce their rates (get a higher value rating) or try to force hosts to accept their flimsy cancellation policies and post all available calendar dates with them

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I don’t think I said I was worried about it … I just asked if someone could tell me definitively how the system works. And I wouldn’t know whether or not it gives me an advantage, having only had it for two days! I understand it can give you a higher ranking in the searches and that would be useful for me since I’m not in an area of our city that most people would be looking at in the first instance.

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@Malagachica You can get SH in Malaga!?!?! We can’t in Barca bc of the ongoing legal issues. I naively thought it was all of Spain. I am beyond jealous!

PS- are you Malaga during the winter or do you retreat back to the UK? I will be in Barca for the next 3 months, maybe I will pop over.

I only have bookings for about 3 months year. I do have more than 10 bookings in those 3 months. Then nothing for 9 months. I get to keep my superhost status all year, and as long as I have 10 bookings and good reviews, I seem to get to keep it.
The badge is good for one thing: I can say that I have never canceled on a guest - and airbnb supports that claim with that badge.

The description isn’t a contradiction :slight_smile: I actually think it’s intended to allow for hosts who have to close for certain seasons (I’m one of them). I just got my superhost this week and I’ve already closed for the season.

So if I understand correctly, they reassess us in three months’ time and count the previous year on the whole. If you, in the next three months, get no poor reviews and cancel nobody, then your status should not change, ie, I see no reason why you shouldn’t still qualify. You will still meet the criteria they set out for the past year on the whole. As should I.

Hi Azreala, no, each autonomous region sets its own policy on this. Andalucia set up theirs this May and although the paperwork was a bit onerous (what? really?) it has gone through reasonably smoothly and we are now legal. It’s quite a relief actually to know where we stand. I know things are tougher in Cataluna, though …

We are in Malaga most of the Winter except for a week or so over Christmas and actually we’re in Cape Town at the moment until early November! Do come and visit - we don’t rent the flat in winter so you’d be welcome to stay - come and see the spectacular Malaga Christmas lights!

Thanks @jumoe and @eliel, that’s the information I was looking for. The “stupid badge” may not be worth much, as @Robert_Dudley insists, but I might as well have it as not …

Do you snooze your listings out of season or just block the dates?

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wow. that kinda sucks. I was looking at the airbnb stats for myself and says that I needed to lift my game basically because the other properties in the area are getting higher reviews. Well yes I agree with that. They all have new houses, many mansions, high end furniture etc. I am a little beach cottage set in amongst it all. I don’t try to compete, so I wish airbnb would not generalise and tell me I a bottom of the ladder in this little game. I am not. I am proud of my little 3 bedroom cottage and shack next door. They book well almost all year round. Phfft airbnb.

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We have a touristic permit, so wr have luckily avoided legal issues. However, its a bummer that ABB somehow blocks SH in Barca. (If you set up a hosting account with Barca as the first listing, you cabt be a SH. Many people have listings outside of Barca and therfore have the SH badge)

Once I get my schedule sorted I will message you, I would love to pop down! We are headed to Cape Town over NYE to visit friends.

I have actually disabled my listing, because I got a rude shock 2 weeks ago when someone booked Christmas. The problem being that I had previously locked the dates out on my calendar, and when I looked to check what had happened, it had spontaneously changed a setting from “I want guests for the next 3 months” to “I want guests for the next 6 months” - an option that I could not have selected as the 6-month setting did not even exist at the time I blocked out the dates.

I cancelled it in a panic then realised it would wreck Superhost assessment, so I called AirBnB and they removed the cancellation penalty from my account as they couldn’t be sure it hadn’t been a glitch by the system.

But anyway… I am now too scared something else will mess up and land me another booking at a time I can’t host (there is a permanent resident in place for the winter). It was already disabled when they gave me Superhost, so I think it’s fine.