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The Airbnb superhost designation is sure to get you one thing: A $100 voucher which can be used on booking an Airbnb. It has to be used within a year and if you book a place for less than $100 you lose the leftover but other than that there is no catch. Since I travel using Airbnb that is real money to me. Aside from that SH doesn’t get you anything.
Given Airbnb’s emphasis on using the internet I wouldn’t be surprised if snail mail to their corporate offices goes directly into the recycling bin.
Get over yourself, being a “superhost” is nothing other than an automated “attaboy”.
On the other hand, I wrote an angry email to Bill Gates in 1987, and he responded with a lot of crap that we (in my office) all laughed about. The printed out version was blu tacked beside the lav’ for years, mostly as a reminder that he suggested we buy a few shares in his company…
I was just looking at Google to see if I can find out what percentage of hosts are SH. I think that it’s pretty hard NOT to be a superhost if you’ve been in business for a few months, have never cancelled on anyone and get reasonably good reviews and star ratings.
I’ve said here before that superhost is a bit like getting a gold star on your chart when you’re five - a minor but meaningless motivator.
So the percentage of ‘proper’ hosts (full time, not hobbyists) who are superhosts is probably really high.
Anyway, a quick search of Google didn’t tell me but I did find this site which was interesting.
It’s a small group — researchers say only about 7 percent of hosts are Superhosts.
I’ll play – of the 110, some are new, some are intermittent (only listed for special events), some are lousy hosts, some or a lot have had the inevitable squirrelly guest mess them up.
Here’s an interesting analysis though over a year old. I think it’s really interesting that they say SH have significantly higher occupancy and revenue. That certainly contradicts my idea that it’s not worth much outside of the travel voucher.
If you have a high-end whole-house property, it can be hard to get and keep SH status. We have a large house in a vacation destination that we rent out in its entirety, and we don’t get a lot of bookings from AirBnB - too expensive for many AirBnB “shoppers”. We get great ratings but just don’t get enough bookings to meet the threshold consistently. Bottom line is that we get booked through VRBO before most AirBnB travelers even start planning their trips.
I’m not really sure what a 'high-end’property is so I don’t quite know what difference that makes. But the last time I looked (admittedly not for a while) SH needed only ten stays in a year.
I don’t work more for less money…regardless of what the total will end up being…nope! I’ll take my 30% occupancy rate at rates I can live with…and keep raising them as well.
It’s not ideal for guests to move your stuff around! They could have least put it back , but hey-ho some guests just don’t think anything of it!
Going forward I guess you have a couple of options:
See it as feedback and maybe move the trophies (art is art so people will just have to deal with it if it’s not to their taste)! However, trophies are quite personal, and it might be wiser to keep them safely stored elsewhere.
Make sure the room is pictured as it will be when they arrive. I agree with others, it’s odd they booked your place if they weren’t keen on the decor! Make sure pictures are clear and maybe even add a video to your listing so potential guests get to properly look before they book!
I had a delightful 90 day rental guest, who due to a military service related brain injury he was a bit odd.
He pushed all furniture against the walls so the ottoman was against the wall beside the couch, the dining chairs were against the wall in a row beside the dining table, etc. Nothing including the coffee pot was on the kitchen counters.
However he left the unit clean & in great condition and left me a wonderful Van Gough Iris reprint because he noticed some of my artwork was classic artist reprints.
He paid his rent on time, the condo was left in good shape, and he had paid a huge price for our country so I didn’t mind putting everything back.