You be as excited as you want to be, but to me their “copy/paste” is a red flag.
And you’re not discussing InnClusive - you’re encouraging folks to join - AND THAT’S FINE - but as a web professional I think my criticism is legitimate.
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Something I would really like is for Airbnb (or any other company) to make a change to the way guests contact us. As we saw in the “booking inquiries” thread, people don’t take the time to say anything in their initial request, and then some also refuse to answer questions in a timely manner. I have really had a problem with this, and have declined way too many requests that might have been great stays if the guest had only bothered to let me know the most basic of information.
Would it be so hard to make the guest fill out a short form with the following information?
Total Number of guests (including all children)
Pets
Time of arrival (approximate) (so hosts can gently remind them of check in times and availability)
Arriving by: 1. airplane 2. personal transportation 3. public transportation
If arriving by airplane: flight number and carrier
Personal transportation: will have own vehicle? Parking needs?
Public transportation: make the acknowledge they saw the distance to the public transportation that the host is required to put in their listing (so the host should also have a few requirements for their listing too)
Time of departure (approximate)
Airplane flight number and carrier if appropriate (so hosts can see if it’s 15 hours after checkout and recommend another day)
A checklist with maybe 5 most important house rules that they have to acknowledge
Special needs: food allergies, pet allergies, mobility, etc.
This sounds like a lot but a properly designed form shouldn’t take more than a few moments to fill out.
Can you image what a difference it would make if potential guests had to fill out something like this before they could even request to book? It would save so many issues with communication and location.
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Oh no, I definitely agree with you on it seeming like a copy/paste job. I was just looking at it again. I really hope that they make more adjustments. Yes, they need to collect and provide similar information, but the main pages are way too similar. They’ll be setting themselves up for lawsuits. Competition is great and filling an area that AirBnB is lacking is great and all, but differentiate yourself more than by being “inclusive”. I’m all about marketing to a niche though.
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Your sister is going to LOVE that you have signed up for Innclusive!
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YES!! The best comment of the thread!! 
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I know, I was thinking the same thing, lol. My husband texted me earlier basically saying “tread lightly!” I know I definitely won’t be mentioning “innclusive” in family conversations…
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On the positive side, I expect less competition from certain people, lol.
I hear you. You are right.
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I believe Innclusive is owned in part by Airbnb. But I am open to informed correction.
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Hmm, well that’s interesting. I wouldn’t be surprised though.
When I joined DogVacay, their website was so much like Airbnb I thought Air owned DV.
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An internet search of stories about Innclusive indicate they are competitors not collaborators.
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I thought that article was interesting. The main thing though is all these home-sharing sites are run and hosted by human beings. The benefit of competition and options is at least we hosts can list with the sites that better market to who we want to reach. And we’ll be able to be seen past competition that lists and discriminates and gives the site a bad name.
From the guest point of view, it is (or can be) a lot. I’ve sent chatty requests on Air and VRBO and waited hours for a decline with no chattiness back. One listing on VRBO never replied at all. I’ve had guests tell me they sent multiple requests and only I answered. Not every host is going to want the same info.
It’s not that I don’t see your point, but I’ve been through this with DogVacay, hosts wanting dog information required to be filled out before a request can be sent and DV responding that data shows the faster you can make an inquiry, the more likely to get a booking. They measure use on time of response, booking rate (% of new guest inquiries we convert to bookings), and repeat guest rate. Obviously there are some differences since most airbnb guests are one and done. Don’t be surprised if airbnb narrows the 24 hour window to respond to a booking request.
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I totally agree. A lot of this depends on where you as a host are located. Hopefully they do have a good option for created saved messages so that hosts can create their own preliminary message with the info they need. Since it sounds like they won’t even share photos until after a confirmed booking, I highly doubt they’d be willing to have that kind of info shared until after a booking is confirmed.
I got my LT renter at one of my houses precisely for that reason, even though I was $50 more a month.
This is also a good article – an interview with one of InnClusive’s founders: http://madamenoire.com/708036/airbnbs-discrimination-problem/
I’m just thinking that the airlines manage to get customers by asking these - and even more - types of questions. This is managing travel and making the best matches. You click on a few dropdown boxes and put in your basic information and the website gives you results.
I liked that too, but cracked up about “not looking for people just looking to make money”. Huh, that’s why we all do it, lol. The founder did comment on that in the comments section though and said it wasn’t to be taken too seriously.
I like how they intend to have the 24/7 chat feature always present!
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But hotels don’t ask for this info. We’re not a concierge service, we’re just providing lodging. I just want guests to be more responsible. If they were you wouldn’t need a quarter of that info.
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