Have all the private room hosts seen this update? I’ve met all of these requirements for the entire 7 years I’ve been hosting and feel it should have been the standard long ago. I do, however, disagree strongly with the fact that private rooms will no longer be searchable as such as many people search specifically for this type of environment. Or am I misinterpreting that?
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That’s not how I read it. How do you interpret this statement? “to be eligible to be displayed to guests as a private room on Airbnb – for example, in search, …”
Overall it seems like an improvement.
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This is great! At last, returning to the ‘roots’.
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“If your listing doesn’t meet the new private room criteria, you may want to select a new type of place that’s a better match. Your listing will no longer be displayed to guests as a private room in search filters or on your listing page. It will show up when guests search all listings.”
I think it was this paragraph. It looks like I misinterpreted it as being for all private rooms but I see it’s only for ones that don’t meet the criteria. Thanks for the correction.
Edit. Yes, it’s an improvement for sure. and should eliminate a lot of problem listings.
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Yes, I just got that notification today. I hope it’s a good thing- it seems like they will now stop listing hotel rooms as private rooms and the guests who like booking homeshares with a real onsite host will be able to find us more easily.
Homeshare hosts have been asking to be separated from these hotel rooms and what are essentially hostels for a long time.
So I’m hopeful that they don’t screw it up somehow, like they did when it seemed they finally listened to hosts asking for a pet fee to appear on the booking form, only for Airbnb to institute it as “Tell the host if you are bringing more than 2 pets” and only allowing the pet fee per booking instead of per night.
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It’s good news but what it doesn’t get rid of is hosts who rent out multiple rooms in a home and don’t live on site .
There is a host in my city who has 6-8 bedrooms in each house.
She lets out in four houses in my area and regularly gets very negative reviews between 3.5 - 4.6 with complainants about safety - front door and room locks not working properly, noise from other guests and cleanliness with dirty kitchens and bathrooms and poor quality furniture .
Yet Airbnb lets her stay on the platform .
Under their criteria she would qualify as she lists them under her name.
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“ * Because guests are sharing your home, it’s important that they know who their host is, so the listing’s Host must be a person using their own name. Business names and other names are not permitted”
I agree, those hosts are a problem that tends to give private rooms in general bad press. The above paragraph from the update stating that guests are “sharing your home” has an implication that you are there in order to share. Maybe they’ll enforce that, it would be great.
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Yes, and I’ve read posts from disgruntled guests who were given the impression from the listing that they were sharing the house with the host, only to find out that it was a hostel situation, where other guests were leaving the kitchen and bathroom dirty, talking loudly on the phone, or being raucous late at night, etc.
What this new private room thing should say is that spaces have to be shared with the host, not just shared.
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Continuing the discussion from Private Room criteria starting in May:
My question regards this criteria:
- The guest shares access to at least one or more of the following common spaces: bathroom, kitchen, or living room*
Is this to mean that if someone books a “private room” they “have to” have shared access to a space inside the house, like the kitchen or:
is it to mean the host has to state the private room means they will have shared space if the host only has one bathroom, etc.
I don’t understand your question.
The guest must have access to at least one shared space.
So, if the guest has a private bathroom (i.e., the host has more than one bathroom and a bathroom is private for the guest) then the guest must still have access to a shared space like a kitchen or living room.
So, is a Guest Suite what I should put down instead of a private room? It does have a microwave and a fridge, a private entrance and there is a door to the rest of the house, but is locked on my side.
Thanks for your assistance! 
Pam
I should add that it does have a private bathroom, with shower and tub. thanks
Airbnb says that you can list it as a ‘Place to Stay’:
If you want to be more specific there it also says that if you don’t meet the private room requirements but host a place to stay attached to your home:
I am going through the updating and can’t see anyplace to acknowledge there is a door on the room.
I really don’t plan on filling out all the fields in the profile (what high school I went to! worldwide guests - who cares!), decade I was born (age discrimination!), my most useless skill (? sounds like a middle school icebreaker!)
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Starting in May 2023, to be eligible to be displayed to guests as a private room on Airbnb – for example, in search, on your listing page and otherwise –
My listing has meet the criteria for a private room since I started hosting 6 years ago. Guests have access to the room, their own private bath next to the room, great room, pool, and limited use of the kitchen (fridge to store food, make breakfast).
Back to the roots for sure!
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Yes, those questions are ridiculous. Like what is this, TikTok?
I don’t plan to answer any of them. It says they are optional. I think they are just suggestions for those who are too dumb to come up with any profile info on their own.
They must have been the brain child of some 19 year old intern.
There doesn’t seem to be anywhere provided for this assessment to acknowledge that the private room has a door, or any of the other criteria. I assume that Airbnb is just going to glean these things from your listing info. And isn’t “Lock on bedroom door” on the amenities list?
Why would there be?
If it’s a bedroom or bathroom a door would be assumed; if there’s no door to those rooms I would prominently disclose that, though I don’t know that disclosure would protect you from a guest being able to cancel without penalty for no door there. The definition of a private bedroom includes that it has a door. So if you’re advertising a private room you’re communicating that the room has a door.
One would think so, but I have seen “Private Room” listings where the guest “bedroom” was some corner of the living room partitioned off with a curtain or screen. I think that is the sort of thing Airbnb is trying to kibosh and that scenario would now be in the “Place to Stay” category.
I have a friend who booked a private room listing, only to find out that the young couple who lived there simply vacated their own bedroom and slept on a mattress on the living room floor when they had guests. As it was necessary to pass right by where they were sleeping to get to the bathroom, my friend felt quite uncomfortable with the scenario (and all the couple’s personal stuff was in the bedroom- they thought it was okay to access the closet and drawers in there to get their clothes).
Although she had booked for a week, she told them that she didn’t feel comfortable with the arrangement and checked out after one night.
She said they were a sweet young couple, just clueless that listing a private room for paying guests isn’t like letting your mom sleep in your bedroom when she comes to visit, and she never asked for a refund.
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Does the name thing mean I have to say for instance, “Mary’s House on the Island”? Instead of House on the Island??!!
I was recently looking at Airbnbs in Boston (VERY expensive, BTW). There was one beautiful property, like $800+ per night – a whole house listing – and I was surprised to see full closets, lots of clutter, a ‘lived-in’ look.
The reviews were very positive but I was surprised to read in one that said (seemingly approvingly) the Host had to ‘pop in’ just a couple of times to retrieve personal items they needed.
Yikes!