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We have been a very successful Superhosts for over 3 years (and more than 150 guests). We host the old-fashioned way… with very personal attention and a room in our home with all of our common spaces shared. My husband and I are in our 60’s and don’t feel that we can allow any guests back into our personal space until there is a vaccine. That is likely to be over 1-2 years away. By that time we will no longer meet the Superhost requirement of having hosted at least 10 guests in the previous year. We can’t wait to start hosting again, and really miss the personal connections we have with our guests. Any suggestions for how I get the following question to the folks who might be able to answer it at Airbnb?
“What provision for retaining our Superhost status will you make for those of us who host in our shared spaces, but because of age and/or underlying conditions, will not be safe to host until there is a vaccine?”
EDIT: Several responses have suggested that I should not care about my Superhost status. I care VERY much about my Superhost status because without it, my listing would appear WAY down on the page. We have a lot of listings here, and most guests would not even open it to see all of my excellent reviews. It would likely take me a very long time to achieve Superhost again, let alone get to the level of occupancy that I previously enjoyed.
I can’t see them making special rules for defined groups of hosts as everyone wants to maintain the superhost status. they may just extend because of to huge injury that has occurred due to the virus. So far they haven’t done anything that is predictable…
Your prior reviews would still be there and it seems like they would speak for themselves in terms of getting bookings when you resume. With your experience and track record, it would take you only 3 to 6 months to regain Superhost status again, depending on when you re-list relative to the start of the assessment period. Still, I don’t think it’s worth all that much. I didn’t see any real difference when from before I gained Superhost to afterward.
BTW, from what I can tell, if you had at least 10 guests between January 1 and March 31, 2020, you will keep your Superhost status until March 31, 2021 even if you un-list.
Brian_R170, My slow period is Nov/Dec/early Jan and my last guest was early March due to the Pandemic, so, no, I didn’t have 10 guests the first quarter of 2020. In fact I didn’t have 10 guests the last quarter of 2019. So does that mean I’m good only until the Nov. 30, 2020 assessment?
I agree with you. My wife and me are both in our 70s. We take the same approach with guests. My wife and our daughter-in-law have breathing problems and can not take the chance someone might bring int he virus. We have been self-quarantined for six weeks.
I don’t know how to protect the status during this time. I have wondered if Airbnb will just change the rules on how to get it. By simply letting everyone keep it who had already earned it for say, a year or two, they could avoid having hundreds of people write and call to complain about losing it or to ask for other special dispensation. And if you are a superhost but not hosting it wouldn’t affect anyone who is hosting so they would have no basis to complain that you had it and they didn’t.
Sorry to say there is probably no good way to get your message to anyone at AirBnb with any authority to do anything about the subject of retaining Superhost status as we, eventually, get this Covid thing under control with a vaccine.
We have had a long-term tenant in our house since the end of May 2019. I just checked our AirBnb account and we are still Superhosts, to be reviewed at the end of July 2020. So it looks like you may get at least a year before superhost status goes away.
This is not true. See the following on this page in Airbnb’s help.
Superhost: While the Superhost designation doesn’t boost a listing, the factors that earn you Superhost status do.
Edit: It’s worth mentioning that Superhost status previously did provide a boost and that is why a lot of hosts still think it still does. However, the listing boost for being a Superhost was removed several years ago (some time in 2016, I think).
Unless Airbnb makes changes, you’ll lose during the assessment where you hosted less than 10 reservations within the previous 4 quarters. They did waive that specific requirement for the 2nd quarter of 2020, but who knows what they’ll do going forward.
They are waiving it for the July 1st assessment as well. As a home-share host, I hope they waive it for a year, because I won’t be hosting anytime soon. @atHomeinCary It’s July1st, not the end of July.
I’ve posted in other threads about how I had to let go of caring about Superhost. As much as I pride myself on being a good-old-fashioned on-site (super)host, I have more important things to worry about right now, like seeing my family through the next few years. Humankind is facing an international crisis.
Before coming to terms with losing my Superhost status, I tried contacting AirBnB three different times (through the app and social media) to ask how I could preserve Superhost given that I not able to host. Unsurprisingly, I did not receive a reply.
I know this is not what you want to hear, but I think you’ll be happier if you lower your expectations from AirBnB. I’m not certain that AirBnB will even survive the next two years.
I was never a superhost up until recently and I do not think being a “regular” host impacted my bookings - I still had a high % of nights booked at a competitive rate. I don’t think it’s all that valuable but I was excited to see if i noticed a difference once I got it. Unfortunately, the COVID situation began right as I got SH status. I will lose it before I host again.
Are you both a guest and a host? I have been a guest and SH made no difference to me in choosing a STR. I was more interested in location, reviews, features, size, amenities… I could care less who I rented from, but looking back, that probably wasn’t the smartest thing in the world. I could have been one of those people who got to the house and it was a closet. I am thankful there are other people like me or I never would have gotten a booking! Interestingly, a lot of my bookings were guests with quite a few reviews - so even seasoned members will pick a place without a SH.
OK. I see what you’re saying here Brian, and that page you linked to is valuable. In truth, I don’t care nearly as much about being a Superhost and I do about where I show up in the search listing.
HOWEVER: One thing about the info you cite, though (and this could be splitting hairs) is that even though “While the Superhost designation doesn’t boost a listing, the factors that earn you Superhost status do”, is that if the factors that earn me Superhost ARE a factor, then not having had guests for a couple of years actually could bring me down in the search listing. In other words, Superhost, per se, does not change a listing, but the contributing factors do…so it’s pretty much the same result.
In any case, no one knows how this is all going to play out. Perhaps a miracle vaccine will be discovered by the Fall and we can all go on with our lives. I was just hoping that someone could point me in the right direction to get someone over at HQ to start thinking about this.
Right, which means even if you keep Superhost status, but no change is made to the search rank factors, then having or not having Superhost status wouldn’t affect your search ranking at all. What you really want is to ensure that your search ranking does not decrease because you didn’t host any reservations for a long time. Unfortunately, Airbnb doesn’t disclose all of the factors or how much those factors are weighed, so we don’t actually even know if not hosting for a long time will hurt a listing’s search rank.
However, anecdotally, there are hosts that swear blocking off dates for several weeks, snoozing, and un-listing causes a lull in new reservation requests when hosting starts up again. I experienced this as well when blocking off over 2 months of my slow season, but my search rank was not affected, so if it’s true, it’s not due to search rank.
I block off 2 months in the summer when I go to Canada. I’ve definitely seen my search ranking plummet when I do that. Whether that’s due to simply blocking off dates (I just love how when you block dates, Airbnb sends messages about “Unblock dates so guests can book” as if we were in the date blocking business, rather than the hosting business- if we block dates it’s obviously for a good reason), or because I didn’t get new reservations for that period of time is anyone’s guess. But I know that Superhost doesn’t help my search ranking, at least in any significant way. Even when my dates are open, there are listings above mine of non-Superhosts with lower ratings. But they use IB, which I don’t, which is the one major search ranking factor.
It’s not just about finding a vaccine but having to put it through a robust testing process before it can be released onto the market. I think you’re been rather over optimistic in thinking vaccine will be on the market by the autumn they normally take 18 months to develop, test and release. @LisaHS
Your superhost status or lack of it will have very little impact on your listing ranking what is more important i would say are location, reviews, photos, ratings whether you offer IB.
I ask every guest what factors make them choose my place only two in hundreds have mentioned my superhost status.
I am thankful there are other people like me or I never would have gotten a booking! Interestingly, a lot of my bookings were guests with quite a few reviews - so even seasoned members will pick a place without a SH.