Due to the housing shortage, state agencies are now using Airbnb and other short-term sites to house the homeless and mental ill. I believe this is dangerous for home share hosts because we live in the property and share spaces. We offer housing accommodation and not social service needs this population may need. They usually require/ask for extra attention mentally and physically etc. They are usually more needy/care than typical guests. Whole house accommodations should only be used to house them instead of home shares with host and families…This is a risky situation for all involved. I had a recent guest say “I am not a good host for the homeless and wouldn’t recommend me” smh…
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We don’t allow third-party bookings so that’s not a problem for us.
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Neither do I. They receive a debit card with funding on it and book themselves. I have on instant book. They tend to book with me rather than my White competitors. They are the worse type of guests. I am not a half way house.
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Suggest you remove instant book. As a homeshare host since 2016, I have never used IB. I want to be able to vet guests who are sharing my home.
I agree this is an unacceptable thing to foist on homeshare hosts. But if the guest gets a debit card and books through their own account, the only way Airbnb could block these bookings is if the debit cards are identifiable as being issued by Social Services, and even if they are, I can’t imagine Airbnb blocking them, with their “non-discrimination policy” and all.
That review- it actually might be great for keeping the homeless from booking. Blessing in disguise.
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Amen!
2020202020202020
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I’m a bit confused regarding this. Did the guest say YOU are not a good host for the homeless, or were they referring to themselves? 
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Yes, the guest said I am not a good host for the homeless. The guest smoked in my room space and on my property. Airbnb paid out $200 for extra cleaning. The guest said they smoke weed for pain management as a homeless disable vet. The guest didn’t see a problem with their action about violating my house rules. As a Black woman host, I get many guests that are homeless and mentally ill because they feel comfortable with my color. However I am not a half way house or offer help for their needs.
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I was booked by government agencies during a flood emergency.
These were not good guests as they had no skin in the game
THEFT, DAMAGE, UNAUTHORISED PETS, REFUSED TO LEAVE
Never again
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Also, I don’t think Airbnb does very extensive vetting on these “disaster victims”. I think some of them claim to be made homeless because of floods or hurricanes or fires or tornados, but aren’t. Same when they were housing critical care workers during Covid. I remember reading posts from hosts saying they were supposed to be housing some emergency worker, but they showed up with their whole family, who behaved as if it were just a free vacation.
Seems like people who really are victims of a natural disaster would be very appreciative of being given a temporary place to stay, regardless of whether the govt. or some agency was paying for it, not take advantage of the situation.
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I’m confused. You said this.:
“Due to the housing shortage, state agencies are now using Airbnb and other short-term sites to house the homeless and mental ill.”
But now you say that they are not - that you have guests that use their own debit cards. It appears to me that guests are choosing where to stay not state agencies. mCan you tell me what you meant??
Oh wow. Thank you for raising awareness about this, I’m a new host and I had no idea this was going on. My first few weeks I didn’t realize how Instabook worked, I’ve since turned it off and the quality of guests has improved. Still though, there are some truly bad apples on the platform. I hope Airbnb mitigates this.
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Airbnb dont care! all they want is the commission. Eventually the rose coloured glasses will fall off…
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One thing to understand as a new host is that Airbnb is not your “partner”. As @Debthecat pointed out, their profits are their primary concern. And they consider hosts to be expendable- there are always new starry-eyed hosts to take the place of any who leave the platform.
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Agree with both of these replies, their processes are horrendous. The quality of the customer service agents is ghastly. The agents are clearly in some horrid boiler room in the Philippines, it’s difficult to hear and they have no ability to reason through the case. In their defense I suspect they don’t have access to the documentation. Altogether surprisingly poor quality experience, it makes sense that the stock hasn’t performed well.
I really don’t think the quality of Customer Service for hosts is affecting the stock performance of this corporation.