I’m curious: if his “facts” state that 72% of the problems are with CS and 22% with scams, why doesn’t he use anecdotal evidence to support these issues- which are shared by guests AND hosts? Because outlier-or mythic- stories about vomit and pot are click-bait, which is the main purpose this piece.
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The author missed a key point. Airbnb is a listing platform. To refer to a rental as an Airbnb as a Airbnb property implies ownership. Everything he mentioned can be said of any/all listing platforms.
Oh well, I read it.
I mostly agree with the writer. What the article doesn’t cover is why this has happened. I feel that Airbnb’s greed and 10% of the bad guests have ruined it for the 90% good guests.
- Airbnb prefers more expensive listings. Less than perfect listings by hosts with lower ratings have been kicked off the platform. The quirky & affordable listings by part-time hosts are fewer in proportion compared to corporate listings.
- Hosts were earlier doing it for fun. Until they get a problem guest. They quickly realize the costs of cleanup and the hassle and decide to raise the prices, and hire professionals.
- Initially some hosts provided amazing service and the early guests hold everything to that same standard. If it doesn’t meet that standard then they provide low ratings. As a result, hosts have to make everything perfect aka expensive.
- There is no room for errors, guests are allowed to threaten to leave bad reviews to get their way. So you end up having to hire professionals. Guests don’t want to wait for responses, so hosts need to hire co-hosts to help out and that increases costs.
- The flawed review system compares an affordable property to a luxury hotel. Affordable listings mostly get pushed down the list due to lower ratings to a point where guest don’t see them. No bookings and eventually the host feels it’s better to long term rent out that property.
- There is no easy way for guests to sort by rating and price. Filter, yes. Sorting no. I can do that on hotels.com
- Unnecessary burden on hosts to respond to all inquiries within 24 hours. Their own support falls well short of that standard.
- They prefer more bookings even from people who could be problem guests. That increases the burden on hosts, who respond by increasing rates to account for the risk.
These are the ones that come to my mind.
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This simply isn’t true. I stayed in two listings last year in big cities (Denver and Nashville) that were under $80 a night for one person. The one in Nashville definitely falls into the quirky category. As an Airbnb guest doing searches I find these listings regularly. I know you’ve had a bad experience with your lower priced listing but aside from that, why do you believe this to be true?
What?
Have you ever used Airbnb as a guest?
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that’s the response rate you get measured on. No?
I do have a work around to the response rate thing. I send a canned response which doesn’t address the guest’s question.
I have stayed in multiple Airbnb since 2010. Not sure what you are getting at.
Ok. You are right. If you want to find them, you can find them. But they make up a smaller proportion, and rarely show up on top.
Nope nope nope.
11 years as a host, had some less than stellar guests, but the experiences never made me see a need to ‘hire professionals’.
Indeed, at this point, I see myself as more ‘professional’ than a self-proclaimed pro. And I am still ‘doing it for fun’. AND making a living at it.
I still provide amazing service. it is what professionals do. If you are finding it hard to maintain quality in your listing, sure, find someone who can help you. Or leave the platform - we long haul hosts prefer that the airbnb experience continually climbs, since that means that the guests we have look at airbnb as a high quality platform, and not a ‘cheap’ way to stay.
Errors happen, guests who threaten bad reviews are kicked off platform (extortion is specifically mentioned in the TOS - you should read it, btw); and no, only hosts with bad ratings get ‘pushed lower’ - a high priced airbnb is pushed low if the rating are bad, it’s never about $$$s in this case.
I only speak for myself, but when I go on this forum I hope that I do not see these blanket proclamations (like the article and some of the generalizations you make here). I prefer, myself, to see posts that are respectful of all…
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There is absolutely nothing unreasonable about expecting a host to respond within 24 hours.
When I use Airbnb as a guest I search first for IB properties so I don’t have to wait for a response to know my booking is confirmed. Honestly, if a host can’t respond to my request within 24 hours it’s not a host I want to stay with anyway.
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The response time (in general terms like “within the hour”) is stated on a host’s profile and that’s something a savvy guest might look at, especially if it’s not an instant book listing.
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I’m on instant book and get most of my bookings from people who IB. The majority of inquiries I get are “is this available”, “can I bring a dog”, “can I get a discount”.
I don’t want to host any of the people who send such inquiries, so responding to them doesn’t help my business.
I send them a polite canned response to keep my response rate high.
So for me, the requirement to respond within 24 hours is a burden. I see that others don’t view it as a burden.
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There are ways to get to the within an hour response rate without having to respond to the inquiry.
Sure.
I’m not your typical Airbnb guest. My exhaustive searches have always resulted in a good stay. I’m particular and Airbnb doesn’t make it as easy to find the kind of places that will be perfect for me. So my criteria don’t have to be taken to heart by every host. I’m reading every line of text, the entire profile, looking at all the pictures and captions and reading many reviews and response. With a host like my last host, a room in his house with 785 reviews at 4.96, I can probably safely skip a few reviews.
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How?
20202020202020202
I don’t know what the answer is from houseplants but mine is you use a service like hospitable (used to be smartbnb). It can be set to automatically send a message to any question or inquiry you get. House plants may be referring to something else.
Yes - the question was for House plants. And it still is a ‘response’, right?
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This is not my experience. A guest threatened me with a bad review. I reported her to Airbnb and she was not kicked off. Airbnb does not always care about enforcing TOS. They are selective about enforcing it when it suits them.
So I negotiated a cancellation with her for a refund. I lost some money but no damage was done to my reviews or property.
Exactly. The rating system is such that it favors high-priced listings. Because guests typically equate high-priced listings to luxury hotels (five stars). Something equivalent to a 3-star hotel gets a 3-star rating and gets pushed down in search rankings.
My higher-priced listings get much better reviews than the low-priced ones. I plan to convert my low price listings to higher-priced ones as that’s the way to be successful on Airbnb for me. It means more fees for them.
That is NOT what I was saying. I was saying good airbnbs get good ratings. And guests do not equate expensive = good. Yes, folks who are not ‘worldly’ may see a high price and think that the price signals the quality, but these folks are called, as we say in the hospitality business, 'marks, or 'fools…
I hear your bitterness and hear your consternation that folks are not ‘overlooking’ the shabby rugs etc and giving you good reviews ‘despite’ the ‘obvious’, but seriously, did you think that you would find commiseration amongst folks who work hard to make their airbnbs saleable and usable, in a wide range of types, places, and prices?
You have been advised many times already that it is up to YOU to please the guests, and how to do it.
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Not my experience. I have a small private room, private bath listing, priced for budget travelers. The room and bathroom are rather unique and always squeaky clean, but there’s no bells and whistles. Guests share my kitchen with me. I’ve gotten consistent 5 star ratings.
And what’s this nonsense about having to hire “professionals”? First of all, hosts who have been running their Airbnbs for years are professionals.
No guest has ever tried to extort me, no guest has ever demanded a refund, no guest has ever caused damages or stolen anything. I have never had to contact Airbnb about an issue with a guest, not ever in almost 4 years of hosting.
And I have zero problem sending personal replies to inquiries within a few hours, max.
Your hosting experience and conclusions seem not to be the norm here.
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I can’t say this. I’ve even chirped on this forum that especially summer 2021, I had some of the best guests ever. My problems have been minor compared to some of the horror stories out there. @muddy You are doing something right.
About response times—I’ve automated many responses (too many; I’m deleting some now) to be either pre-written or scheduled. If I take more than an hour to respond, my first words are “I apologize for my late response… followed by the real reason:
I was driving so for safety’s sake waited until I was stopped to respond.
I was assisting my 89 year old dad and he doesn’t take well to me “playing on that damn phone”. 
Ive been thinking about this—do you have Airbnb communication preferences set up to send you a text when a guest messages you? If not, you may want to set it up. It helps.
My rental is very reasonably priced. I’m a mile from the ocean. I get good ratings.
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I don’t do the text message as I use a different phone number than my cell number on Airbnb. I do have the app and I get notifications and then I select a saved reply from quick replies.
I wish I could separate the notifications from inquiries vs. confirmed guests. Right now I send a canned message that doesn’t address the inquiry and then archive the item so I don’t have to look at it again.
I would rather spend my time on the confirmed guests so I can increase my five star reviews and get more IB guests.