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We just joined Airbnb Plus - photographer came and took brand new photos and also verified we met the long list of requirements (exact number of towels, matching dishes with no cracks and on and on.) The idea of them verifying our listing was good, but…
They walk you through creating a whole new listing, particularly the photos. In the end they select the photos and you have no way to change or add, only delete. A prime example of how this isn’t ready for prime time is the photographer took a great photo of the garden (our listing is called Garden Retreat after all). However it is also a picture of the garden shed. Guess what Airbnb chose as the cover shot that appears on the listing - the garden shed of course! I have to tell guests that they’re not getting what’s in the photo!
There’s no way for us to modify, substitute or fix this. As for the special, expedited support you get as an Airbnb Plus host, you get to wait while your urgent request is elevated to the “onboarding team”. We’ve been waiting a week and haven’t even heard back despite multiple calls/chat sessions. The first line support people are as frustrated as hosts are… We are a garden retreat, and every review mentions the gardens, yet they took out all the photos of the garden. But right now we just want the cover to be of the unit, not the shed!
It begs the question - if Airbnb wants complete control of the listing, why aren’t they paying me rather than charging me to take over my listing?
Will leave the program if it’s not fixed. Writing to Chesny next. Just a warning to have these issues answered before you consider this program.
Did that - no posts about the issue I raised. In fact I couldn’t find folks that were in the program as opposed to those speculating about it. Sorry but I tried lots of search terms. Let me know what to use. I’d love to see others’ posts who’ve had a similar experience. Thanks.
You are probably right. Those few of us who read virtually every post remember things that we can’t always readily find again. @HH_AZ just posted about his experience maybe he will chime in.
Thanks for those links. The process took months actually, but they went live without giving us a chance to review their final changes (like the garden shed cover photo)…
Be prepared to wait much, much longer than one week for a response from support! We contacted them on 9/21/18 because their main photo of our listing is of our patio in summer. I want them to change the main photo to one of the interior (that is not seasonal) so guests don’t find our listing inaccurate when the patio furniture is not there in fall and winter.
Well, we still have not received a response from anyone in Plus support, only apologetic replies from CSs in main support. And still no photo change.
On the “Plus” side (pun intended), we have seen a dramatic increase in bookings into December which we anecdotally attribute to having the Plus designation. I’m super annoyed with Air though for their total lack of support.
Thanks - good to know someone else is out there though not good to hear about their responsiveness. It would be nice to see that booking increase, though we haven’t seen that yet.
I’m sorry … I don’t understand quite well … After you join Plus you are not able to add, sort, delete photos?? That’s a big CON for me … I consider myself a quite good interior photographer and I’m never happy with the results of other interior pro photographers that came to my space. Are you saying that I won’t be able to upload my own photos and delete theirs?
That’s exactly right. Only photos taken by their photographer are even available, and Airbnb chooses, not you. The only option you have is “assigning” them to the correct room/space or deleting them. Our garden shed is our cover photo and they will “consider” changing it (have to appeal to a higher level though). They want us to send the one we want instead, but it has to be one of theirs, none of which show the outside of the unit. They won’t let us use the photo we’ve used for 2 years because the inspector/photographer didn’t take it…
Hmmm. Interesting (while I await The Inspector Calling, who’se late…). I wonder what happens if, like us, the original photos were done by a professional photographer at Airbnb’s expense. They sent someone in a week after we listed 18 months ago.
Well, that was a lead balloon all round. Nice bloke, in a rush, and spent 55 minutes here in total. He left saying all should be fine, didn’t ask me anything I would consider to be a verification process. He then told me that booking.com are pissed off with Airbnb, so are upping their game in the next few weeks, and will soon have a better offering for small in-home hosts like me. He was a host for three years but has given up on them because of website probs etc.
