Travel agencies taking advantage of sharing community

[Debby-And-Kevin0]

I've just read a request (on another thread) from a travel agency in Croatia that complains about her 800 properties not being easily searched, and she wants better search capabilities. I know I'm not alone in thinking that this is above and beyond what airbnb should be allowing on its site. If you agree that airbnb should make some sort of ethical decision on this situation, please give this a thumbs up and copy/paste on other message threads. Should airbnb deny travel agencies, property managers, and off-site hosts to list on the same platform as on-site hosts? 

[Maria-Lurdes0]

Hi @Debby-And-Kevin0

An interesting question - but how do you think Airbnb grew to be a (multi?) billion dollar company?   It wasn't only with hosts renting out their spare room.  

I'm a multi listing host, so I have some interest in this conversation.   Airbnb needs inventory, and frankly, they aren't too picky about how the inventory gets to them.   The days of this being a small sharing economy start-up are long gone.    I think that there's room for all kinds of listings and all kinds of hosts/owners/property managers, etc. to exist.   As long as the guests are treated right and the listings get consistently good reviews, I'm all for it.   I'd like to see Airbnb actually clear through listings where a calendar hasn't been updated in six months, or has lower than a 3 star rating, or drop hosts with less than a 70% response rate.

[Debby-And-Kevin0]

Greetings, Maria. I hear you on how airbnb has changed, and realize that there's no going back on owners with multiple listings.  What I would like to see is differentiation for on site hosts vs. owners with multiple listings/lock boxes/property managers. The experience is completely different for guests and should be highlighted in the guest search.  What are your thoughts on travel agencies being "hosts"?  I've seen your advice on other posts, and it is solid. Thanks for sharing 🙂 deb

[Maria-Lurdes0]

I wouldn't be opposed at all to a differentiation in the search.   They are starting to make some headway in this regard, as they now ask in the listing description to indicate if the listing is Your Home or a vacation rental (can't remember the word they use).   I used to be a live-in host, and in fact, our first house that we affectionately refer to as "house 1" was a shared space for the first three years.  My husband and I slept on an air mattress in the basement and rented out the three bedrooms.   We had a lot of fun and made some fantastic friends, but after a while, I got tired of always being "on" and I suffered from major guest fatigue.   My husband and I still do everything ourselves except for cleaning Mon-Thurs.  We greet our guests, we unplug toilets, we do the laundry, we manage our listings and our calendars completely.   So even within the "entire space" listing there are room for sub-categories such as Property Manager, Owner, Booking Agent, etc.

So nice to have some interesting conversations going on here, usually it's the typical "how do i contact airbnb" 

🙂

[Debby-And-Kevin0]

Yes! I've learned so much since getting involved in Community and Host Voice, and found I've been completely mistaken in one or two situations (me? never!). Greeting each guest is, imo, the key ingredient in the airbnb hosting paradigm, and you do that, so you rock! How can people call themselves "hosts" if they don't even meet their guests? We can also empathize with "guest fatigue" even though we've been super lucky with our guests. Been booked solid since our inception in 2013. Cheers to you, and happy hosting! 

[Michael-and-Dru0]

Hi Deb,

I completely agree that the experience is much different as a guest when you find yourself arriving to a listing which is managed by a rental agency rather than a person.  We have found this to be particularly the case when a problem arises with the listing.  The managers typically don't have the authority to refund money, make accomodations, or deal with problems.  They have to contact the owner directly, describe the situation, and then assist.  We've had this problem in Toulouse, Montpellier, and most recently in Melbourne.  

I would love to see airbnb create a disctinction between large management hosts and smaller property owners.  It would help us when booking a reservation.  This is especially true when a "super host" status is not simply applied on a per property basis.  A super host can have 100s of listings.  This begs the question:  were they super hosts for all the properties?  If not, then the guest has no assurances about a particular property.  

We always search by "super host" in order to weed out properties we don't want.  But, in reality, you really aren't getting any gaurantees in doing so.  It doesn't weed out the large management companies.

[David-and-Fiona0]

@Debby-And-Kevin0I agree with you completely @Debby And Kevi. AirBnb is fast becoming another booking.com, agoda, etc etc. multilisters do not and cannot offer the personal service, commitment to quality and 'uniqueness' that was its original attractant. I firmly believe that if Airbnb do not modify their business model someone else will step into the market gap and take a significant amount of business away from them. For multilisters that cry poor the only reason they were attracted to Airbnb in the first place was the lower fees compared to other OTA's. Universally my guests love the personal service and uniqueness of our offering over resorts and multi listing agents.

[Maria-Lurdes0]

I honestly don't think that Airbnb would be a viable business venture if it was only offering shared spaces/one host-one listing places.   It has to have inventory, and there simply are not enough dollars to be generated from guests who are looking for that particular unique experience that many hosts offer.   Whether we like it or not (and I kinda like it), Airbnb IS just like booking.com/travelocity, etc.   It still manages to retain an aura of mystique somehow, which is great, but the days of Brian and Joe sharing their San Fransisco apartment with people coming to a design conference?  Long gone....

There's a new kid in town, created out of the discrimination problems that plagued Airbnb this year.   It's called Innclusive, has anyone listed there? I know they were keen to offer a lot of shared spaces when they first conceptualized.

[Ma0]

show me the reaserch that conclude there is not enough inventory 

with real hosts?? please back up your claims.

[Raffaele-and-Astrid0]

HI @Maria-Lurdes0

I have checked Innclusive, is the exact copy&paste of Airbnb website. 😄 

Actually there's nothing different, except that they have a "help live-chat", and  that "Innclusive presentation" talk very bad about Airbnb, I don't if this is a good marketing strategy. but... we will see...

just an example:

[Duje0]

hello @Debby-And-Kevin0 I'm from Croatia.

Please can you give me a name of Croatian Agency, maybe I know if it is fraud or something.

Cheers.

[Debby-And-Kevin0]

Greetings @Duje0. Thanks for the offer. I don't believe it's a scam, I just believe that an agency with several hundred listings is in no way a "host" in the understood context of airbnb. They should be advertised in a different area than regular hosts. 

[Duje0]

@Debby-And-Kevin0 do you know a name of agency ?

[Debby-And-Kevin0]

I don't remember the name of the agency, if it was given. Thx! 

[Ma0]

800 listings is a lot even for an agency, it might be a scam as one sugested.