A Study of Unfair Business Practices related to

AirBnB Reservation Request Expirations


SCENARIO:

A reservation request was received. The person requesting the reservation is new to AirBnB as of June. He has no reviews and no public profile picture. I have nothing but a name. He entered the reservation for a single person, but in his request he indicates the reservation is for more than one person. He also implies he will not be staying with the group, which can lead to problems if/when there are damage issues.

I replied asking him to correct the reservation count and asking him to forward an email address I can use upon booking to send my short contract supplement over. He does not respond. I send another request for information in the first 24 hours while the request is still active, and he does not respond.

The Request expires, and that has a negative affect on my metrics. If I do not accept over 90% of the booking requests, I will not qualify for SuperHost, which has marketing value on the AirBnB platform.

I sent in a request to AirBnB asking to remove any negative metrics related to this because the guest was unresponsive. I’ve had to do this at least two times prior in the past 2 years and both times the expiration did not count against me. This time, they told me they don’t modify metrics, contrary to prior behavior and contrary to what should be common sense business processes.

ANALYSIS:

This is a classic example of commerce with AirBnB when they really do NOT want you on the platform anymore.

    • Could AirBnB executives or employees have in fact actually stimulated the booking request themselves?
    • The profile it came from has no reviews and was only setup a month ago, or so it says.
    • To be clear, this may not be a target on me specifically...
      • AirBnB wants only hosts who are setup for instant book on their platform. That is their over-arching strategic goal.
      • Stressful events like this 1) force hosts to sign up for Instant Book to avoid this type of stress (in exchange for another) OR 2) it it forces hosts to quit
    • Could this be just part of a simple strategy to achieve the business objective of 100% instant book listings on AirBnB? Yes
    • Could this be a very specific strategy to piss me off? Yes, of course. I’m not a favorite of theirs for sure…

Reasonable Questions to ask yourself...

    • Is this logical and fair in any way to millions of hosts? (No)
    • Is this healthy commerce? (No)
    • Should a host be forced to accept a booking for a known incorrect amount of people from an unresponsive guest to avoid a metrics ding that can affect them significantly financially? (No, of course not)
    • Is this a form of mental abuse and bullying ? (Yes, actually it is)
    • Does this increase stress on hosts who are using AirBnB to supplement underpaid work positions elsewhere? (Yes, it does)
    • Does this add to mental instability of an individual and societies as a whole? (Yes, in fact it does)
    • Is this an attempt at mind control? (Why Yes. in fact, that's exactly what this is...)

But why? Why would AirBnB and their founders pursue this type of manipulative control over hosts? Is it for Commercial gain solely? Have they become power possessed? Have the owners lost control of their business and are they begging for intervention? Dunno... Not sure..

Just take in the details first. Note, the time stamp on the comments and some broken English from the AirBnB contact indicates they are in fact half way around the world from California. I find that interesting... not sure if it's relevant or not yet...