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  • Writer's pictureThe Property Host Team
    • Apr 30, 2019
    • 4 min read

Airbnb Community.. some common questions and answers.

Airbnb is a foreword thinking and fast moving company and they like to know how they can best improve their hosts experience. The Global Airbnb Q & A is held twice annually and the last one was in October 2018. I only came across this recently when I couldn't find the answer to a question I had and actually found some even more interesting information.. read on to find out more! We've chosen some of the most relevant questions, we felt could help both ourselves and our clients. We've also shortened the answers but you can view the full answers on the website.


(All of these questions and answers have been sourced directly from Airbnb.com)


What can I do to get more bookings?


We went straight to the source for this answer: We asked guests what they look for in Airbnb stays, and we analyzed their booking behavior to find out what takes them from browsing to booking. It turns out that, after price and reviews, photography is the most important factor. In fact, 60% of listing views start with a guest clicking on a photo, and over 40% of the time when a guest chooses not to book a listing, the last thing they clicked on was a photo. So photos matter, and they should be as good as possible.


We’ve found that pro photography can help your listing stand out and perform better than it otherwise might. Specifically, you can expect a 16% higher probability of being booked and a 26% higher average price per night.


Can Airbnb provide more data so I can set a more informed price myself?


Yes, we’ve started to do this and will continue to do more. We launched a new feature that shows you more of the data behind our pricing suggestions. Now when you click on a date in your calendar, if the data is available, you’ll see insights that drive our pricing suggestions up or down. For example, you might see how many guests are searching for a listing in your area or how many listings are available compared to the annual average. We hope these insights will help you better understand booking trends in your area and help you set your price with confidence.


Can I get more information about potential guests?


It’s important for you to feel comfortable in your own home when you host. And we want to make sure you have the tools, support, and information to do that. We want to balance that with making it easy for guests to book, and also making them feel comfortable. So we’re keeping some information, like a guest’s home address, private.


Before you accept a guest’s booking request you can see four things: their first name; a personal message from the guest; the number of people in the party; and their Airbnb profile information, which shows previous reviews by other hosts. If you’d like to know the purpose of their trip or their anticipated check-in/check-out times, before confirming a booking, you can always message with your potential guest to find out. After you’ve accepted a booking, you can see your guest’s last name. Finally, Airbnb allows you to require that guests verify their identity before booking with you, which typically involves the guest providing a government ID that we match to a photo of the guest.


What is Airbnb doing to better support hosts if things go wrong?


The short answer is: a lot. But before we dive into the exciting changes we’re working on, there’s one important thing to keep in mind: Instances of property damage on Airbnb are quite rare. On average, significant claims of damage happen less than 0.004% of the time. That means you could host a new reservation every day for 63 years and never expect to have to file a significant damage claim.


But unfortunately accidents do happen, and if they do, we want your home and valuables to be protected. That’s why we created safeguards like the Security Deposit and $1 Million Host Guarantee in the first place, and that’s why we’re committed to making sure they work for you.

We’ve heard from you that the process to access these safeguards feels like it takes too long and is too complicated. And that it’s hard to access your Security Deposit or get reimbursed through the Host Guarantee. So we’re completely revamping the process for damage claims to make it more host-friendly. Here are four big changes you can expect.


Now, you’ll have more time. You used to have to report damages within 72 hours after check-out or before your next guest's check-in, whichever was earlier. Now you have 14 days, or before next guest's check-in, whichever is earlier. We’re also going to be giving you a lot more time to complete the claims process— it’s longer than two weeks now. You don’t have to do as much legwork. We’ve reduced the amount of documentation required for most claims. You can expect a fair payout. We’re now consistently including sales tax and other associated costs in our reimbursement to hosts. You can get help faster. The Customer Support team is also making changes to get you better, quicker access to help when you need it—and already, since we’ve introduced these improvements, claim resolution time has decreased by more than 20% in the past few months.


So there we have it, just some of the ways Airbnb is listening to its hosts concerns and questions and some great information there. They certainly know the importance of quality service and understanding their customers needs and requirements.


Happy hosting!!


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