Superhosts! Whats the point?

Exactly!! I totally agree, which is why my counsel is, that hosts should ignore their star ratings, and not look at the lower part of their dashboard page. Just keep on keepin' on, do your best, and be content that you are doing your best. Meeting your own goals is always more worthy than meeting someone elses' goals.

A number of hosts have pointed out the irony that hosts with very few reviews can make superhost -- in fact, it is statistically MORE likely for you to reach superhost with fewer reviews. So I think there is an inbuilt bias in the system towards newer hosts. Meanwhile, those hosts who have 50 reviews, 100, even 500 or 1000, and almost all excellent WRITTEN reviews, are by comparison, yesterday's laundry shoved off to a side corner.

I'm a Superhost. I've said this a few times in the Groups....I don't really see the benefit (neither as a Host nor as a Guest). airbnb does nothing to market it (which may justify/reward the hard work & high stress many Hosts place to attain the designation). The 'reward' is a paltry $100 travel certificate which essentially ensures additional revenue for airbnb (instead of say, an Amazon gift card or the like). Since the majority of Guests are first-timers (and even many of the 2/3-timers) don't even know that they're staying at a Superhost Listing (mine), I don't see any real benefit whatsoever.



As a Guest...I stayed in > 10 airbnbs while in Australia this summer. Three of those Stays were in SH Listings. Of those, one had just moved into a new spot so, technically, had only one Stay at the new spot but carried over SH status. It was a terrible Stay. One other SH Stay was very average (and actually felt more like a business transaction more than anything else). The best Stays I had there were by non-SH who had more experience and provided better hospitality.





What amazes me is how manic so many Hosts are about the whole thing...it's rather creepy to me. But, like deborah has said....don't sweat it.

I think you hit the nail on the head, lambada, regarding the phrase "superhost hostage." Hosts make Superhost and then feel pressured to keep that. It may not be a goal that benefits them at all. I think it should be considered to what extent "superhost" helps that particular host, and to what extent it is good Public Relations for Airbnb to be able to point to its Superhosts. WHile most hosts want to do as well as they can and be the best hosts they can, it's also true that hosts' interests aren't always the same as those of Airbnb.

The problem for me is I know I shouldn't look but it's like watching a horror film, I keep peeking around the cushion I'm holding in front of my face. Sometimes Raymond sees a spider or something else he knows I won't like, he say "Don't look behind you ......" as soon as he says that I look behind me.

Well, I am a new Host (started February this year) and it was a goal of mine to make SuperHost. I have stayed at 2 different Airbnb homes and both Host have been SuperHost. I have to say both places were stellar, I did learn a few things from both of them though. The first Host text me quite a few times....take out the trash, I am having a delivery of pavers, what time are you leaving I have a new cleaning crew and would like them to have more time. I'm not sure I would have pestered my Guest like that. And the other stay I never met the woman, she left a note on the gate. I am too relational for that. She almost has 400 reviews so she has this down to a science. I noticed that she never leaves a review for her Guests but she did for me. I am so thankful for that because it raised my standing in the search engine. Long story short, I am enjoying the SH status but if I lose it so be it I reached my original goal.

The Superhost program is such bunk. I am in the process of writing a blog entry about being a Superhostage and the huge number of so-called Superhosts who only have a handful of reviews. I will post it to our sister site by Saturday!

i was a super host and lost the status when I double booked by mistake. I find the feint colouring in the calendar and the lack of opportunity to verify what changes one has made difficult. Irony was that it was a return booking of another AIR BNB host who had done EXACTLY the same thing! So I lost something I had never wanted or understood! I have stayed with other super hosts and have been so disappointed and given them only fair reviews but guess what they still have their status!
In fact I almost left Airbnb after the last one and am still amazed by the reviews given as it is a place not as described!
i don't know if our customers even notice, maybe we should ask them what it means to them as it does not appear to be important to us hosts!

btw completely conversely when I lost the status I was irritated and felt disappointed that there was no recall and that AIR BNB really don't care as it's an automated process with no real indicudual assessment.