Airbnb wants host listings to be more like hotels

Travelers used to hotels have come to expect that they can automatically book an Airbnb without having to first ask for the owner’s permission — something that has long been a fixture of the hotel booking process.

Airbnb can't force homeowners who use its site to adopt its tools and policies; they are not full-time employees. But interviews with more than two dozen hosts showed that many felt pressured to comply. The lesson, Ms. Bishop said, is that Airbnb wants her spare bedroom to be more like a Hilton or a Hyatt, and for her to act like a mini-hotelier.

Driving the changes is Airbnb’s CEO, Brian Chesky, who has said the company ultimately wants to go into many different fields — perhaps even “one day redefine how we fly.” To get there, Airbnb needs to provide guests with a reliable experience. That has been a challenge, given the idiosyncrasies of hosts.

“The Airbnb guys started the business as a way to make money to pay rent, with airbeds and cereal,” said John Garber, a host in Denver who has rented out an apartment on Airbnb since August 2016. “Now they do a lot of nudging to get you to do what they might call best practices. It’s become a little nanny state.”

Ms. Tibbetts doesn’t fully trust that Airbnb’s hosts will behave reliably. As a result, she prefers listings where she does not have to interact with hosts once she arrives.

“The big downside of using Airbnb instead of a hotel is the risk, because of the potential lack of consistency,” she said. “When an Airbnb is bad, it’s really bad.”

Yet even as Airbnb has pushed hosts to be more hotel-like, it has not given them the same control over their businesses as a hotel.