24/08/2023
Thank you Alan Egan for this blog. It is, in my opinion, truly unfortunate that we are all being described now as "Airbnbs". There are many of us who indeed were saying "Noooooooo" when reading this and here are my reasons why I was one of them (in no particular order):
1. Their biggest initial mistake, and still is, is the not taking a security deposit. Actually making the guests pay one. THIS is the single biggest problem that has had a knock on effect and has now affected our entire industry.
2. The fact that now guests don't want to pay a security deposit because they don't have to when they book on Airbnb. Who pays the price when something goes wrong? Aircover? Please. Don't make me choke on my coffee. And this has lead to...
3. The nightmare guest. "One pillowcase wasn't ironed, so I'd like a refund." The number of times I have heard about refunds in the last half of my industry career would be hundreds of times more than I had head about it in the first half of my time in the industry.
4. And don't get me started on what they did to the Review system.
5. Anyone can list their property in a matter of minutes on Airbnb and lo and behold, they can welcome a guest. So those new hosts or the people in it for the "easy money", and the damage they can do via the lack of knowledge of guest experience, communications, etc tarnish ALL of us. If they are on Airbnb, and we all have Airbnbs, then we are ALL tarnished.
All that bad press (and there sure is enough of it) reflects on us, whether we are on Airbnb or not. Whether we are doing a great job or not. If everyone is staying at Airbnbs then we all get painted with the same brush.
When we use a Hoover or a Kleenex, we know we are using a good, uniform product that does a job. All vacuums work (until they don't) and all tissues do the same thing. THIS is why I don't like being called an Airbnb. This analogy sums it up: this industry is like an army, but there was a coup, and instead of the Generals running the show, its the cadets.
I do not have an Airbnb. Use the word for SEO sure. And use it to attract guests online. But we need to hang on to the vocab, whatever it may be in your country. But "I do not have an Airbnb" are the words I say out aloud.
WARNING... Some of you won't like what I'm about to tell you.I was just Hoovering the lounge, my mind was wandering, and the following thoughts dawned on me.
