Airbnb, the $30 billion home-stay aggregator is now planning to introduce new services to increase traction and add more properties as well as hosts to its platform. The company is looking to further expand its already successful Superhosts program by allowing those experienced hosts to manage the property of other hosts. Didn’t quite get that!?
Superhosts, are the experienced Airbnb hosts who’re selected based on their response time, guest approval and stay experience. They’ve been renting out their place to other for a long time, and are considered the perfect people to host others in their homes.
Well, Airbnb is now looking to tap them to introduce a new service under the moniker ‘Experienced Hosts’. This platform will help connect would-be hosts to Superhosts, who will then help them better manage their properties. This will not only the company increase the number of home-stay locations in its catalogue, but also get rid of some burden of the overall user experience.
In an email conversation with TechCrunch(first spotted by All About Airbnb), Airbnb has confirmed that it is currently testing such a service, and the pilot has already begun in Tokyo. There are currently a total of 92 hosts who’re willing to become a part of the new service and help other list and rent out their properties.
We’re always looking for ways to give our hosts and guests around the world an even better experience.We know that many of our hosts already use friends, family and people they trust to help them host. We are doing a small scale trial in a few markets to look into ways to make this even easier,
says Airbnb spokesperson Christopher Nulty.
Expanding on the new service, Airbnb says that the experienced hosts will be responsible for listing, marketing, bookings and even the pricing. The hosts wouldn’t have to do anything as the Superhosts will also handle guest communications, cleaning and stocking the place for the next visitor. It is basically a program that outsources the listing, managing and renting work to experienced hosts on the platform.
Now, all the talk about management of your home by experienced hosts is okay, but the question you might have is — What do I get by registering/renting my property on Airbnb?
Well, if you’re willing to join the program, you can go to the already live service page and search for Superhosts in your proximity. Choose a Superhost to manage your property listing, and talk out the pricing for your crib — it is arranged directly between you and the Superhost. He/She will guide the price about 10 – 20 percent taking into account your(the hosts) fee including the 3 per cent commission charged by the aggregator. And then, he also has to save something for himself to manage, stock essentials and make a profit as well.
This is one of the ways Airbnb is tackling the management problem, by outsourcing the infrastructure listing effort to third-party managers. It is now also exploring more ways to grow its inventory and make it easier to legally list properties on the platform(very important, because it is already caught amid multiple lawsuits for the same).
