Airbnb's cashcow 'Uber-type' dominance is impressive to be sure. They generate billions in revenue every year filing a huge demand for travelers globally, much to the chagrin of the hotel business.
Here's the kicker: This dominance is achieved on the backs of the all the property hosts and makes up the entire business model.
Sounds good, right? Well, for the Airbnb Superhost, it's apparently not. And therein lies the rub...
What is an Airbnb Superhost? And what is their beef?
An Airbnb Superhost is a property host on the platform that generally does a couple things...really well: They rent their property a lot, they get great reviews, they're responsive to the clients (addressing concerns, answering questions, etc...) who rent and have a minimum of cancellations.
A host doesn't earn the status by 'applying' or anything of that nature. Rather, Airbnb 'evaluates' them 4 times a year to either become a Superhost, or continues to be one based on performance.
The problem is more and more Superhosts are starting to book their properties outside the platform as well as growing their own in-house email list for follow-up promotions. The 'breakaway' would mean (in theory) hosts could charge smaller fees and pass the savings on to renters.
The blog 'The Bear Cave' reported on these developments last week and it suggests confidence in the platform by renters may be waning a bit. And if this is the case, it would not bode well for higher end clients such as business travelers.
Airbnb VS Airbnb Superhost who may not be a Superhost anymore...I think
Here's an impressive stat (not sure ABNB likes it):
Professional property managers only represent 1% of all Airbnb and Vrbo hosts, but they manage 23% of available listings which generate 28% of total revenue.
Yikes.
It seems to me that Airbnb would have a huge problem on their hands if you saw a significant exodus by the top renter dogs.
Wouldn't it also be a prudent move for Airbnb to strengthen those partnerships at just about any cost?
Spoiler alert: Yes.
I'm sure there's more to come on this subject...