In June 2020, Melinda Johnson, a property manager, discovered that one of the Airbnb properties she oversees in Tennessee had mysteriously vanished from the platform.
Airbnb eventually told her that guests over Memorial Day weekend had reported a snake outside a woodland cottage she manages in the Smoky Mountains. As a result, Airbnb had deemed the home — a four-minute drive from the Dolly Parton-themed amusem*nt park Dollywood — unsafe due to a "dangerous animal."
Johnson, who manages 24 properties for other owners, as well as one she owns, felt hopeless and worried. She said Airbnb didn't contact her when the snake was reported or allow her to connect with the guests directly to calm their fears. Then, it didn't let her know the listing was being taken down, she added.
More broadly, she said, the incident reinforced to her that Airbnb was too often more "protective" of guests than the 4 million hosts worldwide they rely on to supply their properties.
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"I think the biggest issue is a feeling of insecurity with the platform," Johnson, 52, told Insider.
Like Johnson, many Airbnb hosts and property managers are frustrated by what they describe as the vacation-rental platform's tendency to favor guests in disputes. In recent weeks, Airbnb hosts have taken to Facebook groups where they vent and share advice to describe platform siding with guests on issues from COVID-19-exposure cancellations to broken furniture and dirty dishes.
A proposed new policy sparked discontent
The most recent wave of discontent came in March after Airbnb announced an update to its refund policy. Starting in April, guests would have up to 72 hours after their trip — rather than the current 24 hours — to report a "travel issue," anything from a broken refrigerator to stained bedding.
The new policy included a line stating hosts could be on the hook for reimbursing or helping to accommodate guests who reported a travel issue — even if the new booking was more expensive than their original stay.
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Hosts rebelled, venting online that the policy would give guests more time to find or even create minor issues to point out to get a refund.
Liz DeBold Fusco, an Airbnb spokesperson, said the new policy was meant to provide "greater flexibility" to hosts and guests. "We hope a longer reporting window will provide more time for the host to work with guests to address any issues before we get involved," she told Insider.
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After outrage from hosts, Airbnb walked back the reimbursem*nt component, but hosts said it's too little, too late. Some are threatening to leave the platform altogether in favor of other sites like Vrbo, Evolve, Booking.com, and Google Vacation Rentals.
One host is organizing a strike the week of May 18
Galvanized by the 72-hour policy announcement, Missouri host Ryan Villines is trying to organize a boycott to remind Airbnb of the value of hosts.
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"The rule change was a last straw," said Villines, who owns two listings around the Missouri vacation destination Lake of the Ozarks and two in Great Falls, Montana.
Despite Airbnb softening the language of the new policy, Villines said he's tired of a repeated "lack of care for hosts" that he felt personally and heard about from others.
Through a Facebook event, Villines is encouraging hosts to "snooze" their listings the week of May 18 in an attempt to get Airbnb's attention. So far, 240 people have responded as "going" and over 800 have marked "interested."
There are more hosts to appease than ever as post-pandemic travel booms
Hosts are central to the Airbnb business model. The vacation giant does not directly own properties and, instead, usually takes a 3% commission from hosts and 14% from guests for each night booked on the platform.
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The dissatisfaction among hosts comes as travel is booming after two years of pandemic lockdowns. Airbnb's growth to over 4 million hosts worldwide in 2022 is nearly 1 million more than the 3 million hosts Condé Nast Traveler said were active in 2020. Revenue has also shot up from before the pandemic, as the platform posted its best quarter in the third quarter of 2021, bringing in more than $2 billion.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said the post-pandemic travel surge will require even more hosts to join the ranks. "To meet the demand over the coming years, we're going to need millions more hosts," Chesky told CNBC in April 2021.
'We just feel like our side of the stool gets kicked out from under us'
To be sure, Airbnb promises to protect both hosts and guests. But hosts feel they are too often dismissed or seen as second fiddle.
Matt Taylor, a Tennessee host, said that while he understood the business was a "three-legged stool" between the guests, the hosts, and Airbnb, he still felt hosts were given short shrift.
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"We just feel like our side of the stool just gets kicked out from underneath us all the time," Taylor, who plans on snoozing the 75 listings he manages in the Smoky Mountains as part of the protest, told Insider.
Hosts said their essential concern was that the income on which they depend could all go away overnight. After they sink money and time into a property, they worry a simple misunderstanding with a guest can mean they get permanently barred from the platform.
"I think the community has a lot of fear," Villines said.
