Multiple AirBnB's = Multiple AirBnB Accounts???

Question

I wanted to get some feedback on the thought of separating Airbnb properties under different Airbnb profiles per property to protect oneself from the "worst case" scenario where Airbnb deems it necessary to freeze, suspend, or revoke a profile due to a situation. End of day our business is very dependent on the Airbnb platform, so I see this as a potential risk.

Does anyone do this or is this leaning toward overkill?

Bruce Woodruff · Answer

Also, try to get away from ABNB as much as possible, they are not great to deal with (in my experience). Try to get more listings from VRBO.....

Kevin Escobar · Answer

@Robert Johnson  I personally set up a new account with its own email for each airbnb. Then I have a main cohost account which I connected to all the individual accounts and run everything from there. Shoot me a DM if you have any questions!

John Underwood · Answer

I agree, just run your business like it should be and you should have no concerns.

Going into this looking for a way to get around bad reviews is the wrong thought process.

David Sturges · Answer

@Robert Johnson

I myself use Evolve as a buffer between myself and Air b + b , VRBO, booking.com.They manage my listings all in 1 place and handle all my profiles on all the platforms.I love this method because it is much better to have multiple options on my units for 10 percent.Im super happy with the service they provide.i usually only have to answer a few minor questions from a tenant a month, and I have a staff to help manage my units. Good luck!!

David

Bruce Woodruff · Answer

Stick with it, I used to get about 75% of my bookings from AIR and as of now it's gone to about 60% VRBO. Maybe even offer a slight discount on VRBO to get more bookings there and a history.....

Robert Johnson · Answer

This is exactly the road I was going down, ABnB has the power to turn us off for any reason and host rights are often secondary.  Just curious if anyone has taken the multiple accounts approach as a firewall strategy - it does seem cumbersome and the risk we're talking about is probably the exception, not the norm.  (I should probably stay off of those FB AirBNB forums LOL)  FWIW - we've grown our VRBO and traffic - and are creating a direct booking site, both with the thought of curbing our AirBNB dependency.  However, it's still our bread and butter for bookings.

Lauren Kormylo · Answer

What @Ryan Moyer says is absolutely true.  Scammer guests complaining about cameras is a real risk with Airbnb. Airbnb will then freeze all of your properties without telling you why for days or weeks, while you frantically call and try to find out from Airbnb what the problem is. It’s unbelievable how they treat hosts sometimes, this is a complaint I read about at least weekly in other groups, so it is not rare. I will add that many states have eavesdropping laws where you cannot record audio unless all parties agree to it. Ring doorbells have audio recording enabled as the default. So you must go into settings to turn that off.

Ryan Moyer · Answer

I think the OP is talking less about bad reviews and more about AirBNB's propensity to sometimes ban entire accounts without warning, often without giving a reason.  The larger superhost groups out there and airbnb forums have lots of people that have run into this (small relative to the total number of hosts, but still enough that "it could happen to you").

One common one is a guest complains about a camera that doesn't actually exist.  Host says there is no camera.  Airbnb shuts down the entire host's account for months for "investigation".

Another one we saw popping up last year was with video doorbells.  Most hosts mention the video doorbell in their description.  But there's actually an option buried deep in the settings where you have to disclose the video doorbell.  Airbnb doesn't make this obvious and most hosts miss it (thinking they've done what they need to do by listing it in the description), and if a guest complains about the doorbell and it's not listed there Airbnb bans your entire hosting account (and all of your listings) permanently, with no recourse.

These are a very small percentage of hosts in the grand scheme of things, but for people with a lot of listings making the majority of money on Airbnb it's a lot of exposure/risk to have that all in one place with a company that has a history of just kicking people off the platform without any explanation.  We're talking superhosts with thousands of 5* reviews.

Dave Stokley · Answer

I get the concern but it seems like it's really going to complicate your business unnecessarily. When does it become impractical to log in and out of every single account? And if you run your properties well Airbnb will have no reason to suspend you.

Multiple AirBnB's = Multiple AirBnB Accounts???

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