Comment by annexrichmond | Hacker News Reader

Comment by annexrichmond | Hacker News Reader

This is strange marketing as it almost sounds like the non-Plus listings aren't what people already expect to some degree from an airbnb.

> With Airbnb Plus, you can always check in effortlessly. Every home is equipped with a lockbox, keypad, or a host who is on-call to greet you.

This is so weird. How would you otherwise check in to a home if it doesn't have self check in or a host?

> When you book an Airbnb Plus home, you get the focused attention of our Airbnb Plus customer support team–a highly-trained team committed to great service and faster responses

Okay, so if there is no self check in and no host to greet me at a non Plus home, I'm stuck with a poorly trained unresponsive agent.

I realize that they want to differentiate the hotel-like quality airbnbs from the others, so they can give it a badge and therefore justify a higher price for it, but the delivery is odd, as other commenters have pointed out.

An alternative approach could be to describe such listings as "Guaranteed X, Y, Z". I think with that language it wouldn't undermine the quality of the non Plus listings as much.

Airbnb employee here: Re: the check-in and on-demand requirement, this means that there is 24 hour check-in available vs. a pre-set check-in time that you would have to coordinate closely with a host. This would mean that there's a keypad, lockbox with a key and/or a doorman or local key person who will bring the key on demand when requested.

I already do this and this is standard with the local airbnb hosts I know. I get that this obviously does not happen across the board but I can assure you anyone serious is already doing this. In some cases I even pickup guests.

Many Airbnbs I've stayed in will just have a key under a house plant or doormat. The key can be a little tricky to find that way but for a lower cost listing it's totally fine (by me).

I suspect that's the sort of practice they're trying to parse out for this Plus offering.

I've even stayed at one where they just didn't even offer a key and left the front door unlocked... Granted it was a house in the suburbs, but what about security from previous guests?

That's a reasonable way to do it. Keep the front door unlocked on guest swaps, keep the key inside the house.

No key at all, just “it’s a safe neighborhood so we always leave the door unlocked”

I've never locked my house door... The joys of living in rural New England...

I just moved from Maine to SF. The bigger problem now is that the door locks behind me...

I've never understood that. I grew up in seemingly safe neighborhoods in suburban New Jersey and semi-rural Maryland, but leaving our door unlocked (even while we're at home) was unthinkable.

In our exceedingly rural area, doors are left unlocked very often. Not everyone, of course, and not all the time (most of the people I know do lock their doors at night or when they're on vacation, but otherwise leave them open). You're not crazy for doing it.

If someone wants to get in to steal something, they're going to get it done. That could mean a broken window, a broken door, or it could mean nothing broken at all. There's no-one within listening distance to hear a window break, so they're not going to get caught that way. But, your neighbors know your cars, and the sense of community commonly leads to a quick "hey there's a brown Buick outside your house, is that you guys?" call/text. There aren't very many "drive-by" robberies; houses are so far apart and all it takes is one person who sees a suspiciously slow driving car, or a car visiting multiple driveways, to call the police. Oh, and if you thought no one was home and you're wrong, there's a great chance they're armed, and they saw the car you used to get there. And the police are never busy, so they'll be there in minutes.

That seems a pretty common pattern for the semi-rural New England area I live in as well. I lock the house at night or if I'm headed out for an extended period but I don't really worry about it. If the house is all opened up on a summer day I'm not going to shut everything up if I'm going out for a bit and certainly not if I'm around my property somewhere.

I grew up in a town in Morris County, NJ and our house was never locked. In fact, I'm not sure I ever actually saw the key to our house.

During the time that you were home, but it was not immediately obvious from the outside - how many times have you had someone walk up to your door, and try the doorknob?

If the answer is never, then having your doors locked hasn't meaningfully increased your security (Only the perception thereof.)

Seems like it would open you up to liability if anything inside was stolen.

I don't usually care about naming at all because it's typically irrelevant to the actual product. But "Plus" seems like surprisingly bad naming, especially for a company that has excelled at branding (I don't love the new logo). Uber's "Select" and, to a lesser extent, Lyft's "Premier" seem better.

Agreed and as an Airbnb host myself, slightly confused. To add to what you said, why book and pay a premium for an Airbnb+ when there are thousands of standard listings that already crush plus listings.

As it stands, I have hosted 273 stays and have 184 reviews with an average rating of 91% five star reviews between two rooms.

The number one comment I get from guests is that my place is far better then a hotel and far less expensive. Enter Airbnb Plus "hotel like quality" which from my perspective and my guests, Airbnb Plus would appear to rank lower than many standard Airbnb listings.

And this does not even take into account hosting element.

I feel the same way - I am not a host but have rented via AirBnB a few times and I think this differentiation does not seem fair to well-rated hosts who did not make it to "Plus" whatever the reason.

I understand AirBnb is under pressure to put up a product to counter Stay Alfred, Sonder and Parallel Travel, but this adds confusion.

Perhaps "on-call" is the operative bit, as in "your international flight lands at 3AM? No sweat, you'll be able to get in anyway."

I mean, it sounds fairly accurate. Checking in at my last AirBnB required texting the guy who rented it who had to drive out there to give me a key and it had to be between 5 and 7 pm. And don't get me started on tech "innovator" support...

New slogan: "Airbnb Plus: Everything else is a dump"

Except that most standard listings are a step up on plus. Which just goes to show how bad they messed up here. In some ways it has an Apple feel to it, charge more for less.

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