Message from Catherine Powell to Airbnb Hosts

Catherine Powell, Airbnb’s new Global Head of Hosting, is sending periodic video messages* to our hosts, to keep them informed about company and policy updates. Her work is focused on building a closer partnership with our host community through increased transparency and collaboration, including workshops, webinars and newsletters.

In this message, Catherine shared new business trends like “living on Airbnb” for remote work or schooling and insights about the guests who are booking on the platform. She also chatted with Tara Bunch, Global Head of Operations, about Airbnb’s plan to normalize wait times in Customer Support by the end of this month (September 2020).

Some of the actions we are taking:

• We are hiring new agents weekly, and by early November 2020, Airbnb’s Customer Support team expects to have a staff of about 8,000.
• Superhosts will be given priority access to phone customer support, equivalent to anyone with an imminent reservation (72 hours to the booking).
• Expanded operation and quicker response levels for “chat” support in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Mandarin—in about 2 minutes.
• Continue to provide fast responses for urgent safety related issues.

* Host updates are available in the Resource Center*.