What Is Airbnb Superhost Status and Is It Worth The Effort?

Every Airbnb host knows about the Superhost program—it’s that coveted badge everyone’s aiming for, hoping to enjoy the perks and benefits that come with it.

With over 4 million hosts on Airbnb, earning a Superhost badge can really set your listing apart and build trust with potential guests. But is it worth all the effort? Let’s break down how Superhost status could benefit your business and whether it’s the right move for you.

Ok, so first of all, what actually is a Superhost? What's the meaning behind that bright orange badge?

An Airbnb Superhost is an award given to hosts in recognition for consistently good reviews and guest experiences. Superhosts are the top-performing hosts on the platform, known for delivering exceptional hospitality.

What Are The Airbnb Superhost Program Requirements?

Airbnb evaluates hosts for Superhost status using specific criteria. You’ll qualify for the program once you’ve met the following milestones:

• Hosted bookings at least 10 times a year, or 3 reservations with 100 nights booked.
• Maintained a response rate of 90% or higher.
• Maintained an overall rating of 4.8, and 80% of reviews on Airbnb being 5-star reviews.
• Have a cancellation rate of 1% or lower. Keep in mind that Airbnb may make exceptions under its extenuating circumstances policy.

If you meet the criteria during Airbnb’s assessment, you’ll earn a Superhost badge. Don’t worry if you don’t make the cut right away—Airbnb reviews performance every three months, so there are always more opportunities to qualify.

You can keep tabs on your progress in the Superhost section of your Airbnb dashboard. It tracks your activity over the past year and even shows the date of your next assessment, so you’ll always know where you stand.

How Can I Become an Airbnb Superhost?

According to Airbnb, Superhost status isn’t handed out to just anyone—it’s something you have to earn by meeting specific targets. If you’re aiming to become a Superhost, here are some tips to help you get there:

1. Make It Comfortable and Clean

When guests book with you on Airbnb, they’re choosing your place over a hotel, so it’s important to offer an experience that matches—or even exceeds—what they’d expect from a hotel. That means providing the amenities they really want and ensuring everything in your space is always in top condition.

Why not hire professional cleaners who will pay close attention to often overlooked areas of your rental?

2. Leave Reviews Every Time

Make it a habit to leavereviews for your guests—this not only encourages them to leave one for you but also helps meet the Superhost criteria. Airbnb requires that at least 80% of your guests leave a review to qualify for Superhost status. Plus, your host rating needs to be 4.8 or higher.

3. Keep Up Prompt and Effective Communication

Part of the superhost requirements need to keep at least a 90% response rate to messages and should respond within 24 hours of a message being sent. If your response rate is lower than this, you won’t be eligible to become a superhost. Staying on top of messaging can be tough, especially if you have many properties receiving several messages a day. 

If you’re struggling to keep track of your messages, an efficient solution is to use automation to create pre-set messages. Using triggered messages and responses can save you a lot of time while ensuring you maintain an excellent response rate.

4. Ensure High Occupancy

To earn Superhost status, you need to maintain a high occupancy rate and complete at least ten reservations over the course of a year. Focus on boosting your booking rate to help increase your occupancy and get one step closer to qualifying.

To boost your occupancy rate, you should:

– Be Realistic With Pricing

Depending on your local housing market, prices may fluctuate during the year. If you want to maximize your bookings while also increasing your profits, you’ll need to be shrewd about your Airbnb pricing.

In order to stay competitive, you should regularly review your competitors’ rates and see how much they match your own. Make any tweaks or adjustments when necessary if your price is far above theirs.

During your high season when your booking rate is at its best, you can increase your rates to maximize your revenue. During your low season, you can offer discounts and special offers to attract more reservations. You can also use the same strategy to attract more bookings during the week. 

– Market Your Property To Keep Your Calendar Full

You won’t get very far if you don’t have a target audience in mind when creating your Airbnb listings. Design your listing to appeal to both international and domestic travelers. This can include business travelers and families.

Make use of social media to expand your audience reach as much as possible. Marketing on visual platforms, such as Instagram and Pinterest, is a great way to attract fresh eyes to your listings.

You can also partner with local businesses in your area to offer paired discounts or promotions. From doing this, you get additional exposure from other businesses while offering more exposure for them at the same time.

– Avoid Cancellations

To qualify for the Superhost program, your cancellation rate needs to be less than 1%—that’s no more than one cancellation for every 100 bookings. It might seem challenging, but the key is to avoid canceling unless it falls under Airbnb’s extenuating circumstances policy.

5. Manage Your Properties Efficiently

It’s all good and well to have ideas for wowing guests, but they won’t go far without effective property management strategies in place. How will you handle incoming and outgoing messages? How will Airbnb check-in be handled? Who will oversee the cleaning and maintenance of the property?

To ensure effective management of your business, iGMS vacation rental software is the ideal solution. iGMS manages your messaging, reviews, listing availability across various platforms, and more. With iGMS overseeing your business tasks and improving your response rate, you’ll be well on your way to achieving Superhost status!

Is It Worth It to Receive Superhost Status?

Although you should always strive to provide the best possible service, you may wonder if becoming a Superhost is worth the time and effort? Let’s take a look at the data revealed by AirDNA: 

• Achieving the status of Superhost doesn’t mean an automatic increase in listing views. On average, hosts who became Airbnb Superhosts only noticed a 5% increase in weekly views of their listings.
• Superhosts may have an average daily rate (ADR) that's about 11% lower than regular hosts, but they make up for it with an impressive 81% higher occupancy rate.
• Superhosts also earn 60% more daily revenue than regular hosts.

After analyzing the facts and figures above, it’s easy to see that achieving the Superhost badge won’t lead to an instant increase in revenue. Superhosts are also savvy with their pricing and positioning in the market in order to attract more guests. 

By using flexible pricing and maximizing their occupancy instead of rates, they can maintain Superhost status and a competitive edge. Becoming a Superhost won’t automatically mean you earn more, but it’s the first step towards generating greater revenue.   

What are the Benefits of Being an Airbnb Superhost?

While becoming an Airbnb Superhost usually means a boost in Airbnb SERP rankings, there are other benefits that you may not be aware of.

• More Bookings

As a Superhost, you’ll be able to receive more bookings. This is because guests will see a Superhost badge on your host profile and each of your listings.

Since guests usually look for the most reliable hosts on Airbnb to rent from, they’ll naturally consider your listings. You’ll also be included in a Superhost search filter that only displays Superhost listings in search results.

• An Increase in Airbnb Income

Another benefit of Airbnb Superhost status is an increase in Airbnb income. Your booking increase will lead to an increase in rental revenue. Having the status of Superhost also enables you to charge a slightly higher rate, due to your reputation for excellent service.

If you are able to maintain your Superhost status for one full year, you’ll receive a $100 travel coupon that you can apply towards your own Airbnb trip.

• Dedicated Support from Airbnb

Being a Superhost means you’ll also get priority support from Airbnb whenever you call or send a tweet to @AirbnbHelp. This can be a tremendous help for your business, allowing you to provide better support to your Airbnb guests.

You’ll become part of Airbnb’s exclusive group with access to new product releases and invitations to events at the company.

While you might not think that obtaining Superhost status is important, it’s clear that it does offer incredible benefits. However, most importantly, it provides assurance that you are doing a great job as a host. This can help relieve any worries you may have about meeting Airbnb’s standards for hosting.

• Rewards

As a Superhost, you’ll earn a $100 Airbnb coupon every year you maintain your status. Plus, when you refer a new host to sign up, you’ll receive an extra 20% on top of the regular referral bonus.

FAQ

Is There an Application Process?

No! Once you meet the criteria you'll be added to the program automatically.

How Long Must I Have Been a Host To Qualify?

Because the review process happens every three months, it is theoretically possible to join the program in under a year. But this would require an exceptional property and customer service. Try to evaluate your goal a little more realistically.

Conclusion

As you can see, becoming an Airbnb Superhost requires a lot of commitment and dedication. But the long-term results and benefits can be well worth the continuous efforts.

Another smart investment for your business is automation. Vacation rental software, such as iGMS, uses automation functionality to run your business on autopilot.