I may be in the minority but this way seems like there will be less engagement and seems much more limiting. Unless that is what companies are going for these days. I see the benefit as a company but Facebook groups are definitely where all the action is.

Is there an app to access the platform? Or is it just through a browser? I have a feeling more interactions would happen if it was in an app. 

Hi both! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

​@MoniqueD We get that Facebook is familiar, easy, and part of the daily scroll, so the new platform might feel different at first. But it is designed to keep conversations organized and answers easy to find, so engagement is more focused and useful. Plus, we’ll be rolling out more community features as we grow. Give it a try and let me know how we can improve the experience.

​@Michael Kirkland Currently, there’s no app, it’s browser-based only. Looking forward to seeing you around. :) 

I think it is wise to steer from Facebook because not everybody uses it or wants it. I have it but rarely get on it. I do agree with one poster that if you had an app I might tend to click on it over a coffee and seek out in the group. I get that everyone is different though -  just my two cents.

Change is always hard, I have to keep reminding myself to come on here, but I do find it useful to be solely and directly on the Hospitable website for Hospitable related questions. Thank you for creating this, but I agree, and app would be amazing as I am always on the go.

Just coming out of a meeting with ​@Petra and ​@Andrew to discuss the short-term roadmap for Community.

Continuing to build the case for a Hospitable Hosts Community

• Hospitable has more than 20,000 daily active users, expanding to 50,000 monthly active users. Our hypothesis is that if a community is able to engage a meaningful fraction of this, this would provide knowledge around the industry, booking platforms, product engagement and education that would be orders of magnitude more impactful than anything we could ever come up with through our existing tools (Townhalls, Masterclasses, Workshops, email campaigns, etc..).
• We already have a Facebook group, and it is the largest user group in the industry, but a 10x growth will overwhelm us.
  • Meta does not facilitate the tracking of conversations in this group with our applications, so it’s hard for us to make sure every conversation is handled appropriately. That means we have done some “bandaid engineering” to make it work, which we would rather focus on anything else. What happens when we have 10x more engagement?
  • Team engagement is a struggle. Because there are no boundaries between professional and personal, there is very limited engagement from our team to genuinely contribute on Facebook. There have been negative experiences. Team members created ad-hoc accounts for Hospitable only; and those accounts get shut down because they are not genuine.
  • The Facebook algorithm promotes engagement, not visibility for resolutions. It’s a bit disheartening whenever I post something, buried in a sea of comments. What is the point of spending time there or taking on feedback if in the end it’s not even read?
• The “Not Product” part is important in operating a short-term rental. There are compliance, regulatory and tax questions that are hyper local. There are new features released on booking platforms that can unlock more revenue and automation.
• There were posts on Facebook discussing that we can censor more on this community. I take as a statement that our community (wherever it is) is healthy. As every Facebook group admin now, we could at least ban and delete posts much here as on Facebook. Every complain in all caps that is posted on Facebook could have been deleted, but it’s not. That won’t change. The only thing we can ask for as a business when we receive customer feedback is a chance to act on it. Companies that silence their user feedback deprives themselves of a chance to hear their customers and become better businesses.

Community  Product

It is on us to make this community compelling; and we are up for it. Here is what we are thinking about for the short-term:

• The Community link will stay in our product sidebar; it will automatically (sign you up to/log you in) this community, on web and on mobile. The community will also be feature in the help resources (and we will fix the capitalization there too).
• We want to feature up to 3 community posts on your Hospitable dashboard, that are relevant and timely. The specific criteria for posts being featured is something we are open to; it could be a proper curated posts by ​@Petra Podobnik and the team, or posts where a “Best Answer” has been selected (knowing those best answers are often from ​@Mahmodul anyway!). We think that can be a great way to exchange tips and knowledge, about Hospitable and the industry. We are also mindful that this is prime real estate, and we want make sure this is executed as a positive thing, not getting in the way when you need to find something on the dashboard.
• We also want to work with hyper relevant local content. Short-term rentals is a hyper-local industry, and the community is the best home for this local content. The hypothesis goes as such: we want to organize an AMA with a law firm focusing on licensing and compliance in NYC, so we want to feature that content on your Hospitable dashboard and drive your attention to the community post in question if you host a property in NYC. This will still be curated by our team.

Asking for feedback here. What are some interesting opportunities you would spot to leverage a high-value community?

I also have a really good feeling about the new community!

That said, I’m not loving the platform we’re using. Yesterday, I was out with just my phone and tried to check in on the community. The experience wasn’t great — I got logged out, and every time I wanted to do something, I had to wait for the full page to reload. It felt clunky and outdated, especially in today’s world where so many platforms offer a smoother, more modern experience. It just doesn’t match the Hospitable vibe — it feels more like an O**R**Z vibe.

I’m sure there were good reasons for choosing this platform, but that’s just my two cents.

• That community is just launching, and we have ​@alexCalbajos working on this in between other product tasks. We are able to adjust the design and experience over time, and there are some really well-designed experience on this vendor. For now, it should be simple and accessible. We have plenty of room to expand.
• I agree 100% with the frustration on the login, I believe our #1 item will unblock this. This will mean you can click on the Community link in our mobile app, and it will log you into the community (on a web browser, for now, we could make it as a browser window). I am personally logged out every 48 hours and we have flagged this a few times already. Ultimately, the issue is moot if you can have seameless login from the app to the community.