Two badges, two different things being measured, and a lot of hosts treat them as one.

Superhost is about you. It covers your whole account, every listing you have. Co-hosts cannot earn it.

Guest Favorite is about one listing. A weak property costs that listing its badge and nothing else. The same property can drag your Superhost status down across everything you run.

What each one asks for

Superhost is checked four times a year, on 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October, looking back over the previous 12 months:

• 10 stays, or 3 stays adding up to 100 nights or more

• 90% of messages answered within 24 hours

• Under 1% cancellations

• 4.8 overall rating or higher

Guest Favorite is checked every day, and it looks at:

• At least 5 reviews in the past 4 years, one of them in the past 2 years

• Your ratings, what the reviews actually say, and how you communicate

• The category scores: check-in, cleanliness, accuracy, communication, location, value

• Your cancellations and any quality incidents

Airbnb does not publish a star threshold for Guest Favorite. The 4.9 number you see repeated online is a guess, not an official figure.

The part that matters for bookings

Guests can filter a whole market down to Guest Favorite listings in one click. There is no filter for Superhost. That is the practical difference between the two.

Something most hosts have not seen

Airbnb also gives gold trophies to the top 1%, 5% and 10% of listings. And there is a bottom 10% label that shows above the reviews on listings Airbnb has already contacted about quality.

Full article on our blog: Guest favorite vs Superhost: what each one actually measures

- Joana & Tony

This is a space for people running Airbnb listings.

What you will find here:

• Ask about your own listing and get a straight answer

• Early signal on what is changing on the platform

• What is worth testing, and what is not

Two things that make this work better for everyone:

• Be specific. "My bookings dropped in September and I do not know why" gets a far better answer than "how do I get more bookings"

• Come back and say what happened. What did not work is as useful to the rest of us as what did

No question is too basic here. If you are wondering about it, someone else is too.

- Joana & Tony

Some hosts received an email this week: "Share your link, get a lower fee."

It works like this. Direct booking links appear in the Listing editor. You share yours on social media or by email. When a guest books through it, your service fee drops. Hosts are reporting two levels: some got 6%, some got 10%. The standard fee stays 15.5%, and the booking still runs on Airbnb with AirCover.

Airbnb has not announced this. It surfaced through host groups and was reported by Skift on 29 August.

Our read: two rates at once means Airbnb is measuring how big the discount needs to be to change your behaviour. They are deciding what your own demand is worth to them.

Full breakdown on the blog: https://rentalgrowthadvisors.com/blog/airbnb-direct-booking-links

Welcome to RGA Insiders.

This is a private space for people who host on Airbnb. Hosts, co-hosts and property managers. It is new, so it is still small.

Three things happen here.

1. Airbnb news that affects you

When Airbnb changes something, we explain what it means for your listing and what to do about it. Not just the headline.

2. Specific tips to improve your listing and your earnings

Real things you can change. Your photos, your title, your minimum stay, your prices, your calendar. We explain why each one matters.

3. A place to ask and to help each other

Post your questions. Someone here has probably solved the same problem. We answer too, usually within a day.

How to get good answers

Be specific. "My bookings dropped" is hard to help with. "My bookings used to arrive 30 days ahead, now they arrive 4 days ahead" is easy.

Start wherever you like. Tell us what you host and where, or go straight to the question that brought you here. We read every post.

- Joana & Tony