Airbnb Answers: Guest information and flagging guest behavior

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Airbnb Answers: Guest information and flagging guest behavior

You asked: Can Airbnb share more information about guests, like their ratings, full name, etc.? Can we get the ability to flag bad guests and make this information visible to other hosts?

 

More guest information

 

We're taking a close look at what additional information we can share to help you feel confident about the quality of every guest, every time you host. Currently, before confirming a booking, you can see a potential guest’s prior reviews and profile information (including hometown, education background, hobbies, and languages spoken). But in order to protect the privacy of both hosts and guests, we don’t share last names until after a booking is confirmed. If you don’t feel comfortable accepting a reservation with this set of information, you may message guests with additional questions. We don’t share guests’ home addresses because that information is not relevant or required to make a booking.

 

Every guest is required to provide their full name, date of birth, phone number, email address, and payment information to Airbnb before being allowed to book a reservation. As a host, you also have the option to require guests to provide a government ID before booking your home, which is just one feature of our ongoing effort to build trust in the community.

 

Flagging guest behavior

 

In the coming months, we’ll be adding more ways for you to report guest behavior that we might need to address. Stay tuned for more, but know that host reviews of guests remain the most powerful flagging tool for the community.

 

More than ever before, we’re using your reviews to signal both excellent and not-so-great guest behavior. We’re developing a Superguest program that will help you identify experienced travelers with excellent ratings. And for the rare occasions things don’t go well, your reviews will help us identify poorly behaved guests, issue more specific and strict warnings, and remove those guests who do not improve their behavior.

 

Be assured that when guests get negative reviews from hosts, Airbnb follows up. We make sure guests receive warnings about unacceptable behavior, and in some cases they can be blocked from booking entirely. We take the safety of you and your guests very seriously, which is why we require everyone in our community to uphold our community standards. Your reviews of guests are essential to establishing trust in our community, and we’re dedicated to taking action on your behalf to help ensure high quality experiences every time you host.



In the latest Host Q&A, CEO and Head of Community Brian Chesky answered top-voted questions during a livestream event. For questions he didn’t have time to address, we’ve introduced Airbnb Answers. Want to ask more? We’ll invite hosts to ask their questions before the next quarterly Host Q&A. We’ll keep you posted in Airbnb Updates.

 

436 Replies 436
Deyka0
Level 2
Las Vegas, NV

Exactly- the bad guests destroy the place and leave a pile of trash indoors. That  attracts insects and complaint that there are bugs- well after 7 days with trash indoors what they expect? then we have to work the awful odor and prepare for next guests right away- each time we confronted the guests about their mess -they retailed with bad reviews. So add insult to injury - so how reviews could be honest, if hosts are under guests threat ? Bad guests retaliation is a big issue. I think that if an experience Superhost ( a year or longer getting continuos superhost status ) does gets a bad review after reporting a bad guests, the host review should prevail and the guests review dismissed. Because there are messages , picture evidence etc to support the guest review was based on retaliation. It is unfair to well known superhost to receive an unfair review after years of proving constant good service just because we helping to clean airbnb of the problematic guests. it is like we been punished for doing the right thing to protect the community. 

Susie20
Level 2
Los Angeles, CA

These people don’t understand that it is a house and not a five star hotel!!

I had a guest that went into my attic and left a bad review that there were piles of stuff around and dirty.

When I told Airbnb about it, they said they have a right to their opinion.....seriously!!!!

Kyle143
Level 2
Scottsdale, AZ

This is litteraly exactly your policies before where you completely failed to address the thousands in damage one of your guests made to my property, and avoids issues such as setting a minimum rating on auto booking for guests and getting me full information when they damage the property. 

 

Beware hosts. If a guest say, runs a car into your wall like mine did, Airbnb will ignore you for a month, deamand the impossible from you, dismiss you, and flat ignore you when you try to contact them after. 

 

Maybe your CEO should get on running the comany instead of useless webcasts. 

Michele92
Level 2
Padua, Italy

I don't know if it is just my opinion but it seems to me that more and more Airbnb-guests are behaving like hotel-guests, requiring a lot more than expected and leaving the house in a mess when not damaging things. Cleaning fees are set in most cases to a low price assuming guests take good care of the things, when they leave the house in bad conditions hosts have to pay more than expected for having the house cleaned up. I suggest to introduce a deposit just for the clean-up of the house that host can use in case of misbehaviour, even better if this deposit can be managed by the host without recurring to the help desk each time. Good hosts will not take advantage of this and guests will be more considerate about the property they live-in.

Laurie161
Level 3
Hamilton, Canada

Until Airbnb figures out a way to negate retaliatory negative reviews - this review system is utterly useless.

 

There is no way I would risk losing superhost status, by giving a bad review to a guest. The minute they see the bad review, they leave a bad review for us.

 

And now that they've made superhost harder to achieve, I suspect this will be an even bigger problem.

 

What needs to happen, is to provide us with a "host only" forum (like this), grouped by city or area, where we can post honest guest reviews - that can't be seen by the guests, but where we, as hosts can check with one another on the conduct of specific guests.

 

For instance, if I get a booking from a guest and I see that he has previously stayed with Joe Blow - I would like to be able to contact Joe Blow and get information directly from Joe Blow on how that guest behaved.

 

The rating system is seriously flawed... I have guests who know full well that I don't allow them to bring guests into my home, but about 30% of the time, even after they acknowledge that they read the house rules and are aware they're not supposed to have guests, they will ask me if they can invite someone over.

 

I feel obligated to say yes - becaues if I say no - then there goes my 5 star review. This shouldn't happen.  Reviews need to be quantitative, not qualitative. And if someone leaves a bad review based on something like cleanliness - they should be required to submit a photo, that shows an unclean space.

 

There are ways to have an effective rating system, but the current one, doesn't come close to being effective - or useful, for either guests or hosts.

Jackie204
Level 1
Miami, FL

I’m not sure if anyone else does this.... but I send a list of the most important rules/instructions relevant to my home in a text along with the check-in information. I add a small discription as to why it’s important to follow rule, I think it helps to remind them this is a personal space afterall (ie “please don’t put any acidic food or beverages directly onto the marble countertops as it is very pourous and will stain. Please use coasters and cutting boards provided”) . I’ve had guest completely ignore some rules, but for the most part I think it helps keep them mindful of respectful of your home. Hope this helps! 

Dee77
Level 2
Spruce Grove, Canada

I was very upset at airbnb at allowing guests to post things that they have no proof of.  There are no pictures, nothing.  When accusations are made they need to review the process which they do not.  My suggestion is that in the policy it should say that the host should be contacted immediately to resolve any issues.  If you are not on site and it is something a maid or someone else did it gives you an opportunity to correct it.  In my case the guests were extremely rude from the beginning to me.  I really had to think twice about renting.  I was on site and left the unit because they did not want me to explain anything.  Then I sent then a total of three emails to ask if there was anything I could do and if anything was wrong.  They answered none of them.  I saw them and asked them if everything was okay and they said it was.  

If airbnb requested that the guest send an email notifying the host of any problems that would help.  This way there is a record of the communication and it shows the guest truly wanted a resolution at the time.  But when you are right there and have the opportunity to correct any issue and they don't tell you it indicates to me that things are not that bad.  Communication between guests and hosts is important.  That to me tells the true story.   These people arrived 2 hrs later than normal so had to wait for me for 15 minutes and then they got really upset.  That is how it started and I knew for a fact they were going to find something wrong.  I did my best but instead airbnb allowed them to ruin my reputation.  Then airbnb sends me out these automatic messages basically telling me I need to correct things.  

Make the guest contact the host.  they have the email to do so through airbnb.  The guest should have to comment what the host did about the issue.  This would show the true story.

I have talked to many people who are very ticked off at the way the reviews are done.

Angie104
Level 2
Vancouver, Canada

This is great!! I am a superhost and had a terrible experience witht he cleanliness of a 'luxury' place in SF I booked a few weeks ago. Due to  the 'cleanliness' of his place/bedroom/bedding ended up in emergency at the hospital with my face swollen due to allergens in the room. The room was not as described, and to top it off the host refused to return some or any monies to me. I tried to reach the resolution ctr at air bnb and was shocked air bnb sided with the host and could do nothing about helping me out!  

 

I have now realized everyone's version is 'clean' is different.  I wrote my review of my stay (as per the person I spoke with at air bnb's suggestion to tell other people) and now this host left me a nasty review (which I am uber clean - but by writing a true write up I got penalized)

 

While I am here, wondering does anyone have any suggestion for me on how to handle this both online and with air bnb?  This unfortunate incident has now left a sour taste in my mouth (and my face) and created a bunch of negative ju ju that I'm not into on my hosting site.  I had to respond defending my position now to that host's review saying that is not in my nature as a person or a host and my 5* reviews proof that.  Thanks all so much.

Vive0
Level 6
Los Angeles, CA

I agree with many of the other hosts that guests can be disrespectful. Lately for some strange reason guests leave my lovely white towels literally encrusted with makeup. First it’s just gross - they don’t try to rinse them out at all. Second, it isn’t just on the face towels, it’s on every single towel. Who wears that much makeup? Whatever happened to washing your face with soap and a face towel and then rinsing it out? 

I have stopped mentioning anything to the guests because as was said, one bad review and bye-bye Superhost designation. 

I look forward to seeing what changes Airbnb will implement, hopefully they will help.

Jennifer958
Level 2
Hollywood, FL

What guests in Airbnb need to realize is they are going into someone's home and property and need to treat it with respect. Respect is what is lacking. I think it should be Airbnb's job to inform/warn guests the difference between a hotel and a room before booking. In other words, when a guest books he should know to respect to space, the neighbors, and the community.

I had a guest who wasted 6 brand new towels in 3 nights.Even though we have beach towels in the same linen closet he took the white towels to the beach. We had to throw those stained towels away after.

It is very difficult as a host to put an honest review of a guest up when the host doesn't get to view guests' review before responding to the host reviews.It is difficult to give them a bad review when they can retaliate by getting back at you online by posting negative comments.  

 

Eileen123
Level 1
Seattle, WA

AirBnB SAYS that hosts can look at the guest profile/introduction to make a decision. Often guests have not written an introduction in their personal profile so that cannot be used to make a decision. Even without this, guests are allowed to proceed with bookings. ALSO, when Instant Booking, AirBnB says they need to meet the "standards" I set...I ask my guests to confirm several things and provide some info about the group. 80-90% of the time, the guest confirms nothing nor provides any information yet are allowed to Instant Book and I am the one who would be penalized for canceling their booking! On top of that, they are then "surprized" by the details I asked them to confirm, which in turn results in a lower score on my review. On top of all that, if a guest has at least one positive review, but does not provide any info on their personal profile and does not provide any info in their communication, unless I specifically "decline" this guest, they can still book my place...  but if, to stop them from booking because of their lack of communication/information, I decline them, I am the one penalized because hosts are only allowed to decline a certain percentage of inquiries. WHY ARE THE PENALTIES ONLY ON HOSTS WHEN THESE TYPE OF GUESTS HAVE DONE NOTHING TO GIVE ME ANY INFORMATION ABOUT THEMSELVES?

Delight0
Level 1
George Town, Cayman Islands

This is really great news. I have had the good fortune to meet many great people as guests as a new Host here on Airbnb in a short time; unfortunately, I have also experienced one very poor guest, the type that really caused me to rewrite my house rules, and then add to the list after finding out that he had opened a brand new box of Cheerios cereal without my permission, sometime during the mornings before leaving out.

He turned out to be one of those people who seemed to think that finding a low price on Airbnb compared to hotel rooms was way too much for me as a host to have...as if he needed to get more than what he had agreed to by signing up to stay in my space. He challenged me when I picked up at the airport willingly to the price he agreed on for me to do so when I did not have to; he basically ate all of the box cereal  without even letting me know what he had done; used up excessive toilet paper which was left in the dustbin every morning that he was at my space; he left crumbs from cereal bars on the bedroom floor despite asking me before hand after booking to "please waive my cleaning fee" because he is such a clean person and would not be eating in the room. Because of this there were ants all over the floor and up the desk where he had eaten at.

He left the bathroom basin and floor covered in water every morning, then to add insult to all of this he left me a "tip" of $1.76 in my local currency.

Seems that people feel that because we are getting money as payment that they somehow need to get "mileage" on the money they are paying, for what they agree on anyway ...even though I had gone above and beyond for this guest. This person gave nothing, but "took" much in return for a mutually agreed on service. He made me want to consider no longer hosting. Thankfully, I have met other really good, courteous people who are interested in leaving a good mark on the world by just being here.

Maybe these various issues can be listed for all Guests to read about.

 

Carol479
Level 1
Blaine, WA

Question: Is there any way to increase the number of characters used in the profile description of my listing so that I can more fully describe what I offer? 

Carol ****

Home Away from Home

Blaine, Washington, USA

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hello @Carol479,

 

Great to meet you. Good question.

 

Looking at some of the comments here and elsewhere in the Community Center, which refer to how they can encourage guests to read more of their listing description, do you think increasing the length would help to convey more of what you have to offer or perhaps there could be another way to show this? 

 

It would be great to hear your thoughts. 🙂


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