Airbnb Answers: Protecting you from one-off bad reviews

[Airbnb]

You asked: Can Airbnb protect hosts from one-off bad reviews?

Reviews are so important. They not only impact the success of your business, they’re also really personal. We know you put a lot of thought and care into your hospitality and that it’s frustrating when you receive a review that’s uncharacteristically low—be it a mistake, a misunderstanding, or an unfair assessment. You’ve raised concerns about this, and we want you to know that we hear you and we’re taking this issue really seriously. We’ve invested and will continue to invest a lot of thought and effort into how we can make the review system more fair.

The good news is, we’re already making a lot of progress. Here are some updates we can share with you now, below, and we’re committed to keeping you in the loop as we roll out more changes.

A tool to detect outlier reviews

At the last Host Q&A, in June, 2018, we said, specifically, that we’d look into outlier reviews. To be clear, one-off low reviews can be considered outliers when a host has otherwise great review scores, but a single guest leaves a bad rating that seems out of place. Here’s a solution we’ve come up with: We’re working on building new tools that will automatically detect when outlier reviews like this occur— and give us an opportunity to correct them. So let’s say a guest gives you five stars for cleanliness, accuracy, check in, and so on— for each of the sub categories— but then a two-star rating overall. The new tool will flag this and prompt the guest to correct the overall rating. We’re developing this new tool now, and you can expect to see it soon.

Research into how those reviews affect Superhost status

In addition, we’re doing research to see how a single outlier review can impact a host’s ability to gain or retain Superhost status. The ultimate goal is to find ways to make outliers less impactful for terrific hosts and to make sure the review system is fair.

Location, location, location

Finally, we’re looking at the Location rating and how that can affect a host’s standing. It’s worth noting that Location isn’t used in calculating a host’s overall rating. But you’ve told us that you’re frustrated when you get a low rating in this category since where your home is located is out of your control. And we hear that.

This is a tricky one. It’s a hard concern to address because judging the quality of a home’s location is so subjective. Some guests may love that your space is off the beaten path; others might be disappointed it’s not closer to public transit. We’re doing a lot of research into how we can continue giving travelers the information they need and want when they’re making booking decisions and, at the same time, make sure hosts aren’t affected by something that’s out of their control.

So we’re looking into new ways to collect and highlight guest impressions of your home’s location information. While we don’t have a concrete announcement on this yet, you can expect to hear more details soon, perhaps at the next Host Q&A. In the meantime, please know we’re working on this. Keep sending us your feedback on how we can make the review system as fair as possible.

View this and other answers from the Host Q&A here.

[Kristina46]

Just had a super nit picky review from two ladies who did not read the listing, nor the documents I sent. They complained about the house rules, which are clearly stated and which they agree to at booking. They marked me down on “value” because I have to collect Hawaii excise and accommodations tax; they thought it was a cleaning fee and stated this in the review!. They also arrived at the room an hour early and let themselves in!!! I was shocked to get home from work and see them already there. They did not let me know their arrival time as I request!.  I turn the power on before arrival. So the fridge was off and there was no power. Yet there they were all settled in. Next time I lock the room if I have a guest arrival on a day I work. Another thing I have to do to circumvent guests who don’t read.

They booked at a discount (thanks price tips, ugh) and were only here four days yet had four days  of negative comments and complaints. Wish I could go back in time and decline their request! 

Previous to that I had a terrible review from two guests who fought with each other the whole time they were here and never mentioned any of their concerns but left them all in the review. She ranted for 1000 words and was cruel and taunting, lied throughout. Clearly mad at her husband and took it out on me.

Why do I do this again? 

I am so over guests who don’t read, people want the 4 Seasons for the Tiki hostel price. So over entitled divas with high expectations about Hawaii.  Guests who don’t get that if they want a sanitized resort with a white sand beach they need to book the Hapuna Prince at $375 per night plus resort fees of $40. I live in one of the most expensive destinations in the nation. I offer a studio by the beach in Kona Hawaii for base price of $99 per night plus tax. (Oh, and you get free snorkel gear!) i invested in a $2500 mattress and bedding. Guests can cook and barbecue. It’s completely private and quiet. I have great deal here. (Most guests do appreciate what I offer, I admit.)

Since the customer service reps are so bound by the review content standards, why not make them a little looser? Why should a guest get to be mean and vindictive in their review and get away with it? Why should a guest get to be malicious and vicious? Why do they get to lie? How is that in the spirit of Airbnb? They need to change these strict content standards so that they can remove a Review if it goes over the top in maliciousness. The response mechanism is worthless, as all it does is make the host look defensive if not composed carefully. Loosen it up and give the CSRs more leeway to remove overly malicious reviews. Allow hosts to drop one bad review a year if they have over 50 percent five star. Anything... just help out the hosts a little! 

Ive been doing Airbnb since it was a brand new startup and no one had ever heard of them. Back in the early days, they were so much fun to be a part of. Reviews were an afterthought, not life and death like now. I’ve hosted hundreds and hundreds of guests over the years, with only a few stinkers.

But the review system is so stressful, so unfair and abhorrent, that if anything gets me to quit it will be that. 

[Aydil0]

When you  have the right information about location and out of many reviews one gives you a bad rating  that can affect future guests decisions on the house, airbnb should protect hosts from this and reconsider damage upon host claim eliminating review.

[Tanya233]

I find it quite odd that AirBnB cannot remove a review especially when it is clearly stated in the description of what the guest is complaining about. We go out of our way to make sure we get 5 star ratings then you get the one guest who clearly did not read the description to lower your ratings. I cannot see why AirBnB does not understand how anything less than 5 star would upset us if it is clearly due to a guest NOT reading the description properly.

[Janyce0]

Being new to hosting on Airbnb I was very disappointed that my 5 star rating went Down to 4.9 only due to the LOCATION  category! Wish we could change that as it had nothing to with the overall stay! Now I don't know how to get a 5 star review again.

I work really hard to be a wonderful host and give our guest a great experience. It would be fantastic to remove the location category all together!

[Sarah977]

@Janyce0     No, your overall rating didn't go down because of the Location rating. Overall rating is a category of its own, it's not an average of the other stars. 

[Peta7]

Just wait until the bogus reviews are metered out as punishment by disgruntled guests for non compliance to ridiculous requests like cash settlement for extensionded stays, allowing visitors, self catering and swapping listings are received as in our case, we have gone from Superhost to Listing suspension in a very short period.....

[Sidnie0]

I received a three star review instead of usual five star because the guest said she found a cobweb under the sink in the bathroom and a condom under the couch! The condom was not used or opened, and I'm certain was planted by her, as I always clean under the couch. Most of my reviews are 5-star reviews and the thing that people most frequently comment on is how sparklingly clean our Airbnb space is. She also complained that I charge a $100 cleaning fee, which is not true. As everyone who views and/or stays at our Airbnb knows, we charge only $35 for cleaning. She may have been angry because we could not offer her early check in, which she asked for. We have been really busy this summer and fall, and often have only a few hours window in which to clean and prepare and restock the Airbnb for our next guests. Therefore, we are often unable to offer early check in, but if we have enough time, we always try to accommodate our guests. This bad review seems to be mostly overlooked, however, by most of our guests, due to her outlandish comments which are an extreme contrast from everyone else's positive and complementary reviews. As a matter of fact, while we were out of town this summer, our daughter took a ferry over to our place from Seattle and was picked up by the local Uber driver, who when he learned the location address where she needed to be dropped off, told her that everyone loved our Airbnb and that it was the most popular in the area by all the guests he gave rides to.

[Peggy-And-Mike0]

Please consider adding "waterfront" as a way to also determine location, or as an amenity. 

[Ale-and-Igor0]

My wife and I work in the hospitality/Real Estate business and have two superhost accounts with over 20 active listings each. One of which we've maintained the superhost status for over 2 years now. We must confess that, we struggle and sometimes even take money out of our pocket in order to keep our standards high and fully satisfy our guests so they can leave 5-star reviews.

However, we've experienced cases where some guests leave a "N/A" public review and a 3-star rating and put 5 stars in all 6 criteria... What does that mean? No one knows, not even the person who rated us... Another example is when they leave a feedback complaining about something we emphasize several times in the description, messages, and every other method of communication available. Now, it goes without saying that lately, Airbnb support has not been fair with our cases regarding content policy infringement, those that guests leave feedback containing fake, dishonest/hateful and inappropriate content.

So, not only the review system that needs adjusting, but also the training for Airbnb customer service staff. Another drawback: the requirements to become and keep the superhost status. Although we follow-up with all guests after they check out to thank and request feedback--and Airbnb does that continuously for 14 days to both host and guest, so much that it feels like spamming honestly--they still sometimes do not leave any feedback.

The minimum 4.8 star to keep the superhost status is another very hard challenge. Many times we have no fault on low ratings--I'd say most of the times--but the review system does not discriminate, and there is when we have to stop everything and open a case with Airbnb to fight about these unfair feedback. And it's not a pleasant experience at all.

We believe the review system should change completely. No more 5-star overall experience. Guests should not see our listings appearing with 1 to 5 stars when they search for places to stay in Airbnb. It's not fair. For example, how come you rate 2 or 3 on location and value--which are 2 criteria that shouldn't exist honestly--and 5 stars in all others, and, on overall experience, you rate 2 stars. And now our overall ratings have dropped significantly because of 2 criteria that we have no control over. Airbnb should allow guests rate us only on some criteria currently in place and get rid of overall experience, location and value.

Location is something you do an online research before you book a place. Guests are able to see the area your place is located (the perimeter within a mile or so, therefore location should not be a criteria, so is value.

Airbnb has become increasingly competitive over the last years, and our rates are already below average in many areas. As long as the listing photos, description and location are accurate, value should not be a criteria. When you book a place and arrive at the location and physically see that everything in the description is exactly what you saw in the page, value becomes unnecessary. When you book a place you agree to pay whatever amount there is, and as long as everything is the way the listing describes, value means nothing.

Accuracy, check-in, communication and cleanliness are fair criteria. But, location and value are not. I really hope that my feedback gets through this time. We have submitted a few already, but apparently not much has changed.

[Rob420]

As others have said there should be no 'Location' rating as the specific location is known to everyone in advance, it cannot be 'rated' as such as it not a relative thing.

However, if the rating is supposed to concern the feeling of the area, it should be called 'neighbourhood', or 'surroundings', or 'environment'. Or if it's about the ambience of the building it should be 'homeliness', 'construction' or 'spaciousness' or something like that.

My listing is right in the middle of London, and then someone gives me 3 stars for Location - what does that even mean!? What can I do about that? 🙂

[Parmita0]

This tool does not actually work in practice.

I had a terrible guest recently who broke rules, broke and lost guest items, littered shared spaces, damaged my place (hanging his west jackets from wall paintings every day!) and refused to pay for the loss and damage. He also promptly went ahead and wrote a nasty retailatory 1 star review, as expected.

I won the dispute, got the money due and was able to block the text of the review as it broke AirBnB content policy. However, although the review text itself is not showing, the outlier 1 star rating that is completely false is still taken into account and in one go, brought my overall rating from a 4.6 (20 reviews) to a 4.4 (21st review)!

Upon contacting AirBnB, the customer service lady, while being helpul, said she or her supervisor can't do anything about removing the rating as that is automated.

So, how am I protected? Why promise something AirBnB, that you clearly are not delivering on?

[Deni12]

Yes  I have been very pleased with the way Airbnb have corrected my reviews, listened to an explanation and very satisfactorily without being unfair to either myself or the guest.  I would like to add to the conversation that the side to take would be our hosting side.  The reason being that we are not in the business to offer our homes to be criticised and receive an opinion from someone who is paying much below the market rate for hotels and even Back Packers.  For this they get security from theft, we are the ones who risk our jewellery being taken, our private stuff being broken and in some cases possibly looked at , who knows.  But we really are the ones taking the risks.  We get some bad review from someone who maybe pays $40 a night say and then doesn't give a 5 star review.  I mean to say on those grounds alone we should get a gold star for making any bed available.  Fridges that work, TVs wifi, heating, quiet, gorgeous locations, bus stops and information at their fingertips that THINK ABOUT IT, in a hotel in a strange city for this kind of convenience, comfort, easy mind, tea, coffee, sugar etc etc.  (They don't even have to pay probably for salt and pepper, guaranteed clean cups if they are the ones us as hosts use, milk they don't have to buy a pint of, butter they don't have to buy a pound of ) so you get my point.  Be grateful guests for the lovely idea and concept of Airbnb.  Years ago a Bed and Breakfast when travelling was often more convenient than staying at a 5star hotel.  Parking often just outside, breakfast quick and easy, local knowledge, feelings of warmth and comfort, hot tubs, laundry done.  So my love of Airbnb is its ease of use and personal touches.  For a guest to complain when they are getting such a good experience defies belief. 

[Neil149]

Yes Couldn't agree more! They get so much but have no idea how to write a balanced review, the reason being as these many people have rarely stayed in a Hotel and have no idea how and what to base their review on, thus we have Guests thinking they are writing for the New Times Review! And seriously I have had people that do not know how to turn a sheet so they think they have no sheets! And even after I showed them they had linen they gave a bad review saying there was no linan on the Beds! No I didn't make this up!

[Barbara1377]

It happend also to me - guest rated individual field with 4 and 5 stars and gave overall rate 3 star, which is obviously in conrary with individual answers.  I suggest that guest makes only individual reviews abd that overall review is than calculated from idividual answers.

[Sarah977]

@Airbnb   Well, here we are, almost 4 months from the original date of this post and NOTHING that you talked about has been changed. Well done. What is the point of Updates like this?  How do you expect hosts to believe anything you say? 

"At the last Host Q&A, in June, 2018, we said, specifically, that we’d look into outlier reviews." That was almost 7 months ago. Great hosts are still losing their status because of guests' lying in their reviews.