Catherine’s Host Update: reviews, party ban policy, and more

Catherine’s Host Update: reviews, party ban policy, and more

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Hi everyone,

 

I’m happy to be sharing a new Host update with you, which has important news about a topic I know is top of mind for many of you—reviews—along with news from our Host Advisory Board, about sustainability and introducing a new board member. (Welcome to the board, Pam!)

 

We’ve been listening closely to your feedback on our review system—specifically to how they relate to our party ban policy. For reviews written from today on, reviews from guests who violate our party ban will be eligible for removal. You shouldn’t have to trade off between reporting a party and getting dinged with a negative review. We want to close that gap. 

 

This is just the first step. We’ll continue to listen to you and work to shape our policies to better support you and our whole community. 

 

I’ll be in touch again soon with more updates. In the meantime, stay well, and happy hosting!

 

All my best,

Catherine

215 Replies 215

Hi @Donata12,

Thank you for your feedback on this.

We certainly have systems in place to try to mitigate the likelihood of guests abusing policies, but I recognise that our Support team can have a difficult time dealing with claims when trying to navigate this thorny issue.

Are you able to offer more detail on your suggestion that we separate this into two different policies? Please feel free to share it here or send me a DM if you are more comfortable doing so.

Best,
Catherine

@Catherine-Powell i can try to elaborate here no problem.

 

It is a fact that policy and rule breaking guests will try to use whatever in their power to stay for free, be refunded while breaking all the rules etc. My comment was specifically focusing on the discrimination card played so very often by rule breaking guests because they know it is a powerful tool. Whenever this card is played with a CS, the host loses. Even if the guest lies and broke all possible rules, the CS will award the guest with a refund or free stays and the host is left to fend for her/himself., sometimes facing significant damages. Sadly, despite the recent changes and efforts, hosts are still often overrun in their right to host and set their own rules. CS agents have old scripts and should probably be better trained but this is another topic by itself and not the focus of my reply.

 

My suggestion is that Airbnb implements a completely different channel to address discrimination for real. This channel has to be directed both by phone or text or message to a higher level of CS with a more specific training to specifically deal with these issues (real discrimination is no joke and must be addressed properly). Once this specific channel is in place, the reviewing system (both via app or website) should be set as not to allow words like “discrimination” and similar to be used in the reviews and if it is, said review is flagged and directed to the dedicated channel for further investigation and not published for the time being. If the review is biased and false it will not stand. This additional step would also allow the host to be heard before the review gets published. If a guest leaves a false review because the host enforced rules and the host fights it with an agent and the discrimination card is used, the review should be placed on hold while someone specifically trained investigates.  This step would, in my opinion, let the hosts off the hook when discrimination is used against them in retaliation for enforcing the house rules that the guests ignored and similar other occasions, and, at the same time, safeguard those guests that are discriminated upon for real. 

 

The way the review system is setup right now is very simplistic. Software programming allows for so many more keywords and multiple possibilities as to allow the software to actually sort and direct reviews in a more effective way and “freeze them” when certain criteria are met.

 

I don’t know if this makes any sense to you. Thank you

I believe everyone is overlooking that fact that good hosts will document everything by texting their guest through the Airbnb network of a problem. I always send a message politely asking that the House Rules be followed and document the rule being broken prior to or just after speaking to them. 

 

That should inform Airbnb of a possible retaliation so they are prepared to stand behind their hosts. Unfortunately, Airbnb does not stand behind the very people that make it possible to stay in business. 

 

I remain a Super Host because I love meeting so many wonderful people from all walks of life but also because I have a husband with kidney disease and we live on a modest income so the hosting does help pay a few bills.

 

It would be great if Airbnb would finally recognize that we are important to their success but there are so many of us now, a few loses doesn't make any difference. SO SAD

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Catherine-Powell  Hosts have reported guests for partying and causing damages that they refuse to pay for. Yet those guests are not banned from the platform. They are allowed to go on to book other places and do the same thing.

 

The first thing Airbnb needs to do is ban these sorts of guests and have a prevention method for them just creating a new account.

 

Real solutions start with prevention measures before bad things happen, not damage control after the fact.

Hello, @Sarah977 and thank you for this feedback.

These changes are part of a larger drive to make improvements and you've made some excellent points. Your comments link back to what some of the other Hosts are raising here as well. Your comment and so many others really do help inform the decisions I make around how to better support our community. Thank you again for posting here.

Best,
Catherine

Jacob41
Level 2
Washington, DC

Airbnb doesn’t really care about hosts and don’t knwk what this global head hosting board will do .

guests now days very “smart” books as one or 2 stays MORE THAN THAT . 
when you ask additional guest fees then you end up bad review as a revenge .

too much demands, 

and even couple years ago, guests  finds a bug outside trash bin (caught on camera) brings in the bedroom, take photo and make a insect presence claim to get a refund .

These are too much. The worst thing when you call for hell Airbnb your need to tell the story at least 3 times to 3 different people. 
Airbnb ambassador,  —> agent —> and case manager or specialist or someone .

so that will go no where .

 

 

Funny about that bug thing. People do do that. but in very clumsy ways. who knew that people could be so devious.we have had people bring bugs from their own states that do not exist in our state. it is important to be in touch with people during their stay to check on their comfort and to check if any issues have arisen during their stay.they do not mention bugs then only after they have left.any bug is generally stone dead dried up and left conveniently out.we have bug checkups periodically for this reason.

We need to be able to charge the deposit. This would eliminated 99% of the problems. 
This is a step in the right direction but much more needs to be done. From my experience, guest who have intentionally destroyed my property or threw a party have been rewarded by Airbnb and the host is left to deal with the consequences on their own. You need to do better and be a better advocate for your hosts! 

Is it possible to add some kind of reverse button to sent payments too? I guess this is also really important.

Reading this is like salt on a wound. A bunch of kids smoked pot inside my unit. The place reeked so bad we had to air it out with multiple fans running for two days and wipe everything down. The guests even forgot their stash of marijuana and i sent a picture to the Airbnb resolution. I got zero compensation from Airbnb because, and I'm not kidding, i  didn't use a "professional cleaning service". Today I expect zero support from Airbnb. Oh, now you want to protect my rating? How about  stop playing hardball with your hosts!!!

Helen744
Level 10
Victoria, Australia

There is another issue with the review process here in Australia and that is the reluctance of folk to give a five star review bases on what is offered and the alignment between what they recieve. those people who are not used to a star system believe that the system works similar to a restaurant system with a five star place being the most elite accomodation and humbler accomodation being comparable and therefore less worthy. they do not clearly understand that if they get what they have seen advertised and most times a little more then the fact that there was no designer furniture rugs paintings or fittings is not a reason to take stars off . Too much power is given for  the general personal inconvenience of travellers who somehow would have preferred different accomodation so therefore do not consider your accomodation to be fitting perfectly with their dream accomodation as a reason to take stars off . or those who give you five stars for everything and then an overall four stars based on a whim.

I would agree with that. i had a guest rate me a "5' in every single category and then a 4 overall. I wonder if a "5" is "better than expected.  How can I be better than expected for a place all the other guests rave about (equipped like a home, no generic furniture, bone china plates, fully stocked kitchen, comfortable beds) and 1500 square feet not including the front porch people love. All for less than the cost of a single hotel room.  Sigh. "5" should be "would stay here again." or "would recommend to others."

Exactly Christine, as my son says he is teaching his children that less than a five actually damages that persons business. The stress of getting everything perfect ,doing little bits of maintenance, maintaining cleaning , providing little extras updating linen and kitchen bits and bobs is balanced out by the disappointment of losing imaginary stars. not related to the exact same effort put in every time especially by those of us who have to do all of our own cleaning managing maintenance etcetera.We have a lot of families and try to maintain thru our products an allergy free environment . I am sure that those who run genuine airbnbs instead of "agency curated "places understand this . Genuine airbnbs are being pulverised in this industry at the moment here in Australia.

 

@Christine615 

Early on when I first started hosting I saw a recommendation in the CC to post for your guests the star system and how it translated. I keep it in our sign in book front and center. 
It is unfortunate that we all must participate in this rather petty evaluation system. 
The Airbnb format has its challenges and I for one will explore the options if this one stops providing my hubby and I the much needed extra income. 

@Julie1387 

Having a reminder of the star system is a good idea. I wish Airbnb would SHOW us what the star system is. With pandemic I haven't been traveling but before that I remember that each time I went to rate a host, the rating descriptions had changed. Would love to know what they are. But I may tell guests that a 4 rating is considered a "poor" rating by Airbnb - which is ridiculous.