Improvements to guest reviews, house rules, cancellations & more in the latest Host Update

[Airbnb]

*Post shared October, 20th

In the latest Host Update, Catherine Powell shares how Airbnb is addressing your top concerns from the past few months and provides detailed answers to several direct questions from hosts. Thanks to host feedback voiced in workshops and here in the Community Center, there are several features being put into action. 

*To add or change subtitles to the video, hover over the video and click on the little 'Settings' wheel in the bottom right corner. Then select your language. 

Airbnb is improving the guest review process to make it feel more fair. This includes rewriting the majority of review questions that guests answer after a stay. For example, instead of asking guests if the description of a listing was inaccurate, we’re now asking if it was accurate instead. These changes will help guests leave reviews that feel more impartial and truly reflect the quality of your hospitality. 

Unauthorized parties are another top host concern, and we’re launching several new features to help protect you against them. For example, by the end of this month you’ll be able to immediately cancel a reservation without contacting support if you have valid reason to believe it will lead to a party. As long as your reason is upheld by our review team, you won’t receive financial penalties or have your Superhost status affected. 

When our team reviews a cancellation, they’ll search for evidence of a potential party from message threads or previous guest reviews. As always, these cancellations must adhere to Airbnb’s nondiscrimination policy and we’ll carefully monitor them for unfair treatment that violates that policy.

Many hosts have also asked that house rules be more prominent on listing pages so guests can both read and understand them before booking. By next month, your house rules will be visible in four different places when a guest books a stay:

1. Key house rules—like not allowing smoking or pets—will be visible at the top of your listing page so that they’re more prominent as guests search
2. All the house rules you’ve listed, including important safety disclosures, will be visible in the details of your listing page
3. House rules will be displayed again on the booking confirmation page to help better ensure that guests understand and agree to them before completing a reservation
4. They’ll also be included in the booking confirmation email to remind guests of your expectations before they arrive
   
   

All house rules must be in line with Airbnb’s policies and terms—including our terms of service and nondiscrimination policy.

To read a full overview of all the updates being put into place, visit this Resource Center article. As always, thank you for sharing the topics that matter to you and providing feedback that helps elevate the hosting community. Please let us know what you’d like us to cover in future Host Updates with Catherine.

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @Jo56,

Thank you for highlighting this important issue and I'm sorry you experienced these delays around getting this case resolved.

I have spoken to the team and you should now have heard from them with a final decision on this case. Please do keep sharing your feedback here.

Best,

Catherine

[Jo56]

@Catherine-Powell unsurprisingly, the continued advice is simply:

"we are letting the review stand because it does not violate our guidelines"

As I am trying to explain, although the review should be taken down as it includes entirely false statements which impact on us and our business, more importantly, Airbnb has still not taken into consideration the impact of the outlier 2 star review, in combination with the fact that we've clearly had really crappy luck in the last year, because, along with thousands of dollars in cancellations (a second round just occurring now due to new state travel restrictions), we have had to deal with the stress of 3 x guests breaching clearly agreed to house rules and/or GOVERNMENT HEALTH REQUIREMENTS. One guest decided not to leave a review (Airbnb allowed them the ability to submit one despite the serious breaches and cancellation of their reservation), 2 x guests decided to leave vindictively low 2 star reviews (one of these also had their reservation cancelled due to fear of our own safety, but Airbnb allowed them to leave a retaliatory review).

One of these probably wouldn't matter, but 2 retaliatory reviews (extremely low in comparison to all of our other reviews), which were submitted in response to us having to deal with these guests breaching house rules and GOVERNMENT HEALTH GUIDELINES, in combination with mostly 5 star reviews, with only a few 4 star ratings across three properties in one year, has just enough impact to knock us down. A handful of 4 stars are more than reasonable across a few properties, as we're all aware you can't please all people all the time, and none of us is perfect despite our wish to present a perfect stay every time. Now, due solely to the two vindictive, outlier extremely low rating (2 stars) reviews, I will lose Superhost status. 

Why do I care so much? Its the principle of the matter. Why isn't Airbnb standing up to those few rogue guests who break rules and Government regulations? Why are we being told that their retaliatory reviews making outright lies, and stating they were unhappy with clearly stated and agreed to house rules (no visitors, registered guests only) only because we were forced to call them out on the breaches, are simply "a guest's personal experience" and must stand? Worse still is the vindictive 2 star review. Clearly outlier and highly unusual, and based on the guest being upset that we were notified they breached house rules/ government regulations and that we asked them not to do so again during they stay.

You must understand why we hosts have very little trust remaining in CS reps supporting hosts. 

[Jo56]

@Catherine-Powell  as expected, Airbnb's CS and review team has continued to be dismissive, and has sided with intentionally manipulative guests in even the most extreme cases of outright breach of house rules, allowing false, vindictive, and defamatory reviews, and also extremely low 'outlier' ratings to stand.

We've clearly had really crappy luck in the last year, because, along with thousands of dollars in cancellations (a second round just occurring now due to new state travel restrictions), we have had to deal with the stress of 3 x guests breaching clearly agreed to house rules and/or GOVERNMENT HEALTH REQUIREMENTS. One guest decided not to leave a review (Airbnb allowed them the ability to submit one despite the serious breaches and cancellation of their reservation), 2 x guests decided to leave vindictively low 2 star reviews (one of these also had their reservation cancelled due to fear of our own safety, but Airbnb allowed them to leave a retaliatory review).

One of these probably wouldn't matter, but 2, in combination with mostly 5 star reviews, with only a few 4 star ratings across three properties in one year, has just enough impact to knock you down. A handful of 4 stars are more than reasonable across a few properties, as we're all aware you can't please all people all the time, and none of us is perfect despite our wish to present a perfect stay every time. Now, due solely to the two vindictive, outlier low star reviews, I will lose Superhost status. 

Why do I care so much? Its the principle of the matter. Why isn't Airbnb standing up to those few rogue guests who break rules and Government regulations? Why are we being told that their retaliatory reviews making outright lies, and stating they were unhappy with clearly stated and agreed to house rules (no visitors, registered guests only) only because we were forced to call them out on the breaches, are simply "a guest's personal experience" and must stand? Worse still is the vindictive 2 star review. Clearly outlier and highly unusual, and based on the guest being upset that we were notified they breached house rules/ government regulations and that we asked them not to do so again during they stay.

You must understand why we hosts have very little trust remaining in CS reps supporting hosts. 

[Francesco1366]

 @Jo56,

in Italy and other countries your rule, only guests who book can enter the house, is illegal for entire houses rentals. Check your local law based on what you offer. If the condominium asks to be informed, certainly you can (indeed you must) ask guests to respect that condominium rule as all.

Anyway I am very sorry for what happened and I am sure you are right and the guest was very incorrect.

[Jo56]

@Francesco1366 We can make our own rules in our area for short term holiday rentals, for our home. Many responsible hosts have the same rule in our country, as it ensures careful management of a property and responsible hosting as far as minimising negative impacts on neighbours in our community. 

Further, this rule is sensible and critical in the middle of a pandemic - ensuring we have contact tracing details for all guests staying in our home and entering our building (if a flat/ apartment building) if needed - and we take careful management of this issue very seriously in our country.

[Guy331]

@Catherine-Powell - I'm worried that even guests staying 2 nights or longterm in my properties will party on Halloween. For example, I have a group renting an entire house in San Diego, they've been there for one month and our cleaners did a mid-stay servicing of the house and saw that they're stocking up with tons of liquor and wine. What do I do? If there are a lot of parties on halloween, I feel like airbnb will be in jeopardy in my city and many others. Can airbnb be more proactive and send a message to guests about no partying? 

[Katie]

Hi @Guy331, thanks for sharing your experience here. The best thing to do if you are concerned about guests holding a party is to reach out to them directly and remind them of your house rules/party policy, and if you are still worried then get in touch with Support 🙂

[Luke370]

@Catherine-Powell  I am glad to see Airbnb finally putting some thought into the party situation. It is something I have been trying to bring to your attention for a while!

I think one of the simplest things would be to actually charge the guest the security deposit when they book. I manage over 50 units (only two on Airbnb), and we have had more party problems in the two Airbnb units than in all the rest combined.  And when there is an issue in the other units, I simply talk to the renter and let them know things get taken care of. I'm sure there are other factors but part of it is that they know they have something to loose.

Another problem that needs to be addressed is the different teams within Airbnb & who handles what. Several weeks ago we had a guest ("Cassandra") who threw a huge party. Cops called multiple times, many neighbor complaints, absolutely disgusting inside, almost $500 in damages. I called Airbnb right then & a representative walked me through the process of getting the guest out of the house and assured me I would be reimbursed for the damages. I sent him photos & detailed documentation, an invoice and receipts, but still haven't gotten anything from the guest to cover these costs. I would appreciate it if you could help speed the process along. Not only can I not afford to cover these costs out of pocket, but if guests aren't held responsible for their actions they are likely to continue acting in a similar fashion & causing problems for other hosts down the line.

[Kenneth263]

We"ve had guest post unfair reviews taking 5-star reviews down for things they do or don"t understand. We have a hair strainer in the tub and one guest washed their hair and they filled up the strainer. It gets cleaned after each guest but, she gave us 4 stars for that, She scratched off the anti-stick coating off one pot.

Another guest claimed WIFI problems on her phone when it was her cellphone carrier reception. The WIFI on the TV played their entire stay. Did the same thing gave us 4 stars. When guests don't understand these things they drop our scores!

[Cynthia808]

Good idea to make prominent, the House Rules. I have been having a list of them placed on the desk in the guest suite, and will still do so. I suspect quite a few people who are newer to AirBnB have become used to not bothering to read everything. I've been a HOST since 2011, and then hosts AND guests too had pages, with quite a lot of personal information about themselves, and visible photographs. That was FAR better for those of us (including me) who host in a guest suite within their own homes. If the Guests can see our photo when they are choosing where to stay, why can't we have the same reassurance? To me this is wrong, and just plain "not fair".   OK - I get it, that you are trying to be without 'discrimination' of any kind.  However, Some requests come in from a person with a name that cannot even tell me if they are male or female, let alone give me any kind of 'sense' of who I am being asked to invite into my own home. As an older woman, living alone, this is not OK for me.  I have to write to them, ask them questions about themselves, to try to guess what sort of people they are. Reviews do not tell me much.  I am also a SUPERHOST, and with a lot of very good reviews for the guests to read about me. But as Air BnB has grown and changed, to whole apartments, and even hotel rooms, you need two different sections. One for us, the 'originals' the home-sharers, like when the founder had the inspiration when he slept on his pal's California Couch.... and another section for the more Business and industry sort of hostings. PLEASE THINK ABOUT this.

from Cynthia Webb  

[Pat114]

I agree: 2 separate divisions. Home sharing - the traditional get-to-know you way, AND commercial cookie-cutter airbnb rentals.

[Gail175]

That’s great about the house rules but it’s too late for me after Airbnb sided with a guest who broke just about all my house rules, left a scathing review which cost me my Superhost status and Airbnb also refunded him his money after I evicted him. Pretty crappy way to treat a 5 star Superhost. Too bad, how sad you operate this way. He has cost me rentals and Airbnb doesn’t care. 

[Barbara1198]

Your statement contradicts itself. We won’t know when we cancel if we are being affected financially or subject to losing Superhost status until Airbnb agrees with our reason for cancelling. The last time I needed to cancel a reservation due to an unreasonable guest it took Airbnb a week, a full week, to respond to me. That was ridiculous. And even then I didn’t receive the support I needed from Airbnb. Airbnb has let me down several times. I’ve had people trashed my house, I’ve had theft and then this latest woman who showed up early, tried to get in the house and then made up a ridiculous  story as to why she couldn’t stay and wanted a full refund. She refused to cancel the reservation which meant my house was tied up for a week not being able to be rented. Each time I contacted Airbnb I was told I was already in the system and would have to wait for a response. I have no faith that Airbnb‘s new policy will benefit me.

[Blake65]

Glad you guys are looking into removing reviews from guests that break the house rules. I have a 1-star review from a guest that I repeatedly tried to kick out of my house for having 8 unauthorized guests (visitors). the police were called on them twice and had to come out at 3:00 am. Airbnb was NO help throughout the process. I called Airbnb and the wait time was 2.5 hours. I tried to claim over $1800 in damages for the unauthorized guests. BUT, since I didn't officially make a claim until after the next guest checked in then my claim was thrown out. I charge $100 per day for each unauthorized guest. What goes the next guest who checked in have anything to do with the priors unauthorized guest!? The answer is nothing.

Please call me at **

My neighbors were pissed at me and Airbnb was no help. BUT AIRBNB IS LETTING HIS 1STAR REVIEW STAND! CRAZY!!!

**[Phone number hidden due to safety reasons - Community Center Guidelines] - Please note that it is not allowed to share any personal details publicly.

[Karen2731]

Please respect my filing of W8 Ben as a non resident "alien" to avoid tax withholding since I am not doing business in the U.S.    You have been withholding 32% which has forced me to add that percentage to my listing price which is severely restricting my reservations.    Once you refrain from withholding those taxes, then I can revert back to my normal prices and hope to encourage more rentals during these uncertain times meaning I have lost a significant amount of my income due to COVID and your decreased reservations for my properties.   Thanks for your prompt attention to the above and looking forward to hopefully seeing an increase in rentals.