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.

[Anthony223]

I discontinued 'instant booking' because I now want to know who is booking and I want to be able to say NO.  So what started all this?  In recent months I have had two guests whom I reported for violating AirBNB's terms. In both cases the guests were attempting to by-pass the booking system by offering me cash.  This really upsets guests when it happens and in both cases I was left seriously damaging reviews, 1 star and 2 stars.  In the first case, the guest did not even stay in the accommodation.  I always go by the rules and have had a huge number of guests staying because we are VERY inexpensive and we accept one night stays.    Reporting guests who try to pay cash just doesn't pay because we will be heavily penalised by the revenge reviews those guests give us.  And AirBNB Support don’t bother to answer our messages these days as you all know.  Have any other hosts had the same problem as me ?  Anthony from sunny Portugal

[Nick1917]

The current Cancellation policy is too inflexible especially during the Covid epidemic where future planning for both hosts and guests is difficult. There needs to be something in between the Strict option (four weeks)  and the Moderate option ( 5 days). I suggest two weeks. This would help both parties a lot.  Or can I choose my own option meanwhile anyway?

Nick Gilbert ,Superhost, Derbyshire UK

[Chad-And-Mary0]

We had instant book for about a year and we did very well $$ wise, but we began to have a problem with people from the local area booking the room as a place to hang out and use drugs - this was verified by finding drug paraphernalia including needles 😯 in the room after check out and complaints from neighbors about what looked like drug deals happening in the street. All while we were sleeping in the house. Such an uncomfortable feeling. This only ever happened after guest with a local address had rented. We asked Airbnb if there was a way to block reservations from guests with addresses within 30 miles but they said no. So we had to switch to reservation requests and subsequently fewer bookings, but at least we haven't found any drug paraphernalia or had any complaints from our neighbors.

It would be great if there was a way to filter bookings from guest with a local address is my point. 

[Mariya24]

For the most of the summer months I was hit by a “tidal wave” of abusive guests who booked my listings for only one reason - to host a party. My listings are one-bedroom units - not the “Mansions”. 
it was extremely difficult to get Airbnb customer service help in terminating “that-kind-of-guests” reservations/activities. Moreover, after the termination by “special department” confronted guests’ stay, Airbnb allowed “those-kind-of-people” to post a review of their stay !!!!

As any intelligent human would imaging, “those-kind-of-guest” use the reviews to retaliate. 
I called several times to demand those reviews removal - every time I was told that it is not against Airbnb policy to use reviews as a retaliation - as long as abusive guests don’t use some sort of “key-words”. 
Shame on Airbnb and whoever allows such abuse!!!

sincerely ,

mariya w. 

[Raymond-Brown0]

I've experienced this as well. Just had a guest leave after breaking every house rule, agreed on pet policy etc. Drunken party, loaded up firewood into his pickup, kept turning the heat to ermgency heat, let the dog go buck wild all over the furniture (against pet policy) and turned every lamp and over head light on AND left cigarettes in the toilet and cabin stinking with cigarette smoke. Now I can bill the guest for the extra clean up, broken rules and leave a bad review guest, but it will cost me in the long run. Once I let guest know he is being billed for extra charges, he will just leave a bad review and airbnb won't do squat about it. A bad review will effect my bookings!  So I wind up paying for the extra cleaning myself and not leaving guest a review all becuase I know guest will retaliate and airbnb always sides with guest. 

[Carmen-and-Ben0]

Two simple ways for Airbnb to resolve the “revenge reviews”

1. Guests should not be allowed to give a rating review in these cases:

Any reservation where a guest violates house rules during their stay, which results in 

a. Guest being charge money for breaking or damaging something. 
b. Guest is ejected from the property as result of violating the house rules. 
c.The person giving the review did not actually stay on the property because they booked for someone  else and it was not disclosed. 

2. Create a “Review Mulligan” based on a percent of total reviews per quarter or per year. 
For example hosts gets 1 mulligan, which allows them to remove a survey if they have more than 12 reviews per quarter. The mulligans cannot be carried over from quarter to quarter.

I had a guest who booked a one bed studio, which clearly states is for two guests maximum on the house rules. The guest booked for one person. Arrived with three children and later in the evening, an adult male arrived bringing  the total number of guests to 5 people.
Into a unit the size of a typical hotel room with just one bed.

The guest would not respond to any messages. Would not answer the phone and finally when confronted and asked to leave, she left a 1 star review and stated that we kicked her out to the street with her three children. 
We contacted Airbnb to dispute this unfair review. The Airbnb rep refused to remove it or escalated further because it did not violate the Airbnb content policy. This one review cost me Super Host as we missed it by a 10th of a percent. 

[Dana941]

I am not sure if anyone has encountered a situation where someone tries to book on someone elses account, gives partial payment, holds the booking for 24hrs, and then doesn't complete their transaction. Only to hijack those days when they could be available for some other potential guest with instant booking. I have encountered this 3 times already since I started month and a half ago. Is there anyway that as a host, you could have more control over declining that  booking if they don't respond to your message than the 24hrs they are given. To me that is quite on fair.

[Sarah977]

I counted 51 posts on this thread of now 230 responses, where @Catherine-Powell was tagged in or addressed by name in the first line with a grand total of 7 responses from our new head of hosting. And Airbnb wonders why hosts don't fall all over themselves with gratitude at  hearing yet more (empty) promises from people who appear to have been hired for their PR experience, rather than any interest in doing the job they claim to be doing.

So far, as far as I'm aware, there has been one small change for hosts regarding posting a couple of our house rules at the top of the listing.

Meanwhile, hosts continue to post daily about missing payments dating back months or in some cases years, abysmal CS reps who give out incorrect info, are wholly unaware of system glitches which have been reported by multiple hosts, close unresolved cases and in some cases are downright rude, horrid guests who scam refunds which Airbnb hands out like Santa hands out candy canes.

Hosts continue to have their listings suspended pending an "investigation", while Airbnb refuses to tell them what they are being investigated for, any lie a guest tells Airbnb is believed over anything the host has to say (if they are even given an opportunity to say anything),  Guests who've trashed hosts homes or cancelled day-of-check-in are still allowed to leave retaliatory reviews which tank long-time hosts' wonderful ratings and reviews.

What exactly have you done for hosts since assuming your position, @Catherine-Powell ? As far as I can tell, all you've done is create placating videos.

[Catherine-Powell]

Hi @Sarah977,

Thank you for your message here, and for taking the time out of your day to give such thoughtful and candid feedback.

As I have said to others, unfortunately I cannot respond to every single person who tags me here in the Community, but I do have a team around me, along with the Community Managers, who are very helpful in stepping in when I cannot, and I do my best to get back to as many hosts as possible.

You've raised concerns about some issues that we take very seriously and are currently working on addressing to better support our host community, including retaliatory reviews, house rule enforcement, and guest standards and education. These are complex issues, and there is still much work to be done, but rest assured that I and the team are well aware of the impact they have on our hosts.

I hope you'll stay tuned for future updates and changes, and I look forward to sharing more in the coming months. Please do keep the feedback coming. I really do appreciate your candor here.

Best,
Catherine

[Sarah977]

@Catherine-Powell  Thank you for responding.

But you have said essentially nothing here. All we ever hear from you or your predecessor is that you are "working"on things, that they are tricky or complex.

There is nothing whatsover complex about ceasing to suspend host's accounts while they are being "investigated" because of a guest accusation, while refusing to tell the host what they are being investigated for.  That is the behavior of dictatorships- that you are guilty until proven innocent. How would you like to be arrested, your source of income blocked, with the police refusing to tell you what you are being arrested for?

There is nothing complex about this- you simply stop doing this. It doesn't take weeks or months, you stop doing it today. If a host is being investigated, you tell him transparently what he has been accused of. That's just basic respect

The same goes for retaliation reviews. When a host submits documentation and evidence in the form of photos, videos, messages from guests, all according to the time frame of Airbnb policies, of rule infractions or damages, you simply don't allow that guest to leave a review, because all of those cases result in retaliatory reviews.

This doesn't take weeks or months of meetings and discussion, it's common sense and the policy could be changed tomorrow.

Why are hosts being left to suffer, losing their Superhost status over a 1* retaliatory review, and all the other ways hosts are disrespected, while the powers that be at Airbnb hold endless meetings and create advisory boards, to discuss things that have been brought to your attention, begging for change, continually, for years?

Please stop saying it's tricky or complex- it isn't, and no other listing platform treats its hosts as abyssmally as the company you are working for does.

As for your promises that CS would be back up to speed in November, that has proven to be completely untrue. Not only are hosts waiting weeks and months to have their issue dealt with, they are being dealt with incompetently with what appear to be terrible, ill-trained reps. 

[Essadi0]

@Catherine-Powell 

Thank you for your dedication to enhancing the hosting experience.

My biggest frustration is being penalized by guest reviews that are clearly in retaliation of the host enforcing their house rules, and, guests that scam the system by creating frictional situations that put the host in negative financial status, or a rating that prevents the host from acquiring Super Host status.

For example:

Guest 1 – Airbnb verified; guest has no photo and an international number that was unreachable. My immediate thought was to cancel this reservation but because I was so assumed with not being penalized by Airbnb for the cancelation. The guest booked for 2 individuals to utilize the unit but had 4-5 individuals that snuck in during the late hours, staying in the unit. Additionally, the guest held several parties of 8+ individuals – again, against house rules. The guest left a negative review and rating stating they had no privacy and that the host (me) was rude, etc. As you know, receiving a rating of 1 across the rating standards killed my chance of obtaining Super Host status. Airbnb's response when I asked that this review be blocked or removed was that the review stands and in short, the host had to deal with it.

Guest 2 – Airbnb verified: guest booked the unit for 4 months and was giving a substantial discount for the long-term booking. The guest disclosed later in the booking that they were unemployed and waiting for a settlement and asked for an additional discount, which we could not honor. The guest contacted Airbnb stating that their stay was unsatisfactory because the water was cold, etc. Airbnb canceled their remaining contractual agreement and put the host in a negative financial situation where no monetary benefits would be noticed on future bookings until this negative obligation is met.

These scenarios have had a serious negative impact on our continued desire to host with Airbnb – a platform we had come to love. I understand our guest satisfaction is important, which is why we as hosts go above and beyond for our guests (read my latest review from Demetra Robnett) so that they have no less than an amazing experience. As a host, I feel as though I have been slapped in the face and penalized for my efforts.

What is the plan for addressing such behavior from a guest, or at least not negatively impacting the Airbnb host?

[Vicki258]

I too have horrible guests, urinating in the front yard in front of the neighbors, driving across the front yard as they were too drunk to back out of the drive. They booked for 7, brought 15. Smoked in the house, and broke every house rule. I spent hours cleaning the ceiling and walls from spewed drinks. I even had to clean bugers off one wall. I sent extra guest charge, and asked for extra cleaning fees. I did ask them to be quiet one night after 2 am. There is a noise ordinance in my town after 10 pm. I also told them extra guests needed to leave. Of course I got a horrible review and air bnb customer service did NOTHING.

[Sarah977]

@Vicki258 " I did ask them to be quiet one night after 2 am."

I don't understand. If they were disturbing the neighborhood and had more than twice as many people than they booked for, why were you letting them continue to stay? They needed to be evicted. What did you expect from Airbnb when you don't maintain control of your property?

[Vicki207]

I was not aware they had more than twice as many guests until the neighbor let me know. It was 2 am, or later, on the last night of their stay. I did herd the extras out. But as the booked guests were drunk I let them finish the night, I weighed letting them sleep it off vs having the police out with flashing lights, etc. creating a bigger disturbance in the middle of the night. They were 20 somethings. More ignorant than threatening. It was after they checked out that I saw the mess inside and saw the videos of what had happened in the front yard. I did get compensated for the extra guests and some of the extra cleaning. For me it was less hassle to send extras home and have a come to Jesus moment with guests who booked, than to wait on police and have everyone in the block woken up in the middle of the night. I gave them an honest review for breaking house rules and leaving a mess. My objection is with air bnb who did not want to see photos or videos when I objected to crap review with no basis in fact, only mad guests who were caught breaking rules. Now I will call police so I have a police report to give air bnb, if they bother to look at it. In truth, I rarely accept air bnb guests anymore, as I only have issues with their guests. Oddly,  the only bad apples I have had in 2 years came from air bnb. Other STR sites  either back the host better or screen their guests better. Either way, I have no issues with other STR  guests.

[Jennifer2722]

I too find reviews the scariest thing!

I love genuinely extending hospitality to my guests, making sure everything is primped and preened to perfection for them, standing back and having one last look with satisfaction before closing the door, and it delights me when guests are wowed when they walk in.

I also, of course, want to protect my Superhost status, so it is incredibly painful when, from time to time, guests abuse the community by having unauthorised functions, having extra guests stay that they haven’t booked for, getting drunk, etc, and if I as host try to deal with any of these issues, I put myself at risk of an unkind review. It leaves hosts feeling quite exposed and powerless.

Recently too, I had a guest accidentally give me a 4 instead of 5 for cleanliness. The guest absolutely loved the stay, gave me the full range of compliments and said everything was perfect, but gave me 4 stars for cleanliness. I was very concerned and asked her was there anything not right because we take hygiene very seriously. She said, “no not at all, everything was perfect,” she thought she had given us 5 stars for everything. She then contacted Airbnb for us to see if she could get it corrected, but Airbnb were unable to. How sad, to loose my perfect 5 stars for cleanliness that I have always had because of a genuine mistake!

@Catherine-Powell