Making reviews more fair for hosts

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Making reviews more fair for hosts

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 Many of you have asked us how Airbnb can protect hosts from one-off bad reviews. When this question came up at the most recent Host Q&A, we told you we were working on ways to make the review process more fair for hosts. Specifically, we made 2 promises:

  1. We committed to launching a tool to detect outlier reviews—or one-off bad reviews. A common example is when there’s a discrepancy between the overall rating and the category ratings provided by a guest (when a guest gives a host 5 stars for cleanliness, accuracy, and the other categories but a 2-star rating overall, for instance).
  2. Based on your feedback, we also committed to exploring ways to help guests better understand that the location category rating is meant to be objective. The location category rating doesn’t impact your overall rating (or Superhost status), but we know it’s important to you, and we want to make sure the whole system is as fair as possible.

 

Today, we’re excited to announce two improvements to the review process that directly address these issues. Since these changes have been introduced, we’ve already noticed a tangible uptick in more accurate, fair reviews for hosts, and we hope they solve some of your pain points. Here’s what’s new:

 

One-off review alerts

We’ve added a step to the review process for guests when they give a host an inconsistent overall rating. For instance, the guest may have given 4-star or higher ratings for all the categories (cleanliness, accuracy, etc.), but then give an overall rating of less than 3 stars.

 

The new pop up screen asks guests: “Is this right?” And goes on to explain that they rated their overall stay lower than they rated it in specific categories. It gives guests an option to either change the rating or ignore the alert.

 

This new alert has led to higher overall review ratings for hosts. Since we launched, we’ve seen a 2.8% drop in 3-star reviews and a 3.9% drop in 2-star reviews. While these percentages may seem small, they’re driving real improvements in the accuracy of our review system, and hosts are benefitting.


Location, location, location

We’ve heard from you that the location rating can be particularly frustrating because some of you have experienced guests dinging you in this category, unexpectedly, after great stays. This category is tricky. It gives valuable information to prospective travelers, which we don’t want to lose. At the same time, we hear your concern that you’re being graded for something you can’t control: guests’ opinion of your location. This opinion is inherently subjective—one person’s “rustic rural retreat” may be another’s “too far from public transportation.” So we made it more clear in the review process that guests are rating the accuracy of your location description, rather than the location itself.

 

Now, when a guest goes to rate you in the location category, if they give you less than 3 stars, they see an explanation: “Was the listing’s location not described accurately?” So far, this has led to a 0.8% increase in the average rating for location.


While we were working on this, we also made similar improvements to the value category. If a guest gives you less than 3 stars there, they’ll see this message: “What would have made this listing a better value?” This has led to a 0.25% increase in the average rating for value.


These changes were designed to begin to address your concerns around unfair reviews, and to help make sure that guests understand what ratings mean. We still have a journey ahead of us to keep making the review system better, and you’ll continue to see updates from us on this throughout the year. Thank you for hosting!

1,283 Replies 1,283

I believe Airbnb should have a generator that gives an accurate star review based on a series of more indepth questions. So that a guest has the ability to give a review but airbnb is able to properly modify it. I have guest rate 5 stars to everything but because they find the room I rent small ( which I specify it is small on my page) they still decide to complain about it and give lower ratings. Some guest wont even read the description on your page and will just rate ot based on erratical emotions. I think this is truly unjust!

AnCo
Toni225
Level 3
New York, United States

@Anya38  I totally agree with you about how Airbnb generator gives the star review, its one of the reasons why I delisted my listing in 2014 , I relisted with Airbnb a month ago and I am about to pull my listing again . You have guest who do not read the complete listing, book your place and then complain about the smallest thing. It is truly unjust to host , I do hope they find a way to fix it soon.

Airbnb give right of way to guest because they are the ones spending money but let us but not forget whos providing the services, us HOSTS!!

AnCo
Nina444
Level 3
Mytholmroyd, United Kingdom

A houses, the furniture, the cleaning, the insurance, the decorative details, the time, the extras, we are the ones spending the money to provide a service. We invest our hearts and souls into our businesses. Many of us invest so much into our Airbnbs, we should be valued for that.

"some guests won't even read the description on your page"

 

=> correction:: MOST guests won't even read the description on your page!

I have had guests ask :  is there a pool (there are 4 photos of the pool and mention in the description of pool opening times and the fact pool is not heated not supervised).... is there a parking:  photos of the parking garage on the page and parking checked in amenities and parking described in the explanations about the space.... etc etc

Florêncio0
Level 1
S.Roque do Pico, Portugal

Hi 🙂

I'm happy to see these changes on the guests' reviews and how they impact our overall ratings. Mainly in what concerns location. In fact some of my clients love it that it's not in the middle of the village and so allows for tranquility, but others comment that it's not so close to a few conveniences. Even though my description of the lcation is as thorough as possible, there's allways room for some surprise on the part of the guests because this is rather subjective. I think they should be asked to specify why it was not good, if that's the case (it wouldn't be so difficult to have a few options to tick - just a suggestion), because this would give prospective guests an ideia of what to find from the point of view of other guests. I'm saying this but  don't know how it is working now from the perspective of the guest, but since I'm a guest myself I'll see it the next time I write a review. 

Thanks for the consideration you've allways shown for us, both hosts and guests and congrats on your improvements. 🙂

Airbnb may have enacted a tool to show these one off bad reviews, but have done  nothing to deal with them. I was just the  victim of one such review. I received an overall 3 rating while the individual catagory ratings were five 5's and one 4. I work VERY hard to maintain my 5 star rating and this just set me back greatly. Very, Very disappointed right now.

Thank you, Jerry for speaking about Airbnb. I completely agree with you. I have personally experienced 1 rogue guest, Pavel Sapronov. He books 39 nights with 10 nights for his wife to visit him. After 2 weeks staying, he pressured me to give him deeper discount from 15% to over 20% and not pay for his wife's stay for 10 nights for another 50 nights booking. When I refused to accept his demand, he told me that he would pay me personally but only with 60% discount on his wife's extra guest fee. The guest proceeded to sabotage my home. I reported to Airbnb. Airbnb did nothing. I finally had to make the decision to shorten this guest's stay because I have another group of guests checking in the same day. I want to provide the utmost comfort and safety to my professional guests. Airbnb is looking out for their interest of the paying guests. Sadly, they don't care about the hosts !!! What they don't realize is that the hosts provide products for Airbnb to sell !!!!! Very sad !!!!!
Naturally, the guest gave me an unfavorable review which is abnormal because I have 21- 5 star and 1 – 4 star reviews and no reviews less than these.

Suzanne386
Level 3
Mumbai, India

I seriously think Airbnb should explain the rating system more clearly to the guests e.g. “Was the accommodation as described?”. If yes, then it should be 5 stars. The guests know exactly what they will get when they confirm their booking.

ABSOLUTELY agree.  Guests should know 5 stars does not mean it was the Ritz but it corresponded to the listing and the host was responsive.  Guests should know 4 stars is a punishment not a compliment I do explain this in my house documentation.

@Susan1188 -- same here it's in my house handbook that this isn't a restaurant where 4-stars is a good thing -- and if anything is less than 5-stars we want to know so we can put it right

Tracey7
Level 2
Tanunda, Australia

I agree with the comments regarding more explanation on star ratings and especially for the 5 stars to be labeled “meets or exceeds expectation”. I also find that a mind set when in turn I do reviews. Maybe also a bit more explanation to guests on the value and importance of ratings to hosts. There will never be a perfect system and guests will always have individual interpretations on listing descriptions no matter how much you try to be clear. However I do believe it is good to have a rating system it just needs to be reviewed on a regular basis. 

 

Why do guests get to give a review after hosts then there is nothing you can say because you have already given theirs

Natheema0
Level 1
Cape Town, South Africa

Hi,

 

You can actually reply to their review. I replied to a really bad review. It doesnt really help though. It only lets you get things off your chest.

I don't agree.  When I see a host factually, calmly and non-emotionally responding to a retaliatory or dishonest review, it actually makes me want to book the place even more!

Dishonest people who break your house rules then punish YOU for it should be called out and the host response is already a good way to do that.