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

In which cases a bad review is justified? i.e.: heavy rain and wind causing windows and pool to be dirty when guests arrive, electricity sort cut and TV is not working,  etc
*Airbnb should add an option for guests to inform hosts of theses situations, giving the hosts the opportunity to sort out these issues.
*Same option for hosts to report issues with guests.
*Another option when is not possible to sort out the issues.
*Another option when the guest review is not real .

Airbnb should provide comunication options between hosts and guetss to find solutions to issues.

Seems simple, right? Evidently it is beyond the great minds at AirBnB to comprehend.

19 août 2021
 
Again, a remark concerning feebacks. If I looh at my general notation, I see this : 4,53 · 86 commentaires

Propreté
4,2
Précision
4,8
Communication
4,9
Emplacement
4,9
Arrivée
4,8
Qualité-prix
4,7

How come I end up with a 4,53 as general average with just one post under 4,7 ....(4,2) ?? When are you going to close the "general notation" open only to guests, which may include every bad thing (tooth ache, etc.), that has happened during their stay and is not the host's doing ? Thank you for your answer. Michel Méry

 

 

 

 
 
uationsvrir le chat en ligne
 
 
Expert de la communauté16:41
Hi, I'm Calvin, an Airbnb Community Expert. Overall rating is a separate category for guests to rate, this is not an average of other category ratings. Separate categories do not cover all the aspects of the guest experience :
https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1257

Airbnb has an algorithm in place to double-check this is not a guest's mistake if one-off lower review detected (even a 4-star overall rating will trigger a prompt) :

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Making-reviews-more-fair-for-hosts/ba-p/958608

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/In-Case-You-Missed-It-Review-update-Host-Guarante...

Best regards,
Calvin, Airbnb expert

 

Michel16:46
When are you going to change that. It's unfair tihe host.
Imagine a couple has a big fight during thair stay ??? Does that convern the host ?
Or the weather was **bleep**ty ? ....

 

Expert de la communauté16:48
At the moment no plans for changes announced. If you have a suggestion for changing the rating system, please file your feedback through this form https://www.airbnb.com/help/feedback

Thank you for participating in Airbnb improvement!

Best regards,
Calvin, Airbnb expert

 

Michel16:50
Well, you should ... I already did signal that and I am going to continue.

 

Expert de la communauté16:51
What I personally can do for you right away is filing your feedback from my end as well, I hope it will be taken into account and implement it on the future website update. Thank you

 

Michel16:52
Please, do it. Thank you.

 

Expert de la communauté16:54
Done ✓

You're very much welcome. It's my pleasure to assist you!

 

Expert de la communauté17:04
Votre problème a-t-il été résolu par cet expert de la communauté ?
Non, j'ai besoin de l'aide d'un spécialiste

 

 
Bot Airbnb18:07
Comment voulez-vous communiquer avec nous ?
Nous envoyer un message, et nous vous recontacterons

 

M
Nous envoyer un message, et nous vous recontacterons
reccontactez-moi quand vous aurez revu ces "policies." Rien ne sera pas résolu avant. Je peux même passer sur une autre plateforme si ça dure.
Airbnb est bien américain en cela. Le client qui paye (le guest) a tjs (trop) raison. le collaborateur (l'hôte) tjs tort.
 
Airbnb Support18:32
Bonjour Michel,

Je suis Kélim de l'assistance Airbnb, ravi de pouvoir vous aider.

Vous n'arrivez pas à comprendre notre système de notation de la note globale.
La raison est la suivante, l'évaluation globale ne correspond pas à la moyenne mis dans chaque section. Elle est ne prend en compte aucune des autres sections.

La note globale correspond à une vision d'ensemble du ressenti du voyageur. C'est la moyenne de ces notes globales qui est pris en compte dans le status de super hôte.
N'hésitez pas à demander à votre voyageur une explication sur son choix de notation : seul lui peut y répondre.
Pour plus d'information n'hésitez pas à consulter cet article : airbnb.fr/help/article/1257

La force de notre plate-forme repose sur les informations et commentaires utiles que nous recevons de la part de membres de la communauté tels que vous.

Nous sommes toujours à la recherche de suggestions susceptibles d'améliorer la plate-forme pour les hôtes et les voyageurs. Dès que vous vous connecterez à votre compte, faites-nous part de vos remarques à l'adresse suivante :

airbnb.com/help/feedback

Merci d'avance pour votre témoignage.

Ce fut un plaisir de vous renseigner et d'échanger avec vous. En cas de besoin, n'hésitez pas à nous solliciter à tout moment. Nous serons ravis de vous venir en aide.

Excellente journée à vous,

 

M
Je comprends la nature non-mathématique de cette 'note globale' mais j'objecte à son existence; elle ne devrait pas être demandée au guest. Rien de semblable n'est demandé à l'hôte ...
 
Airbnb Support20:11
Michel, il n'a pas de mathématiques à faire concernant la note globale puisque celle-ci est une simple note qui répond à la question "Comment c'était".

La moyenne des notes globale est celle qui détermine votre status superhote.

J'entends bien que le système de la note globale ne vous convient pas. Mais c'est notre système.
En tout cas merci de le souligner j'en parlerai à mon équipe.
Mais vous aussi vous avez la chance de faire évoluer les choses en cliquant simplement s

Merci d'avance pour votre compréhension. N'hésitez pas à nous contacter si vous avez d'autres questions, nous serons toujours ravis de vous aider !

Kélim

 

M
Le "comment c'était" doit disparaitre des questionnaires. Pour les raisons que j'ai citées en anglais.
 
Airbnb Support20:36
Nous n'avons pas la possibilité de le faire disparaître nous en tant que conseiller.
Une possibilité afin de faire changer les choses remplissez ce formulaire, votre demande sera peut-être prie en compte.

Pour l'instant, aucune information n'a été communiquée concernant le changement de notre système de notation.

Y a-t-il autre chose que je puisse faire pour vous ?
Je serai ravi de pouvoir vous aider.

Dans le cas contraire, nous considérerons que ce dossier est clos pour le moment.

Merci d'avoir contacté l'équipe d'assistance à la communauté Airbnb.

Nous sommes à votre disposition à tout moment sur : www.airbnb.com/he

À bientôt,

Kélim
Shea5
Level 2
Gloucester, United Kingdom

if they are true. Are the pogniant words. My two reviews are vindictive and can easily be seen as so if Airbnb bothered to have a look at the whole story and the rest of my reviews. 

@Char14 

 

...yes, except as a fellow host, I want to see your honest review:

1- to avoid the same experience

2- because it's the ONLY way have at our disposal of deterring other bad behavior from other bad guests.

Heather576
Level 3
Port Lincoln, Australia

Yes absolutely agree. As hosts we need to feel supported in our actions to protect our property! If we feel intimidated by guests who threaten bad reviews, we should be able to count on Air BnB support to identify revenge reviews and have them deleted.

otherwise we have no control to keep ourselves and our property safe, for the fear of revenge reviews, which I have been subjected to. It should be clear by the 110+ good reviews that 1 bad is an outlier review from a guest who was called out on breaking house rules.

This! My only bad review came from a guest that did not follow the rules and their kids broke several things in the house. Their comments were false. And Airbnb wouldn’t do anything about it.

 Airbnb should use common sense when it a guest or host  has a bad review. it is up to Airbnb to find out the truth by either call the guest or host to find the reason for the review.

@Madeline-And-Carmelo0 this sounds like w good idea in theory, but practically Airbnb has literally millions of hosts and guests worldwide. They could not call everyone who left s bad review.

 

What they COULD do however is make the system more fair, by adding some way to appeal bad reviews, and by removing the ability to leave “revenge” reviews such as when a host makes a damages claim and the guest retaliates.

 

This thread was started by Airbnb, and it has gone too long without them responding to the obvious anger and frustration from their hosts, the people who keep them in business. Airbnb needs to chime in here. Are you listening? Is anyone reading these comments? Do you even care? 

"What they COULD do however is make the system more fair, by adding some way to appeal bad reviews, and by removing the ability to leave “revenge” reviews such as when a host makes a damages claim and the guest retaliates." - Exactly. 

 

And to your other points, no, AirBnB does NOT care. They are rolling around in STACKS of money right now, guzzling champagne and thinking that they're too big to fail. But trust me, thousands of other options are being developed right now, hundreds are already on the market with new ones entering every day. Unless AirBnB wakes up soon, they will crash just like VRBO and Homeaway are starting to crash.

Agree. I have experienced almost all of these issues spoken of by all the comments I've read. I had someone say they had a 5 star stay on all counts but gave me 3 stars because they found a dust bunny under the couch. A single dust bunny in my 3500 square foot home. Where she had 2 dogs with her for 9 days. Another docked me for something that is specifically mentioned in my listing several times--only one full bath--which she assured me she was going to be fine with even though they had a large party. Guess what--I got a rave 5 star review on all counts but gave me an overall 4 because "only 1 bathroom did end up being kind of a challenge". 999 out of 1000 things can be perfect but one tiny issue and boom! I also have real trouble with the fact that I have something like 50 5 stars, 2 4's and 1 3 in my entire 2 years of hosting and yet I cannot seem to get out of the 4.8 ghetto...that is messed up. And the guests reviews hold too much weight--they aren't given star ratings...only us, who are doing all the work and taking all the risk...often with our most valuable asset--our home. One guy  brought more people than he said--and tried to sneak them in---I caught it and allowed them, but then he actually had the nerve to dock me in my review because they ran out of tp! I've driven 3 hrs roundtrip to replace lightbulbs--yup--for a guest so i would get a 5 star review.....it is insane. I think the star system should go--I think ABNB should generate a form that guests and hosts can use to reviews/comment and are published for illustrative purposes for future guests ONLY and then constructive feedback should be given privately between guest and host. I feel like I am being held hostage and it is not at all creating an atmosphere of hospitality...it's fraught and anxietry producing and creates an "us vs them" mentality which is not why I host people.....I do it because I need the income but also because I really do love people and hosting them to a lovely time in my lovely home....but the star rating review system has to go!

Amen to the above

I had one really bad review where he harassed me and I have never recovered. He lied

Also its pretty clear I get people who are staying here because its convenient budget minded and unique and they usually don't write reviews

For those of us that home share the star system sucks. Also as I just spent an hour using navel jelly I live in a mid century house in the middle of a field.Plus I have slate floors not carpeting .

I TOO love this. But the star system has got to go

I am not a hotel and don't want to be reviewed like one

Steven65
Level 10
Edinburgh, United Kingdom

@Sarah977 I entirely agree. Bad, outlier reviews should be removed and I thought in earlier messaging, that Airbnb was implementing this change. Guess not!

 

To avoid subjectivity,  definitions and administration in the removal of an outlier.  I would suggest, that over a 12 month period, each host would have their worst (lowest score) review automatically removed. To keep things balanced, the highest scoring review could also be automatically removed. 

I COMPLETELY AGREE that Airbnb DOES NOT live up to what should be their side of the bargain, insofar as HOSTS being protected from INACCURATE REVIEWS.

 

PLEASE READ MY RECENT POST IN THE 'REVIEW' SECTION - entitled:

    

   AIRBNB DOES NOTHING TO SUPPORT HOSTS FROM SLIMED INACCURATE REVIEWS!!!!!

 

THEY NEED TO TAKE THE RESPONSIBILITY TO DETERMINE TRUTH/OR UNTRUTH ABOUT ANY GIVEN  REVIEW.

                        THIS IS NO WAY TO RUN A BUSINESS!!!!!!

 

I REPEAT - AIRBNB SUCKS.

 

Beverly G

    

Unfortunately you have no choice,like it or leave........