Making reviews more relevant and useful for our community

Airbnb
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Making reviews more relevant and useful for our community

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Many of you rely on reviews to grow your business—they highlight your amazing hospitality. They’re also a helpful way to get specific feedback on what you’re doing well as a host and where you can improve. But there are times when you feel like a review may be misleading or irrelevant to future guests, and we know that can be painful both personally and professionally.

 

It’s tricky. Guests and hosts need to be able to share what they feel is important about their experience, so we don’t want to limit what people can and can’t say on the platform. However, it’s also essential that reviews reflect a guest’s stay and that they provide useful information to future hosts and guests. As part of our ongoing journey to get this balance right, here are some of the changes we’re making:

Introducing our updated Review Policy

With our updated Review Policy—effective December 11, 2019—we’ve addressed two types of reviews that we know can be frustrating: irrelevant reviews and biased reviews. The updated policy clarifies our expectations and ensures our customer support agents are equipped to remove these types of reviews.

 

By updating our policy to cover irrelevant and biased reviews, we’re strengthening our commitment to building a community of trust. These review updates build upon our existing Content Policy (which outlines the kind of content that is never allowed on Airbnb) and our new Guest Standards Policy, which will introduce a system for tracking bad guests. Under our updated Review Policy, guests and hosts who repeatedly leave certain kinds of biased reviews may be removed from the platform.

 

Let’s look at irrelevant reviews and biased reviews in a little more detail:

 

Reviews that are irrelevant

This policy covers situations where a review contains information that’s irrelevant to you as a host or your listing—and isn’t useful to future guests.

 

Here are a few examples:

  • A guest accidentally leaves a review on your profile that was meant for another host
  • A guest never checks into your space (for a documented reason unrelated to you as the host or your listing) and leaves an irrelevant review about their experience. For example, a guest never shows up, due to a canceled flight, but leaves you a review that complains about a dirty couch.

Under the updated policy, both of those reviews would be removed because they contain only irrelevant info.

 

There are also times when a guest comments on issues outside of your control, or unrelated to the service you provided. Those types of reviews may be removed if they only contain irrelevant content that isn’t useful to future guests. Here are a few examples of irrelevant content that could result in the removal of a review:

  • A guest leaves a comment about your appearance
  • A guest leaves you a bad review because they were frustrated by public transit in your city
  • A guest leaves a review about the type of people in your neighborhood

These comments have nothing to do with your listing or the service you provide as a host and aren’t useful to future guests. So, under our updated Review Policy, our customer support agents would be empowered to remove both the review content and star rating.

 

Reviews with biased information

Our community benefits most when reviews share an unbiased view of the member’s experience. Our updated Review Policy covers the removal of reviews with inappropriate bias—this may include situations where the reviewer is attempting to extort the person being reviewed, has a conflict of interest, or competes with the person being reviewed. Here’s a closer look at three types of biased reviews that will be removed under our updated policy:

 

  • Extortion: This is when a guest tries to use reviews to get something they want—for example, if they threaten to leave you a bad review unless you give them late checkout. Any attempt to use reviews or review responses to force a person to do something they aren’t obligated to do is a misuse of reviews, and we don’t allow it. People who use Airbnb also aren’t allowed to tie positive reviews to promises of compensation.
  • Conflict of interest: We appreciate how much hard work goes into earning a positive review. As a result, we will not allow hosts to unfairly boost their ratings by accepting fake reservations in exchange for a positive review, using a second account to review their own listing, or providing something of value (like cash or a late checkout) in exchange for positive reviews.
  • Competition: We’ll remove reviews written by hosts of competing listings or experiences where that person (acting as a guest) leaves negative reviews for competitive listings, or where we determine the content is intended to dissuade others from booking those listings or drive business to other listings.

 

Guests and hosts who repeatedly violate our updated Review Policy may face consequences, including account suspension and removal from the platform. We’ve also invested in retraining our customer support agents and improving our workflows, so hosts will receive better support in instances when irrelevant or biased reviews happen. As with our new Guest Standards Policy that tracks bad guests, our updated Review Policy includes warnings and education that can lead to suspension or removal of people who repeatedly leave biased reviews.

 

Updating our Review Policy is another important step in our journey of supporting guests and hosts like you who rely on relevant, useful reviews.

Your top questions, answered

 

What kinds of reviews will be removed by this updated Review Policy?

A healthy review system is one that respects and protects our community’s genuine feedback. For that reason, we take the removal of any review very seriously and only remove reviews that clearly violate Airbnb’s Review Policy. You can read the updated Review Policy in full, but, in short, this means a review is only removed if:

  • The review is in violation of Airbnb’s Content Policy,
  • The review is biased, or
  • The review is irrelevant to the author’s experience on Airbnb

Guests and hosts who repeatedly violate our updated Review Policy may face consequences, including account suspension and removal from the platform.

 

What kind of documentation should I have under the updated Review Policy?

We can’t emphasize this enough: Always aim to communicate with guests through the Airbnb platform. If conversations happen off-platform, be sure to keep a record of those conversations too. That way, if you ever need to report a review to our agents, they’ll have—at their fingertips—the information they need to make the right decision. That said, even when you don’t have this preferred documentation, we encourage you to report any reviews that violate our Review Policy because we may be able to identify other evidence or patterns of behavior regarding that guest. 

 

Will all irrelevant review content be removed?

If Airbnb determines that the review contains no relevant information about a host or guest or listing, the review will be removed. Reviews that contain mostly irrelevant information are also subject to removal, but only where the relevant information does not meaningfully inform community members.

 

Where a review contains information that is unrelated to an experience as a host or guest, or is focused on something beyond the control of the person being reviewed, our team will determine the relevance of the review by considering how useful it is to our community of hosts and guests. To do this, we’ll look at two things:

  • Does the review recount the reviewer’s experience and provide their personal perspective?
  • Is the review helpful to other members of the Airbnb community? Does it provide essential information about a host or guest, listing, or experience that would help others make more informed booking decisions?

 

What’s the difference between extortionary and retaliatory reviews?

It’s considered extortion if a guest attempts to use reviews (or review responses) to force a host to do something they aren’t obligated to do. So, for example, if a guest threatens to leave a bad review if you don’t allow them to bring additional guests, that review would be extortionary and would be removed under the updated policy.

 

Then there are times when a host may feel that a negative review is made in retaliation. This is when, for example, a host doesn’t allow the guest to bring additional guests, and the guest goes on to leave a review about how inflexible their host was, or even writes a negative review about cleanliness or location. However, without evidence of a threat to leave a negative review, this would not be considered extortionary and would not be removed under the updated policy. If this happens, we encourage hosts to use their public response to politely address the issue.

 

Why aren’t you removing all retaliatory reviews?

While we understand how frustrating it can be when you receive a review that feels retaliatory, we don’t have a crystal ball to tell us what a person’s true motivations are. So, without a documented threat to leave a negative review or other evidence of a biased review, Airbnb won’t intervene. Here’s why:

  • As a marketplace, we often don’t know the truth about what took place, and our review system is a critical feedback mechanism for our hosts and guests. That means we want as many reviews as possible to remain intact—so our community can put them to good use.
  • Most guest reviews contain honest feedback about their experience and useful information for hosts and guests.

 

To reiterate, as outlined in our updated Review Policy, Airbnb can—and will—intervene where there’s evidence of a threat, promise of action that’s dependent on the review, or other conflict of interest and/or competition. Additionally, we will continue to intervene when a guest leaves a review that violates our content policies—including discriminatory content or a violent threat.

 

For more information, read the updated Review Policy or learn more about how we moderate disputes of our Review Policy in our Help Center.

How we’re tackling inconsistent reviews

Sometimes, a negative review is less about the guest’s experience in your space and more about them not understanding how reviews or the platform work—they can even be the result of an honest mistake. Earlier this year, we built a tool to help address these types of reviews by automatically detecting inconsistencies, and then interrupting the flow to give guests a chance to correct them. So, for example, if a guest gives you 4 or 5 stars in every category (cleanliness, accuracy, and so on) but then a 1-, 2-, or 3-star rating overall, a pop-up will ask if they’re sure about their overall rating.

 

Similarly, if a guest leaves a low rating for something like location or value—two categories we know can be interpreted differently by guests—a clarifying question will appear.

  • For location, we’ll ask if the location was accurately described in the listing
  • For value, we’ll ask what would’ve made the stay a better value

 

These interruptions force guests to think a little more about the rating they’re giving, which they can then go back and correct. As a result, we’re already seeing more consistency between the category scores and overall scores. Improvements like these help ensure that guests’ ratings align with their experience—better ratings are more useful to guests and reward the hard work of hosts.

There’s still more to come

Reviews are the backbone of our community—they help hosts grow their businesses, and they help guests gain the confidence they need to make the booking. We have a dedicated team doing lots of thinking around how to make our entire review experience better for hosts and guests. We’ll continue to improve the review system over time—please keep sending us your feedback about improvements that you’d like to see. In the meantime, we’re excited about these changes and hope you are too.

918 Replies 918
Kathleen125
Level 2
Woodstock, NY

I had a very disturbing time with a guest who had no transportation and was complaining about her home life, angry and I tried to accommodate her by helping and suggesting fun places for her to go...and she felt that I was forcing her to go out and explore.    I have always  informed all my guests places to go for dining, music, hiking  with positive reviews.  this guest was angry that she could not leave her things in my home for a later pick-up!  I was very tired of feeling responsible for her food and transportation and felt she was intimadating.  Airbb posted her review that I was a psycho...very shocked that it was posted when all my reviews have been posistive and I also lost my super host reputation due to a very bad experience with this person.  I responded to her false review and asked airbb to support my experience with this disturbing guest.  I closed the room for awhile because she frightened me and made my hosting  fearful.

Karen2411
Level 2
Coquitlam, CA

A potential guest requested to view our suite before he booked, so location was clearly established.  However,  he still rated us a 3 rating on “location”.   Our location is accurately depicted on the website.  It seems as though it’s my fault that the location isn’t where it seems?  This is not true.  Customers know very well where our Airbnb is located before they book.  To further complicate the issue he insisted to negotiate a price as well as circumventing host Airbnb which we  refused.  Note, we did give him a discount yet he again gives us a 4 rating for value.   This guest seems vindictive because he didn’t get a substantial discount that he wanted.  

@Karen2411  Actually guests who ask for discounts at all seem to end up being demanding, entitled people who don't appreciate anything you do for them, so even if you'd given him the discount he wanted, he probably still wouldn't have given a good rating. Discount askers are red flags from the get-go. It's also not advisable to let guests pre-view the space. they should be able to make a decision based on your photos, description, and any questions they they have, i.e. how far it is to XX, they can ask in a message.

@Sarah977   I agree, it seems as though  nothing seemed to please him.  I had messaged him after he had checked in, and he insisted that everything in the suite was great!  What a liar!   

Thanks for your helpful ideas!

Diana1530
Level 1
St Petersburg, RU

Oh! Thank you so much! Finally you did it!

My experience,I have had 4 different situations:

1. One gest didn't come but puted 1 and 2 stars about all

2. One gest didn't like my city,put but she put 1-3 stars to my apartment. She choosed the central avenue(!) in my big Saint-Petersburg and in the most famous CENTRAL place, but finally she said she prefer the villages and the places in nature. So, why did she chose the city and the central avenue and my location??

3. One gest would have a big discount, and he blackmailed me with stars

4. For the some gest I were the first experience on Airbnb, and they didn't know what to respond to "General impression"

Liliane134
Level 2
Quebec, CA

A recent guest would like to change the star rating she gave us. Is it to late for her to change it as we both have made our reviews.

Thank you

Liliane

Michael915
Level 2
Ocho Rios, Jamaica

AIRBNB, you have let a Superhost down…

I had a guest that broke all house rules mentioned in the proper way on my listing and I opened a case to get assistance. I did get that and the guest got evicted from my property before the reservation finished. When she wrote her review, it was of course all retaliation and extorsion, filled with biased comments and non-relevant items.

I opened a new case and it was escalated to the review department. I thought I can discuss there, but I simply got the message that her review did not violate your guidelines for reviews. And how it does, even more with the background of her eviction, but still no red flags in AIRBNB. The case manager only had a simple standard answer for me and off he was to the a new case
.
In addition, after my review for her and even after the 14 days period, she is now claiming all her money back, for the entire time. And the case manager does not see the red flags either.
What is happening? Where is your support for a Superhost ?
47 five star reviews versus 1 one star? Does not look strange? Do you think I woke up one morning and changed completely and decided to make her stay miserable?

Even more that I have presented you all the evidence and in her review she even states how she broke the house rules ? Do you favour the guest over the superhost? Lots of questions and no answers as you are not responding to my messages.

Thank you if you can have a fresh set of unbiased eyes looking at that! I had actually asked for a supervisor or manager to contact me but it was just brushed off and not mentioned anymore. Well to you the review might not matter but to me it’s the world for my listing. And this every day and every hour since those lies and unrelevant statements are up.

SHAME ON YOU, ....learn or teach your people what BIASED means...you have it as a central point in your new guidelines...

I know that many of my previous guests are reading this...feel free to share it...

and from my public post, I have been messaged by my previous guests which told me that they wont use AIRBNB any longer ....so you are just collecting all scammers on your page since you are turning away all good hosts with your UNFAIR support behaviour. Other AIRBNB hosts have also responded and reported that they are making similar experiences.

Guess what? I am no longer interested in listing with you then...since I do not see that you support hosts properly. A person that has never booked with you, no previous review when I accepted her reservation, retaliating and putting out lies, is more important to you. Oh yes, I read, Lies dont matter to you. Sadly, I have proof from Whatsapp that she lies. Is not important to CHARLES G. in the review department! He brushed it off! Next case...

 

@Michael915  - I assume as all your reviews for your listings look really good you had the offending review removed. Please do advise how you succeeded in this. 

Maria12434
Level 1
Western Cape, ZA

IF Airbnb THINK A COMMENT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE AND GOOD FOR Airbnb'S IMAGE, THEN PLEASE REMOVE IT.

Shannon260
Level 2
Calgary, Canada

Further to: "Issues outside your control"; when a guest leaves a review similar to your example: 
"A guest leaves you a bad review because they were frustrated by public transit in your city:" they generally also give fewer stars on the Location rating.
I've had this happen  numerous times because I'm not downtown, my listing title says NEAR THE AIRPORT (not sure how many major cities' airports are downtown, but generally in Canada, you can't have the best of both worlds)

I CAN'T CONTROL WHERE MY LOCATION IS. The guest can control WHERE they book. I would have a 5 star rating if it wasn't for the location rating.

Or maybe instead, you guys can start letting hosts rate guests based on how many questions they ask when the information is clearly stated in the listing?? 

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Shannon260  " I would have a 5 star rating if it wasn't for the location rating."

The overall rating isn't an average of the other ratings- it'a a separate rating all on its own. Your location rating, or any of the other category ratings don't have any affect on the Overall rating.

@Sarah977 ok, fair enough. Noted.

Thanks for distracting from my point. I feel my concern/argument is still quite valid.

@Shannon260  I wasn't trying to belittle your point. Almost all hosts think the location rating should be eliminated, as well as the value rating, as they are both so subjective. There have been many lengthy threads on this here, going back years, which you could find with a search here, but it's obvious that Airbnb as no intention of doing away with it.

@Sara977 Agreed. They seem to not even want to acknowledge it. I was reading the multiple older threads and chose to post to this one since it was the most recent. Hopefully one day they will understand our perspective on this matter and do something about it.