Airbnb Answers: Guest information and flagging guest behavior

[Airbnb]

You asked: Can Airbnb share more information about guests, like their ratings, full name, etc.? Can we get the ability to flag bad guests and make this information visible to other hosts?

More guest information

We're taking a close look at what additional information we can share to help you feel confident about the quality of every guest, every time you host. Currently, before confirming a booking, you can see a potential guest’s prior reviews and profile information (including hometown, education background, hobbies, and languages spoken). But in order to protect the privacy of both hosts and guests, we don’t share last names until after a booking is confirmed. If you don’t feel comfortable accepting a reservation with this set of information, you may message guests with additional questions. We don’t share guests’ home addresses because that information is not relevant or required to make a booking.

Every guest is required to provide their full name, date of birth, phone number, email address, and payment information to Airbnb before being allowed to book a reservation. As a host, you also have the option to require guests to provide a government ID before booking your home, which is just one feature of our ongoing effort to build trust in the community.

Flagging guest behavior

In the coming months, we’ll be adding more ways for you to report guest behavior that we might need to address. Stay tuned for more, but know that host reviews of guests remain the most powerful flagging tool for the community.

More than ever before, we’re using your reviews to signal both excellent and not-so-great guest behavior. We’re developing a Superguest program that will help you identify experienced travelers with excellent ratings. And for the rare occasions things don’t go well, your reviews will help us identify poorly behaved guests, issue more specific and strict warnings, and remove those guests who do not improve their behavior.

Be assured that when guests get negative reviews from hosts, Airbnb follows up. We make sure guests receive warnings about unacceptable behavior, and in some cases they can be blocked from booking entirely. We take the safety of you and your guests very seriously, which is why we require everyone in our community to uphold our community standards. Your reviews of guests are essential to establishing trust in our community, and we’re dedicated to taking action on your behalf to help ensure high quality experiences every time you host.

In the latest Host Q&A, CEO and Head of Community Brian Chesky answered top-voted questions during a livestream event. For questions he didn’t have time to address, we’ve introduced Airbnb Answers. Want to ask more? We’ll invite hosts to ask their questions before the next quarterly Host Q&A. We’ll keep you posted in Airbnb Updates.

[Lukas59]

the weird thing is, i wrote down what types of animals are in my apartment, but people are always unaware of the animals in the household. Same with the Room, I write in to the info that there is no key for their room, and they are still suprised hmmm

[Cat43]

I have a brand new new build house that I airbnb on the weekends, so far I have had pretty good guests, until last month, a new user reached out to me, due to the profile I raised concerns with him as to his purpose of stay and explained it was not a house to party in. He replied back saying he was there for buiness and there would be no issues. 

I turned up at my house at 12pm an hour after they were suppose to check out, they had locked themselves inside my house and would not come out, at 12.30 5 males walked out and straight into a taxi, I tried confronting one of them and he actually just pushed me out of the way.

The house was a disgrace, they had been taking drugs and smoking weed, they had put the kitchen table against the living room and split cranberry juice all over the white walls, the had dropped a curry on the cream sofa, and had gone through all my cupboards eating the food and drinking the alcohol.

I reported this to airbnb and the reponse was awful the person I dealt with couldn't care less and refused me compensation for the damaged to the wall and sofa, this person still has an active account on airbnb. 

My complaints was not taken seriously in the slightest. 

[Eniko1]

Dear All,

I undesrstand with several home-owner. I had so much negative experience with idiot guests, and Airbnb never heleped me. If a guest not wash dishes, stay the apartment as durty than ever, smoking cigarettes, cut the furniture textil, make unwashable dirty towels, no any penalty, no any compensation, ang guests are laughing on us. If I give a negative review for a guest, never mind, he make a new account on his friend's or wife's name and follow again. I think rules, and cultured behavior must be compulsory not only for the host but for the guests.

[Shaz4]

I have had guests out stay their welcome, steal, unscrew fittings for no reason and break things. Ruin rugs then claim that the room is dirty. Then claim that the Hall way carpets are dirty when there is no hallway carpets and it is not their room anyway. Then not turning up when they say they are coming and complaining to Airbnb giving me a bad reputation that is not true with no photographic evidence or proof what so ever. Then I think they are just doing theirselves out of a cheap place to stay and are strange people 

[Florence46]

Can there be an option to withdraw feedback? I recently had a woman stay just for one night with her friend, and they didn’t want breakfast. The booking is for Room only so they have access to their room, shared bathroom and corridor/stairs out with a set of keys. They weren’t around much and left everything clean so I put a good review, only to find she had slated me because our belongings were in the bathroom (duh!) and there was a bin bag - now this she could only have seen if she had entered our (off limits) living-Room in our absence as I had just been given a bag full of baby stuff by a friend, which I was sorting through. I can’t explain how disgusted I feel that someone should intrude in a private space in my absence (did they go into or bedroom too??) and I really wouldn’t want other hosts to think this is a good guest, but there is no option to flag this problem. 😞

[Nicki16]

I've been hosting for 9 months & have generally had great guests who have respected my property as well as a couple of post wedding party vomit incidents! 

The issue of no address being provided by guests even to ABB concerns me as in Northern Ireland we must be registered by the Tourist Board to run a holiday rental. The terms of that registration states we must be able to provide the address of guests should an incident occur involving the intervention of emergency services for example. 

[Robert890]

I have £20,000 worth of paintings on my walls and I could take them down and store them everytime I Airbnb my place but that's onerous and it's part of the character of my house. If I take photos and paintings are missing when the guests leave, I would firstly call the police but do Airbnb offer any help to get my property back? Robert

[Bridget76]

I can relate to most of these comments... I lost my superhost status, due mainly to a very few poor reviews.

One, a guy who refused to let me change a light bulb (heard that one before...?)and pretended everything was fine, then gave a one star review and posted vicious comments all over the internet. What did airbnb do? Nothing: "People will see all your great reviews and make up their own minds." Which is absolutely true, but doesn't help my rating. 

Two, a review that pretty much repeated the info in the listing, i.e. this room is budget accommodation, no luxuries, comfortable, but simple. Rustic, one might say. Then: three stars... I really think guest ratings should reflect reasonable expectations - it's unfair to give a poor rating to a room that is exactly as described. 

So, I have two rooms that are comfortable, attractive, enjoyable to stay in, with ratings that meet requirements: 4.7 and 4.9. Two beds in a rustic dorm that is comfortable but basic, ratings 4.5 and 4.6. Superhost? Nope... Thanks mainly to two one star reviews out of 141, one plain mean, one an accident, I believe, as it also gives a warm description of how pleasant it was to stay here and how nice everything was... The result: "You are not meeting our standards...Please improve! Our requirement is 80% and you are failing, you have only 79%... Soon to be 4.8 and you only achieved 4.7!" 

I do agree with the reviewing system in general, but I don't think it's acceptable for guests to leave unjustified and unreasonable reviews without repercussions. 

[Jane566]

I hate the fact that you cant read the guests  review until you have written one about the guests. It seems to me that Air bnb are much more on the side of the guests than th owner who is at the end of the day taking a huge risk with renting out their property

[Hugh-And-Sue0]

I have just read all the comments from everyone and it seems that Airbnb must sort out its review system. I really hope they read all your comments. All superhosts  are worried about losing their superhosts status by just getting just one poor review - surely there must be a safety net against unfair and vintictive reviews given to a host when all other previous reviews have been five star?

Airbnb need to nurture their good hosts more so that they feel looked after and supported.

[Maggie10]

In 5 years of hosting I have only had one bad experience! Apart from that, I

have to say that every single one of my guests has been respectful, clean and tidy, and a pleasure to host. Nothing has been broken or stolen. Am I just ridiculously lucky??

[Fiona58]

I think part of the problems here lie in the different kinds of Airbnb accommodation being offered.  Many Airbnb hosts are not in fact hosts, just landlords providing cheap, short-term lets.  If a guest has only this view of Airbnb, perhaps they do not understand the personal approach many of us follow.  My guests stay in my home.  I am here practically all the time they are, yet some clearly think they are coming into a hotel-type environment at a knock-down price and treat it as such.

The respect that we expect to be accorded by guests ought to be stated up-front for EVERYONE making a booking on AIrbnb.

I like the idea of 'Super-Guests' and would be keen to find out more about the incentives for this.

But for me, and many other hosts, Airbnb is not about buying somewhere to rent it out.  I am offering space in my home - yes, self-contained, but very much with hospitality being part of what is on offer.  It is often disappointing when a rogue guest or two (dozen) seem to not understand this basic tenet of what Airbnb is.

[Dragana21]

In the last month or two, I received  several bookings from guests with 5 star reviews who had 2 or more excellent reviews and they all "mistakenly" instantly booked a place for just 1 person. Most of them made real mistakes by writing about their travel plans in plural, so I was able to figure out that I'll get more than one guest when they arrive. I politely asked them to change the number of guests in their reservation and  even offered to do that instead of them and they politely agreed. But... If they write just a sentence or two about themselves and appear the next day, there's no time to politely ask them to change anything. Last weekend, I decided not to ruin my day, so I didn't mention a thing and I let the second person stay for free (my policy is to pay 10 EUR extra for each extra guest after first one)... I've been waiting for more than 10 days now for a guest to acknowledge the fact that she'll be staying at my place with 1-2 more people (maximum is 3). She entered a number of guests as 1 and wrote several messages saying "we will arrive". To conclude, there's a cerain percentage of guests, some 15 -20% who are regularly given 5 star reviews and are still trying to outsmart the Airbnb system. We as hosts really need a tool to pinpont certain behavior(s), without having to write all about it in reviews, Because, those reviews paint us as horrible, unsympathetic, awful individuals just because we dare to say the truth.

The new "Brave New World" AIrbnb tactics is bombarding us with warnings that we need to lower the price to get more bookings, that others are doing better job than us, that we are failing to fulfill basic requirements... What happened with the joy of hosting? Being the part of Airbnb comunity felt so "out of system", but now I'm considering stepping out of this boat. It's becoming too "corporate" for my taste.

[Andy293]

Regarding security checks .  A very recent guest informed me that the only 'check' Airbnb asked of him  was his email address and went on to suggest to me that hosts (such as myself) were vulnerable wasnt ..

[Lilach1]

i understand exactly  what you are saying.

the guests just  dont read!!!

I write everything, we're us the key, checkin/ out hour, location and  more...

they arrive. had a great time, but in the end. bad review. just besides they dont read when they book.

I think there should be a way to make sure the guests read  ,but it is very  hard. 

I wish we could educate  travelers.

this is our job, so we know how to behave  when we travele.

they don't.  very  frustrating.