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.

[Christine796]

Just another fancy promotional slogan for the purpose of lure hosts to list more properties by providing the illusion host can now feel more safe renting out properties

You will never completely remove bad guests and especially their companions who have never even been rated! 

Pls get the basics right before trying to invent some kind of fancy feature with minimal effect!

I had multiple compensation claims declined by Airbnb under the Host Gurantee program include damages to walls and large burn marks on carpet. Despite photos of the damage, repair quotes and even guest admitting smoking inside my home may be the root cause of the damage, your Trust and Security team refused to pay a cent and the only reason provided was “insufficient documents and decision is final”. How much more documents do you need??? 

The way I see it, this is just another scam like empity promise!

[Jennifer949]

I joint host my family cottage on airbnb, and my parents are usualy the ones to meet guests. A recent guest amended her stay to be one night less without messaging me, which was fine, but then she ignored my check in time and said she needed to get the keys off me the day before as they would be arriving too late in the evening for my rents to be at the property on the day. I accommodated this and met her to give her the keys. This did mean she missed out on the usual tour of the cottage where she would usually be shown how to use the facilities, wood burning fire etc.

While her and her friends were there they also rang me, and my parents' house to say they were stuck in a ditch in their car - I'm not sure what they wanted us to do! We were too far away to help them ourselves, so we tried to coach and give them advice over the phone and said they should contact AA/RAC. 

Despite all of this, she still gave a 4* review and marked it down on location and overall experience. My listing states that the cottage is very remote, so this seemed unfair to me. Even though overall my experience has been positive (touch wood), I do always feel uneasy when writing them a review without being able to see theirs first. 

[Hayley53]

I would really appreciate a more subtle guest review system, particularly if there is to be a 'superguest' level. As others have commented, there are small things like using extra towels, leaving gates open, more breakages than one would expect in a two night stay etc. that don't really warrant a bad review, but neither are they 'super'.

Secondly, as others have commented, I would also appreciate better support for remote landlords. Cleaners don't always spot things and it is often more than 14 days after a stay that I can get to the property. For instance, one of our blinds was broken by guests, but I wasn't sure which of two parties it was, and it was after 14 days that the discovery was made. Airbnb were basically useless in terms of practical help / support - relentlessly calling me (as in, like four calls in one day, as well as messages through Airbnb) with no clear answer wasn't support, but was bordering on harrassment.

[Lisa-and-Wayne0]

What about guests who push the boundaries of your house rules, hardly worth a bad review but a pain in the ass!

”I know your washing machine and dryer aren’t included, but can we wash and dry a few things?” (3 loads later!!)

”I know your kitchen isn’t part of the deal, but can we keep all our leftover takeaways in your fridge and reheat in your oven?”

And they came into our private sitting room every evening for hours!

we didn’t want to refuse as then they could give us a bad rating, but it was the longest week of my life!

[Pauline207]

As a host, I am impressed by Airbnb’s ongoing attempts to improve the Airbnb community from  the point of view  of the host and the guest. 

However, I have noticed what appears to be a trend in that some guests do not attach photographs or simply attach photographs of babies to their profiles!  In addition, some guests do not attach surnames or details to their profiles, just a first name.  Neither is background information included.  I feel that the  minimum information required for registration and the information in the profile visible to the host should be increased somewhat and monitored by Airbnb.

In addition, some bookers seem to book the properties (as ‘gifts’) for members of the family.  Perhaps there should be closer monitoring of this as the host then does not know who is actually staying at their property.

Finally, a guest recently asked if a booking could be secured by paying a deposit.  I had to state that this was not possible as far as I am  aware. However, it might be something that could be considered but only if the deposit on the booking is accepted (with no opportunity to claim back the deposit in the event that the booking is not completed).

I would be interested to read the views of other hosts!

[Simon385]

This is a good way forward. I've had mostly great guests from Airbnb but certainly the bad ones are really bad.   

There has to be community responsibility to ensure we all end up with improved guest behaviour.

Not only issues of general respect for property are a concern but I've had many many guests who abuse the amenity provided, such as setting the Aircon to 60f while keeping the doors and windows open. They would not be doing this at home paying a $800 monthly electric bill! 

As Airbnb has grown it certainly seems to have lost some of the "community" spirit and mutual respect. 

[Helene74]

I am so lucky that we have had just the greatest guests. I would appreciate having more information on the guests in case of problems. One thing that I would very much appreciate is if we could flag guest behaviours that would not reflect on our own rating but also help future hosts to those guests. Perhaps a second (host-only) tier of reviews or guest ratings. Cheers, Helene

[Caroline628]

We have been extremely fortunate with our guests overall. Only once or twice over 6 years have people abused our hospitality. To some extent this may have been due to cultural differences which can often be overcome with mindful instructions. We do however have lots of little breakages etc that some guests don’t report. I have never charged them for that - partly because it is part of the process, partly because it is difficult to prove and partly because of the poor rating we could get. I would like to see a system that ensures if we make a claim on the bond that we are not subject to being  penalized by bad feedback. Maybe even prevent public ratings by a poor guest / a guest who has damaged the property? This would require a third party (Airbnb) to negotiate but would help regulate the system.

[Debbie204]

I discovered a hole in Airbnb’s provision for reporting bad guest behaviour. Recently a couple made a booking and then cancelled shortly before they were due to check in. Some days later mail arrived addressed to them, they had used my address to register for a National Insurance number. I realised that I have no control over misuse of my address as you can’t review guests who cancel before they check in. Previously I’ve had guests ask if they could register vehicles and apply for credit cards using my address! 

[Robin-And-Sue0]

As a host I agree with many of the comments above. We put our utmost best efforts into cleaning, washing, etc for every guest yet one bad review can bring your rating down. I dont believe many actually READ what is written about the accomodation and what is offered. I had a guest book for 2 nights then she rang me a few hours before she arrived, I explained that she was welcome to use our kitchen after we had finished with it. She was most put out that she could have her our kitchen! I asked had she read what was in the house rules and our listing? NO, she said and then cancelled the booking.

We have had guests give us a bad review because they found a bug. I always expain we live in the bush and they need to always keep the flyfire doors shut!

We have blocked out a whole month to give us a rest from people and their negativity!!!

[Bruce146]

We've been hosting for five years, and we currently have 5 homes, a cottage, and a studio apartment (all next to our own house) that we list with Airbnb and others.  Airbnb (IMO) has the best user-friendly online system, but the biggest loopholes.   Our house rules keep evolving - 95% of our guests are "fine" to "really wonderful", and it's unfortunate that the ignorant, careless 5% make such a negative impact on us.   The biggest problem I have with Airbnb is that if I try to make a claim for damage or other incurred costs, it triggers the guest to react and give a bad review.   So now I hesitate making (valid) claims because it's such a long, drawn-out process, and we end up suffering more with an invalid bad review.   I've asked the Airbnb reps to disqualify the review process if a damage claim is made, but we've seen no progress with that.   Other sites provide better control of the process.

[Diana495]

all/anyone entering a review should be able to confirm the review before it is sent to AIRBNB. My guest thought that she had given me a 5* review but inadvertinently actually missed reviewing onecategory, this the set my OVERALL RATING DOWN TO 4.8, instead of 5*, which acturately reflected her opinion. Airbnb are sh***

[Geoffrey40]

I am a superhost which means a lot to us as it recognises that a host is doing the right thing..... However when you have a string of 5 stars and then one guest gives you 2 stars and the following guests again give you 5 stars this should  red flag AIRBNB ... sure you can’t please all the people all the time but to receive a warning from AIRBNB because a guest isn’t happy about location or expects you to take them around in a car etc then the review system is wrong.   There are always two sides to a story but only the guests seem to be really catered for. 

[Jaci0]

I had guests ask to book with me when I had blocked my calendar because of winter snow and bad weather.

They asked several times online which I declined. Then their relative who recognized my front door came to beg me to take them. I explained that there were steps that could be dangerous if there is snow or ice and could not take the reservation. She begged me to take them and agreed that they must follow my directions to walk through our heated garage and heated driveway  to the street, for the sake of safety.

Long story short, despite reminders, they went out and left the garage door open and our pipes froze and broke on New Years Eve.

When I tried to approach them about the situation they became very aggressive and denied that it even happened.

I called for support to AirBnb and the  person I spoke with seemed sympathetic but offered me no solution or standards for dealing with the situation. I asked if I should leave a bad review or just leave it alone as they left for home. No directions. I asked about how this would affect my rating and also did not get an answer.

In the end the people were really not nice; the refused to even leave their damage deposit and said I was a liar. They also left a  review which caused me to lose my Super Host rating.

I was very disappointed in AirBnb and felt I had taken the higher moral ground and was punished.

But live and learn. I think we need more support around refusing guests and how to handle those really stubborn difficult guests that do come along once in awhile!

[Nabeel0]

I had a guest last year, who came to attend TRNSMT festival. She and her friend smoke weeds inside the flat and left buds underneath the kitchen dining table also broke the wooden window blinds. Upon complaining to her and requesting replacement charges, she gave me a bad review - in fact the only bad review I got was from her. Viola boom, low rating and subsequent warning from Airbnb!