Improvements to guest reviews, house rules, cancellations & more in the latest Host Update

[Airbnb]

*Post shared October, 20th

In the latest Host Update, Catherine Powell shares how Airbnb is addressing your top concerns from the past few months and provides detailed answers to several direct questions from hosts. Thanks to host feedback voiced in workshops and here in the Community Center, there are several features being put into action. 

*To add or change subtitles to the video, hover over the video and click on the little 'Settings' wheel in the bottom right corner. Then select your language. 

Airbnb is improving the guest review process to make it feel more fair. This includes rewriting the majority of review questions that guests answer after a stay. For example, instead of asking guests if the description of a listing was inaccurate, we’re now asking if it was accurate instead. These changes will help guests leave reviews that feel more impartial and truly reflect the quality of your hospitality. 

Unauthorized parties are another top host concern, and we’re launching several new features to help protect you against them. For example, by the end of this month you’ll be able to immediately cancel a reservation without contacting support if you have valid reason to believe it will lead to a party. As long as your reason is upheld by our review team, you won’t receive financial penalties or have your Superhost status affected. 

When our team reviews a cancellation, they’ll search for evidence of a potential party from message threads or previous guest reviews. As always, these cancellations must adhere to Airbnb’s nondiscrimination policy and we’ll carefully monitor them for unfair treatment that violates that policy.

Many hosts have also asked that house rules be more prominent on listing pages so guests can both read and understand them before booking. By next month, your house rules will be visible in four different places when a guest books a stay:

1. Key house rules—like not allowing smoking or pets—will be visible at the top of your listing page so that they’re more prominent as guests search
2. All the house rules you’ve listed, including important safety disclosures, will be visible in the details of your listing page
3. House rules will be displayed again on the booking confirmation page to help better ensure that guests understand and agree to them before completing a reservation
4. They’ll also be included in the booking confirmation email to remind guests of your expectations before they arrive
   
   

All house rules must be in line with Airbnb’s policies and terms—including our terms of service and nondiscrimination policy.

To read a full overview of all the updates being put into place, visit this Resource Center article. As always, thank you for sharing the topics that matter to you and providing feedback that helps elevate the hosting community. Please let us know what you’d like us to cover in future Host Updates with Catherine.

[Justin230]

When ??

Working with the team ??

How about working with your HOSTS?

[Michelle1648]

I think revenge reviews are pretty obvious.  when ten previous guests before them say the place was sparkling clean and the one guest calls it dirty over a speck in the microwave and lowers the rating by giving it 2, that is a revenge review and should be removed.  Yes this happened to me by a very awful guest in 2019, still working on improving my rating.   BTW there was not even a speck in the microwave, I found nothing wrong.   

[Lachristy0]

have we gotten anywhere on this matter? 

[Vickie34]

 What you need to stop doing is punishing and threatening the host over these reviews. I lost my superhost status and as threatened to have my listing removed, and you guys very nearly lost an excellent host...

[Priscila176]

I agree. I've had two of those and I don't know what to do. The guests absolutely destroyed me and gave me 1 star for "lack of communication " for example, when they simply refused to reply to my messages. What can I do about them?

[Vytautas5]

Great comment. I have lost my superhost status in a past quarter becouse of one revenge review that was made from the guest that made a big party.  It's very sad that I have lost my superhost status without my fault. I had superhost status from the beginning of my 4 years hosting experience. I'm very disappointed of Airbnb that cannot remove inaccurate star rating.

[Blake65]

Yes but for some moronic reason, Airbnb thinks it's in everyone's best interest for that review to stand. Even when you have video evidence of the party, pictures, messages from the guest confirming the additional unauthorized "visitors",  and a police report but that's not a good enough reason for Airbnb to remove the review.

[Valerie928]

@Catherine-Powell @Mike-And-Jane0 Fantastic point! I would add to that the same goes for when problem guests are removed from the premises due to any form of misconduct. Such guests should not be permitted to leave a review. Guests are vindictive when they do not get everything they want, even things they do not mention during the stay. It is destructive to business, both for hosts and AirBnB. I've noticed such guests lie in order to hurt us. And AirBnB allows it. The experience was already damaging enough. These are our homes and our lives. We do everything we can, but it is insult to injury when violating guests can review. 

[Justin230]

Crazy that an offender gets to put down a host & Airbnb supports it ????

[Angela1332]

I agree 💯 I just had a situation where guests started having a party against my house rules and became abusive to me.  I was one person against 8!  One guy lunged for me twice and I was sincerely in fear of my life and ended up calling 911.

never did I have support from anyone at Airbnb support even when two squad cars arrived.  I was just so lucky a knife or gun was not pulled on me.

then came the review.  These people were removed and stopped by police.  They trashed my home, threw stuff in my pool, broke things and threatened my life yet they were able to leave a review. 
of course I responded and did my best (for future guests looking to stay) to really spell out what actually happened.

it still caused some concern for future guests, both for my safety and also just feeling a little uneasy. 
this is the only time something g like this has happened and I hope the last.  I operate a very nice “resort-like” home in SW Florida. 
It’s terrible that I have to even address this with anyone.  I was literally paralyzed for 3 days from the whole episode. 

[Michelle1648]

That is messed up! Air BnB SHAME on you for allowing anyone who threatens, trashes and requires the police for their removal to leave a REVIEW.  

[Manika0]

Thank you! Exactly!

[James2541]

Exactly! I’ve had this happen various times and the last time I asked an Airbnb rep and they said if a guest does this to contact Airbnb and they will remove the review. Unfortunately I don’t believe that Airbnb will do this :s

[Pat114]

I totally agree. I had several revenge reviews - by party groups that broke the house rules. The last party group that damaged a LOT of things, took things, and trashed the house, threatened to demand a full refund from airbnb if I asked for damage payment. As with any he/said - she/said situation, it's potluck who some employee at airbnb will side with. Sort of like plea bargaining - I took the course of least resistance to at least keep my guest payment. I had to eat the damages ($1475 US) - not to mention wear and tear on my nerves, the neighbors good will, and the cleaners' nerves. At least airbnb finally took down the horrible 1 star revenge review - after 6 weeks or so. I'm sure I lost potential bookings while the revenge review remained on my profile.

I used to really like hosting. Now - it's becoming like a survival game. 

One church group said they would give me a negative review if I asked for damages. I got the damages $500 US to so), plus the revenge negative review.

Perhaps if a host asked for damages, the "guest" could then not write a review or rate - as they are certainly biased against a fair review.

[Linny0]

I agree with you.  I have found airbnb very unfair and favor guests with this.  I have super host rating and five star however I have had problems with parties and guests not liking or being not allowed to have outside guests in the apt.  I personally think that airbnb should not allow guests that are not registered inside a hosts home.  I have found some wonderful outside platforms that don’t have review process and I control the rules completely.  Hosts should look at other platforms.  Or create their own     I have been very successful even with covid19.