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.

[Michelle1648]

Air BnB is forgetting why they exist, without hosts, there are no guests.   Maybe the decision makers should take some of these party goers to come stay with them. 

[Anne9760]

I tried to report a party and there was no way. What a disappointment. 

[Katie]

Hi @Anne9760, welcome to the Community Center, and thanks for flagging this. How did you try to report the party?

[Anne9760]

On the app, and then by calling.  You can report damage (which I will do), but not the breaking of the rules by having a large party.

[Katie]

Hi @Anne9760, thanks for getting back to me. Were you trying to report a party in progress or once the booking had finished, when discovering the damage? 

Also, did you call the normal Support number? 

[Sue1797]

@Mike-And-Jan0 I'm worried about a REVENGE REVIEW also.

I'm dreading a confrontation with a current renter who snuck in one more guest than the number she listed in her reservation request.  

My rules clearly state that no additional overnight guests are allowed, and it's listed on the Airbnb website.

We are in a drought emergency and have been asked to cut our water usage by 20%, which we can't do with additional guests.   This is in addition to the normal concerns we have about straining the capacity of our septic system. 

It's not fair to get a bad review because I ask her to pay the extra guest fee!

[Sarah977]

@Sue1797  Don't approach it as a confrontation. While this may very well be an intentional sneak in (i.e. she has 5 there when I see your max guest count is 4), sometimes guests think it doesn't matter as long as they don't exceed the max.

So try to approach it as "Hi XX, I'm aware that you have X number of people at the cottage, when you only booked for 4- maybe you just thought..."

In other words, give her the benefit of the doubt, even if you know for sure she was trying to pull a fast one, explain about it being hard on the infrastructure, and then ask her to pay the extra guest fee. 

Not all guests will leave a bad review just because you reiterated and enforced your rules. No sense anticipating or dreading it when it might not even happen.

[Joe-and-Jen0]

I am a Superhost and wondering why if someone files a complaint, that had nothing to do with my listing or the accommodations, that my account is suspended. Do I not get a change to respond to the claim?

How can a guest book -1 person then show up with two people, One of them being a small child which breaks our house rules. Even though I spoke to the quest and waived the no child policy, Guest stayed 2 out of 3 nights and requested a refund claimed she was uncomfortable knowing that we had a no child policy. there is no way guest did not know, it is listed in several locations on our listing Ages 12+

Why am i being discriminated against because a guest knowing broke the rules and purposely brought a child?  What ever happened with innocent until proven guilty? Don't I get a chance to tell my side before getting suspended?

[Charles224]

@Airbnb , thank you for the video;

On a different tack from bookings;

What get Measured gets Done.

A star system is used to improve a situation. BUT why have it when there is no way to improve?

Why offer a Star System for something you can NEVER improve? 

In the words of Yoda, "pointless it is".

In my words, "what muppet thought that it was a good idea to measure Location?"

This is simply an opportunity for a guest to blame a host rather than themselves for their mistake in chosing a property which is less convenient than they expected.

Simple fix:

Remove the ability to rate LOCATION /  just delete it and admit that it was a silly 'thought-fart'.

I really hope the muppets have left the building,

good to see your efforts Catherine.

Cheers, Charles

[Colleen253]

@Charles224  I actually had a guest admit that THEY made a mistake by not looking at the map view to determine location precisely. The “feedback” (that went along with the mark down in the location category) they expressed after the stay was that they kinda wished they had been on the other side of town.  Oh thanks, so helpful. Happy to improve,

with that feedback 🙄

Location aside, as an add on to this topic, I would  like to see guests be required to leave feedback before they can move on to the next step in the review process, if they’ve given anything less than 5 stars in a category. It’s no help whatsoever to receive a lower mark in a category and have no corresponding comments explaining what needs improving. 

[Emilia42]

@Colleen253 So true! My biggest gripe here is "accuracy." As a host, I want my listing to be 100% accurate. In my eyes, it is. So when I received a less than perfect score for accuracy I want to know what I can do to make the appropriate changes. 

Also, thinking from a guest perspective - When I look for places to stay and see a listing which has, say a 4.3 for accuracy, I don't know how to take this. Many times there is no indication in the written reviews as to why this could be. So I sit there dumbfounded and second guess if I am choosing the right place which ultimately just leads to me passing on an Airbnb for the night. 

[Colleen253]

@Emilia42 “As a host, I want my listing to be 100% accurate. In my eyes, it is. So when I received a less than perfect score for accuracy I want to know what I can do to make the appropriate changes”. 

I am with you on that statement. Unfortunately, not all feedback is super helpful. I think my check in process is 5 star and so far, all but one guest have agreed. That guest gave me a 4 but no feedback. I was surprised, as the guest appeared to have gotten in the house just fine. I had to ask them what the problem had been. The answer was they didn’t like my check out time and felt an extra hour would be an improvement. That would be the checkout time they agreed to at booking.  They helped themselves to an extra hour before leaving.  

[Emilia42]

@Colleen253 I don't know if you have ever stayed as a guest, but if you rate a host less than 5 stars in a category you have the option to select from a list of possible reasons why. Like if you check 4 stars for cleanliness you can also select "bathroom" to indicate that something in the bathroom needs more attention. The problem, at least with my guests, is that no one fills it out. So it stands as a 4 star with no feedback. Guests should be required to indicate why to move on with the review. 

[Kevin-and-Tamara0]

I 100% agree.  And it would be a simple if/then update on the back end.

[Cynthia739]

I once had a guest leave 5 stars in every category except for a 4 in accuracy because the place was better than he had expected from reading the listing at the time of booking.  You just can't win with some guests.