Making reviews more fair for hosts

[Airbnb]

 Many of you have asked us how Airbnb can protect hosts from one-off bad reviews. When this question came up at the most recent Host Q&A, we told you we were working on ways to make the review process more fair for hosts. Specifically, we made 2 promises:

1. We committed to launching a tool to detect outlier reviews—or one-off bad reviews. A common example is when there’s a discrepancy between the overall rating and the category ratings provided by a guest (when a guest gives a host 5 stars for cleanliness, accuracy, and the other categories but a 2-star rating overall, for instance).
2. Based on your feedback, we also committed to exploring ways to help guests better understand that the location category rating is meant to be objective. The location category rating doesn’t impact your overall rating (or Superhost status), but we know it’s important to you, and we want to make sure the whole system is as fair as possible.

Today, we’re excited to announce two improvements to the review process that directly address these issues. Since these changes have been introduced, we’ve already noticed a tangible uptick in more accurate, fair reviews for hosts, and we hope they solve some of your pain points. Here’s what’s new:

One-off review alerts

We’ve added a step to the review process for guests when they give a host an inconsistent overall rating. For instance, the guest may have given 4-star or higher ratings for all the categories (cleanliness, accuracy, etc.), but then give an overall rating of less than 3 stars.

The new pop up screen asks guests: “Is this right?” And goes on to explain that they rated their overall stay lower than they rated it in specific categories. It gives guests an option to either change the rating or ignore the alert.

This new alert has led to higher overall review ratings for hosts. Since we launched, we’ve seen a 2.8% drop in 3-star reviews and a 3.9% drop in 2-star reviews. While these percentages may seem small, they’re driving real improvements in the accuracy of our review system, and hosts are benefitting.

Location, location, location

We’ve heard from you that the location rating can be particularly frustrating because some of you have experienced guests dinging you in this category, unexpectedly, after great stays. This category is tricky. It gives valuable information to prospective travelers, which we don’t want to lose. At the same time, we hear your concern that you’re being graded for something you can’t control: guests’ opinion of your location. This opinion is inherently subjective—one person’s “rustic rural retreat” may be another’s “too far from public transportation.” So we made it more clear in the review process that guests are rating the accuracy of your location description, rather than the location itself.

Now, when a guest goes to rate you in the location category, if they give you less than 3 stars, they see an explanation: “Was the listing’s location not described accurately?” So far, this has led to a 0.8% increase in the average rating for location.

While we were working on this, we also made similar improvements to the value category. If a guest gives you less than 3 stars there, they’ll see this message: “What would have made this listing a better value?” This has led to a 0.25% increase in the average rating for value.

These changes were designed to begin to address your concerns around unfair reviews, and to help make sure that guests understand what ratings mean. We still have a journey ahead of us to keep making the review system better, and you’ll continue to see updates from us on this throughout the year. Thank you for hosting!

[James1201]

Thank you, Huma for speaking about Airbnb. I completely agree with you. I have personally experienced 1 rogue guest, Pavel Sapronov. He books 39 nights with 10 nights for his wife to visit him. After 2 weeks staying, he pressured me to give him deeper discount from 15% to over 20% and not pay for his wife's stay for 10 nights for another 50 nights booking. When I refused to accept his demand, he told me that he would pay me personally but only with 60% discount on his wife's extra guest fee. The guest proceeded to sabotage my home. I reported to Airbnb. Airbnb did nothing. I finally had to make the decision to shorten this guest's stay because I have another group of guests checking in the same day. I want to provide the utmost comfort and safety to my professional guests. Airbnb is looking out for their interest of the paying guests. Sadly, they don't care about the hosts !!! What they don't realize is that the hosts provide products for Airbnb to sell !!!!! Very sad !!!!!
Naturally, the guest gave me an unfavorable review which is abnormal because I have 21- 5 star and 1 – 4 star reviews and no reviews less than these.

[Shawna33]

One thought that I have here is that we should remember when complaining about ratings is that communication is much more than maps and check-in instructions. There are also ways that we communicate when we are not in the property. For example, written notes that they can refer to for things like how to work the television or coffee pot or what to do when the trash can is full? Also, I make it a point to reach out to my guests the day after they check-in and ask how they slept and if they have any questions or if we can do anything to make their stay more comfortable. I often get requests for small things that they would not bother me for otherwise which gives me a chance to really impress them. If they are good, then it was a nice touch that cost me no money and very little time. 

What this really stesses, though, is that what the guest is judging on and what we are assuming is the reason for thier rating may be different. It would be nice to get more clear answers from our guests. Maybe having a line that simply asks what could they have done to earn a 5 star rating? Which has the added benefit of expressing to the guest that Air BnB sees 5 stars as an achievable rating and that anything less than that should be expressable. 

[Jenny371]

Its a good step but I'm tired of people giving you bad feedback for petty stuff. There needs to be some recourse like the latest guest, who gave me overall 5 stars but suggested that the whole house needed cleaning 4 stars, (but they said the place was sparkling clean in their compliments so it doesnt add up) photos and description and apparently address was wrong so 4 stars for accuracy And all the reviews given of this guest where excellent however our place was left somewhat untidy. Maybe we need some more things we can grade our guests on. And what grated the most was I let them go in early. 
Does the feedback they give for example no soap etc stay there forever?

[Huma0]

@Jenny371  Do you mean the private feedback or the public review? Either way, I believe they stay there forever unless you can get Airbnb to agree to remove the review. However, they are not going to remove it for saying there was no soap. They will have had to have said something in the review that breaches their content policy, e.g. profane language, obvious insults, racism or other discrimination, mention of an Airbnb resolution case.

[Anuj2]

Hi Alll the hosts,

After 3 year of being host and superhost I have decided to leave the Airbnb community as Airbnb hardly acknowledges that we as hosts are the one who take a risks on themselves. 

I lost my super host status for have repeated customer staying with me for 7 times in a row but since it was booked his office and they forgot to review within the timeframe (understand for business is its a new thing plus no motivation for them to leave review). I have been single person working full time and also managing the Airbnb as I enjoy hosting travellers.

I was shocked when Airbn expressed their inablility to get the status back. I mean all your hardwork is refused to recognised becaise of someone else mistake and knowing that it wasnt due to bad service it was purely neglihgence from the booking person from the company. The person send me an email requesting airbnb to change the ruling but I support was too satisfied with their bonuses.

Second instance which has totally taken away my faith from Airbnb founding principle:

A guest booked my room at 7.30 p.m for the same nite adviseing two people will be staying. Then he calls me as per agreed meeting that it is his guests who are staying for nite since they do not have accomodation. I recieved but could understand or speak english. As per my usual practice I welcomed them and gave the keys and showed how to use the digitals lock on the main door and their room door. They did ask me in sign language whether 1 bed or there is one more bed. I advised them it is one bed but I can provide matteress for them due to lanaguage I do not whether understood. Also it was clear the perosn booking was not the person staying, since the photograph was different plus the booking called me advised me. The guest hardly stayed for 15 moinutes and they cancelled the booking.. When my phone showed the cancellation I immidiately went down to ask them everything ok but language was issue and they mentioned looking additional bed. Which I acknowldged the person booking was well aware of what he was booking.

Under my cancellation policy (moderatea) they lost one night rental which I was ready reimburse 50% but suddnely next I got contacted by support that guest complained of no locks on the door and hence it was a false advertisment and hence demanded refund. I was little bit shocked since I was the who showed the girl which app to dowload for the digital locks. Anyway the support never recieved any documentation from the guest supporting their argument and when the guest saw he is loosing his funds what did he do?

PUT a NEGATIVE Feedback

Now under the AIRBNB policies the person allowed to put feedback if it his personal experience. Plus the stay never evebtuated so there was not exprience imparted so I was expecting a feedback in this scenario Since feedback is for the exoerience of the stay and when there is nio stay.

1 Airbnb is clearly tells me they dont trust the host and here the host is been trustibng froin 3 years that they protect when there is dodgy customer Dont think so. So me letting them that person who booked was not the people who came they dont trust me and asking to provide the proof of the same. First thing I do not have any reason to lie. Secondly before the feedback I had advised Airbnb about the same thing so it wasnt that my story changed after feedback.

2. They allowing total cancellation of the trip to be reviewed by the person? Is this normal?

Before I depart for the Airbnb community I am seeking is this happening to me or there more who are gettibng affected by autocracy and injsut of Airbnb support team specially when  we are the one taking bring revenue and creating a honest trustworth family of hosts and traveller the approach for support is they do not want to use brains and act like computer which programmed by the process.

I will see if any feedback else I wish good luck to you before this happens again !!

Thanks

[Jenny371]

It on the app see the bottom of the screen shot. Like we do provide flowing soap but they meant soap in the shower so now we provide body wash. 

[Tom-and-Lisa0]

In the last 2-3 years, my overall observation is that Airbnb is doing the absolute minimum to appease hosts.  And thier attitude about doing anything seems to be "Aw, Geeze, do we HAVE to?!?"   The scales are leaning so heavily toward siding with the guest that its obvious to anybody who cares.          The HOST Q & A sessions are a worthless waste of time...most of the initiatives announced never go anywhere (make one wonder if its just lip service).  

I'm not suggesting that hosts should have the scales tipped their way, but BALANCED policies and a sincere effort on Airbnb's part to at least concentrate some effort toward that end, would go a L O N G way.  

Unfortunately, Airbnb has departed so far from it's roots--venturing into new avenues and seemingly being very motivated by its rumored IPO, that those roots are not being nourished.  It's not hard to predict what happens to a plant that's roots are not being cared for.  

Despite sounding negative, I have enjoyed success with the Airbnb, but I must constantly be watchful for Airbnb's changes and missteps to manage my listing and head-off trouble before it occurs.  Any trouble means you (a host) will get sucked into the chaos that is Airbnb dispute rsolution, where their pooly defined policies and customer service reps who interpret them in wildly different ways, will make you sorry you ever listed with them.   I was exclusively listed with Airbnb for a long time, but have begun listing on other platforms for the coming day when Airbnb will burn their bridges with me.

[Alison438]

Whilst I appreciate any steps to make reviews fairer for hosts these steps do not go nearly far enough. 

...total outlier reviews should be flagged and possibly removed

...I cannot understand why guests who never checked in can leave any sort of review (if absolutely necessary maybe a comment without stars)

...I think it needs to be made completely clear to guests what the star ratings mean (ie 5* is as described and expected)

[Susie111]

@Airbnb 

What about Airbnb educate the guests about that 4 star are actually

bad for the hosts???

Or go with what the majority of people out there that thinks that "What I thought that 4* is good"

Like some of my guests has told me.

Airbnb review system is so wrong in so many,many ways....

[Alexandra199]

Hi Airbnb

This is a helpful step forward and the best thing about this is that you are listening to your owners which is something I feel you dont do terribly well at. However, I feel these changes should not only be effective on three star or less reviews. I work very hard to provide a 5 star experience at my properties and anything less than 5 stars I feel is a negative review. Guests can give 5 stars across the board and then a 4 star overall....we would have benefit from an explanation in regards to this, as it does have a negative affect on an overall score. Can this please be stretched out to cover anything less than 5 star? I find it is especially annoying in the value category because reviews give 5 stars everywhere and then 4 for value.....if everythuing else was perfect what did the guest feel lacked value? They did after all choose to pay the price. I once asked for some feedback from a guest regarding this issue. Their response was that they felt the service fee added by Airbnb was too much, hence they felt the stay lacked in value. This was hardly my fault and certainly nothing i could do anything about but a 4 star result affected my rating.

[Rebecca251]

While this is a great start,  I don’t see why you can not put a referral status in place? For example, where you are rating check in/out, cleanliness etc thehost should be given an opportunity to address this via a form on Airbnb - matters arising perhaps? Stating the apparent issue. If this is not done they should not be able to give a 3 or below rating. In this way hosts actually have an opportunity to set things right and not lose a rating they have worked hard on. Sometimes local competition books in and regrows you very badly to make sure they get business before you do! I’ve had this done to me. There was nothing at all wrong with the room. 

[Emilia42]

Thank you for taking the steps to move in the right direction. As many other hosts here have mentioned, please do not loose sight of all the retaliatory reviews that we read about everyday on this forum. If a guest cancels on the day of arrival they should NOT be allowed to review a host if they never laid eyes on the property. 

[Angela714]

Nice....but what about those odd 1-star-retaliation-reviews among 99,9% 4 and 5 star reviews? Or those reviews that complain (solely) about things that are clearly listed in the description and /or house rules?

[Cheryl389]

Yes! Two people complained that I only have a mini-fridge, but it's clearly advertised and my kitchen would be unsafe with a larger refrigerator. Not something I could upgrade even if I wanted to.

[Fab5]

Many times guests leave our beloved places upside down, dirty, with broken items, and they leave the place before we collect keys.

Hosts feel threatened as any request for funds for additional cleaning could be reflected as a very bad review from the guest that did not respect the house rules.

My proposal is that when there is evidence that the guest broke the house rules; his review could be made public but the score (usually negative as retaliation) will not cont for the overall rating of the property, superhost status , etc.... 

Will Airbnb consider this so we as hosts are more protected from this disrespectful guests?

Thank you!

Fab