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!

[Sarah977]

@Mandi-S-Just-Business-Ro0  Good point. I think some hosts run into trouble because they list their places only talking about how great it is, rather than mentioning the ugly warts that you can't do anything about. In my case, I have a large dog with a big bark. She barks at everyone who walks down the road, and almost every car that passes. Luckily I live down a short dead-end country road, so there is barely any traffic at all. And I shut her up if she barks for more than 30 seconds. In total, she might bark for 5 minutes over a 24 hour period, max. But I think this is important for guests to know before they book. (I also provide earplugs and the dog is otherwise so friendly and welcoming to guests that most of them are quite endeared to her by the time they leave).

[Mandi-S-Just-Business-Ro0]

One host was mortified that every weekend her neighbors across the street would open their garage, fire up a case of beer, and play rockabilly all weekend. We said this was a plus with the right guests!

[Sarah977]

@Mandi-S-Just-Business-Ro0  Exactly. Where the dog is concerned, my neighbor across the street, who also Airbnbs, instead of pointing out to her guests that having a good watchdog in the neighborhood means we don't have theft problems out here, (which are a major issue in this town), and that I have to listen to every word her guests have to say in the open air buildings she rents out, tells her guests how much she hates the dog, how the neighbor "doesn't care if her dog disturbs everyone" ( when she can easily hear me calm the dog down after a few seconds of barking) and insists on listing her place as if it's in some secluded and totally private place, when in fact she has neighbors on all 4 sides of her, all of which have dogs who bark, not just mine. So of course, she is setting her guests up to be unhappy about this and focus on the few minutes of barking a day instead of realizing that she really seldom barks. Right now it's 5PM here and the dog hasn't barked once since I got up this morning, nor did she bark at all during the night. Most of what she barks at is the constant traffic in and out of my neighbors place- her family's 3 vehicles, her guest's rental cars and all the taxis they call. 

[Mandi-S-Just-Business-Ro0]

I live in  semi. The house 120 years old. They have 4 (count em) badly behaved pugs next door that sound like machine gun fire. Two years of hell. Then one day we could not hear them. Week after week of silence. Until they but through their bite collars, and all was right with the world. Not one guest has complained.

It's all in the framing. Barkomatic in a remote area is a built in alarm system. And we have taken to teasing the pugs from an upstairs window. 

Your neighbor is probably embarrassed, but accentuate the positive. She really needs a mental margarita

[Lisa1809]

Still trying to muster up the courage to read that last review from the woman with the flu and poor nasal sensory. My current guests just texted me the "Everything is great and we are going to the Oregon Garden for the day!" That is what I strive for. These people are retired professionals who wanted a 3 day get away close to Portland. I'll bet they leave my towels and olive oil. Last month, someone accidentally packed one of my new high end large bath towels-how does one "accidentally" pack your towel? When I said I would have to charge them for a new set of towels, it magically appeared on my porch 2 days later.

I have created an iventory list that goes with the check out list that details each item in each bed and bath including sheets, pillow cases, pillows and towels. For the kitchen category, I just wrote "everything in it when you arrived" because someone gutted my utensil drawer that had fairly high end stuff in it. SAD!

[Marianne53]

Thanks, this is a good start.

[Korrutai0]

I have been hosting for five years. I think if someone choose to book an Airbnb listing, they are agree of the value. Therefore this catigory is not really fair for the host. Because the guests more likely to want a cheaper place or pay less than what it is.

Secondly when the guests give 3-4 starts, they should give a comment on why it is. So the hosts can have a clear idea what they can improve. We have someone give us 3 stars for accuracy and we do not know what it is, when most of the guests giving 5 starts for clearly description on the listings. 

[Hawaii-Dream-Realty-TEAM0]

Airbnb should ALLOW the host to review the guest AND PROVIDE a public response to any guest message without a time limit to address real issues or comment so the PUBLIC gets both sides.  This would be fair......not the way it currently it.  I use to be able to response 4-5 weeks after check out  but not any more 😞

[Lesley30]

Making reviews fairer for hosts - a very welcome improvement. However... Like many hosts we fear being victim of the Revenge Review.

Our house is near Bordeaux, France. We opened up availability for one night stays and, because we have a hot-tub have attracted lots of young people who want to party. We've had extra guests sneaked in, found broken glass and cigarette ends around the hot tub - it's clearly marked in the house manual, written on the wall and they are told absolutely no glass in that area. When we've challenged guests we've had veiled threats of poor reviews. Luckily nothing has appeared yet.

 It would be good if on the guest's review page we could complete a box to alert Airbnb privately and this information recorded on the guest's account and then if there were other host complaints the guests could be barred. 

[David-And-Frances0]

One piece of the puzzle that has not yet been integrated into the ratings process is stale dating. Stale dating is an important consideration for ALL reviews, both the good and the bad.  To be fair to both guests and hosts alike, it is advisable to include the stats from, say 3 or 4 years running, rather than all reviews ever posted.  Such a practice would naturally enhance the accuracy of the ratings per se.

Cheers!

Fran & Dave

[Craig-and-Anita0]

I would think you'd only want to include the last 2-3 years in the star rating but leave the guest reviews for however many there are. To be honest I hadn't considered stale dating. 

When I'm in Amazon, they give me ratings that default to best reviews. I change it it to show most recent reviews. Since quality changes over time, I like to see current quality. 

Could AirBnB do something similar?

Thanks!

[Theresa125]

The ability to edit a review for sometime after both guest and host have posted would be ideal. 
Sometimes guests do not communicate a concern until they review.  And then they learn new information that would merit a change in the review - but their hands are tied.  It's a circle - we don't know what they write until they do, we respond, but  then it's too late for them to change.  Even if one wished to edit a typo, it can't be done. I find this too limiting. 

Perhaps a limited time "private preview" of guest's reviews would help? 

[Fiona243]

This is a very small step in the right direction as it will help prevent inadvertent low star ratings.

However, it does not address the 2 glaring issues with the current review system:

1. Retaliatory reviews, where guest is annoyed you did not let them sneak a friend in, smoke in the property, use parts of the property not available for guests, etc.

2. Star ratings that are explained one way to guests (3* is fine), but impact hosts in a completely different manner (4* will get you delisted).

[Kathi-and-Peter0]

In our opinion it is absolutely necessary, that a host is able to see the reviews of other hosts BEFORE accepting a booking request.

What sense does it make to see the reviews AFTER having accepted a request ?

[Karen890]

The main problem for me is that I have guests who come back week after week when they are working in London and it would be ridiculous for us to write reviews of each other every time.  This means that I can never achieve Superhost status, even though my guests are very happy!