Revamped ratings and reviews

[Airbnb]

Guests rely on ratings and reviews to understand the quality of a home before they book. But guests have told us that it’s been too hard to find reviews that are relevant to them.

That’s why we’ve redesigned the ratings page and added three new features that make reviews easier to read and much more helpful. These upgrades to ratings and reviews are part of the Airbnb 2023 Winter Release. Head to the Resource Center to get the details about review sorting, ratings distribution, and reviewer and trip details. 

[Linda3273]

Looking forward to the Review upgrades as this plays a pivotal part in getting booked. 

[Breanna]

Can't wait to hear what you think about them in action @Linda3273! Is there a particular ratings and reviews upgrade you think will be a game changer?

[Natasha391]

I would like to see upgrades that include the ability for the guests to choose 1/2 stars or there to be an average based on the stars on the questions asked that provides and overall rating versus letting the guest add it. I find it very frustrating when I get 5 stars across the board and then a guest puts a 4  as the overall rating and says the wifi was slow.   

[Robin4]

@Natasha391 

Yes, that's an old chestnut Natasha!

It doesn't matter how hard you try, or how well you do your job, to some guests there is no such thing as perfection......there is always something better around the corner, they never give 5 stars. Who suffers for that? We, the host.

In my last 50 reviews I have had 48 five star and 2x four star!

What am I to learn from those 2 reviews Natasha?......But I got penalised for both of them, my stats took a hit, not the guest's.

Every year since I have been hosting with Airbnb, and that is 8 years now, we have been at them to fix this anomaly. If a host is doing something demonstrably wrong, then penalise them, that's fine. But for God sake don't penalise them purely because some guests never give a 5!!!

Location,  the guest booked it because they could afford it, and then penalises the host because it wasn't where they couldn't afford it!

Value, how can 94 out of every hundred guests say my property is 5 star for value and 6 say it is a 4 or a 3......is there anything even remotely objective about that?

In situations like this 95% should be the benchmark, after all who is right, the 95 or the 5. 

Instead of moving forward and taking notice of us they are actually going backwards.

Back in 2018 if you had 50 consecutive 5 stars in a category, you automatically defaulted back 5 stars for that category. One 4 star in the category out of 50 you still held your 5 star rating. Back in those days Airbnb actually realised there would be the occasional outlier review. That latitude is gone now.

Yes Natasha they will shuffle the deck chairs around, but for us, what we get us just a spot on window dressing!

Cheers.........Rob

[Natasha391]

I feel like Airbnb is working to make things more convenient for the guests but not the hosts and without the hosts there are no places to stay.  

[Kia272]

@Airbnb 

---

@Airbnb wrote:

 But guests have told us that it’s been too hard to find reviews that are relevant to them.

I'm not sure exactly what this means. Guests have always been able to see reviews as an integral part of the listing. Right there for all to see. But that wasn't good enough? Now reviews have to be abridged and spoon-fed to guests who are too lazy to scroll down the page? 

---

[Breanna]

Hi @Kia272 

Making the experience easier for clients is a key for success and every update and release is focused on trying to reach this goal for both Hosts and Guests alike.

The ratings and reviews page has three new features to help guests more easily understand what other guests have written:

• Review sorting: Guests can now sort reviews by recency or rating, making it easy to find the reviews they care about the most.
• Ratings distribution:  A new chart shows the distribution of reviews from one to five stars, so guests can easily view the number of positive and negative reviews.
• More review details: Reviews include more information about the reviewer and their trip — including where they’re from, the length of their stay, and whether they traveled with family, pets, or in a group.
  

With this, there will be more review details that weren't previously available. Using information provided by the guest, we’ll include a highlight to help future guests find reviews that match their own trip. The highlights include either who they traveled with (group trip, stayed with pets, or stayed with kids) or the length of stay for trips seven days or longer (stayed a week or stayed a few weeks). Each reviewer’s overall rating for the stay will also appear alongside their review. 

[Natasha391]

While this is great for guests, it doesn't address the issues of rating problems for the hosts.   I had a 5 star review on EVERY item listed by AirBNB but then the guest gave an overall of 4 (this has happened to be twice now) b/c of slow internet and being able to hear the people in the living room when she was in her bedroom.  Not to mention, I keep my rates lower because I am further out and make it clear of that in my listing.  So, while I think it's great that the platform is being revamped for the guests, it would be helpful if there was some better input and options for reviews that make no sense or hinder the hosts unfairly in their ratings b/c our ratings effect our superhost status, etc.  

[Lorina14]

@Natasha391 Have you contacted Airbnb support about these two instances? I’ve heard of hosts being able to get reviews removed if the guest often does this, or it doesn’t make logical sense (5 stars in all categories then a 4 overall? Or 5 in all categories and a 3?).

While it’s true some people can never give 5 stars to everything because they think there is something better, if there were circumstances when reviews were not factored in because of your situation, it would be helpful.

i had two people ding me on location. Someone said it was perfect for them but not central. I never said I was central, I said I was convenient location with use of a car (as most people do in my city). I then went into my listing and was very clear that we are not in the heart of downtown (it was not implied before) and listed the mileage and average drive time or sometimes walk or bike time for certain destinations. I think those two outlier reviews lived in the heart of their cities and were used to walking to everything. It’s about context and the guest’s perspective or interpretation of what they thought. Luckily they gave me an overall 5 but it was frustrating when I never implied I was walkable to all attractions.

I also got dinged on value on one review but they were college aged individuals and they didn’t realize that my rates in peak season were $25-50 less than a hotel room in our area - and I had a washer dryer and other amenities a hotel didn’t have included in the fee.  I strive to provide a great experience and learn from every interaction for next time.

[Dianne99]

I could not agree more!  I have just received my first 4 star overall rating when they gave me 5 stars in every category and a nice “glowing” word review. 
I’m not happy - I went above and beyond and could not have done more for my guests. This careless 4* drops my overall rating from 5 to 4.6. And for what?  

[Robin4]

@Dianne99 

Hi ya  neighbour,  Dianne don't stress about it, you can't change it, and it will drive you mad if you let it.

We all agree, we do our best, we genuinely try to make Airbnb great because in doing so we make ourselves great.

But guests are the ones to be fawned over by Airbnb. The reviews system has one default rating......5 stars. There is no reward mechanism built into Airbnb's review system, only penalty. It is automatically assumed that we as the host did not live up to our end of the agreement if a guest gives us a 4.....there is something we need to work on to earn that endless supply of 5's.

Dopey and illogical, yes of course it is. Some guests do not give 5's, never have and never will. But that's not their fault, that's ours!

In my 680 reviews I have about 25 just like that one of yours Dianne, I did everything I could, I offered the guest more than they were expecting, they told me how nice the experience had been, even described it as wonderful in the review but......it was still only a 4......it was a host's stats fail!! 

Just treat every guests as special Dianne,  keep on doing what you are doing, there are more than enough great guests out there to offset the odd self entitled prima donna that comes along.

Sure we have to fight Airbnb every inch of the way. We have just had our Superhost status watered down to the point where the Superhost search filter has now been removed and all that hard work over the years has seen us lumped in with hosts who have a handful of reviews and a review ranking that would have seen their listing suspended a few years ago.

It's not ideal, but the benefits do outweigh the cr*p we have to put up with along the way.

Just be the best host you can Dianne, you will feel good about it, you will know you have done your best and the rewards will come your way.

All the best.

Cheers.......Rob

[Dianne99]

@Robin4  so very kind of you to send me those positive words. And I appreciate them and I do have to learn to “shake it off”.   This is my new venture on Airbnb so it’s early days but I will keep on enjoying it and doing what I know I do well. Cheers Dianne 

[Kia272]

@Breanna There are many, many more important things that needed to be addressed before making it "easier" for guests to sort through reviews. 

The worst thing about the updates is that AirBnB seems to do them without soliciting opinions from hosts, and without regard to the impact it will have on the other side, i.e. may be good for guests but not hosts, and vice versa, although they rarely seem to be better for hosts.  

[Jennifer4192]

If I was to be a guest I would want the function that used to be there of sorting reviews from lowest to highest not must recent or highest. I know you can only do it by searching for the highest and then scrolling all the way down to the bottom to see the lowest rated reviews. Make it easier for future guests to see what the issues were for some guests to know why they marked it down. I feel like Airbnb just make things more difficult.

[Laurelle3]

@Breanna my thoughts are people are too busy and the review is the last thing they want to do.

 If they have children and they are harressed with travel   packing, parents are tired. having to go straight to work the next day the holiday break has meant more effort to pack unpack going there and on return trip. The weather was not sunny or too hot or too cold or raining. These  can all affect there 

review.

That is one reason I make the child feel important as a guest and leave them a gift and an activity. My rationale is to plant a  in the parents mind.

For adult guests it is the gift hamper that is supplied not advertised to also plant another positive in their minds. 

Today everything costs extra money nothing is free.

This is may way of sharing our appreciation and friendship for there stay. This we can do because we live on site

Yes, it costs me time thought and money but we have planned this and into our costing. However  we aim to make our guests welcome with a personel touch.

But sometimes we are penalised too with reviews and it makes you think what more can you do. I put on the psychologists hat on and put them into the basket of

1. Their personality and their own thoughts of self well being

2. Are they a negitive person and never happy.

3. Do they really want a break or pleasing others.

4. Can they really afford the accommodation and they feel guilty.

You can never please everyone  beware of the Red Flag and we have to move on.

But I do feel their is more Airbnb can do for the Host. It appears from reading articles on this CC Forum that Airbnb listens to Guests more than Hosts.

Breanna have a great day from Downunder.