Airbnb Review System – How the world SHOULD work!

Richard531
Level 10
California, United States

Airbnb Review System – How the world SHOULD work!

Can I just say, the world would be a MUCH better place if all merchants could review their customers (like we do on the Airbnb platform). 

 

Could you imagine?  If customers at a restaurant knew that they would be reviewed and then treated differently at other restaurants if they were jerks?  You know those horrible customers that walk into retail places and act like a-holes?  They wouldn’t even be let in if their terrible reputation proceeded them.  What a world that would be!

 

OK enough fantasy. . . 

 

I’m just here to say: I love the way we review our guests.  I appreciate that the hosts before me that are honest and call out these bad guests (it’s probably saved us a dozen headaches and even more money).  The whole concept increases the likelihood that guests will be kind, respectful, and good people – even if they’ve never stayed in an Airbnb before.  LIKE EVERYONE SHOULD IN THE FIRST PLACE!  But with this process, it probably quadruples the frequency in which guests act how they should.

33 Replies 33

This is right on topic for a situation I now face as a host.  I own a home in a very expensive area that limits me to rentals of 30+ days.  I had guests who moved out yesterday.  Within the first two weeks, they had broken a couple of TP holders and a towel rack off the wall on a 2 year old custom-built home... followed by somehow knocking a door handle off a high-end refrigerator.  

 

They checked out yesterday, and left about 40 cardboard boxes in the garage from all of the deliveries they had during their stay, as well as leaving various pieces of baby furniture for me to dispose of, and an assortment of misc personal items left in the house.  i spent almost 4 hours breaking down and disposing of their garage boxes/garbage while my cleaning crew spent 10 person hours cleaning the home. 

 

They claim that a glass top to a marble dining room table "spontaneously" cracked in half.  Replacing it will cost about $600.  They also broke a sliding closet door's upper track without saying anything and continued to use it causing the previously unblemished door to be badly scratched.   Two other walls were badly scratched and need to be repainted.

 

And, to give you further insight to their character,  they asked me if I could arrange for my cleaners to do periodic cleaning at their expense.  They were to pay them directly.  I told them what the cleaners charge.  They contacted the cleaners and had them clean and do all of their laundry for a family of 4.  It took two women 3.5 hours.  When they invoiced my guests, they said it was "too much money" and shorted my cleaners $100.  

 

OK, so now the predicament under AirBnB's guest-biased rating system...  I'm expecting a well-deserved 5 Star review, since I know they loved staying at my place and i jumped through hoops to attend to all of their needs.  In fact, they have told me that they left a 5 Star review.  Great, except for the fact that if I write an honest review, they can ask AirBnB to retract theirs.  It is also my understanding that if i fail to write a review for them, their's is never published.  This is insanity, and causes hosts to inflate the ratings of guests.  The only one who suffers is the next host that ends up with lousy guests who should have been banned from the platform.  

 

Also, from everything I've heard from other hosts, "Air Cover" is next to useless.  Even with complete host documentation, guests dispute claims after AirBnB tells the host to try and work it out first before filing a claim.  Then, even if part of the claim is ultimately covered following a stressful, time-consuming process, the guest can lie and ask that their rating be retracted.  I've decided to just eat the damages and spare myself the hassle and aggravation of the AirCover process.  

 

There are much needed changes that need to happen.  Sadly, the rating system here is no more credible than the paid ratings on Amazon.

@Ron7973  The guest review will be published immediately if you also leave a review, and will also be published 14 days after checkout if you don’t leave a review.

Thanks so much for clarifying that.  I appreciate your assistance.  Now, I need to decide if i want to put a strong review at-risk by being honest in mine.  Now, I understand that I can also opt not to write one.

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Ron7973 

 

I would encourage all hosts to leave honest reviews if they can. Your guests sound truly awful. That's a crazy amount of damage and trash for one stay, even a long one. Although some damages are par for the course, I host long term stays only and have never had any guest cause that level of damage.

 

Also, if the guests decide to retract their 5* review, is it really a big deal? I know that when you host long stays, each rating is worth a lot, but if a previous host had left an honest review for these people, you might have been saved all that hassle and $$$.

 

Still, if you really don't want to write anything negative in the review and you are not even trying to claim damages from the guest, you could still leave a neutrally worded review and low star ratings and select that you would not recommend them to other hosts. The guest won't see the low ratings, but future hosts will.

 

However, recently, Airbnb amended the review system so that if you do leave lower ratings, you have to select from one of the reasons given. These won't appear on their profile, but the guests will be able to see this feedback if they pay attention to their Airbnb messages (which many do not). You can find more detail on that here: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Welcome-guests/Winter-Release-New-process-for-reviewing-guests/m...

@Ron7973  The only person you are favoring by not leaving a review is the bad guest. You are telling them there are no consequences to being disrespectful to property belonging to others. And they will do it again to the next unsuspecting host.

These guests need both an appropriate review (no more than 3*) and to be charged for damages. In your review they need to be called out for stealing from your cleaners,  and for excessive damages.

I totally get it, and have been strongly leaning in that direction.  I have all 5 Star reviews, so if they convince AirBnB to retract their review of me, I'll survive.  

 

I would never rent to these people again.  They were always polite, but acted in a very entitled manner during their stay.  Their actions in the form of complete disrespect formy property speak much louder than their polite words. 

 

 

@Ron7973  you're a bit wrong though. 

1) they can't just retract their review if yours is less than 5*

2) their review will be published even if you don't write one. 

 

 

yes, "aircover" can not be relied upon. 

Hi!  I called SuperHost Support on this issue yesterday and was told that the guest can edit their review for up to 14 days from the date they checked out.  I was told that they can't modify the star rating given to the host, but can modify the narrative, including stating that they would have never given the rating if they had known the host was going to file a claim...

 

The process for filing and pursuing an AirCover claim seems so onerous and time consuming that it's probably not worth it for damages of about $1500.  

They can only edit their review for 14 days after check-out if the host has not written a review yet. Same goes for a host. If the host reviews a guest the host also have 14 days to edit if the guest writes nothing. When both guest and host has written a review, the review is published and both parties are unable to edit anything.

@Ron7973 

Hi!  The following is verbatim from SuperHost Support's follow-up to a call I had with them on this subject:

 

"But just to set your expectation, the guest can always request to remove their review even if its past 14 days already and the star rating will be removed as well.

Here is the link that you may check for more information about Airbnb review policy and how it works:

airbnb.com/help/article/2673

Remember, we aim to give the best and fair service to all our Hosts and Guests. I'll go ahead and close out our conversation and if you have other questions, feel free to reach back."

-----

 

So, apparently the guest can ask to have their review of the host removed if they don't like the honest review of them left by the host.  

 

That is absolutely NOT fair to the host who did everything they could to please a guest, gets their 5 Star rating, and then leaves an honest rating about the the condition the guest left the property.  

 

Help me understand the equity in this system!!!

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Gillian166 

 

I think they can retract the review. They just have to ask CS to do it. The review policy states that users can request their own review/ratings be removed.

 

I have twice had guests do this because they accidentally left lower scores. I assume that CS will want to know the reason for the retraction, but I am not sure they will refuse if the reviewer requests it.

Trude0
Level 10
Stockholm County, Sweden

…but in this perfect world, would you also want for the city/authorities to threaten to shut down businesses who had their average rating drop slightly, due to ONE bad review…? 😉


I agree with you though, that the reviewing of guests on Airbnb, most likely helps hosts, in that guests try to be better guests. My listing seldom attracts anything but nice guests, but  I’m quite sure most of my guests don’t leave hotel rooms in quite as nice shape as they leave my guest house - and my rate includes cleaning, just like in a hotel. And most of them communicate really well.

 

However, I think the REALLY BAD guests will continue to be bad guests, and just open new accounts, or have someone else in the party do the booking, after a bad review/low rating.

 

Gillian166
Level 10
Hay Valley, Australia


@Trude0 wrote:

…but in this perfect world, would you also want for the city/authorities to threaten to shut down businesses who had their average rating drop slightly, due to ONE bad review…? 😉


Have you been watching Black Mirror?  😅  There are a few episodes that touch on this concept. 

Actually, the review system should be equal for both guests and hosts.
It's not. The guest's scores are heavily weighted in the guest's favor. Host's scores are weighted against them.  This is one of many examples of AirBNB's guest-centricity.

Guests can evaluate hosts on 6 different criteria PLUS give an overall score. So they are giving 7 scores overall. The problem is, only one counts. The overall score.

A host can receive 5* in every category but the guest can still leave 3* overall.
Which score counts towards the host's rating?  The 3* score.
When added in to the host's other scores, the rating is broken down into 100ths of a point. And if you ever get less than 5* overall, you will NEVER have a 5* rating. It will always be 4.99*

When a host reviews a guest, they leave 3 scores for individual categories. There is no overall score, which IMO is a problem. You can have a guest who follows House Rules, who is Clean and who communicated well, but was a nightmare guest that doesn't deserve 5*. Examples would be:
~The high-maintenance guest who pesters you with stupid questions that are answered in your Welcome Manual.
~The Entitled Guest who keeps demanding things you don't offer or wanting all kinds of freebies.
~The guest who complains incessantly about absolute bullcrap just for the sake of complaining.
       "I found a speck of lint on a towel. I want new ones."
       "I found a fingerprint  on the storm door glass."
       3 days into their stay, "There's some dirt on the door mat."
~Or the guest who tries to extort you.

Per the categories, these guests are 5*. But if there was an overall score like what host's receive, these guests would receive 3*. Or lower.

Worse still, the guest scores are rounded up to the nearest 1/2 point.
If a host has a score of 4.66*, this is prominently displayed on their listing.
If a guest has a score of 4.66*, it is rounded up to 5*.
If a host has a score of 4.33*, it is displayed as 4.33*
If a guest has a score of 4.33*, it is rounded up to 4.5*.

This is why it is very important to put it in writing how bad a guest is. Nothing is more irritating than to see a guest has a score of 4.5 (which means their score is a whole lot lower) and the reviews say, "Nice guest!"  Clearly there were issues because the guest has a low score, but saying "Nice guest" doesn't explain why. It's not relevant information.

As a host, if you receive a review that says, "Nice Host" with less than 5* review, you can get it removed for relevance. Because saying "Nice Host" does not convey any information that will help future guests make an informed decision. 

As a host, you rely on other hosts to provide relevant information about their experience with a guest. This is how you make your decision whether or not to host this person. It is completely unfair and cowardly to other hosts when you take advantage of their honesty to make a decision about a guest then refuse to reciprocate when it's your turn to warn others about an awful guest. 

I don't love the review system. It needs to be applied equally to hosts and guests and the current system clearly is strongly biased in favor of the guest.


Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Stephanie2476 

 

I think you are spot on here. Although you can get back a 5.0* over time for your individual rating (i.e. for Superhost status), I am not sure if the rating for the listing will ever get higher than 4.99* if you have even one guest leave you a 4*. I don't know though. Perhaps someone has managed it. What happens when you get to 4.999999999999999999999999....? Does Airbnb eventually turn it in to a 5?

 

Meanwhile, a guest will show as a perfect 5.0* unless they drop below 4.5*....

 

However, I am not sure how easy it is to get a review removed for relevance, simply because the written review doesn't reflect the ratings. I had a guest leave a short, but nice review, and 3* overall and 3*s and 4*s in some of the categories, with no explanation even in the private feedback as to why.

 

When I spoke to CS about it, they agreed that the review and ratings did not match, but that it was still 'the guest's experience' and not in violation of the policy. They said they could not remove the review on my request, only the guest's. 

 

What if a guest writes in a review that something was not mentioned on the listing and that was the only reason given for the lower rating. Yet, that things is clearly mentioned on the listing several times and again in the message thread before the guest booked? Does that make his/her review irrelevant? Apparently not. It's still "the guests's experience". At least, that is what I have been told.

 

Lol, I have even had guests rate me down on Accuracy with the feedback, "The listing is very detailed and accurate, but only if you read it."

 

I've even read here about hosts who tried to get a review removed for irrelevance, when the review was literally just "." and CS refused.