In case you missed it...
Review updates, sustainability, and more from Catherine - Resource Center (airbnb.com)
It looks like there's a change to the policy around getting retaliatory reviews removed, specifically if the guest has hosted a party. The newsletter says:
"Reviews are the backbone of Airbnb. They’re a crucial currency of trust between Hosts and guests, and most of the time, they advertise the amazing qualities that you bring to your hosting, with a personal point of view that adds a valuable layer of authenticity. However, when the review system is abused, the honesty and good fellowship that are key to Airbnb’s mission are eroded. I understand the challenges and frustrations you have with our review system and have been working to address your top concerns
We know that untruthful, misleading, or irrelevant reviews are distressing, and potentially economically damaging for you. Addressing such reviews is complicated, just like the situations from which they arise. There is not one simple fix, but we’re actively working to improve the system.
One step we’re taking now, ahead of the travel revival this upcoming season, is to address the intersection of our party ban and reviews. As the Hosts on the ground, we rely on you and your community to report party-ban violators when parties unfortunately occur. You shouldn’t have to fear a tradeoff between reporting a party with getting a negative guest review. We need to close this disparity.
Party ban and reviews
Using feedback from our Community Center, Host Leaders groups, and the Host Advisory Board, we’re introducing a new review policy, specifically addressing party-ban violators. For reviews written from today on, Hosts can dispute a review left by a guest found to have committed a significant violation of our Party and Events policy during their stay. A Community Support ambassador may remove the content and star rating of that review from your profile, unless the review contains safety information, like a guest warning about discrimination or an unsafe feature in your listing that could cause an injury.
You can learn more details about this new policy in our
Resource Center.
We hear your feedback on reviews and our review policies. In addition to this policy, we’re exploring ways to collect more actionable insights for you throughout the review flow. We’ll update you with more details on that soon. Our goal is to create trust between Hosts and guests and evolve our review system so that it works well for our full community."
I wonder how well this will work, and how high the bar will be for standard of proof to get the review removed. According to the policy, you will have to provide some form of proof that there was an event:
"If you have proof that a party occurred on your property, and your guest’s review doesn't contain important safety information about your space or their stay or a report of discrimination, the review could be eligible to be removed.
You'll need to provide documentation or other proof to support the party allegation, such as video evidence or a police report."
My specific concern is that even guests who admit in Airbnb messaging to doing damage still don't get charged for repair or replacement, so will this be any different? Will reviews actually be removed? It will be interesting to see here in the Community Center in the next few months. I hope it helps hosts: we definitely shouldn't be second guessing whether we should leave a review for fear of retailiation. Now to fix reviews from other rule breakers...