Hi all, would you host this guest?

[Alexandra199]

Hello fellow hosts, just though i would share this and maybe someone can help me with this rating situation. I have a booking request from this guest who had an overall rating of 2.5 stars. They had one review which you can see below. I have never seen a guest review score that was so low but i was also confused that the host reviewer gave the below review. Am I missing something here? If a host reviews 5 stars does this get somehow reduced when the guest has only had one stay on Airbnb?( I have removed the guest name and host photo so they cant be identified)

Reservation details

O******’s reviews

Overall rating

2.5

Cleanliness

3

Communication

3

Observance of house rules

2

1-1 of 1 reviews

Siobhán

July 2021

Odhran & friends were a nice young group, celebrating finishing their leaving cert.

Back

[Gillian166]

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@Colleen253 wrote:

@Alexandra199  . The problem is that only hosts who have IB enabled are privvy to the star ratings, and they also don't tell the story of what happened. I would message that host and ask them for details.  

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I don't use IB and i can see all the ratings for guests, including potential guests who haven't booked yet.  

[Patricia55]

@Gillian166 

Ditto.

Can't say I noticed when this changed (possibly brought in without fanfare) but I'm glad it has! Wasn't it one of those "carrot" things that was only available to Instant Book hosts, presumably to persuade the rest of us who didn't want to use IB to start using it?!

@Huma0  @Emilia42  @Colleen253 

[Colleen253]

@Patricia55 @Gillian166  I too have been able to see guest star ratings at times (I am on/off with Instant Book) though not always, when IB is off. I chalk it up to the usual platform glitches. The official word though, is that being able to see those ratings is one of the perks of having IB enabled.

@Alexandra199 

[Huma0]

@Patricia55 @Colleen253 @Emilia42 

- Before I used IB, I could not see star ratings

- Once I turned on IB, I could only see the star ratings for guests who IBed, not guests who sent enquiries, booking requests or made a non IB booking.

- At some point (also did not notice when), I believe I started seeing star ratings for non IB guests, but I can't remember now if it was for ALL of them. I just remember it seemed strange.

- Now I can see them for all guests, whether they are IB or not or whether the listing is IB or not.

So, I believe they have changed this, but not sure why they would not make a fanfare of it, seeing as hosts have been asking for this for a long time. 

It may be that hosts who are not seeing the star ratings need to refresh their settings, e.g. delete and reinstall the App. Sometimes changes don't appear until you do this. For example, when Airbnb made it no longer possible to see guests' profile photos prior to booking, I could still see them on my phone - but not laptop - for a very long time after, months at least if not a year or more, whilst others couldn't. Then, at some point fairly recently, that changed and now I can't see them. I am not sure if it's because I updated something on my phone.

That still wouldn't explain why some hosts are not seeing the star ratings on their laptops/desk tops.

[Patricia55]

@Colleen253  @Huma0 Aye, who knows if it's a glitch, or a deliberate change? Shall we ask @Quincy ? Quincy, do you have any way of finding this out? Before I get used to having this rather critical information* available to me, it would be nice to know if it's going to be removed again 😉

Huma, maybe some hosts are, like me, not very observant! Also, one does have to press the Details button, within the Inbox, next to the thread for the particular guest, which then opens a column on the right hand side of the screen (laptop). Also, re the phone app, I've checked and can now see my guests' star ratings (well, their average) and that's without having refreshed my settings recently.

*While it can be seen as a perk of using Instant Book, it shouldn't be. It really isn't a “good look” for Airbnb to be arbitrarily withholding information from some of us, which would be very useful when making a decision about whether or not to accept a booking. Honestly, when I think about the amount of time I've spent (& all hosts spend) over the years, completing guest reviews and dithering over whether to deduct a star here or there, it's somewhat galling that I shouldn't benefit from this collective information.

[Colleen253]

@Patricia55 “While it can be seen as a perk of using Instant Book, it shouldn't be.” Agree completely, on all your very good points. But Airbnb is only interested in using whatever tools they have at their disposal to manipulate hosts, to Airbnb benefit. What is best for hosts, or fair or right, will never be top of mind. 

[Patricia55]

@Colleen253 Sure you're right about Airbnb's manipulation of hosts, sadly. (BTW, I was probably stating the obvious in my previous post but, tbh, I just felt like a bit of a rant ;))

However, thinking about it some more: I'm actually wondering whether they've been challenged (legally or morally) re the withholding of guests' star ratings from non-IB hosts...? It seems so egregious, I don't know how they got away with it.

Anyhoo, if I remember to do so, I'm going to keep a regular eye on this change (or glitch). It's easy for me to do as I never use Instant Book. Then, after 6 months or so, I'll report back.

[Colleen253]

@Patricia55 Sounds good. If it is a glitch though, no doubt it will be fixed permanently now that it’s gotten some press. It would be the first glitch in Airbnb history that benefits hosts. Glitches always favor Airbnb and guest, for some strange reason 🤔

If not a glitch, knock me over with a feather. I wonder what intel Quincy will uncover…..

[Laura2592]

@Alexandra199this is really common. I mentioned it here (and some other things about reviews that may help.)

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Tips-Tutorials/All-About-Reviews-FAQs/m-p/1552896#M758

Personally I really get nervous about guests with less than a 4 in any category. If they aren't new to the platform and have had to make a request, rather than instant book, with a low star score in any one category,  I typically think there were issues that the host just didn't want to disclose.

[Kelly149]

the whole, stars only visible to IB hosts comes and goes... I have seen star ratings at times when I did not have IB on, but who knows...

that review I'd either flat out refuse or go for a "did you know you got really poor marks for your last stay, what can you tell me about that?" and see what happens.

once I had a guest request like that and her response told me that there was no way she was coming to my house, but if a guest had a reasonable response then I'd probably consider it.