How to deal with a bad or unfair review

[Neil408]

Hi guys, I'm not new to Airbnb but on the (very rare) occasion that I get a bad review I often feel a little stumped on  how to deal with it.

I have two close friends who do Airbnb and they (like everyone else from time to time) get the occasional negative, unfair or unreasonable bad review.

One of them said 'don't reply to a bad review because it makes you look defensive' and the other said 'always reply to a bad review, especially it's unfair'. I personally side with replying politely and factually.

For my smallest room - I recently had a negative review from a guest who said something along the lines of 'Can't say this place is terrible but could be cleaner' etc etc. I've not been letting that room long and have around 10 reviews for it. Of the 10 reviews I've had eight 5* reviews, one 4* review and finally last night's poor review - but 9 of the 10 have given me 5* for cleanliness, apart from last night's guest that gave me 3*. 

When the guest checked in he seemed a nice guy, he used the bathroom, showered and afterwards sat in the lounge for a bit, I made him a cup of tea and had a brief chat with him before we both went off to our rooms just after 11pm.

This morning I had a chat with him when he was making breakfast - it was his first ever time using Airbnb and I asked him if he'd had a good sleep, if everythign was to his satisfaction and he said it was great and had had a good time. 

To then leave me a bad review totally mystified and confused me - I totally didn't see that coming at all. He had ample time to say 'I have a problem with x' or 'I was unhappy with such and such' but nothing.

After reading his review I messaged him politely and said 'can you elaborate on what was wrong or what you were unhappy about?' He did reply but could not nail it down to anything specific that he was actually unhappy about. 

The most annoying thing however is that only having 10 reviews for that room it brings down the average quite a bit - it had previously been 4.9 something.

I guess it's one of those experiences where you say 'that's life'.

If you were looking at my room and saw nine great reviews and one bad one - would the one bad review put you off or not? How much allowance do you make for things like that when booking? I'm always curious as to how people consider such things when booking.

[Linda108]

@Neil408   You apparently opted for the long defensive response to the one liner review.  Not good in my book as a prospective guest even with the other good reviews.  When someone is staying in a shared home listing, it is already a more intimate situation than usual and having a more professional host response is comforting to prospective guests.  Try using something like, "Unlike previous guests, X expectations apparently not met.  I am truly sorry as guest satisfaction is my #1 goal."  As the audience for the response is not the guest but the potential guest and this type of response encourages guests to look at the positive reviews and positions you as the caring host you are.  Just a thought.

[Lenore22]

I always like the responses that basically say, "I apologize for your experience.  We're working to improve by doing x-y-z."  In this case:
"I'm sorry you didn't find the cleanliness  to our usual high standard.  I will be sure to carefully review the room for cleanliness before each check-in moving forward."

... you don't actually have to change anything- it just shows you're listening, open to feedback and willing to improve.

[Sarah977]

@Ute42  Have to strongly disagree with you on this one. Why would the host take public responsibility for something which wasn't true? If I were a guest and saw a response like what you suggest, I'd assume that the host might also be in a rush to clean before I arrived. It makes it sound like the host is quite unprofessional and comes up with lame excuses for not being competent.

@Lenore22  I disagree with your suggestion as well, for the same reasons. Why would a host apologize for something that wasn't true? Why say "we'll make sure to review the cleaning in the future", when the guest was making up the cleanliness issue and the host knows perfectly well that he did a good cleaning job? This guest couldn't even come up with what wasn't clean when the host asked him- it just sounds like the guest thought he needed to make some negative review comment.

The response you suggest is fine if it concerns something the guest complained about which the host isn't sure is true or not, for instance if they didn't personally inspect the place after it was cleaned and it's possible that the cleaner could indeed have been a little lax or rushed. Or if a guest complains that the mattress wasn't comfortable and there actually is a possibility (or not) that it needs to be replaced, then sure, saying something like "Thank you for the feedback and sorry you didn't have a great sleep. We'll be assessing the state of the mattress to determine if it needs to be replaced"  would be a professional response.

But as far as I'm concerned, hosts writing something as if they could be at fault when they know perfectly well the complaint is bogus, is hosts acting like doormats whose listings can be lied about.

[Ute42]

.

@Sarah977 

I apologise for having written something You cannot agree upon.

[Neil408]

Thanks for the feedback @Ute42 @Sarah977  - I would have to say that owning up to a fault where there isn't one, isn't, in my opinion, a great idea. Like Sarah said, taking responsibility for a problem that isn't true I'd assume that host was unprofessional, not competent and indeed, making lame excuses.

I appreciate it comes across as defensive yes. I think the best response I've seen in @Linda108 's suggestion.

[Helen350]

I suspect the guest gave a iffy review & lower stars just because he is NEW & doesn't understand how Airbnb reviews work @Neil408 . 

Airbnb ENCOURAGE guests to find fault by telling them to say what hosts could do better..... AND tell guests that 3* = OK, 4* = good/better than OK, 5* = exceptional! (Whereas hosts are told to pull their socks up when they fall below 4.7.....)

New guests are certainly not informed that 5* is the 'done thing' unless there's a very good reason not to! - Which is what savvy hosts tell their guests when they've steered the conversation round to 'The talk'....  

I SOMETIMES explain what's what, if the opportunity presents itself naturally... Often a guest will then say "Oh my goodness, I gave last night's host 4*, it was fine, and now I feel terrible!"

[Sarah977]

@Ute42 Well, as you know, it doesn't happen very often, in fact, I'm not sure it's ever happened before 🙂

@Neil408 

[Neil408]

Hahahahah. Love it

[Helen350]

You need to post your 'woman with legs on the sofa' again @Sarah977 !!!!

[Antoinette-and-Warren0]

I am a new host. 3 months to be exact. My place is large and attracts people looking to have parties. It is not allowed, clearly stated in house rules. Yet I have had people still violate those rules  leave my place trashed and then ultimately the worse was someone who accused me of being racist  because then I  charged for extra cleaning.  I'm at my witts end.  Their review violated policy they  attacked my character when we never met the guest in person. They even said they were reviewing because of the fee I charged

[Neil408]

My place is pretty large too, about 1400 square feet.

I have once had two Latvians girls who stayed - it clearly says it doesn't allow parties but they had a party, got drunk on Vodka and left the place a mess. These guests were new to Airbnb (supposedly) and didn't have any previous reviews. I asked them their purpose of coming to Sheffield and they said they were visiting friends and then going out for drinks.

I put my prices up after that and since then have attracted much better guests.

However - my mistake was not to dig deeper into why they were coming, ask more questions (since they had no reviews) and explain the rules to them (despite the rules being displayed on my listing). English wasn't a barrier since their English was word perfect, I think they were just.....downright disrespectful.

[Robin4]

@Neil408 

Neil, Try as you might every now and then a review will come out of left field and there is not much you can do about it. In fact Airbnb actively go out of their way to confuse guests in the review process! They first off ask....... 'How was your stay at Neil's place? ' and  they offer 1-5 star ratings for the guest to select from. 

Next they go on to suggest that a 3 star rating means the stay was ok and met your expectations. 

As you can see Neil, all this does is confuse the guest by soliciting that a 3 star review is fine.....the stay offered me what I wanted and expected!

*

Then there is other guest to consider....... the one who says...."I never give a 5 star review! Five stars is that ultimate that does not exist, there will always be something better, somewhere."  I have had a few of those Neil.

What you are dealing with here is not a revenge review, it's a no doubt genuine review offered by the guest to Airbnb's suggested guidelines.

Take it on the chin mate, it will soon slip into obscurity quickly enough and most guests are not fools, they sort out the wheat from the chaff. 

But Neil, never write a review (or a response) when you are angry. Remember, the way you write the review/response will say as much about you as it does about the other party. Sit on it for a day or so, simmer down and you will find what you write will be a lot more conciliatory and give you the high moral ground.

Stay safe and, all the best Neil.

Cheers.......Rob  

[Anonymous]

@Robin4 The question you show in your second screenshot ("better/worse than expected") only appears after the guest has entered all their star ratings. One has nothing to do with the other. 

[Robin4]

@Anonymous 

Yes, in a way you are right Andrew, but in practice the two are linked.

I am a hands on host, I get to talk with all my guests, and most will in that 1st step think...."Hey the stay was fine, didn't want for anything we will give it a 5"!

Then they tick the outstanding touches, sparking clean items in the 2nd step if they feel inclined, then they move on to step 3 and are faced with those 5 options which ironically enough equals the same number of options as those possible star ratings in step 1.

You will notice Andrew at the bottom of each step there is a blue 'back' field bottom left corner.

Suddenly they put two and two together and they back track and amend the star rating they gave in step one to reflect Airbnb's suggestions in step 3.

Andrew I have been through this exercise a dozen times or more with guests and believe me, they do link step 1 with step 3, and when I point out the consequences of following Airbnb's advice in step 3 they are genuinely shocked at the effect that has on the host.

They all state they were trying to be constructive and had no idea what a overall 3 star rating would do to the host.

Cheers......Rob

[Anonymous]

@Robin4 Have you encountered any evidence that the Expectations prompt is causing people to hit the back button and change the ratings they had already decided on?

Even anecdotally speaking, did you notice a decline in your own ratings around the time this was introduced? (Assuming, of course, that you're far too classy of a host to be genuinely seeking to influence all your guests' ratings as brazenly as you describe above - i can easily imagine feigning shock to conceal a queasy sense of Fremdschämen.