Irrelevant Review

[Yuki-and-Charlie0]

 (see above picture)

can someone explain to me why reviews like this are okay?

airbnb Philippine dedicated Superhosts line told me that this review is completely irrelevant but they can not remove it?  Not sure why over the past 7 years I only speak to people in the Philippines that seem to have a tough time understanding my questions either. Is this normal for all North American hosts? 

I was told by airbnb call centre rep to reply to the review and explain to them what the period means…!?!?!? she then told me the guest will then explain to you what it means.

In my 2000+ reviews I’m quite sure this isn’t how reviews work…  lol

can an ambassador please explain to me what this rep means by respond to the period and the guest will respond back in the review?

and how is a period review okay?  Especially if the rep is saying it’s irrelevant….

and why is the rep saying it’s irrelevant (three times she said the review is completely irrelevant)  but not removing it because don’t reviews have to be relevant?

thank you! 

[Ricardo85]

@Yuki-and-Charlie0 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/546/airbnbs-content-policy

"...

Reviews

• Reviews that are biased or exhibit indications of extortion/incentivization, conflicts of interest, or direct competition
• Reviews that contain no relevant information about a host or guest, listing, or experience may be removed. Reviews that contain mostly irrelevant information are also subject to removal, but only where the otherwise relevant information would not be expected to meaningfully inform the booking decisions of other community members.

..."

Ricardo

[Yuki-and-Charlie0]

Thank you for that. I’m aware that irrelevant reviews can be removed… but apparently airbnb aren’t?? Even tho they are calling it irrelevant..? 

wouldn’t this review classify as irrelevant..?? Or am I crazy.

I appreciate the link. Hopefully that will help.

thank you!!

[Gillian166]

@Yuki-and-Charlie0  this IS irrelevant and i've had a similar review from a terrible guest, who broke every rule possible (extra guests, smoking, broken furniture) and then left me a 1* review and wrote "." and i rang CS and they removed it due to it being irrelevant.

I would ring up again and get another person, and keep doing that until you get the result you deserve here. 

[Yuki-and-Charlie0]

 

 

[Yuki-and-Charlie0]

 

 “Reviews that contain no relevant information about a host , guest , listing, or experience may be removed. “

like… common, this is wild they are saying a period is relevant. 

[Gwen386]

@Yuki-and-Charlie0 This review with only a punctuation mark is irrelevant and therefore should be removed. And I believe the reviewer did it on purpose to fool the algorithm into thinking a review was submitted—when in fact one wasn’t—in order that both reviews become visible at the same time. 

Not only should the review be removed, but the algorithm should be fixed so that a review must  contain a minimum of 10 words. 

Keep calling airbnb to get someone to review your concern again. I’m also tagging @Sybe to get an admin involved. 

[Sybe]

@Gwen386 Thank you so much for tagging me here. @Yuki-and-Charlie0 I've sent this over to the team now, hopefully we can get the review removed quickly! They should be in touch with you shortly and if I hear back in the meantime I'll let you know.

[Anonymous]

@Yuki-and-Charlie0  This comes up a lot. The official line on these wordless reviews is that the star rating is in and of itself "relevant" info. I don't agree with this premise myself - what use would reviews be if all of them were just periods?

But on the other hand, censorship would be a bit of an extreme response to a mere punctuation mark. I doubt the wordless review will deter any guests from booking. 

[Emilia42]

To my understanding, the guests didn't review with "." they left the text field blank and Airbnb defaults a blank review to "." 

This is quite common in other review systems on the internet. Users/customers indicate a star rating but leave no comment. 

[Huma0]

@Emilia42 

Would it not be easy enough for Airbnb to make the text of the review a required field, i.e. the guest (or host) cannot submit the review until they have written something there? I mean, almost every online form has some fields that are required. 

[Emilia42]

@Huma0 I think some sort of text is required but maybe the space bar will do? Did you say you were staying as a guest soon? If so, try to see if you can move on to the next step in the review process with and without text.

[Huma0]

@Emilia42 

Yes, I'm staying at an airbnb next weekend. 

I will try that. I was planning to pay more attention to the review process anyway as we know it does change every now and then.

[Huma0]

@Emilia42 

So sorry, I completely forgot to try this when I wrote the review. I knew I would!! 

I was a bit exhausted after the trip because I shared a bed with my mum and she kept kicking me all night 😞

However, I did screenshot the whole process, so I'll post that soon just so hosts can see what it looks like at the moment.

On another note, I never got the automated message asking me if I checked in okay and telling me I could reach out to my host that others have reported seeing.