Post lockdown super critical guests?

[Alexandra199]

Anyone else noticed that since opening up again after lockdown guests seem to be over critical and more than willing to mark down for everything and anything?

I have  had consistently good reviews until we were shut down and reopened at the beginning of July. Since then, I have had lots pf requests for discounts and guests trying to bargain with me for their stay. I have decided not to agree to these because as this is my business and I am trying to recoup the losses I have incurred from lockdown. I am pleased to say I have had excellent occupancy.

I have however noticed that guests seem to want to find reasons to find fault. These are really little things but it is becoming noticeable and ever review I receive is getting stressful. They seem to leave a pleasant description of their experience and then hit me with 4 stars in the categories and a  private note saying what they felt was wrong. The last guest decided to tell me that a second toilet would have been useful in a cottage that is advertised as having one bathroom...she marked me down for value because the cottage had one toilet? Really? 

I'm getting really fed up of guests thinking they should be getting more and more. Is it just me?

[Ute42]

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@Robin4  

You wrote:

• They don't just do it to you and me, it's a powerplay that they use to get themselves through life, every question they ask that you offer an affimative answer to makes them a bit stronger and you a bit weaker, you find they will always have some other little 'triviality' that will require satisfying until, you get to the point where you will give in to anything.....just to get them out of your life!

I agree 100% with what You've said. This psycholigical game does not only take place between guests and hosts, it also happens in relationships, between employer and employee and between airbnb and hosts. You have to set Your goalposts in the very beginning of a relationship, if You don't do it, You're lost.

[Anna9170]

@Ann72   yeahh, answer .@Ute42  "NO" is brilliant, we should ask the moderators to fix it as a necessary lesson for new and experienced hosts )

[Ann72]

@Anna9170  Said in jest but a good idea!  However, the one thing new hosts will never be taught is how to turn guests away 🙂

[Katrina79]

@Alexandra199 It is my guests as well! I had a really nice lady stay and give me 5’s across the board but a 3* overall(described by Airbnb as, what I expected). She had no complaints the entire stay and said she really enjoyed the space! Our province just opened up to long term rental eviction and I’ve found myself hosting what I think were a few homeless people at the beginning of the month, and using the washer/dryer non stop. I’ve had what I think was a kid(teen or 20 year old, IDK) have a dance party with his friends which I had to “Mom” him after he was caught and get him to shut it down and not misbehave the following night. I just hosted a bridal shower group and got a 4* in cleaning and overall because there are some apples on the ground. I literally cleaned two ovens, pulled them out, shined everything before their stay-it was spotless and I got a 4* in cleanliness. I made her a special deal to average out her guest count over three nights which saved her $60/night but she gave me a 4* for value. She requested to change her reservation count the day she checked in because some women were not attending...she wanted me to re-average out the number of guests over her three day stay after she checked in(which I said no). I had someone mark me down to 4* for pictures...I’ve put in a brand new gorgeous pull out sofa(definitely an upgrade). So yes, I think guests are looking for something to complain about. One guest tried to convince me to drop the cleaning fee because he would clean it. When I didn’t agree he booked anyway and took a full container of 100 Lysol wipes, a door mat and two boxes of tissue...I guess he figured it’s worth the equivalent of the cleaning fee. Another guest sent private feedback in which he sounded upset there was no shampoo/conditioner etc...but there is under the sink in the washroom. What is the common denominator here? Guests are impossible to please and they are looking to get what they can and give little back. 
Even though I engage my guests to ask questions they haven’t been, instead they wait until it’s time to review and that is where they are dinging me. I’m so over the reviews...I think if you have a very high listing review score like 4.95 you are not charging enough. And if you consistently get 5* in value you are definitely not charging enough! BTW if your listing doesn’t get all 5*’s you can still hit the top of the page in the algorithm search.  I think vacancy rate and price push you up there just as much as 5* reviews. Okay, rant over! 

[Alexandra199]

Thank you for your response. You are absolutely experiencing the same as me. Its not big things it's little things as an excuse to say it wasnt perfect. I know we should really consider 4 stars as excellent but in the Airbnb world anything less than 5 is a ding!

I have started to get that sick feeling everytime I get notified that someone has left a review. Its becoming exhausting. I would have been furious with that 3 star you have with all 5 star categories. I have taken to emailing guests who leave unexplained 'poor' reviews asking in a really positive way if they can tell me what the problem was....you know what, not one has ever replied! I think that says something.

If you are going to be critical, at least have the balls to stand by your assertion!

[Huma0]

@Alexandra199 @Katrina79 

Just because it looks like a guest has given you 5 stars in all categories but only 3 or 4 overall, that isn't necessarily the case. In fact, it's highly unlikely.

Many guests do not rate the subcategories (which are optional) and only give an overall score. If they don't rate the subcategories, they automatically show up as 5 stars, even when they are not and don't count as 5 in your stats. 

See here for more information on that: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/The-General-Confusion-About-Star-Ratings/m-p/866168#M213...

I don't know why Airbnb do it this way and I think it's something they need to fix as it seems that the majority of hosts on this CC (and so I guess hosts in general) are under this misapprehension. 

Like I said, if a guest gives you 3 stars overall it's highly improbable that they rated you 5 in every category. It's much more likely that they just didn't rate those categories at all.

[Ann72]

@Huma0  I never knew this!  Thank you!

[Huma0]

@Ann72 

I didn't realise at first either, but a while back I used to keep track of my stats in the individual categories - that is, when it used to bother me more! That's how I noticed when guests were not giving individual ratings, or only rating some sub categories. For example, I noticed that guests were likely to rate only one or two, e.g. location and cleanliness, and leave the rest.

I don't bother keeping track of it anymore, especially as I host long-term, but I'm pretty sure this is still how it works.

[Emilia42]

@Ann72 @Huma0 The subcategories are no longer optional. You HAVE to click a star value for each category or you cannot move onto the next page. They changed this with the last review update. It's worrisome because back in the old days a guest who didn't show up could skip over cleanliness, accuracy, etc. since they never actually set foot inside. Now, if they complete the review they have to indicate a star. 

[Huma0]

@Emilia42 

Thanks for the info. I didn't know that. It seems that we never get informed of changes to the review process unless we book a trip as a guest ourselves or hear it here on the CC.

Yes, that is troublesome. Luckily, I've never had a guest who didn't check in leave a review, so far anyway, but I have seen other hosts post here that they have and those guests marked them down on cleanliness or check in etc.

Personally, I don't think that a guest should be able to leave a review at all if they didn't stay. If there was an issue caused by the host that prevented their stay or made them cancel it, they have the option to report it to Airbnb and if the host cancels then there are already penalties in place for that. Why include the review process at all?

[Ute42]

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@Katrina79  

You wrote in the context of searchresults positioning:

• I think vacancy rate and price push you up there just as much as 5* reviews.

Pls note that a high average rating and being a superhost has no impact at all on Your positioning in search results. The 2 dominating factors are:

1. The numer of clicks onto Your listing
   
   

2. IB turned on.

I did several researches on this issue and the outcome was always the same.

What does airbnb want? They want to make as much money as possible.

Is there anything else they want? NO!

Why should airbnb put a 5* superhost-listing on top of search results that is overpriced and in a location noone wants to be at? Would't it be better for them to put a listing with 700 clicks on top of search  results? The number of clicks indicates how many guests are interested in booking that place and sooner or later one of those 700 guests will book the place.

cc: @Alexandra199 @Robin4 @Colleen253 @Debra300 @Ann72 

[Katrina79]

@Ute42 I agree Airbnb wants to push up those listings in search results that make the most money. That is why I think that price and vacancy rate are determining factors in the algorithm. As my price per night and total number of nights booked increased in a month period, my * average decreased. The result was higher placement in search rankings. Higher placement in search rankings always leads to more clicks or views, but even listings that had a relatively small number of views skyrocketed to the top of search rankings when I un-snoozed the listing. 

[Ute42]

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@Katrina79  

You wrote:

• That is why I think that price and vacancy rate are determining factors in the algorithm.

If You lower Your price more guests who are using the pricefilter will see Your listing and possibly click onto it. If You have a lot of vacancies more guests who are using the datefilter will see Your listing and possibly click onto it. So these 2 criteria will ultimately result in more clicks.

The first reseach on the positioning in searchresults I did was on the occasion of the 2018 Oktoberfest in Munic, date of research: Sept. 1, 2018. Here are rank 1 and 2 out of 300:

Rank 1 in searchresults is a listing with an average 2,5* rating

Rank 2 in searchresults is a listing with an average 3,5* rating

Here's a closeup

A high average rating (or being a superhost which requires a high average rating) has no impact on a high placement in searchresults. With „no impact“ I mean „zero impact“. Airbnb always wants to make us believe that this is important, but it's not.

cc: @Emilia42 @Ann72 

[Ann72]

@Ute42  That is really eye-opening!  I do have one question:  you searched with a date filter for a very popular holiday four weeks in the future.  There were therefore many higher rated places screened out because they were not available, weren't there?

[Ute42]

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@Ann72  

Oh yes, there were other places available.

This is a chart that I made in sept 2018 that shows the rank positions 1 to 88 and their average rating.

As You can see on rank 1 there is this place with a 2.5* average rating, on rank 2 is the place with a 3.5* average rating. On rank 80 to 84 You have 5 places with an average rating of 5*. So their 5* rating doesn't help them, they are way down the list.

The red bars are superhosts, they are all over the place.

Rankpositions without a bar are listings with less than 3 reviews, bc at that time airbnb did not display an average rating if You didn't have a minimum of 3 reviews. 47 out of 88 listings had only 1 or 2 reviews and thus didn't show an average rating. This context also shows that it doesn't help You for search results if You do a lot of business with airbnb.

As You can see, there is no correlation between the average rating and the positioning in search results.

And Superhost doesn't matter at all.