Review Process as a Guest August 2022

[Huma0]

@Emilia42 has kindly posted screenshots of the review process from the guest's perspective when she's stayed at airbnbs. As I stayed at one last weekend, I thought I would do the same in case it is useful to other hosts. There were a lot of steps, but I think I have them in the correct order.

[Huma0]

I don't know if this is much different to the last screenshots posted of the process, but I noticed that the guest is asked first to leave a private note and then the public review. That would explain why a lot of hosts have reported recently that guests are getting the two mixed up, i.e. writing the public review in the private feedback section by mistake.

I don't know why Airbnb have done that. It makes no sense to me as the guest is expecting to leave a public review but might not realise there is a separate private feedback section.

[Cristina2608]

It's redundant, especially since guest and host have already made been in contact via the message board. 

[Huma0]

@Cristina2608 

I'm not sure it's totally redundant. The guest may have private feedback about something that was not a large enough issue to bother the host with during the stay or via message. However, I don't think it would be a huge deal if Airbnb got rid of it.

The confusion, as you can see from @Byron54 's comment below, is that they have switched the order around.

[Byron54]

Hi @Huma0 , I have written about this before as well, its just dumb, even i was confused on my last Airbnb trips as guest as well. The first thing we want to do is write our review about the place and host, but now we are forced to write the private feedback first which we used to do AFTER, depending on what we wrote on the public review. 

[Mark116]

What is the purpose of collecting the final set of data?  What is the difference between extremely clean and very clean?  How did they choose which amenities to ask about?  I mean, is there anyone who can't find the fridge?  LOL, well, yeah, maybe there is.

Has anyone gotten communications from Airbnb about answers to the final set of questions?

And, um, gee, why does Airbnb not care to dive into the specifics of guest behavior?  Why no second, more detailed set of questions about the guests?  cough cough

[Huma0]

@Mark116 

From what other hosts have speculated on the CC, it's Airbnb's method of checking that listings are accurate. Basically, they are relying on the guests to be their 'inspectors'. 

I am not sure how they decide which amenities to ask about, if it's always the same ones for a particular listing, or if they vary, i.e. pick a different set of amenities each time. 

The balcony makes sense to me as it was a big selling point of this listing. Dedicated workspace also, but the fridge question baffled me, especially as I was then asked if there was a kitchen. I wouldn't even have noticed if there was a heater, because it was mid August, except that the host told me she could put the heating on if we needed it (we definitely didn't). 

That did make me wonder if a previous guest might have alerted her to the fact that they were asked about the heater in the review process, but I doubt it. I think more likely she just had a few stupid guests in the past who wanted heating on in the middle of summer.

I have never received any communication from Airbnb about answers to the last set of questions. I really feel this data collection is for Airbnb's internal purposes only. I guess it's an attempt at quality control, but it's rather clumsy. I mean the heater question... A lot of guests are not going to notice if there is a heater or not when they are staying somewhere in hot weather. They might say they don't know or, even say no, misunderstanding and thinking it means 'was the heating on?'

And yes, what does 'extremely' clean mean? The use of the word 'extremely' is kind of stupid to my mind, given its actual definition. It sounds like OCD or something. I would naturally have described the listing as 'very clean' because that is what it is. I don't think it could have been cleaner, but that doesn't make it 'extreme'. Of course, I clicked 'extremely clean' instead though. 

And LOL, yes, can you imagine if we were able to go into these sort of details about guests?

- Did the guest turn off taps?

- Did the guest close the front door?

- Did the guest park where instructed or in your neighbour's drive instead?

- Did the guest read your listing nor did they complain incessantly about things already mentioned?

[Mark116]

@Huma0  Remember when Airbnb made the pledge they would 'inspect' all of the listings a few years ago?  Somehow we were at the top of that list and some Airbnb person did a zoom call walk through and asked us a couple of questions.  Nothing ever came of it.  Not that I'm surprised, but even such a half a** plan of zoom call is better than the AI generating random questions about amenities.

I would LOVE to be able to answer a bunch of questions about guests and how well they followed the rules, did they recycle, were they high, medium or low maintenance, did they break anything.....Oh yes.  I used to use the 'is there anything else you want us to know' to catalogue everything that guests broke or damaged, which I never claimed for, and other bad behavior that didn't merit mention in the review.  Of course that is gone now, because why would Airbnb want to know anything bad about the guests???

Such an odd dynamic.

[Huma0]

@Mark116 

Yes, I vaguely remember that but didn't know they actually conducted some Zoom calls. I was lucky enough to have airbnb photographers come to my listing when I started hosting and therefore, the photos have the 'verified by Airbnb' caption on them. Guests never mention it, but I assume that it offers them some kind of reassurance. 

Yes, it's a shame that they got rid of the 'anything else you want us to know' question, but I wonder if anyone ever looked at the answers anyway? I would also love to be able to answer a bunch of questions about guest behaviour, but would Airbnb bother to look at those either?

I don't know what it takes for Airbnb to actually suspend or remove a guest (apart from the party thing, as they seem to take that fairly seriously, but then not always, or some sort of major fraud operation).

There was the guest who I turned away because of a terrible review which, amongst other things, said multiple people were using the profile. When she tried again to book using a second account with no reviews, it was flagged by Airbnb. I called CS, they told me to report and block her, which I did, yet both profiles are still on the platform more than a year later, both show as 'verified' and the guest has been able to book with another host using the second one. Yet they will suspend hosts on the flimsiest of claims, BEFORE investigating at all.

[Marie6762]

@Huma0 

Thanks for this .  It’s been over a year since I’ve been an AirBnb guest, and I definitely didn’t do all this!  In fact, the nit-picking would completely discourage-if not prevent - me from reviewing at all, if I didn’t know how important reviews are to the host.

Question:  does this process allow for just partial completion, or must we run the gauntlet?  I imagine the latter-

[Huma0]

@Marie6762 

I am not sure, to be honest. I just filled in the sections as they came up. There were certainly no options obviously shown to 'skip' certain stages or questions.

[Sudsrung0]

@Huma0 

It's probably a good reason why guest skip the reviews asking stupid questions,

Now I know why my husband when he's walking people through he always mentions  and this is a "Fridge" as he walks past, it gets a laugh.

I have never booked through other platforms I wonder if they do the same? I did notice on Trip Advisor that you can ask for a review from a guest even though they didn't book though TA, from one of your past guest from Airbnb, 

[Huma0]

@Sudsrung0 

Yes. Of course I wanted to leave a review for the host because I know it's important, but if this was the review process for something else, I probably would have given up and told myself, "Oh, I'll come back and do that later..." and then forgotten about it.

I've not used other booking platforms either, so have no idea how they do it. I have left reviews on Google and Trustpilot for stuff and that was really straightforward. You just select the star rating and submit a written review. Done. 

I really think most of the above questions are more for Airbnb's data collection than anything else.

[Fred13]

This 'questionnaire' is geared towards the fastidious type of guest (aka Home Inspector), the type 99% of host would hate; but the perfect candidate to punch a  'Get-To-Abuse-a-Guest' coupon I suggested recently as a great reward for being a Superhost for one full year.

[Huma0]

@Fred13 I am not sure that it's geared towards a fastidious guest, but it certainly could encourage guests to be fastidious. 

The listing I stayed at was great. The only thing was a small missing amenity. The listing says shampoo and conditioner are provided, but there was nothing in the bathroom but hand soap. My mum was a bit surprised but it wasn't a big deal. I would have liked a dustpan and brush because we got some crumbs on the kitchen floor, but that's just me wanting to leave the listing as tidy as possible, and it's not like that was listed in the amenities.

Did I mention this in the review or private feedback or guest book? No. Of course not. However, I bet you there are guests that would. Some people feel like they need to add some sort of niggle. They think that their 'constructive criticism' is invaluable to those on the receiving end of it. 

I like your 'get-to-abuse-a-guest' coupon idea. Do you only get one a year though?