Review Process as a Guest - as of January 2022

[Emilia42]

The guest review process has changed over the last year.

Here is a quick upload of the review process after a recent stay. It is always good to see the process through the eyes of a guest.

[Huma0]

@Emilia42 

Thank you. Always useful to see the process from the guest's side. The last time I stayed in an Airbnb was in October, so not that long along, but I don't remember it being exactly like this...

[Emilia42]

@Huma0 I was a guest in October as well and noticed a little change too.

[Colleen253]

@Emilia42 @Huma0 What I wonder about is the 'share more details' section. It says the point is to help the host create the best guest experience, and that they share the feedback with host. I've never gotten feedback from this. Maybe guests are skipping that section. The review process is long if you go through all of the steps.

[Emilia42]

@Colleen253 I have never gotten feedback from that section either. But I also never got the results from the "more than expected" question, even though it said the feedback would be shared with the host. A moderator told me they were going to ask the team where a host could find this info but I never heard back . . . 

[Colleen253]

@Emilia42 I suspect it’s not actually meant for the host and is for Airbnb’s purposes of monitoring listings, or should I say ‘appearance of doing due diligence’. If the rating system were anything other than a behavior modification tool for Airbnb, and if guest feedback was meant to actually help hosts improve, then they would provide a text box and require a guest to populate it, explaining the reason why, when awarding anything less than a 5 in any category. 

[Emilia42]

@Colleen253 

This does happen but of course, it is not mandatory.

I will say that I have stayed at places where communication was scarce and cleanliness wasn't exactly high but found it easier just to rate with 5 stars rather than 'offend' with 'details' since reviews are not anonymous. So I think it does work to some effect.

 

[Lenore22]

I have been prompted to add amenities... Probably based on this section. I don't list all amenities because I don't want guests to expect them. Sometimes guests are wrong too, though. 

[Helen744]

@Emilia42 I think it falls under 'guests have indicated that you have ,   whatever it is...Please update . It happens all the time even though these things are already in amenities. It will get down to Are there any teaspoons or bbque tongs or serviettes?  eventually . There is no way to standardize Airbnbs no matter how they try . There is a constant pull between a more commercial offering and a home offering . The two will become clearer and guests will choose . I think there is now a serious bounce back to the original offerings. If you want to mimic a hotel go ahead but thats not Airbnb in my book H

[Huma0]

@Helen744 

I believe and I hope, although I am not 100% sure, that the amenities the guest is asked about are the ones that specific host has listed. The point should be to check that the host is not falsely advertising amenities. For example, I have had a few guests tell me they booked an apartment on the 4th or 5th floor, because a lift/elevator was advertised but, when they arrived at the listing, there was no serviceable lift for them to use.  Of course, the guest should not be asked if there was a hot tub or free parking, when no such amenity was listed in the first place.

By having to answer these questions, hopefully it will drum into the guest that they received the amenities that were advertised and therefore the listing is accurate and good value. Of course, it should stick to important amenities, like heating or a private garden, if that is what was advertised, not the nitty gritty like tea towels!

[Huma0]

@Colleen253 

Yes, the first section of 'share more details of your stay' is completely repetitive. It's just asking them to do the same as when they gave the category star ratings. A lot of guests believe they are too busy to communicate their check in time or tell the host a bit about themselves, so I am sure many will not want to answer this many questions.

Some of the rest could be useful and I appreciate guests being asked to rate on the accuracy of the location, which I think is more relevant than how they 'felt' about the neighbourhood. I'm really not sure what purpose the latter serves.

I wonder when these changes were brought in. I haven't as yet seen any of this feedback and I have received reviews fairly recently. I also never saw any feedback from the 'better than expected' etc. questions.

[J-Renato0]

@Emilia42 

Thank you for sharing it. Nice to know it!

I thought it very long and repetitive all those questions.
At first the guest is asked about several items that are answered by marking it with stars. Later on, Airbnb wants to know everything very well explained.

It recalls me a character of a sitcom that wanted everything very well explained with so many details that people who had to talk to him got very irritated.
We are living in a time where companies believe that people have nothing to do and will spend all day long and all night long answering lots of surveys and feedback forms.

It's not just Aibrbnb that does this. If one phone some company, if one buy something via the internet, later on they send to the person some feedback form or ask the one to review something. Some of them are too long.
Totally clueless.

[J-Renato0]

I think Airbnb should take it into consideration. 

It is not just my personal opinion.

[Emilia42]

@J-Renato0 Personally, I wouldn't call it a survey and it really didn't take me that long to complete (it took a lot longer to make sure I had all the screenshots to post here as a reference.) I paid a lot of money for this stay, more than I would typically spend, perhaps way out of my budget. So I felt invested and happy to complete the review and share my experience.

[Gillian166]

the funniest part about this is that did a survey to come to this conclusion!! haha.