Review grading - guest error

[David7530]

I have just hosted some wonderful guests who left a glowing review BUT . . . Guests completed a review (which I can't see until I have completed my host review). I received 5 stars in each grading category except for one where I received 4 stars. However, the guest mistakenly gave an overall grade of 1 star. This error was not spotted until I was able to see their review which was after I had submitted my own. Clearly, the overall rating was a mistake but Airbnb Support tell me it can't be corrected once the reviews have gone public. As this is an automatic process I am struggling to see how I could possibly have spotted the error beforehand. In my view the review system needs urgently amending if a simple and obvious guest error (which does not reflect their intention) cannot be corrected.

How many other hosts have experienced this problem?

[Laura2592]

@David7530  have you contacted the guests to make sure that this is an error? I know that sounds nuts, but sometimes guests give really strange scores depending on how the questions are phrased. I would reach out to them first if you have not already done so.  If you can get their response in writing that this was an error, keep elevating it to Airbnb until you get someone who will listen. 

I would probably do a response under the public review saying "We really enjoyed hosting so and so. Unfortunately due to an error with the app which we are trying to correct, the overall score posted was incorrect. I would encourage any future guests to reach out to me if they have questions about my star ratings. We would welcome so and so back and are happy to host them any time. "

Edited to add-- your scores are still quite high? Has this review posted? I see that you have superhost status in both listings, which would not be the case if you had a one star overall, based on the number of reviews you have. Perhaps Airbnb has corrected?

[David7530]

Don’t laugh, but Airbnb Support suggested that I check with guests that they had made an error and ask them to contact Airbnb Support to request amendment. Guests admitted that they had made an error and promised to do so. The next thing was that I received another message from Airbnb Support saying they couldn’t comply with guests request as the reviews had gone public!

Now they have just deleted the reviews which is why my scores are unaffected.

[Robin4]

@David7530  

God we are dealing with a serious bunch of dills these days aren't we!!

It used to be possible to have a review altered if the content of it was unintentionally misleading. I had one altered back in 2018.

Unfortunately the quality of support has plummeted since then to the point where it is not worth contacting them any more.

This happens so often when companies core aspects of their business are outsourced to private concerns who only have a desire to be paid for hiring staff....no matter how ill-trained and useless they are! 

Bad luck David about all you can do is impress upon guests to take their time and make sure their review is accurate.

I have worked in support and I can tell you David these people don't receive a wage, they are paid on results. They are paid by the number of tickets they have been able to 'satisfactorily' close without having to pass on to another level of support! They are paid on performance. Once they find out the enquiry is in the 'too hard basket' for them and they have to pass it on, they lose any monetary reward for the effort they had put into that ticket to that point!

It wasn't an issue once because the 'Experts' who manned these positions were very competent users of the platform and understood what was possible and what wasn't. But those days are gone! As long as you are competent with your language skills, you have a job!!!

This is why so many hosts here claim their enquiry was rejected and their case closed with no right of appeal. 

I am sorry mate but that is the system we work under!

Cheers.......Rob

@Anonymous  @Mike-And-Jane0  @Laura2592 

[Anonymous]

@Laura2592  I have to differ with you on this one. Individual guests' star ratings are not visible in a listing, so mentioning them in the public response to a specific review is out of context and confusing to the reader.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@David7530 probably a good result all things considered

[David7530]

@Mike-And-Jane0The better of two bad options anyway!

[Colleen253]

So much for this:

How we’re tackling inconsistent reviews

Sometimes, a negative review is less about the guest’s experience in your space and more about them not understanding how reviews or the platform work—they can even be the result of an honest mistake. Earlier this year, we built a tool to help address these types of reviews by automatically detecting inconsistencies, and then interrupting the flow to give guests a chance to correct them. So, for example, if a guest gives you 4 or 5 stars in every category (cleanliness, accuracy, and so on) but then a 1-, 2-, or 3-star rating overall, a pop-up will ask if they’re sure about their overall rating.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Making-reviews-more-relevant-and-useful-for-our-c...

[David7530]

@Colleen253Thanks for this. I wonder if the pop up was working?

I know people often get confused (eg on Amazon) and give a 1 star rating when they mean 5 stars but this one had 5 stars, except for one 4 star, for everything else.

There is a problem on another part of their system which I flagged with them a couple of days ago. The daily payout breakdown on one of my forthcoming bookings shows as Mon 10/05, Fri 10/09, Tue 10/06, Sun 10/04, Thu 10/08, Sat 10/03, Wed 10/07 in that order - work that one out!

[Colleen253]

@David7530  "I wonder if the pop up was working"? Odds are heavily stacked in favor of a bigazz- @Ute42 -style NO!

We are talking about Airbnb, after all.

[Ute42]

.

@Colleen253 

That's why I wrote in the other thread that I do not believe that the change in the EC policy will be what we expect after having watched Cathrine Powells video. Airbnb has taken us for a ride too many times.

The trust is gone.

[Wende2]

Hi all......personally I think the star rating is a crock of sh*t.  I had a guest stay for a golf tournament because he thought  it was near by, turned out it was a couple hrs away, so yep you guessed it, he gave me 3 stars for location, well sorry dude I can't pick it up and put where you thought it was.  So the location star needs to disappear.  I should have asked him why he didn't check google maps for distance between here and there, some people are just stupid.

[Anna9170]

@David7530   I had the same situation. The guest was very pleased, left a 5* grade, wrote a great review and a personal message as well, but while driving clicked on the 1* final grade. It was a very sincere girl, she wrote to her Airbnb support team and sent me printscreens (she asked  to edit or delete), but Nothing. So relax and enjoy the case you are doing, sometimes such things will happen, they are inevitable.