The Nonsense & Irrelevant Reviews Problem

[Trevor243]

So .... we manage a large number of properties and get loads of good reviews on all platforms .... but AirBnB encourage guests to complain about something with "tell them what they can do better" ....

In one new property, the first AirBnB guest complained that he couldn't connect 9 devices to a WiFi service provided by a different company and that he didn't know about swimming pools being closed / restricted, despite the fact that we'd had 4 months of lockdown and swimming pools being mentioned repeatedly in the news for days on end .... his complaints were nothing to do with us, yet we got the massive 3*s from him

The next guests were from Booking.com and TripAdvisor ..... very happy

And now another AirBnB guest who complained that other holidaymakers who booked other properties through other companies were too noisy for him .... apparently that's somehow our fault .... he's on a large and busy holiday park and expects us to police other holidaymakers .... we manage several other properties within 10-20 seconds walk from that one and the guests were all happy, nobody complained about anything .... if the other holidaymakers really were noisy, we would have had a lot of complaints .... we got only the one .... from the AirBnB guest who likes to complain about everything ....

So this leaves us with another dent in our overall scores on AirBnB .... not a major issue .... it just means the properties will get filled from Booking.com, TripAdvisor and HomeAway instead of from AirBnB ..... and we'll delete the original AirBnB listing for this property and create a new one ....

It's really disappointing though that a system like AirBnB allows grumpy people to post nonsense reviews like this ..... individual property owners with only one listing must be really disappointed when this happens ....

[Helen3]

What a shame that you don't do guests the courtesy of leaving them a review @Trevor243  - as you know guest reviews are important for both the guest and for other hosts considering letting these guests book with them.

Can I ask how you are able to delete listings with bad reviews and simply set up another listing. I thought that was against Airbnb's t&c's?

I had a first guest who was absolutely horrible and left me an inaccurate and untrue review. I left an explanation in response and carried on accepting bookings on the account. I reached SH status within the first quarter and have kept it since.

[Trevor243]

@Helen3Why don't guests do us (all) the courtesy of reviewing the property honestly, and not down-scoring because they're grumpy about something that's nothing to do with us?

Why don't AirBnB do us (all) the courtesy of prohibiting false / irrelevant reviews?

And why do AirBnB and AirBnB hosts think reviews are soooooooo important? When you go to the shops for your food, do you only go to shops with 5* reviews? Do the shopkeepers only allow you in if you have a 5* review?

And if we are to review every guest, who will pay for the extra staff time to do this? Over 500 bookings for August across multiple properties on multiple platforms.

[Helen3]

With such a large property management company just factor it in your staff time. It takes me about 1.5 minutes on average to post a guest review @Trevor243  

[Maggie-and-Norm0]

What a great idea! Is that possible?

[Ann72]

@Trevor243  You do make a point and we've all been annoyed by those 3s and 4s.  I've never had a 3 overall but have a handful of 4s for location because it's not close enough to Bar Harbor, which of course isn't something I promise.  You can't fix stupid!

Regarding issues like the guest who complained about the pool, you can get ahead of things like that by including it in your messaging shortly before the guest's trip.  You can have saved messages for house manual and driving directions that you could routinely send and add things of note, such as the closed pools.  Or just put it in the house manual until the pools re-open.

[Trevor243]

@Ann72We do send every guest an email / message (depending on how they book) with:

- Coronavirus information and precautions

- Directions to the property (including aerial map with arrows)

- Check-in details including the code for the key safe

- Information for any optional extras such as the pools

- Check-out information

So, in this case, apart from it being all over the news morning, noon and night, and in the information we sent, this guy "didn't know" the pools might be (or would be) closed or subject to restrictions .....

[Ann72]

@Trevor243  As I said, you can't fix stupid 🙂

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Trevor243 So you say in your listing that you have wifi but actually its an optional extra provided by someone else.

I'm sorry but if I stayed in your property I would certainly complain and expect the money I paid for wifi to be refunded.

If this is how you treat guests then perhaps whatever the host equivalent of 'better suited to a hotel' applies.

[Trevor243]

@Mike-And-Jane0If you actually read the listing, it does clearly say "Pay As You Go WiFi is available on site provided by Wifinity".

That is very clear that it's not some free, high speed, unlimited WiFi. It's also clear that it's provided by Wifinity, not by us.

[Sarah977]

@Trevor243  FYI-

I always read a guest's reviews before accepting their booking.

90% of my guests leave a review.

I would not book a place myself if I saw that the host was a serial non-reviewer. A host who can't be bothered to leave a guest review isn't a host I'd want to stay with because it indicates to me that they don't care whether a good guest gets a good review which recommends them, enabling them to be easily accepted for more bookings, and they don't have any sense of camaraderie with other hosts to warn them of a bad guest.

I consider leaving a good review for a good guest to be part of my hosting job and just as appreciated by them as the amenities I provide..

[Trevor243]

@Sarah977do you think it's right or fair that AirBnB encourages guests to complain?

[Sarah977]

@Trevor243  Absolutely not. That wording about letting your host know what they can do to improve is a leading question, disrespectful of hosts and encourages guests to find fault.

Whoever comes up with the wording for so many of their messages seems to intentionally want to make life difficult for hosts. Like that message they send that is triggered by an algorithm that identifies the factors most common in a "party" booking- it sends the guest a message that the booking isn't "safe" and that they should book a hotel instead. It gives the impression that there is something unsafe about the host or the listing. 

[Anonymous]

In all fairness, the same misguided language is used in the prompt for hosts to review guests:  "Tell ____'s group what you loved and what they could do better."

Does it inspire people to complain when they wouldn't have otherwise done so? Hard to say. But I do find it reliably easy to tell which people are going to be complainers, and which will have appropriate expectations and enthusiasm for what I offer, right away in the initial correspondence. My 61% acceptance rate does not reflect a failure to keep my calendar up to date - 39% of the past year's requests genuinely have been ones that I couldn't accept with any confidence, and which would have almost certainly generated difficult experiences and subpar reviews.

[Trevor243]

@AnonymousYou are choosing guests that might like your property .... but what about if they complain about something you have no control over? What if they give you a 3* review because a certain tourist attraction was closed? Or because it rained? Or because the traffic was bad on the journey to the property? Do you think this is fair?

[Anonymous]

@Trevor243  Look, I don't think anything is "fair" about star ratings for something as nuanced as hospitality, so I won't defend anything about the existence of those. But on the internet, the current trends are only moving toward more things being irrationally subject to banal rating systems. 

And anyway, no I am not choosing guests that "like my property" because it is not for sale. I'm choosing ones who have a positive attitude, communicate intelligently, and have flexible enough plans that their odds of enjoying their trip are high. I host onsite and have plenty of chances to observe the guests, so I've noticed that even if people don't mention the things beyond my control in their reviews, they are still influencing how they reflect on their experience. The most lukewarm reviews have come from travelling companions who fell out with each other during their visit - a couple who seemed to be having a slow-motion breakup during 38 degree weather, two friends who were heard screaming at each other in the street in the middle of the night. The guestroom understandably becomes "too small" when the guest gets sick and doesn't leave it for several days. 

I take constructive feedback seriously, and take ratings with a grain of salt. What am I going to do, hold my breath waiting for life to become fair?