The updated AirBNB Review Policy with regards to 'relevancy' will never apply to a review

[Lottie20]

A word of warning, I was one of the many hosts who were happy with what looked like the gradual change to making reviews fairer in the changes announced in December, in particularly with the new 'relevancy' requirement.

I contacted AirBNB about some reviews which were blank (contained a '.' or a '/' with no further text), AirBNB agreed the content written in the review was of low relevancy, but stated that as the guest had left a star rating this meant it was nevertheless relevant and would not be removing it under the relevancy provisions. I asked how this applied to the test they've outlined on their website below & was simply told again that the fact the guests have left a star rating meant that it was relevant, despite the content itself not being so. This is OK in itself, but is flawed in that a guest MUST leave a star rating whenever a review is posted. This in effect means that no review will EVER be taken down on AirBNB under the new policy given the requirement to leave a star rating & the fact that a star rating must be left whenever reviewing a host. Needless to say I was gobsmacked that AirBNB have made a policy which by it's very design will never apply as leaving the (compulsory star rating) automatically means it's relevant, regardless of what the content is. 

The test:

"1. Does the review provide essential information about a host or guest, listing, or experience that would help others make more informed booking decisions?"

2. The star rating that the guests above have left will never be visible to future prospective guests and so it cannot help them make a "more informed booking decision" if they will never see that or rely upon it."

[Anonymous]

@Lottie20  Was it actually the blank text that you wanted to have removed? Or was it more that you were displeased with the star rating that accompanied it?

[Lottie20]

I didn't specify what specifically was to be removed, however, as I understood it the whole review is removed in such circumstances.

What puzzles me is that in the approach the agent has taken, a star rating means a review will never be removed under this policy, regardless of what the content is (they agreed the content itself was of low relevance and of itself would be removed, however, they stated the star rating itself which is not visible to guest in fact made it relevant). I'm not sure if they got this one wrong, but given that a star rating must be left by guests, this would mean the policy will never apply for a review removal which I cannot imagine to be what AirBNB intended with the change in the policy.

[Anonymous]

@Lottie20  But I'm guessing you weren't campaigning to remove a review with a 5-star rating? Because it's hard to see how a blank review would have a negative effect on a listing in and of itself.

It doesn't logically follow for me that your experience proves that a review will never be removed. If the review had said "Lottie has a nice smile" and nothing else, that would meet the criteria for removal as I understand them, because 100% of the text is irrelevant (irrespective of the star rating). However, if it said "Lottie has a nice smile and the apartment was clean and spacious," the review would stand because it also contained a relevant detail. I can't be certain about this, and I doubt the customer service staff are all on the same page, but I don't think the mere fact that star ratings are considered "relevant info" negates the possibility that reviews will be removed for irrelevancy. If anything, i just think it illustrates that they intend to keep review removals quite rare. 

I'm not by any means defending their system, though. If it were up to me, the star ratings would be scrapped altogether.

[Maxine33]

How frustrating... I am sorry you are having to deal with this.  I just had a guest tell me in the public comments my place was nice and clean but left a 4* for cleanliness.  My first 4* so it traumatized me.  She also gave a 4* for value despite being the best value in the area.

Sometimes I just do not think reviewers comprehend the importance of reviews or the impact they have.  IMHO, I do wish Airbnb was not so guest friendly.  While it is out homes that are being rented out, we really do shoulder 100% of the risk.  And when errors are made, they always seem to err on the side of the guest.

[Ute42]

.

@Lottie20 

You wrote:

• I didn't specify what specifically was to be removed, however, as I understood it the whole review is removed in such circumstances.

Unfortenately not. Here in Germany we had a case where a guest left a text-review stating:

• korean

Just one word, his nationallity. A fellowhost in Germany wanted it to be removed as irrelevant and they did remove the word „korean“ but they did not delete the starrating.

They are using every trick in the box to screw us over.

[Sarah977]

@Lottie20   " I'm not sure if they got this one wrong..."

Never take anything a CS rep tells you as the truth. Many hosts on this forum know more about Airbnb policy than most of the CS reps do. If you get an answer from a rep that doesn't seem right, call or message again, hoping you'll get a more knowlegeable rep and answer or interpretation. 

It's kind of like getting a second or third opinion from a doctor or dentist for something major. One would hope you got the correct info the first time, but it's always wise to not take one person's answer as the absolute.

[Robin4]

@Lottie20  @Sarah977 @Ute42  @Maxine33  @Anonymous 

Airbnb considers that its review system is the best, the most accurate of any concerning hospitality.

Okay,  by Airbnb's rationale lets put that to the test.....

"How was the movie?".....answer:  "5 star" 

Well what was it about?.... answer: "that's not relevant, it was just 5 star" 

"How was your meal?"......answer: "2 star"

"What was wrong with it".....answer: "it was a 2 star meal" 

"How did you find the cars handling".......answer: "3 star"

"What's needed to make it better".....answer....."It needs to be 5 star"

"How did you find the Airbnb review system".....answer: "1 star"

"Why that low rating? "....answer:  "Because it tells me nothing I need to know"!!!

Yeah, Airbnb's review system is so much more informative than any others!

Cheers......Rob.

[Ute42]

.

@Robin4 

Thank You for the good night laugh.

[Susan990]

Your brilliant analysis shines a light on what I have been suspecting for some time...that an AI (robot brain) is crafting the review questions  and assigning Stars in a mechanical non-grammatical-non- human interpretation of what Words actually mean. Proof of my theory: example # 1- a guest wrote in her comments that my studio was " small"--the word small appears in the text and IT sent back a feedback note that areas needing improvement were - space is small, need to improve size.

 Example #2: - That over-all section, which they placed first and foremost, and had to be completed, was worded similarly queer. "Was your experience much more than expected" (5) hidden star:  " A bit more than expected" (4) hidden star--now this word 'bit' is non-grammatical to english but to an AI computer language a 'bit' is a real thing.  And then this Over All score takes precedence over the collective score of all the rest of the review scoring thus screwing the math. Again, an easy fix for Airbnb is to simply adopt the International rating system used by hotels and nightly lodging industry world wide. Grow up Airbnb . Over time to step up to the plate and sync your review system with everybody in the room.

[Dev4]

@Lottie20 Any luck getting the review removed? I had an even worse experience, wherein the guest left the review blank and gave a 2 star rating. When I asked the guest the reason for 2 star, she stays that she did not like the fact that she was moved to a private apartment to practice self-isolation. She booked a shared accommodation and it wasn't safe, so I moved her to a better location and accommodation at the same price. 

Airbnb CS gave me the same BS about policy; where 2 weeks another CS was praising that I was a great host for going above and beyond for the guests. 

[Maria12246]

Some people can be very ungrateful. Also is an observation, hope they don’t remove this answer as sexism, I often find women are more difficult to please. 

[Maria12246]

AIRBNB REVIEWS-BUG/FLAWS

I sent feed back regarding the way the star reviews rating is choosen . There are flaws/ bugs in the Airbnb review system .

1- I have a guest who gave me 5 stars on all question feedback  on the reviews  and the overall rating shows 4 for that particular stay , how can that be ?   I took a screen picture of it as I could not understand  and would like to  ask to AIRBNB the reason. Normally if a guest gives  5 star for all question the overal start rating shows as 5  and not 4.

2- I was abused verbally by a guest who got really vindictive towards me , after I remind him of not wearing shoes inside my home and to clean his mess in the kitchen. I recorded the abuse  on a video . I send a message to Airbnb as they were not answering the phone as it was after midnight and they din’t reply.  Then guest cancel the booking and left a personal review about my persona and home with a lot of lies and when I complain to Airbnb they said it was the guest opinion so it could not be taken down . They did nothing about abusing me verbally and took not interest in seeing the video I recorded with a witness . Was a very unpleasant, distressing and unnerving experience . I had not support from Airbnb on this  particular case. Apart from this I am happy with Airbnb, but I feel they should listen more to hosts  in cases of verbal abuse.