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 ....

[Dave52]

@Trevor243 agree with your comments.  Many posts here recently about problems with the review process. 

Retaliatory reviews are a growing problem.  This could be easily addressed by airbnb.

And as you point out, Airbnb should *not* prompt guests to suggest improvements in their public review else it encourages them to complain about small stuff even if their overall experience was excellent.  Should be done privately. 

Example: a guest gave me a glowing review and recommended all of her friends to stay at my place and would love to stay again, yet gave only 4-stars because was not "perfect" (meaning no place gets 5 stars!).  She said she was following airbnb guidance on how to rate a place.  She happily offered to change to 5-stars, but airbnb would not allow it.  Not sure why not.

[Cave0]

The "tell them what they could do better" can also be interpreted as offering the guest an opportunity to provide the host with a wish list of improvements, just as it may be interpreted as an invitation to complain.

In my case, I have had the "wish list" suggestions, one being that the house would be better closer to a local attraction.

I am currently negotiating for a brick by brick relocation of my house to the other side of town lol.

Half the problem with this kind of thing is that the bright spark who comes up with the idea hasn't got the ability to think it through and look at it from different angles and consider how others might view the statement or question.  A little real world experience amongst our friends at Airbnb wouldn't go amiss, they may be full of knowledge but we sure don't have a lot of common sense on many occasions.

[Trevor243]

@Cave0I wish you luck with the relocation. Naturally, you will get an AirBnB guest who finds the new location is unsuitable .....

[Trevor243]

Another issue has "sprung" to mind ....

A couple of years ago, the springs on a mattress broke .... the guest didn't tell us .... the first we knew was when we saw the negative review more than 2 weeks later .... of course, the next guest had been affected and had posted a negative review too.

We don't sleep in the beds ourselves, so the only way we'll know if the beds are a problem is if the guests tell us. And if they tell us, we can replace them.

By not telling us about the bed, that guest affected another guest - yet it's us that get the negative review. I'm sure we're not the only hosts who have this happen.

Some might say I should give that guest a negative review - but of course, the 2 week time limit had lapsed by the time we found out.

Maybe that first guest should be penalised by AirBnB for not reporting a fault and causing discomfort to the next guest?