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 ....

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Trevor243 I am confused - Do you provide wifi or not - The reviews and your response to the reviews seem to suggest it costs extra and yet there is no mention of this in the listing.

[Trevor243]

That's not the thing to be confused about. Out of 1000+ bookings on that holiday park, we've had a handful, maybe 15-20, who have been unhappy for some reason, mostly about things we have no control over. Almost all are from AirBnB. A few love to send a daily list of complaints. Rats in the trees? We call them Red Squirrels. Rain? Sorry about that, we'll remember to turn on the sunshine tomorrow (I think the rain one was from TripAdvisor). It's just a shame that AirBnB encourages guests to complain .....

[Laura2592]

Hmmm. This is the same host who advised me in another thread not to honestly review guests because people will think *I* am grumpy. He cited his savvy with Airbnb and experience hosting in dozens of locations when I gently said "wait until you have more experience here". Seems as though such a seasoned host would know that one must be very upfront about additional charges such as WifI on this platform.  Airbnb does not like to be cut out of its share so anything other than a cleaning fee must be rolled into the nightly cost. I am sure this host is aware of how everything works here 🙂

[Trevor243]

Yes, you are right that I said that.

The main point I was trying to make was that it's not worth stressing over reviewing guests. Many guests will simply start a new AirBnB account. Many hosts won't read guest reviews.

For this guest, this was one of those very rare occasions where I reply to guest reviews. I can't remember if I reviewed him, but I did reply to his review. I'm not bothered if some people think I was grumpy in that reply. He was one of those extreme cases.

Has his review or my reply killed my bookings? No. Do I dwell on things like this? No. Do I stress about them? No.

Does it sometimes irritate me and make me want to scream? Of course. I'm still human.

But think about others who rely entirely on AirBnB ..... the system isn't fair on hosts ......

As for the WiFi, it's not provided by us .....

[Cave0]

I always, without exception, read the reviews before accepting any reservation request.

[Debra300]

@Trevor243,

Yes, guests do often complain about stuff not within a host's control.  I noticed that your listings don't have any or very few reviews, and you said you will delete the listing with the poor review, and create another one.  Is that something that you normally do after receiving a low rating?  

[Trevor243]

@Debra300We don't chase reviews. We rarely review guests. Only a small number of guests post reviews. AirBnB (normally) provide only about 10% of our bookings - a lot higher in the last few weeks with the mad rush after lockdown was lifted, but gradually changing back to normal with future bookings.

Replacing a listing - we don't normally get bad guests who complain about everything. The overwhelming majority of guests are very happy. In this case, it's a new property, unlucky with the first 2 AirBnB guests, so the AirBnB listing will be replaced. The non-AirBnB guests were very happy.

What would you do if you listed a new property and the first 2 reviews were bad because of things you don't control?

[Debra300]

@Trevor243,

Actually, I did receive a 3* review on a brand new listing just this past February.  I responded to the review, and left the listing active.  As far as I can tell, it didn't negatively impact the space from getting bookings, because it stayed busy until the pandemic and stay at home orders. I re-opened last month, and there were only 4 available days that the space was unoccupied. I continued to provide a superhost service level, and the rating is improving with each subsequent review.  Currently, we have a longer term guest staying for a month.  

[Trevor243]

@Debra300Interesting. Was that property listed only on AirBnB? And did you have other bookings on it before the first review went public?

We list on multiple platforms and take a lot of direct bookings. The AirBnB bookings can be few and far between - most bookings coming from elsewhere - so in cases like this, the first AirBnB review could be public before a second AirBnB booking comes in. We don't *know* for certain whether that review will affect bookings from AirBnB, but it does give the wrong impression with the non-property complaints. 

[Debra300]

@Trevor243,

This space is only listed on Airbnb, because it was at our home in Atlanta, a new hosting location for us, and I wanted to first test the waters to see if it would be viable before I spent time posting it on other OTAs.  No, I didn't have any other reservations in the pipeline before the poor review was posted.  I believe I got a reservation the next day or two.  I think it was helpful that my response to the guest's review showed that she was being unreasonable, and behaved poorly.

I have other spaces in St. Lucia, and in addition to Airbnb they are listed on my website, Booking, Expedia, and Google.  I am going to add the Atlanta space to my website, Google, Expedia and possibly Vrbo, but am unsure, because it never yielded any reservations for our place in the islands.  It's unlikely that I will post it on Booking.com, because in my experience it is a platform used mostly by Europeans, and there are travel restrictions between the two continents.

[Ann72]

@Debra300  I loved your reply to that bi(o)t(e)ch Deandra.  She has been schooled.  Don't you find so many problems spring from nothing more than poor manners and poor communication skills?

[Debra300]

@Ann72,

Yes, it's unfortunate, but it seems that her behavior was reflective of a person with little life experience.  Actually, I felt a little sad for her that she didn't know better and thought her behavior was appropriate.  It will limit her opportunities.

[Sarah977]

@Debra300  Beware of guests whose profile photos are of them dressed up as cartoon characters 😜

[Ann72]

@Debra300  That is the saddest part.