Daniel, I second your brilliant suggestion for automatically blocking guests from re-booking with a host in the future when they have already left less than 5-stars in their review on their initial stay. Every host who cares about the service they provide would agree with you that they would be fools to host those guests a second time at great risk to their Super-Host status.
It also would be a great wake-up call to those guests who, time and again, give all 5-stars ratings in all but one category and 4 stars in that last category with an overall rating of 4 stars! If Airbnb doesn't grasp the issue, then perhaps guests would, that if you don't VALUE the OPPORTUNITY for affordable accommodations wherever you want to be, then keep doing what you're doing, and the hosts will stop hosting! Life is just too short.
It really boggles my mind that people don't comprehend that KIND people in SAFE neighborhoods are OPENING UP THEIR HOMES to them. Whenever I stay in someone's home as a guest, that is what is on MY mind when I'm rating them. I did someone's dishes in gratitude over and above giving them a TOP rating when my husband and I stayed in their Northeastern home near a big city. Their home was a rented duplex, and the inside stairs leading up to their place had HOLES in them and the wall paper was peeling! Inside their home was humble, with one bathroom for the two of them AND the two of us (on the next level up) to share! But it was comfortable, and their hospitality made me feel safe and welcome! Our experience there and at two other hosts' accommodations are actually what inspired my husband to suggest that we open up our home to travelers in our neck of the woods.
While in the Northeast, we were both GRATEFUL for the opportunity to spend $50 per night instead of the $300-$400 PER NIGHT, what we were hearing others at our conference were having to pay for a room. For the price of one night at the downtown high-rise hotel, we were able to stay the entire conference as well as rent a car for the week! I don't want that opportunity to go away! So AIRBNB, please HEAR us when we say, "Please fix this problem!"
Lastly, there is a hard-to-please couple traveling around from one Airbnb to another, and they told me themselves that they gave up their home and basically live out of their car because their work takes them to various parts all around the country. Now you would think that, depending on Airbnb like they do for their daily housing, that they would be more careful about their conduct toward hosts than they have been.
We bent over backwards for them, allowing them into our personal space to do their laundry (which we CLEARLY STATE on our listing is NOT an amenity that we provide). But we allowed them to do loads a couple of times throughout the week so they wouldn’t have to go to a laundromat, and they repaid us by smiling to our faces and then posting in their review 12 days after departure, among other things, libelous character assassinations which have no basis in fact! Ironically, I was trying to educate this woman on her own very narrow view of the world in a friendly sort of way, but it backfired. She is one of these fragile snowflakes who also knows how to manipulate the system to take advantage of people and then stab them in the back.
I have discovered that their scathing, "Gotcha!" reviews continue to this day, over a year later, to very unsuspecting hosts. It appears that she is the one who leaves the excruciatingly lengthy reviews, which I would have wanted to read BEFORE confirming their stay with us. They have a tendency to book affordable accommodations that clearly state what amenities are included or not included, and then CRITICIZE the host for not providing amenities that they don't provide. They really should stop using Airbnb and go stay at a Marriott or Hyatt! It's painful to see them being allowed to repeat this over and over again with hosts who echo, "Why didn't you say anything before sticking it to me with a negative review?!"
******FYI HOSTS: It is POSSIBLE to see ALL the past reviews a potential guest has left for their previous hosts, it just takes a little legwork to click on their profile then click on the profile of their past hosts individually and scroll through THEIR reviews until you see the picture of the guest you are researching. A little patience is required currently to dig in to some of these past reviews left for hosts from your potential future guests as it currently stands, primarily when the past host has a lot of activity and therefore lots of reviews you have to scroll through in order to get to the one guest's reviews whom you are researching. The fact that the information is there at all is evidence that Airbnb could make this EASILY available to hosts in advance of confirming reservations with new guests by the click of a button! Please join me in requesting Airbnb make this readily available to us! ***********
Knocking out these Outliers would definitely deal with the issue of such deceitful guests who don't say anything about what is annoying them until they are sure that their hosts have left them a stellar review. Then they let 'er rip . . . once they're gone and you've left them a positive, glowing review, and there's nothing you can do about it! Now I routinely check for reviews of future guests for what they said of THEIR PAST HOSTS before confirming a reservation.
Honestly, we're kind of getting tired of the whole rigmarole, and are constantly going back and forth between whether or not it is worth it. I would love to have suggestions as to other alternatives to Airbnb, as competition always gets the fat cat to take notice. Airbnb had a great idea, but hasn't done a good job of understanding that without HOSTS, they have no INVENTORY! We need to help them understand this.
If you're still reading this, at the risk of being like Hannah who is the loquacious reviewer of her and her partner's hosts, it’s really quite comical how she fancies herself an "Airbnb Informant!" Here's an actual cut and paste of a small portion of one of her reviews that I find funny: "Note: The parking spot is to the right of the building while the entry keypad is located next to the door on the left side of the building only. This is the only access point for guests without a key fob. Check in involves self-check in with a lock box with a key located on the door to the condo once you have made it through the initial outside keypad which leads to the elevator. The elevator takes you to your condo room hallway which has the lock box." (end of quote)
Other than the sad fact that this is only 1/4 of all that she wrote in this poor host’s review for one stay(!), it's hilarious if she thinks that she's informing anyone who cares about this information (future guests of this host) and believes that those guests without a key fob are going to seek out HER review on the 12th page of their reviews in order to find out what to do next upon arrival! LOL!
At least Airbnb has its word number limits and frequently cuts her off when . . .
(It cracks me up every time!)