Airbnb Answers: Protecting you from one-off bad reviews

[Airbnb]

You asked: Can Airbnb protect hosts from one-off bad reviews?

Reviews are so important. They not only impact the success of your business, they’re also really personal. We know you put a lot of thought and care into your hospitality and that it’s frustrating when you receive a review that’s uncharacteristically low—be it a mistake, a misunderstanding, or an unfair assessment. You’ve raised concerns about this, and we want you to know that we hear you and we’re taking this issue really seriously. We’ve invested and will continue to invest a lot of thought and effort into how we can make the review system more fair.

The good news is, we’re already making a lot of progress. Here are some updates we can share with you now, below, and we’re committed to keeping you in the loop as we roll out more changes.

A tool to detect outlier reviews

At the last Host Q&A, in June, 2018, we said, specifically, that we’d look into outlier reviews. To be clear, one-off low reviews can be considered outliers when a host has otherwise great review scores, but a single guest leaves a bad rating that seems out of place. Here’s a solution we’ve come up with: We’re working on building new tools that will automatically detect when outlier reviews like this occur— and give us an opportunity to correct them. So let’s say a guest gives you five stars for cleanliness, accuracy, check in, and so on— for each of the sub categories— but then a two-star rating overall. The new tool will flag this and prompt the guest to correct the overall rating. We’re developing this new tool now, and you can expect to see it soon.

Research into how those reviews affect Superhost status

In addition, we’re doing research to see how a single outlier review can impact a host’s ability to gain or retain Superhost status. The ultimate goal is to find ways to make outliers less impactful for terrific hosts and to make sure the review system is fair.

Location, location, location

Finally, we’re looking at the Location rating and how that can affect a host’s standing. It’s worth noting that Location isn’t used in calculating a host’s overall rating. But you’ve told us that you’re frustrated when you get a low rating in this category since where your home is located is out of your control. And we hear that.

This is a tricky one. It’s a hard concern to address because judging the quality of a home’s location is so subjective. Some guests may love that your space is off the beaten path; others might be disappointed it’s not closer to public transit. We’re doing a lot of research into how we can continue giving travelers the information they need and want when they’re making booking decisions and, at the same time, make sure hosts aren’t affected by something that’s out of their control.

So we’re looking into new ways to collect and highlight guest impressions of your home’s location information. While we don’t have a concrete announcement on this yet, you can expect to hear more details soon, perhaps at the next Host Q&A. In the meantime, please know we’re working on this. Keep sending us your feedback on how we can make the review system as fair as possible.

View this and other answers from the Host Q&A here.

[Janna29]

Good! I have asked Airbnb to remove a bad review, one star, when I average 5 star continuously over the year. This person did damage, I was awarded the damage deposit, yet the review they posted stays up?! 

I disagree with this, it should be removed. It has affected my overall rating. I feel it’s un-fair and unfortunately Airbnb says they will  not remove it.

Im not happy with the outcome and do believe changes need to be made. 

[Diogo70]

Give the guest opportunity to rate location in my opinion is a joke! They can check the area before they book the place. I had some guests saying that my property is too far from central London, but on my advert is very clear that the property is in Mitcham and not in London. If they want a property close to central London they should book one in London!

Another thing that I don’t agree is rate for value. Airbnb is full of properties with different values, if you pick mine over a cheap one you can’t rate me low on that or even the guest shouldn’t be allowed to rate at all.

[Chrislyn0]

Well done!!!!!

Finally you have heard my plea!!!!

I've had fantastic reviews then one bad penny which spoilt it. I was very upset for several weeks. The guest was devious at most! She claimed I stated that I provided snorkel equipment and beach umbrella which was never an ammenity in my listing. Then with this she said that I gave an inaccurate description. I really think the issue was that she had to buy her own snorkel equipment and rent beach chairs at her own cost.   So she was unfair in her assessment, devious, claimed she could get better value for money elsewhere on the island, yet had never travelled to the island before. How would she know about better value? When she departed she didn't even shake my hand, but got in the taxi and left. I actually gave her a 5 star review, gave her the benefit of the doubt and thought she was just in a bad mood. At this point she should not be allowed to keep the review that I gave her. These guests need to be flagged and a warning needs to be listed by their name if they are not prepared to recant their unfair review.

[Grace340]

I had a guest this year who was grifting through the region intent on destroying Airbnb hosts by being adversarial, making false accusations, abandoning the reservation (without cancellation) once finding another host to terrorize, and being uncooperative with Airbnb support. I was a  superhost until this guest's malicious rating. It is still there affecting my rating. Airbnb would not omit the obviously malicious outlier rating. How is this outlier formula working? It's not. I should not have lost my superhost status.

Furthermore, because of local laws, I can only list for stays longer than 31 nights, so while I am getting otherwise great reviews, they are not frequent because of the long stays. The overall rating does not take this into account either.

[Chrislyn0]

Location is another issue. My guest accommodation is at the end of a quiet, tranquil neighbourhood on the waterside. It's a 10 minute walk from the main road. When going out at night guest need to have a rental scooter or electric car or catch a taxi back. I've had guests catch the bus in the dark of night, walk over the hill then give me 4 stars for location because they did not wish to catch a taxi back at night, yet loved the quiet tranquility of it. This needs to be fixed.

[Rhonda121]

My suggestion is for every 25,  5 star reviews, you get to throw away 1 poor review.  It certainly is fair if your amazing for 25 people and only one is negative. 

[Sila-and-Aurelija0]

This is good news in the right direciton, but there are low hanging fruits that you can do in parallel.

- I enabled instant booking as I read all the pushy notifications from Airbnb to ensure that it's secure, and you can cancel if you are not comfortable with the guest penalty free

- I woke up to an instant booking with the same day check in

- checked the reviews of the guest, she had 3 stars and one of her 2 reviews she basically threw a party and trashed the house, threw a bottle of vodka on a car and damanged it

- I thought that Aribnb has my back as I can cancel penalty free so I called them and they cancelled it and said not to worry it's all ok

- I then get suprised by a review from the guest who gave me 2 stars wihtout even checkin in to my place (Airbnb support knows that). They rated the cleanliness for example with 1 star and they never even saw the apartment.

- This resulted in loosing my superhost rating which is really a bummer

I found the whole "cancel penatly free" sales pitch misleading and what was worse is how Airbnb handled this by not doing anything with the review.

Why not remove these ratings, or not allow a cancelled instant booking (for valid reasons) not able to give a review if they booked and cancelled on the same day?!?!

[Paul416]

I am sure this is probably the most clicked on link in the newsletter!  So many important points there.

We've been so close to superhost status a few times, but we had two bad reviews that gave us a 2 and a 3 out of 5 overall over the course of the last two years. That pulled our average down JUST under superhost criteria. I am sure this had a direct impact on our bookings or lack of bookings. In the one case, the guests broke a lamp, and denied it when we contacted them about it. Then they left a very snotty review about something that was wrong with the shower and about the fact that the neighbour's dogs barked. We found the shower was a blatant lie as it worked 100% and there was nothing wrong with it, and we could not do anything about other people's dogs. In another case we got a bad review because the municipal water was off in the entire city due to a large supply line that burst and it was under repair. We went out of our way to communicate with the guests about the situation and provided them with all the water we could find during the time so they could at least flush the toilet and have water for tea and coffee. Still, they left a bad review, even though it had nothing to do with our ability to host or our listing quality. In both cases, we were not able to set the record straight, and the only thing we could do is try to write a reasonable response. I really felt cheated. When we travel with Airbnb, we almost never consider non super hosts, because you don't want to risk your time and money if you don't know the hosts are good at hosting. All our other reviews are 4 and 5 stars. It's really disheartening.

Location is also a big deal. IF somebody books our place, they can see the general area, as well as the photos of how it looks before the time. They choose to stay here, and pay next to nothing for it, but for some reason they feel entitled to give a bad rating based on the very location THEY chose. This is just rediculous.

[Anastasia130]

I have similar issues with Airbnb and I believe, that deleting 1 one false review is not enough. Some people are just mean and they lie. Why does this lie have to stay? One person lied about bad bugs, another person rated me low, because she wanted to use a parking, that was not availble for her.

Not to mention, that location does not indicate my performans as a host.  

Another concern - when someone hosts over 100 guests within a 3 months period while someone else hosts 15 - how can be the Superhost Status detemermened fairly? I am not saying, that one person does a better job than another, but I believe, that for people hosting over a certain amount of guests the Superhost Status should be determened differentely.

[Larry165]

I agree that location should not be a choice in the rating questions .

Im sure guests research the location of their choice before they book a stay .

I also believe (value) on the rating list should be asked, but if all the other category’s receive 5 stars from the guest , then a 3 or 4 rating on value should be questioned .

There are some guests that will never give a five star rating for value . 

That can be easily checked  by looking at their past reviews .

To have to drop from a consistent 100% rating to a 95or96% because of one of these rating answers is very disappointing to hosts that go above and beyond expectations to make their guests experience a special one .

[David3058]

Maybe an appeal process where owners can appeal a review and an actual AirBnB reviewer looks at it. Think NFL replay request, host can only submit so many and if they are wrong, they get charged a nominal fee to cover the cost of the review, but if they are correct, reviewis revised or removed. I had guest say how wonderful our property was, clean, walking distance to everything, etc, but then gave us 2 stars because it was "too small"!  Our price is great, and we are in a tourist location, and we're an old historic pepper and I state in the description that it is exactly 400 sqft and I have professional pics from every possible angle, so she got a wonderfully charming space in a perfect location, which she admitted, which match the description and photos perfectly, yet she gave me a 2-star review. I courteously contacted her and explained that might not be accurate or fair and it would have a significant negative impact on us, and she agreed and apologized and said she would call Airbnb. She actually followed up with me and said she talked with Airbnb and they said they could not revise the review, but they would remove it for her.  That was almost a year ago and the review is still there.

[Michelle548]

Sometimes guests are just plain crazy and demanding. I had a guest complain because I did not go out to her car and bring her luggage in for her. I had another guest who got huffy and pouty and stamped her feet whenever she crossed paths with another guest. I had one give me the worst and only 2 star review because I would not make breakfast for him and his son. He was from the UK and reserved the smaller and cheaper of 2 rooms (by $4) for him and his adult son to share a double bed in the heat of the summer at 100 degrees. Then he complained that when he opened the window he could hear cars.  This was in the suburbs in a quiet SFH neighborhood in a culdesac. He should have asked if there would be any other cars in a 5 mile radius if that's what he wanted.  Yes, my neighbors own cars and come and go within earshot. WTH? Oh, and the most recent one came in, I welcomed her and she went straight up to the room, got a shower and after spending 4 hours in my house alone in the room with the door shut said she was checking out. Thanked me for my hospitality then asked for a refund because she wasn't staying. I said I don't rent by the hour. Then she proceeded to say I was not a welcoming host and she didn't like "the vibe" in my house and she felt trapped. Well, "the vibe" was just like the pictures and I don't k ow what else i could have done for her to be welcoming while she stayed locked up in the room. And the doors like from the inside so if she felt trapped that was her own fault.

[Geoff-and-Betsy0]

Had recent phone contact will AirBnB, subsequent followup by supervisor and everything worked great.    These issues are real and happy that they are being addressed.... 

[David3059]

I've received several mediocre (i.e., 3-star) reviews which I thought unfair given my own experience as a guest (in Europe, admittedly not in the USA). Whether it's a different set of expectations (I've stayed in 3-star hotels in Europe which did not compare with what I offer to a guest here), or simply a desire to get back at a host for some indignity (delayed check-in time, lack of "coffee in the room"), I think airbnb should do something about this problem.

[Honza6]

So that is a NO as an answer. Only thing you are willing to address are guest errors. I had almost perfect 4.9 score until one guest decided for no reason other than being a despicable human being to give my room 1 star review. The review was completely false. They were lying about pretty much everything and when I contacted Airbnb customer service I was politely told to f*** off.  Guests shouldn't be able give review like that without providing reasonable evidence. Everybody got hi-res camera in their phone now. Is there a stain on your bed? Take a picture and show it to the world. Or if that is too much, give us way to appeal to such a review. Airbnb could easily meditate in such cases. Can the guest provide any evidence that would justify their review? What is the track record of the host/guest?