Fat fingers / sausage fingers negative reviews

[Bob40]

OK, so it's only on my private feedback but I just had a guest give me 4 stars for lots of thing including inaccuracy about the address, the property description, the photos etc. When I asked why, he replied that he was mortified, had intended giving 5 stars for everything but with an ipad on a train and sausage fingers, must have hit wrong symbols.

How often does this occur, I wonder? And with Airbnb's refusal to change reviews, how reasonable is this policy given that the majority of people probably use touch screen devices to rate hosts?

[Emiel1]

@Bob40

More things can go wrong with fat fingers on sloppy touch screens.

People can also be drunk when reviewing.It's part of the game and just "bad luck".

Airbnb will not remove a review because being made under the conditions you mentioned.

it can not be checked either (guest must turn webcam on when reviewing ?)

Best regards, Emiel

[Bob40]

Hi Emiel and thanks for you input but I'm sorry, I don't regard holiday rentals as a game and if this is a known problem - I hadn't thought of drunk reviews! - why can't people have a few days to amend their reviews? Isn't this the point rather than defending Airbnb's inflexibility?

[Emiel1]

@Bob40

People have 48 hours to edit their review, unless the other party allready wrote a review to:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/13/how-do-reviews-work

I am not defending Airbnb, but simply think at some point a line must be drawn. The only thing which maybe could help is a confirmation screen at end of review process, so reviewer clearly sees what his input will be (and an option to edit it) , before it definitly is sent away.

[Mark-and-Gabriela0]

I'm totally agreed with you. AIrbnb should allow people to change it in 72 hours or something like it. Plus nonsense lower points, such in my case .... location, in myprofile I explain  EXACTLY where the place is located, how far away you are of everything, that you need to call by phone a taxi, bla bla bla ... I got my lower reviews because of it.... if you rent a place and BEFORE you make a reservation you know exactly the conditions... why to punish the host about it...

[Helen3]

This wouldn't work @Mark-and-Gabriela0.

The whole point of reviews is that they are left blind. If Airbnb did what you suggest, then they would open up guests and hosts to retaliatory reviews.

[Mark-and-Gabriela0]

I see your point, but sometimes people makes mistakes.... I think if someone wants to write a negative review will write after one hour, a week or 15 days

[J-Renato0]

I think the guest was just giving an excuse for having given intentionally four stars in the review.

If the "train factor" and "fat fingers factor" was the cause, there would be different star numbers on each item.

Moreover... It is useless to get to someone that has already given less than 5 star in the review... If they did it, it was because they really wanted to do it in most of the cases !

[Andreas-and-Anna0]

Or did he just say that because you called him on it?

[Sheldon15]

I think its a combination of the 2. You called this person out on why they lowered  the rating and they became a litle embarrassed

I have had people give me a 3 on cleanliness because I have toast crumbs in a brand new toaster oven and i dont have a bed side reading lamp. 

[Sarah977]

@Sheldon0  The toast crumbs are a wash, but seriously, you do need to provide guests with a bedside reading lamp. It's a real drag when you're a bedtime reader and there's no lamp. You're just starting to fall asleep and you have to get up to go over to turn out the light switch on the wall. It's almost as much of a drag as when guys leave the toilet seat up and a woman stumbles into the bathroom hal-asleep and goes to sit down and falls in the toilet. Don't laugh if it's never happened to you.

[Sheldon15]

I live in the house and yes I should have provided a bed side reading lamp. I just bought one on amazon and installed it. But all they had to do was knock on  my door or ask me to provide one which I do have in my personnal living space and would have immediatly installed.

[Paul154]

It happens all the time.

I  know from my own experience. 

When I review a guest, the toggle for "Would you recommend this guest?" is dangerously close to the "submit button". In the process of submitting, I often toggle to "No, I would NOT recommend this guest"  😞

[Karin159]

I recently had, twice guests, that say, very good value for money, but give 4 stards for value and money, maybee they had slippery fingers too 😉

[John1893]

stards, maybee.....even hosts don't check what they post.

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@Karin159 wrote:

I recently had, twice guests, that say, very good value for money, but give 4 stards for value and money, maybee they had slippery fingers too 😉

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