Guantanamo

[Ute42]

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2 weeks ago I've hosted my first group of airbnb guests and they were really nice people. As I was reading a lot in the german and english CC prior to my first hosting, I understood that it is important to get a good review. So I thought it might be useful to explain the airbnb review system to my guests before they leave.

So I told them:

• The airbnb review system is a 2-class reviewsystem.
  In class 1 (good) there is only one review tier and that is 5*.
  In class 2 (bad) there are 4 review tiers, 1* to 4*.

My guests were surprised and made big eyes, as we say in Germany, as they had never heard about such reviewsystem before. Then I showed them a screenshot of my airbnb dashboard were it clearly says: Required average 4.7* . They immediately understood, that each and every rating below 5* would bring the average down and therefore is a negative rating.

My guests asked me, why there's only one positive rating but 4 negative ratings. Obviously it would make a lot of sense that if there is only one positive rating there should be only one negative rating also. I personally actually don't know what the reaseon for the 4 negative rating tiers is, but maybe this is the meaning.

5* - liked the place

4* - didn't like the place

3* - want to hurt the host

2* - want to hurt the host big time

1* - want to ruin the host

As it looks, the ratings 1* to 3* are for retaliatory reviews only.

Let's forget about airbnb for a moment and let's think about, how any average down to earth person would design a reviewsystem:

 

For the guests: With this reviewsystem a guest can easily identify 41 different average reviewratings and can easily seperate good from bad places. The average would be 3* which is fine.

For the host: If You ever get a 1* rating this wouldn't bother You much, as one single 5* rating would make up for it.

But airbnb is running a different system. They require an average reviewrating of 4.7* and if a host does not achieve this, the host is threatened with being removed from the platform. If airbnb really does it, there will only be 4 average review tiers left.

5,0 = maximum...................................100%

4,9...........................................................98%

4,8 = Superhost....................................96%

4,7 = minimum requirement..............94%

4,6 = delisted

 

For the guests: It is impossible for guests to seperate good from bad accomondations, as there are only very good to very very very good places.

For the hosts: If You are a superhost with an average rating of 4.8* = 96% and You get a single one star review, You need 19 five star reviews to make up for that.

Also, with this reviewsystem You can end up in this weird situation:

Host A:..............5*.................................................................................average: 5,0

Host B:..............5*+5*+5*+5*+5*....5*+5*+5*+5*+5*....

…........................5*+5*+5*+5*+5*....5*+5*+5*+5*+5*....1*.................average: 4,8

So host B, who has 20 five star ratings is an inferior host compared to host A who has one 5* rating only? Come on.

Also, this one 1* rating that host B got may not reflect a bad hosting quality, maybe this was just a 1* guest. Bad education, bad credit rating, bad behaviour, always rates badly, who knows. So this existing airbnb rating can come up with results that are completely false.

Back to grafics:

• The required average is 4.7*, the minimum rating is 1*,
  so the difference between the two is 3.7 points.

• The required average is 4.7*, the maximum rating is 5*,
  so the difference between the two is 0.3 points.

That means, the punishment potential in this rating system is 12 times higher (3.7 devided by 0.3 = 12.33) than the reward potential. So seriously this is not a review-system but a punishment system.

I took me a wile to find out were such punishmentsystem would make sense, the only thing I came up with was a prision. Because in a prison the idea is to punish people for what they did and not to reward them. Lets assume, airbnb would run Guantanamo, the US Prision in Cuba, I think this would be their system to punish prisoners:

5* - prisoner gets beverage and food every day

4* - prisoner gets beverage every day and food every second day

3* - prisoner gets beverage and food every second day

2* - prisoner gets what's left over

1* - waterboarding

One person that recently got waterboarded by airbnb is Gregory in France, You can read his story right here:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/To-Clara-Liang-Product-Director-Last-min-cancellation-be...

There is no question in my mind, that there is only one reason airbnb runs such a punishing review system, and that is to put pressure on hosts to accept unappropriate guest behaviour: Guests show up with more people than booked, guests show up 5 hrs past check in, dogs were not mentioned, party, damage to the property and the like. And in fear of a bad review, many hosts accept all that.

Anyway, my way of explaining the airbnb review-system to my first guests was successful. I got a 5* rating all across the board.

[J-Renato0]

@Ute42

I see you have received a great review and have a great property! The written review says it, and by visiting the listing I could see that it is very beautiful and well equipped.

Your are already a "hoststar" in this communty and certainly you will be a great  Super Host!

Congrats!

[David126]

I hve thought of producing signs to go up in the rooms staing the AirBnb is a 5 Star system and that anything else is basically a kick in the teeth, that you would never want to come back etc etc.

Has been suggested that you should be able to auto block any guest giving you a less than 5 Star review. Guests would be notified as part of the review system of the consequences.

I do not totally blame Guests, is it reasonable to expect a newbie to know?

I see no harm in Hosts explaining how the system works.

[Pete28]

The uber driver faces the same problem.

- folks know if he gets less than 5* he is out of a job

- he communicates his need by putting a sign up in his car

https://www.etsy.com/listing/533605029/uber-lyft-headrest-seat-back-signs-pair?gpla=1&gao=1&utm_camp...

What at we need is for us all to crowd source a version for ourselves for Airbnb which isn't to humiliating, but that explains the only review you can give is 5*

[Tueykay0]

@Ute42

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Danke, danke, danke!

This is how I'd rate you for this article:

1) Overall content - 5*

2) Demystifying Airbnb rating system - 5*

3) Understanding the math for the review systems 1-4 = bad

     5 = only acceptable rating for hosts       -5*

4) accompanying graphics to explain Punishment System  - 5*

5) Figuring out that Airbnb has a Punishment System - 5*

6) A 'good and obedient host' would want to get food & water daily - 5*

Fantastic! 

[Rosemarie9]

Ute, well said, if you get this printed and framed you could make a fortune selling it to us hosts. Then guests might get the idea. I am feeling very frustrated with airbnb today, it has been a hard few weeks, with guests bringing children, pets, asking for extra early check ins and today I found that a new chair had been ruined by a guest splashing mascara all over it. Did they tell me? No, they just put a throw over the stain. I confronted them on the message system and they finally admit it but no offer of compensation. Twice this year I have had to deal with the possibility of a retaliatory review and had one removed. Yes, I feel like I am between a rock and a hard place sometimes!

[Lesia1]

This, made me chuckle out loud. Thank you. 😆

[Letti0]

Bravo! Bravo! You explained it better than the Uber Drivers did lol...

[Rebecca160]

@Ute42  This is a wonderful, and sadly, very accurate, explanation of the Airbnb review  system and its impact on hosts.  It baffles me why Airbnb does not understand that their review system is unfair to everyone and provides wholly inaccurate data. Perhaps if they take the time to read this, then maybe they will begin to understand and make changes.  Or not. They probably do not understand basic math and statistics, let alone basic psychology.

If it is OK with you, I would like to make a simple graphic based on this for my guests.

[Ute42]

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Hi @Rebecca160 , pls go ahead and use my graphic.

You wrote: why Airbnb does not understand

They do understand. They are doing this on purpose. If You have a group of guests trashing Your inventory or keeping the entire neigbourhood up with a party, You have the option to either evict these people or to get a 1* review which ruins Your business.

Airbnb is actively supporting the trashing of inventory and ruining Your relation with Your neighbours.

The result: airbnb style hosting bans everywhere.

[Ava30]

Excellent Article and I agree, it needs to be published! I have a one page explanation in my Guidebook in my listing that shows how the ratings work. Guests have commented that it was helpful to know that. I get a large number of newbies, mostly families, and they want to please me as much as I want to please them. I have one question though, how did you become a Level 10 host if you have hosted only one Airbnb group? I have no idea how their ranking system works. I see Level 2's that are superhosts and Level 10's that are not?????

[Ute42]

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Hi @Ava30 , I am level 10 in the community center because I write a lot and get thums ups.

This has nothing to do with superhost.

Superhost is hosting, level 10 is writing.

[Ava30]

Thank you for explaining.  There just seems to be so many levels of this and that were AirBnB is concerned 🐵

[Letti0]

 @Ava30  @Ute42  IS a very experienced host, just new to the AirBnB platform. She is also one of the top contributors to this community. You advance levels, by the amount of posts, replies and thumbs ups you receive. You have a bunch of thumbs up and 13 posts/replies and are now a Level 3 contributor. The more you post the higher you will go, 10 is the limit though lol. 2 of the top contribors are SuperHosts only by the grace of our guests very good reviews which can change with 1 bad review. The other 3 are not because Gregory got screwed out of his SuperHost status by a crappy not legit review, Jessica & Henry only do the long term rentals for the most part so don't have 10 stays every year usually and Ute as I said is new to the AirBnB platform. Hope this helps answer your questions ;D

[Ava30]

 Thank you @Letti0 it does help.  I totally get the being screwed by bad reviews. It’s happened to me twice now. But, oh well, we persevere. 

[Richard-and-Isabel0]

@Ute42Thank you for this!!! Do you have a file which could be shared, downloaded or printed? or a "guest" version of this we as hosts could give our guests to explain the extremely lopsided rating system?

I have got to show Rich this....

Thank you!!!!!