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.

[Anonymous]

I can certainly understand the frustration that would lead several of you to explain the ratings issues to your guests, but looking at it from the guests' perspective, I think it would do more harm than good.

As a guest, I'd feel ill at ease if a host talked about ratings and reviews at all, let alone instructed me about how I'm expected to rate them. If they complained about feeling that Airbnb's system was unjust, my first thought would be "why are you making this my problem?" If they were a "Superhost," I'd presume that they got to be that way more by badgering guests about ratings than from the quality of their hospitality. My overall feeling would be that the host cared more about their status in Airbnb than about their guests' experience, and that impression would leave a bitter aftertaste when it comes time to actually write the review.

I'm never one to dwell on imperfections as long as I got what I paid for. But if a host came off so presumptuous as to even hint that they should get a 5-star rating, those imperfections would be greatly magnified in the memory.

I do hope Airbnb is paying attention to the fact that some hosts feel compelled to do this "grade-grubbing" with their guests and ultimately compromise the quality of the experience, because Airbnb created that monster. Everyone sitting in corporate should take a moment to imagine going out to a nice restaurant in San Francisco, and at the end of the meal the chef comes out and tells them how important it is to give them a 5-star review on Yelp so they can keep their SuperChef status. No reasonable person would find this any less than absurd, and yet here we are.

My best suggestion is to keep doing what you're doing, always strive to improve and keep an open mind to feedback, focus on the guests and not on the manipulations of the website. And if Airbnb stops working for you, take your quality hospitality to a platform better suited to it.

[Rebecca160]

@AnonymousInteresting perspective. I just started to  include an explanation of Airbnb's review system of hosts in my guest packet, but I do not actually talk about it, unless the guest brings it up or has questions about it. Mostly, I hope to get those that give  me 5 stars on everything, except for Overall, and then give me 4 stars, just because they do not give 5 stars Overall for anything, something to consider. Since this applies to less than 5% of my guests so far, maybe it is totally unnecessary. I   certainly do not want to my guests to feel compelled to put in a 5 star review, if they do not feel that one is deserved. Of course, I am a pretty awesome host and will continue to be one, no matter what Airbnb does policy-wise.

[Patricia55]

@Anonymous in Berlin

I tend to agree. I've been reading about hosts who "educate" their guests on the review system, and kind of admiring their assertiveness... but at the same time thinking: "nah, that's not me!" Couldn't do it. It even makes me cringe when guests tell me they'll leave me a good review - I just laugh awkwardly 😉  But I guess that's just me.

[Mariann4]

I have it the same way @Patricia. 

But I really like @Ute42's post as to how it actually affects hosts. It is good information that the Airbnb leaders/programmers/ideamakers etc really should take to heart. I also agree with @Andrew's thoughts. (sh***y tagging today)

Mariann 🙂

[Richard-and-Isabel0]

Rich and I have been very fortunate thus far to have had guests appreciate correctly on their own the hard work we put in to making the house as hospitable as possible. We are still very green to this platform, this is our first year here. I just learned today that when guests grade us the can grade us 5* on all points then choose a lower rating for "overall" from Rebecca's comment in this thread. That's quite shocking. I thought "overall" was auto-generated by the specific points ratings.

Personally I am ambivalent on this topic because I feel that it is very accurate that if we inject an expectation for a specific rating to our guests experience at our stay, their expectations of our place will be higher or tainted as the viewpoint was definitely re-focused. But I would like to know if there could be a way to present our guests (by that I mean all our guests, all Airbnb users) an explanation of what the present rating system does and how they as guests could use it correctly.

What I mean by correctly is this: If I was a guest and I was brand new to this platform and was staying where the place met expectations, belive it or not, for me, meeting expectations is a 3 out of 5.... !!! Because it's above average with a passing grade, meet needs, and i'd reccommend it.

A 4 out of 5 is excellent, and a 5 out of 5 is outstanding.  For me a 4 out of 5 is when a place is literally better than represented, thus making it excel, and a 5 out of 5 is when a place is not only surpisingly better than represented, but it is also then operating at a level beyond its representaion and its value is that much greater. (ie. amenities not listed, details normally not included in a listing of its class)

This being said I would be your nightmare rater where I'd rate everything incorrectly thinking I'm rating it favorably because of my lack of understanding of this specific platform's rating system works. Here a 5 star is a minimum rating. Here a 5 star means the stay/experience matches its representation. Here anything below it means the stay/experience failed to match its description, thus making it a case of missrepresentation and overselling and underdelivering...which is what I know we aren't doing, and yet I am terrified at the prospect that someone could rate us as THAT, out of not knowing how to rate us (1) or if for some reason someone paid less than Motel 6 rates and expected the Ritz Carlton and the Hilton just doesn't quite cut it so they'd rate us incorrectly out of spite (2).  

A fix needs to be made, no?

[Mary703]

I agree with Jeet in that all of my 3's and 4's have come from people who have not read the listing - check-in time, shared bathroom, location, etc. I constantly am re-evaluating whether the $30 I receive is worth all of the extra hoops I have to go through (beyond the neat, clean room), in order to not get kicked off AirBnB...

[Miki5]

Oh boy, I'm going to be the one voice with a different view, but here goes. I think there's been a shift in society when it comes to ratings. An example, when I was a grad school I taught a few composition classes and was shocked to find out how the grading system worked. Basically, most of the students should receive an A, and those who didn't perform well in the class would get a B. Giving a student a C was, well, a disastrous grade, basically. The mentality was this, you start out with an assumed grade, an A (like 5 stars), but if you do anything to mess up, you get docked. In other words, you don’t earn your A (or 5 stars), your A (or 5) is there to lose. Don’t do anything wrong and you keep your A (or your 5 stars). I find it's the same mentality when I use Uber. I always give 5 stars unless something really really goes south. So, yes, I think there's been a cultural shift that now views excellence as the norm, instead of excellence as exceptional. In my experience, guests usually leave 5 stars, with the odd one leaving 4 for whatever reason, usually nothing significant in my mind, but some people are picky. In this world, everyone starts with 5 stars as the norm. In this world, 4.7 stars is a C grade. I’m not saying this is right, I’m just making a cultural observation.  

[Anonymous]

@Miki5 It's a debate that will never end in academia,  the question of when and whether it's appropriate to grade on a curve. The curve model (the opposite of what you describe) ensures that students are all graded in relation to each other's performance, rather than in relation to an absolute value of correctness or to the expectations of the course. The grading therefore becomes distorted in the direction of the overall performance of the group, even though the grades are only assigned individually. In a class with an above-average number of excellent students, there will be a disproportionate number of low grades, and a below-average group will have some undeserved A's. 

Of course, Airbnb hosts are not students all taking the same course, so no matter what the grading system is there is not a common reference point other than the very wobbly matter of the guest's expectations. If Airbnb empasizes that at review time (as Sarah claims they're already starting to do), the rating system privileges hosts who deliberately set low expectations and surprise their guests with things that were not advertised or paid for. 

Bizarrely, what that ultimately means is that we're competing against our own listings - delivering a better product than we claim to have, a better product than our past reviews say we have, and for those with a Superhost badge even a better one than Airbnb says we have (but still at a competitively low price). That's a strange thing to think about when you're just letting travelers crash in your spare room for a couple of days to make ends meet, as Airbnb claims most of us are doing whenever city governments are looking to regulate or ban it.

[Cormac0]

@Anonymous

I think your an intellectual giant, Airbnb just does not deserve Hosts of your calibre and intellect.

[J-Renato0]

@Miki5

Being right or wrong, you has made the most interesting point on this topic!

It seems that, this rating system really follows the Uber paradigm.

[Kelly3]

Grad School grading system is explained by a professor in tbe beginning of the semester, often before a student commit to that course. And the grades were given by one person, a professor, who has a great responsibility and consequences if he/she grades unjustly.

On Airbnb, this is done by a host - detailed listing page explaining what are offered and expected.

Airbnb review system is more similar to students reviewing a professor. They never had to clarify what are their perimeters and expectations. There are little to no consequences for them. 

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@Miki5 wrote:

Oh boy, I'm going to be the one voice with a different view, but here goes. I think there's been a shift in society when it comes to ratings. An example, when I was a grad school I taught a few composition classes and was shocked to find out how the grading system worked. Basically, most of the students should receive an A, and those who didn't perform well in the class would get a B. Giving a student a C was, well, a disastrous grade, basically. The mentality was this, you start out with an assumed grade, an A (like 5 stars), but if you do anything to mess up, you get docked. In other words, you don’t earn your A (or 5 stars), your A (or 5) is there to lose. Don’t do anything wrong and you keep your A (or your 5 stars). I find it's the same mentality when I use Uber. I always give 5 stars unless something really really goes south. So, yes, I think there's been a cultural shift that now views excellence as the norm, instead of excellence as exceptional. In my experience, guests usually leave 5 stars, with the odd one leaving 4 for whatever reason, usually nothing significant in my mind, but some people are picky. In this world, everyone starts with 5 stars as the norm. In this world, 4.7 stars is a C grade. I’m not saying this is right, I’m just making a cultural observation.  

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[Cormac0]

@Miki

I asked my seven-year-old son where his sports day medal was, he said, he did not want it, when I inquired why?  he said everybody in his class got one and thus even in a seven-year olds mind, it completely devalued it worth.

Effectively Airbnb have turned the five-star system into a binary system 0 or 1, good or bad as shown in one of Ute graphs which to my mind is a complete corruption off what it’s supposed to be, where one malign guest, can by nature of the stars they allocate, can have the effect of removing the super host accolade.

The Airbnb five-star system is an abomination and really is not fit for purpose.

[Gisele20]

@Ute42 

Hello Ute, you cracked me up and this is the first time that I don’t have a pit in my stomach about Airbnb. And you explained the system. My head was smoking as I was trying to figure out how many 5 * stars I needed to get to get rid of that one star jerk rating.

I didn’t make Superhost and now I am free!

All of a sudden, after laughing myself stupid reading your post, I realized that this Airbnb thing went way to far. I just will laugh about this company now and not care about the Superhost status ( stands for being super stupid and letting guests do whatever they want to break you and your place). Let’s keep hosting without bending backwards too much. Thank you Ute, you are a great person!

[Salem2]

I agree, who cares if we are Superhosts or not? we focus on the rating system far too much even though we know its unfair.

As long as your still getting regular bookings, I say look away and lets keep our sanity!

[Silvana5]

Thanks for this article. I asked a friend of mine that has stayed at our place for leisure, several times, to book via Airbnb once and review us accordingly.  He wrote a stellar review and rated us 4* in every category :).  When I asked him what we could we do better to get a 5*, he answered "OMG, I though I gave you a very good rating".  He did, but airbnb doesn't think so.