Guantanamo

[Ute42]

.

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.

[Mandrake-And-Karen0]

Thank you for your thought-provoking, creative way of expressing what hosts experience on Airbnb platform.  I like your wit and directness! Airbnb is like a sociopathic boyfriend who abuses you then tells you how pretty you are and then buys you a present.  Their system is ridiculous!  Please do continue to post.  I'd enjoying hearing what you have to say.  I read this message that you posted twice:)

[Andrea2460]

I think the medical term is narcism 😉

[Trude0]

This post is legendary, as is Ute42. I also love this post, it gave me a spit-out-my-coffee moment when I first read it - in 2019, when I had just started hosting. 

Unfortunately, Ute no longer has access to CC, so she is not able to continue to post. 

[Robin4]

@Trude0 

It was on the strength of this post of @Ute42 's and her subsequent comments that eventually resulted in her being 'removed' from the Community Centre.

"Guantanamo" is, to my mind, the single best post that was ever published here on the CC. I think it has received more comments and likes than any other contributor post. 

On the surface the remarkable thing was, it was written by a 'greenhorn'.....a host new to Airbnb. But it certainly wasn't written by someone new to hospitality. Ute had a wealth of experience in the hospitality industry and whatever she wrote was from experience and just downright commonsense.

Throughout our lives we learn from criticism.....it's what makes us better. This is not Airbnb's philosophy though. Over the last 9 years the best most knowledgeable contributors to the CC have ended up being removed for simply calling 'a spade a spade'. Something about 'contravening guidelines'.

Hope all is good with you over there in Sweden Trude.

Cheers.......Rob

[Page33]

Wow! Definitely worth the read!