Home Highlights - check your listings

[Steve416]

Hi everyone,

when checking my listing today I noticed that there is new feature at the front of a listing called ‘home highlights’.

I urge everyone to check this.

My home highlights erroneously states that 95% of guests rated my location 5, when all my 18 reviews have rated location 5 - so it should be 100%. As I have a waterfront property, anything less than a consistent 5 stars for location is detrimental. 

I have reported this to Airbnb, but it raises concerns as to:

1. Why is data being reported in error

2. Why are these things being promoted - guests can read ratings and reviews for themselves 

3. Guest reviews are not often fair and reasonable and percentages do not tell the whole story.

I had a guest last year rate me a 3 for cleanliness out of retaliation,  and I’m still trying to make up for that in the ratings. So I’m just waiting for the highlight to say that my property is not 100% clean.....

cheers

Steve

[Ria16]

@Steve416 I did see it but now it’s gone ...maybe it was an experiment 

[Katrin-And-Phil0]

Thanks for the heads-up on this. I'm on Bornholm in Denmark and my listings have these daft 'home highlights' too.

They are completely hopeless - highlighting the most useless and boring aspects of my listings. There is a feedback function (helpful/unhelpful) next to each highlight but I'm not sure how that will change anything.

Another example of airbnb expecting computer algorithms to come up with anything useful!

[Steve416]

Thank you @Katrin-And-Phil0, @Jeff158 - great to know they are not just picking on us here ‘down under’ I did notice the feedback function and promptly selected unhelpful 🙂

[Sarah977]

@Steve416@Robin4@Ria16    And now I just saw a post from Lily in the Help forum that her home highlights say she has self-check-in and other stuff that she definitely doesn't have. 

[Steve416]

It just keeps getting better @Sarah977

[Jeff158]

I have it in the UK same as @Robin4 

@Sarah977 Lilys home highlights are different, I wonder if it rotates through our scores.

[Robin4]

@Jeff158 Yeah Jeff I think you have hit the nail on the head mate, this will be a rolling bit of nonsense just like those price tips that are to the right of the calendar on the calendar page. Most of the information will just be generic and the only real outcome from it is it will confuse both hosts and guests and probably lead to a bit more work for that 'under utilised' resolution centre :-))

@Sarah977It will come to you Sarah, just like the moon coming up tomorrow, you wait and see!

@Steve416 @Sarah977...I tell you what I find funny Steve....last week I had 50 amenities, now I have 37! I don't remember taking a chainsaw to my cottage and removing a big chunk of it....What do yours look like?!

Cheers......Rob

[Rebecca160]

@Robin4I also had 50 amenities and am now down to 42. Are some items now not considered amenitites? Are they now considered so standard that they are not worth mentioning?

[Melanie33]

I too have it in the UK.

At the moment mine is fine but I expect it will rotate and different things will be highlighted on different days and there will, as usual, be nothing that we as hosts can do about it.

[Lilly28]

@Jef2

@Sarah977

@Rebecca160@Steve416

Yes, it rotates, yesterday it stated great location - 95% of guests... And again free parking is misleading information - many hosts have this, but I have a garage CAGE - on top of free parking in the streets nearby - where it is impossible to find a place to park, unless you spend half an hour rotating around...

I asked about your suggestion for the reason they invented the Highlghts - and I understood that guests can now choose ony 2 features out of these pictures presented to them! So my mext thought about the reason for the new changes is - that the team wants to give hand to more and more people to join, and I think it is a dangerous step - now the Hotel business and the brokers will really have a tool in their hands to distroy the wonderful Airbnb idea! 

[Sarah977]

Our listing was one of the few things hosts had control over, that and the calendar. We could describe our listing the way we chose, in order to attract the guests we want. Airbnb putting this at the top of our listings (like @Robin4 says, it will no doubt come my way as well unless everyone bombards them with a resounding NO) without our input, is so, so rude. It's like coming in your house and scribbling all over one of the paintings on the wall.

[Rebecca160]

@Sarah0 Looks like you have Highlights now!

[Rachel0]

I have these "Highlights" as well - noticed them for the first time this morning.  I haven't been asked for feedback as far as I can see but if I am asked I will tell them it is unhelpful.  Why do Airbnb waste their time introducing these crappy ideas that nobody wants and then pick out, from their inaccurate stats, the one thing that is not 100% and plaster it all over the top of the listing.  Mental.

[Sarah977]

@Rachel0   You don't need to be asked for feedback- just fill out and send a feedback form on the platform. If they start getting lots of negative feedback on this, perhaps they'll rethink it.

[Raymond-and-Elaine0]

@Rachel0 if you click on not useful it says 'thankyou for the feedback" Let's hope they get rid of this waste of space as soon as possible.