Put Reviews back in chronological order to reflect listing development

[Andrea9]

Mixing old and new reviews is confusing, and as a guest I would want to see latest and up-to-date reviews, because that's the situation going on right now.

Old reviews may reflect something good or bad that might not even be relevant anymore!!!!!

---

---

Response from Airbnb

We agree that older reviews may not reflect current reality as you continue improving your listing and your hosting skills, often based on guest feedback. However, our research has shown that displaying reviews from guests of the same language and country leads to more bookings, and we want you to get as many bookings as possible.

The reviews that a guest sees on your listing are prioritized first by the guest’s native language and country, and second by chronological order. In some cases, older reviews may appear above more recent ones that aren’t in the guest’s native language or from the guest’s home country.

[Andrea9]

@Nancy0, @Pete-and-Marie0, Seems they appear in order of the country you live in. So even though I live in the Netherlands, I always use the English-language site version. But either the darn algorithms register me being logged in her in NL and thus first show me the antiquated reviews by all guests from the Netherlands; OR it's because I'm looking at my own listing here in the Netherlands... We can only hope that this post here gets enough thumbs up within a certain amount of time to be considered by the ABB operatives, and continues to get thumbs up and comments to really get ABB's attention.

[Darcia0]

I am happy to read that I am not the only one who thinks this is crazy. Reviews are good to know what can be improved, so I appreciate reviews. However, why is a review from 2 years ago appearing on top? I guess this is why I have not had a booking in over 3 months for one of my listings, as a negative review (the only negative review I ever got) is now at the top of the reviews.

Travellers get wrong information, hosts get less bookings and hosts get frustrated with all the changes, and thus Airbnb gets less income.

Airbnb is constantly changing, but unfortunately not improving.

The reviews should be in chronological order.

@Airbnb3: is anybody getting any better from this change?

[Nancy0]

Hi again, back in SF. And, this new insanity is now consistent, even via Chrome plus the Airbnb app and Firefox. I've raised this to an Airbnb employee/friend. And also highlighted it to @Lizzie from Airbnb, who's involved in Host Voice. What will it take for this to be addressed? Has everyone on this thread called and Tweeted etc? If not, please do.

[Andrea9]

Indeed, the insanity has reached high impact level by now, with the newest reviews slipping so far back in time that nobody will ever find the time to go read them on page 20 or so. I've also mentioned it to @Lizzie a couple days ago.

[Nancy0]

@Andrea9@Darcia0et al, I tried again and called Airbnb CX today. Got a sane, intelligent responsive rep who looked into the issue and validated he saw my point. In my case, there are 8 pages of US reviews (going back to 2011 when I started hosting) before you see recent reviews, of non US guests...so strange. He said it has to do with the guests language selection on their profile, to "help increase bookings". I truly do not follow the logic, since most of my guests communicate in English no matter where they originate, and at least previously, the guest could translate reviews...I expressed my profound protest and asked what it would take to revert. He said Airbnb would research the impact and only if it were positive would it continue...as if I trust that.. Glad you involved Lizzie also.

[Andrea9]

Thnks for this @Nancy0. It's so counterproductive, since the reviews in a person's own language might indeed be from 5 yrs ago and from a situation in which the listing wasn't yet on as good of a level as now. I can understand that one Russian review from 2009 and then followed by all other reviews wouldn't make a dent. But what if all the Russian reviews were so old and the new and amazing reviews then only followed on page 2? I really wish people wouldn't constantly try to fix what ain't broken and make it worse and absolutely impractical in real life. It's like when generals who've never been in battle are in charge....

[Darcia0]

@Nancy0 I would very much like to call Airbnb about this. I am a SuperHost, so I should get påriority help when I call. However, where do I find their phone number?

[Nancy0]

@Darcia0, indeed they do not make it easy to contact them. Folks from this community put together an excellent guide you can access with the link below. Thanks for calling!

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Community-Help/Contact-Airbnb-A-Community-Help-Guide/m-p/16165#M...

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

I am for cronological order

[Nancy0]

Another follow up: had a friend, past guest from the UK, look at my listing from her computer: She saw the following:

Kelvin - March 2017

Charlotte - March 2017

Catherine - June 2016

Brian - June 2016

Becca - October 2015

Jackie - September 2015 !!!

"Makes it look like you've only had 5 guests & reviews since we stayed with you back in 2015 so they def. need to sort this out." I truly do not follow Airbnb'd logic that such sorting will help "increase bookings". When it makes us look as if we've had many fewer bookings than we have...and the reviews shown are ancient.

FYI, I've put a note at the top of my description pointing out this sorting phenomenon and urged people to surf around to get a better sense of reviews. I shall raise this also at a SF Hosts organization but not until the june meeting. @Branka-and-Silvia0 please share your opinion with Airbnb via calls, Tweets etc.

[Julie477]

Order! Order! Order!

We constantly aim to improve, by listening and responding to guest requirements. Our most recent review reflected this but it's hidden away on page 4. Useless.

It wasn't broke.

Undo.

[Emily214]

I asked an Airbnb Helpdesk staff member. She was unable to explain why our guests' reviews appear in a jumbled and random order. I think it's unfair. 

[Darcia0]

I contacted the Airbnb Helpdesk. After some emails, I got a call from a very friendly and helpfull Airbnb Customer Service Representative.

I was informed it was a recent change, and the best way to express my concern was by leaving feedback through the Airbnb Feedback link.

So all of you, who have responded to this post, please leave your feedback directly to Airbnb through the below link. If Airbnb gets enough feedback regarding this change, we might have an impact.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/feedback

[James200]

Airbnb please list the guest reviews in reverse chronological order.

[Kate260]

I already left a strong comment about how reviews out of order is damaging our business on many levels but was told you will NEVER get a response from them... so how will this help?

My suggestion for now is to write at the top of your description:

"Airbnb no longer lists reviews in chronological order. Look for my great 2017 reviews on page 4-5 below"

We should NOT have to do this, Airbnb should listen and change it back!