Review System Needs To Be Revised

[Rebecca181]

New standards for hosts are coming into play this year. Unless I am misunderstanding something, all hosts must maintain at least a 4.7 overall performance rating to remain on the AIrbnb platform. Super Hosts must maintain a 4.8 overall performance rating. Ratings will be based on the lifetime performance of the host (please correct me if I am wrong on this).

Those of us who have looked closely at the new method of rating our 'performance' believe it will result in many excellent, conscientious, well-reviewed hosts receiving warnings about their performance, including threats of having their listing deactivated; Super Hosts may lose their Super Host status. This should be a concern not only to all of us Hosts, but also to Airbnb Guests and Airbnb Corporate (the entire Community, really) for the following reasons:

1) Hosts will feel even more uncertain about how to intervene when guests are breaking House Rules, fearing a retaliatory review.

2)  Hosts will feel even less confident about enabling Instant Booking, as one poorly behaved guest could torpedo their ratings with an unfair / retaliatory review as 'Overall Experience' ratings appear to be calculated via a bell curve methodology versus a weighted average.

3) Competent, experienced, well-performing hosts may be driven out of the system / have their listings deactivated due to unfair reviews - Even one unfair / retaliatory review could cause untold damage to a host's business and reputation; in fact, it appears their listing could actually be de-activated if their rating is brought down below 4.7, even from just one review.

4) Super Hosts may lose their hard-earned Super Host status due to an unfair, retaliatory review.

5) Guests who cancelled are for some inexplicable reason allowed to leave reviews. So someone who never stayed in our listing could give a  host a 4 star or less 'Overall Experience' rating and our listing could be negatively impacted - Perhaps drastically.

6) From what I heard from Hosts who also travel through Airbnb as guests, when guests receive the prompt to review their stay, and their host, they are led to believe that a 4 Star rating is 'Good'; a 5 Star rating is 'Fantastic'. The truth of the matter is, a 4 Star rating is not 'Good' for us hosts at all, and can negatively impact our stats, our status, and our listing.

7) Hosts that have longevity on Airbnb will be unfairly penalized when the Overall Performance rating is determined by his or her lifetime statistics because a bell curve methodology is being used, versus a weighted average. Some hosts who have been listed on Airbnb for years are even discussing the need to delete their listing and all of their hard-earned reviews so that they can start over again with a clean slate. Also, new listings / new hosts sometimes need a learning period; they should not be forever penalized by ratings they incurred when just starting out. 

The other issue is that Airbnb seemingly is becoming more and more guest-centric - to the point where Hosts / Super Hosts fear retaliatory guest behaviors, including 'bad' reviews, for simply doing things like enforcing their House Rules or pointing out House Rules that were clearly stated in their listing, but the guest did not read. Also, guests who may have violated House Rules intentionally and blatantly are still allowed to leave reviews, which is of particular concern if the Host had to intervene when a guest was obviously breaking a rule. Sometimes these unfair / malicious / retaliatory reviews destroy a host's stats and can cause them to receive warnings that they need to 'improve' etc, or even cause a high-performing host to lose their Super Host status. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on all of this before putting this out on Host Voice - Particularly if I am not understanding the new rating system being rolled out in July.  I actually hope that I am grossly misunderstanding something - Maybe it is not as dire as I currently believe! My initial suggestion is that a weighted average be used, not a bell curve, and all sub-categories be factored into the 'Overall Experience (aka 'Performance') rating (currently they are not - I confirmed this with an Airbnb customer support rep and his manager);  I'd love to get suggestions from all of you to incorporate into my eventual 'Host Voice' post (unless another host beats me to it!)

[Ann10]

@Sally221-It's good you asked them not to smoke via the platform. Try to get photograpic proof. In my experience  ABB has always sided w the guests even if they are criminals who have done egregious acts to other hosts in the past. I had to take legal action to get what was fair. I saw a couple of other hosts who wrot e that they got burned. You can file a claim w BBB.org. I posted on pissconsumer.com and they gave me 1/2 of my money. So, then I filed a claim w the AAA. In my experience, I would say only file and settle one case at a time. Don't talk to their lawyer. Say you want everything in writing, and don't agree to not have the arbitrator.

[Kim205]

I cannot believe this new change for SuperHost to maintain a 4.8 overall rating. I shall explain below how I see the impact of changing from 80% 5* to a 4.8 rating.

All my guest reviews are 5* and I work very hard to maintain that, then I got a malicious lying guest who did not like my House Rules but still wanted my home, so pretended she is happy with everything all the way through, then made up lies in her review and gave me a 3* which dropped my overall rating from 5.0 to 4.8. I have many 5* since, and it stayed on 4.8 for a very long time and only just moved to 4.9.

I worked out that I need 9x 5* ratings just to compensate for this one 3*.

If she had given me a 1*, it would have taken me 19x 5* ratings to counter that.

My total number of bookings in a year is only around 20 as I take longer bookings and am using my entire home sometimes and do not take guests then. So, ALL my guests for A WHOLE YEAR would need to give me 5* just to compensate for a 1*.

Why would one guest have so much weight versus the other 19 other guests who are happy to give 5*? Not Cool At All!

[Rebecca181]

@Kim205 You just summarized the entire nightmare most brilliantly (as has @Ute - I am terrible at math so appreciate the help here). That's what I mean by a bell curve. That one low review drops a host down a steep hill, and it is very difficult to recover from. Even if up until that point you have been a five star host.

I had the same situation happen as you. An emotionally unstable guest did not like the fact that there were House Rules. House Rules she supposedly read and agreed to. And she gave me a 3 star review. My first ever, after over 80 reviews this past year. She only stayed one night, but nearly destroyed my rating. I was able to get it removed, but not all hosts are so fortunate. And, of course, something like this could happen again. Hence my post here. 

[Ann10]

@Rebecca181@Kim205@Sarah977@Susan612@Sally221 and everyone in this thread, 

We can also complain at the bottom of news articles like this one-

https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/06/airbnb-poaches-amazons-prime-boss/

and this one-

https://www.geekwire.com/2018/tech-moves-head-amazon-prime-departs-two-decades/

I bet if you google anything we are unhappy about there is an article about it somewhere and a place to complain. I can't believe I had to give my birthdate to create an account at tech crunch.

Another article w a place to complain-

https://travel.hostfully.com/airbnbs-top-secret-who-are-the-most-profitable-successful-hosts-6fefebc...

[Pam178]

Completely agree with this. I have been a host for several years, and have noticed a distinct tilt towards guests and away from hosts. Regarding the 4-star review, recently a guest gave me 4 stars because he found my tub/shower combination 'tight'. He is obese and even admitted that his 'size' was to blame but still dinged me for a normal size bathing space! It was doubly annoying because there were photos of said tub/shower prominently displayed. I did message him privately, stating that he was the only guest to ever not fit in my normal sized shower! 

Another guest, thankfully this was years ago, gave me a 1-star rating across the board. Her text review was glowing. She was an international guest and thought that 1 star was the hightest rating. I couldn't get it changed. So, if the same thing were to happen today, I would likely lose my Superhost status. 

Airbnb needs to get a clue about this review process. I was not aware that guests who have cancelled can leave a review! How is this fair, or even makes sense?  

[Rebecca181]

@Pam178 How frustrating, to get dinged on something that had nothing to do with you or your listing? I don't get it. Yes, this issue of guests who cancel being able to leave a review...I only have two words about that: "Explain, Spock!"

[Lilly28]

@Rebecca0

I have a question about the reviews. Can I ask a guest to write me the review he promised to give me - say, the six day after departure, just to remind him.  Can I write him a message through the message section of the platform? I know some guests are just not bothered to leave a review, but having five guests one after the other - going far and beyond for each one  - all of them writing me in the message section hours after leavinfg how great their stay was - and then - no review! 

[Sarah977]

@Lilly28  Yes, it's perfectly fine to send your guest a reminder to write his review, mention that hosts get marked on how many reviews are left, not just the quality of the reviews, and that since he was such a nice guest and a pleasure to host (or whatever you want to say), you'd really appreciate him finding the time to write a short review before the 14 day window is up- some people get busy and forget, so sooner is better than later, altho they should receive a couple notification reminders from airbnb as well. And even if you remind- some guests just don't bother.

[Rebecca181]

@Lilly28 If I had a guest that left my place in 5 star condition, and they behaved in a 5 star kinda way, I will send a 'soft prompt' to them if no review is forthcoming; I simply thank them for leaving my place in great shape and being such wonderful guests and I let them know I left them a review - I do NOT say how many stars I gave them, as I would not want it to look like I am seeking 5 stars in return.  

[Helen427]

Rebecca, what about if they were 1 star Guests and left your home in a 1 star state?

Or worse if they used the "f" word and swore at you as a Host and left you with an overall 1 star rating?

How do I get in contact with Airbnb legal team to ensure the 2 malicious and retaliatory reviews are removed?

It's been going around in circles with C/S Manilla as they don't seem to comprehend chronological order of events, the extent of harassment or impact such inaccurate remarks are having on my listing and potential bookings.

[Helen427]

Does anyone know how we can get our own reviews of a Guest removed?

I feel I'm letting other potential hosts down having given leniency to two longer term Guests who have abused Airbnb systems which has had a snow ball effect on me as the person who hosted them.

One of whom was an Instant Booking and told me " Get f***"*d" when I confronted him on his behaviours in my home and who was taking belongings from my home without my consent.

I ensured I also sent him a msg via Airbnb msg system it was unacceptable and in NZ a criminal act which may not have gone down well, alas I am very opposed to crime so a spades a spade.

The other guests review was false and misleading and libellous and as a new user of Airbnb I naturally felt pressured to respond when I should never have been placed in such a position.

Both reviews were written by younger guys who lack respect for women and were very much " I'm the King of the Castle" to heck with you

[Cathryn-And-Simon0]

Hello

We are very new to hosting, with two cottages listed.

We had a guest leave 5/5 for all but one area which was 4/5, but then listed her overall rating as 3.

Now we have had an email from Airbnb stating we stand the risk of being 'paused' because of this rating.  That we fall below the 4.7 required.

The 4/5 was for cleanliness on carpets and flooring, which in fact was only layed just one month ago...

How are we meant to counteract the damage done with the guest leaving an overall 3, and them being the only review we have had as they were are first guests.

Can we maybe put some information in our guest 'blurb' about how the ratings work.  That we are not a 5 star resort?

Our concern is that with a 3 star overall rating we wont be looked at favourably in future bookings, even though everything bar one was 5/5, which in turn will have us deactivated before we even get our foot in the door so to speak.

Any thoughts?

Cathryn

[Helen427]

Cathryn & Simon

Hello from across the ditch in Ak.

Unfortunately it's systemic failures that result in such crazy emails been received.

Whoever set up the system in such a manner may have had good intentions however it doesn't help anyone one bit in the long run.

I had my listing "paused" as a result of 2 dishonest guests who got into my home and stayed who didn't like been reminded when they stay in my home part of using Airbnb is to abide by NZ laws which they weren't.

As a result it's me who has paid the price despite been a very law abiding lady - trust me the Police can vouch for that!

Unfortunately until the Review systems are changed to reflect more accuracy and fairness to all we are faced with this challenges.

Alternatively, it would be most beneficial if Airbnb removed that message we all appear to have been subjected to as it's a negative not a positive.

Indeed when one looks at those messages where are the ones giving credit where it's due bar when you get reach say 4 stars?

Thanks Lizzie for your input and raising this topic because it must be addressed.

[Ann10]

Cathryn And Simon-Maybe you could make a new listing and shut that one down. I don't know if it will work, but you could try it.

[Susan612]

@Cathryn-And-Simon0 But addressed to all hosts. I am in this forum as a guest as we are also vulnerable to reviews that are not accurate or fair of which fair is currently a condition of reviews as per terms of service 10.2 but the word fair is being removed in the new updated terms of service and my persistence in requesting Air Bnb to enforce their terms of service 10.2 in relation to two reviews of mine might have sparked the change. 

@Cathryn-And-Simon0 I am responding to your post because I as a guest once left a 3 overall while every other category was a 5. It was not my intention to leave a 3 I don’t know how it happened. The host who I repeatedly book from brought it up.  I was shocked to find that I did that and still not at all sure how I did it. Though I am using a small phone to write reviews but still Each time I leave a review and am double careful before I hit the button I still can not figure how I did it. It was such a make sense scenario I called Air Bnb to see if I could have MY Mistake corrected and I was told No and the reason why was something along the lines and don’t quote me but a change might lead to corruption or misuse of the system. I invite all you hosts to use my example as a place to lobby from to address the devastating effect a guests mistake could have on you all. And remember I had no idea I left a 3 until the host pointed it out.