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!)

[Chris232]

Its crazy that I have to chase guests to leave a review because my review rate is falling to below 50%

This criteria is out of my control so why should I be penalised.

Many guests see that I have wonderful reviews and they feel that they do not have to review.

If Airbnb want to implement this rating then the guests who should be penalised for not leaving a review

Madness

[Ariane7]

Rebecca I couldn't have written this better, it was like reading something I had written myself.
Airbnb expect us hosts to be able to maintain a very high star system all the time. But in reality if a traveller leaves a 4 they believe they are being generous, yet as a host we know we have to get a systematic 5 in order to not be suspended. I have often had a bad review about 'value' because the traveller complained that they had to pay high airbnb fees, this is because my villa is huge and therefore the price of rental is comparatively huge, the fees are huge, for example a weekend rental is about 1500€ so the traveller pays around 200€ in fees on top of that. I agree this is outragious, but it's out of my hands, but the traveller reflects their anger over these charges in their review to me. I have often been accused of getting this money myself, some travellers think this is 'extra' for me.
The other thing that concerns me is that airbnb does not understand what 'average' means, a traveller recently left me 5 out of 5 on 5 of the subjects and 3 out of 5 for value, this to me means I should have got an average of 4.6 stars but airbnb listed it as an average of 3 stars. This is very unfair as any other traveller looking at that thinks the worst, especially as others don't get to see on what the host fell short.
As for the other questions a host is rated on, it's all very unfair :

Accuracy : If they are referring to the advert and what they got, that's fine but most travellers will be basing it on what they 'expected' which does not always reflect reality. I had a traveller who phoned me to say I'm outside your villa, where are you? I insisted there was no-one waiting outside, she hung up and 15 minutes later turned up, she had been in the wrong town and waiting outside a huge mansion of 16 bedrooms. Of course comparing that to my little villa with only 7 bedrooms she was highly dissapointed. I have even been accused of touching up my photos.
Check-in : Is the traveller rating you on the fact that you were there on time and polite, or the fact that they were late by upto sometimes 4 hours and you were still there and polite. What exactly are they rating there?
Cleanliness : this is can be a very biased view, some travellers expect your place to be like a pharmaceutical dust free production line and so the smallest particule of dust and they rate the host severly. Many years ago I stayed in hotel in Lyon that didn't change their sheets, there were mice dropping in the room and IN THE BED. So it's all relative...
Communication : What are they rating here, whether they liked you or not, whether you just chatted or whether you were able to answer their questions. I was once badly rated because I hadn't talked to a Frenchmans silent non talkative wife who apparently spoke English... How was I to know, afterall I live in France so I was talking to him in French?
Location : This again is relative, if a traveller is only 40 metres away from the sea, and they expected to be on the sea front, then they will be dissapointed. Sometimes I feel like telling them, read the advert again, I haven't said anything that isn't true.
Value : this is the most difficult issue, because the traveller is basing his review on the price he paid and not on the price of your rental. Also because his fee IS based on the price, he will pay a higher fee the higher the hosts price, which is unfair since the traveller does not get anything more from airbnb, he isn't covered more! He doesn't get a special VIP insurance just because his fees were higher.  The only person to benefit from this is airbnb. Perhaps they should have a fixed rate fee, a one for all... then when a traveller rates 'value' it is really about the price of the rental.
In France it is law to have a written contract, and I have indicated this in my adverts, but somehow although I send the contract to the traveller straight away and they return it signed, I recently had a review that said, we didn't like signing a contract because this meant it was a contractual (a business deal), well IT IS? I'm not confortable letting someone in my house without knowing who they are etc.. afterall as a host we always have to worry about squatters...
Also it is rare that airbnb has ever reimbursed for damage, I feel I need a contract to protect myself. Why is it that airbnb does not pay up on damage? Just because the traveller says they didn't do any damage, doesn't mean they are not lying, but for airbnb it's end of subject, they have the final decision. I find that very unfair. When as a host do I get protection, afterall I pay my fees too?

[Ben205]

@Rebecca181So, good thread. Question is, what next? We all know it's very unlikely ABB will change the review policy because of Host pressure. It does seem like the CC is just a place to let off steam (and provide free customer service). Perhaps that's enough?

[Fred13]

  It is extremely hard to change the mentality of these economically-succesful companies started by kids (in their 20's), and still run by kids (in their 30's). The more successful (economically) they initially become the more entrenched they become in their thinking (aka 'instituionalized), because the faster they are isolated from every-day human reality. 

   Airbnb is a fundamentally an other-directed social company, its roots lie with social networking; if you note every move they make is with a built-in, co-dependency on guest opinion (not host) , like that could only be the sacred cow.

@Chris232 You mean like this classic example: 

   Last quarter I went down to 49%, so no SH, and it made no difference in my life, nor will it next quarter when I don't have it again.

[Stay-Asheville0]

I can't agree with this post more, but....  There's definitley some benefit to this new system.  It's going to force out a lot of amatuer hosts that probably shouldn't be hosting on Airbnb in the first place.  Where I host, I've seen people put beat up mobile homes on Airbnb and complain when they get bad reviews.  I've seen homeowners scream their lungs out when someone takes a roll of toilet paper... maybe the silver lining is that we will end up with a lot less bad hosts?

It seems to me that the Superhost status was originally meant to seperate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.  Is there even a benefit to Superhost any more?  They're putting people in this elite category that do a whopping 10 reservations..... well golly, 10 whole reservations?  GULP.   I do 10 every day.  Can I get a super superhost status that rewards me for 1700 5 star reviews instead of penalizing me for the rare 4 star review?  Am I going to lose superhost status because of the super cheap last minute reservation bookings I take leave me a 4 in value and location?   And their math is waaay off and super buggy.

I wonder if they take into consideration how some things just happen... for example, when a hot tub breaks sometimes it can take weeks to fix.  Having ten active rentals, all with hot tubs, I gotta tell ya.... you'd think you ruined someones life when a hot tun heater coil goes out.  Airbnb will realize that they're going to lose hosts to other platforms, and that the backbone of their business lies with the hosts.  It's certainly true that they're more guest-centric, as we all should be.  However to treat actual real deal Superhosts like I and others as amatuers.... part of the new update is that they're making hosts provide linens.  That's a NEW requirement for all hosts.  You can't make this up.

I mean, I think it's hilarious when I get a call from Airbnb support and they're trying to resolve an issue.  I provide better customer service than Airbnb.  I don't need some dude in the Phillipines meddling and making things worse when I get an upset guest.  I can't tell you how many times I've had to tell someone 'Ya know, I run a multi million dollar real estate business I started from nothing.  I don't need your advice on what to do here. You're not helping anything."   Ah, anyone remember the good old days when you'd get someone calling from San Fransisco who would actually help and seemed to care?

</end rant>

[Kimberly178]

....it is always those last minute and at a discount cheap bookings.  Makes ya wonder why AirBnB has added last minute people at a discount as a new thing.   And I hear AirBnB is building hotels? Hmmm

[Kimberly178]

I have actually had a guest mark me low score for the size of my house when the size of the house is in the listing!!! 850 square feet. Can you get much plainer than that!??? And AirBnB refuses to take it off.  I have had similar as well, clearly marked and AirBnB refused to stand behind the host who provide the homes for them to make money from.

[Rebecca181]

@Kimberly178 @Stay-Asheville0 @Ariane7 @Ben205 @Chris -Thank you all for your wonderfully rich and enlightening comments. Much to think about in your various shared experiences and analysis. 

In addition to @Fred13' s 8 recommended changes, and @Branka & Silva 's 9th add-on, it all could be made extraordinarily simple in the following 'no-brainer' manner:

-5 stars means - EXCELLENT: Listing was as described. Happy with my overall experience. Highly recommend to other guests.

-4 stars means GOOD: Listing was as described. Satisfied with my overall experience. Recommend to other guests.

-3 stars means FAIR: Listing was not as described. Less than satisfied with my overall experience. Would not recommend to other guests.

-2 stars means POOR: Listing was not as described. Extremely dissatisfied with my overall experience. Would not recommend to other guests. Recommend Airbnb review this listing.

-1 star means PLEASE REVIEW THIS LISTING IMMEDIATELY: This listing should not be on the Airbnb platform. 

Would solve many problems. Oh, and while we're at it, take out all of those sub-categories like value, communication, location, etc, for the reasons @Ariane7 states. They are meaningless, frustrating to read, and do not count toward our Overall Experience host rating, which is the only rating used to determine our stats.

[Ariane7]

And the most important thing : is for airbnb to stop suspending our accounts if we fall below a 4.
Because it only takes one bad review to bring our average down and lots and lots of 5's to bring it back up again, because airbnb uses a very strange system for calculating the average, which is nothing like the 'average' I learned about in school... for example there are 6 categories, I recently got 5/5 for five of the categories and only 3/5 for value (because the traveller had complained that the airbnb fees were too high) but I am the one penalised by his review, anyway if you do the average (as taught in school) it comes to a decent 4.6/5 but no, not according to airbnb, they come to a staggeringly low 3/5. Where did they learn their maths? And because of their strange maths, I am then threatened with suspension...

[Susan990]

I just read this well  written post which precisely describes what just happened to me 2 days ago! I am also a long tenured Super Host and have achieved the Working stay badge as well so this receint experience shattered me profoundly.

My Parkside Pad, created for the solo traveler (1) person occupancy was booked by a single man who claimed he was here for business in Bend , Oregon and needed just a one nite stay.  My guest lady who booked my Parkside Studio happened to be lounging on her porch swing when two men drove up , parked in their space, grabbed the key from the key box and came back out again in a few minutes

and announced to her that "the place is too small for us" and left. 

I got a text saying it was not clean and bed not made and demanding a full refund immediately.

This guest did not cancel.  This guest is also a Super Host, so he knows the system. He continued to send badgering threatening and derogatory text messages deriding my Pad and demanding a full refund.

Because he was claiming a refund because of his charges if I did send him a refund it would be a confirmation of his charges, as if I was admitting to them. So I could not do that. Also, he checked in at 6:05 pm and I think he did not realize I lived on  the property and was home at the time. I walked over immediately and had conversation with my other guest who shared her exchange with them and the fact of 2 men entering , which is a violation of the reservation.

What happened next with negotiating with Super Host services was very alarming. Not only was going to have to  endure the surely damaging review he would be submitting but he was demanding of Airbnb that they refund him directly. It was $75 and they were considering giving him his money themselves. They supported my statements, said I checked out on all points for my truthfulness and even though he brought in this second person, and being himself a Super Host knows the rules, they were treating him as a Guest and defering to him.  

My Working Lodging stat is now below mark at 4.7% and I am on notice of loosing that badge.

My overall rating dropped from 84% to 83% from this one single insane review which glaringly stands apart from all my reviews history, and there is nothing I can do about it.

One thing I learned from this essay was that even if they Cancel they can still submit a review.

I was told the opposite by Airbnb, that he could submit his review 'because he did not cancel'.

So now I know it is even worse than I had imagined. 

All my work for 3 years to develope my business with 2 Airbnbs in Redmond Oregon and achieve a stellar reputation which has developed a returning guest clientele and a business travel clientele is threatened by this one single bullying abuser of a user.

[Ariane7]

I have had travellers that tell me that if I don't give them a partial refund they will give me bad feedback, I have reported each time to airbnb and even though airbnb say they take 'extorsion' seriously, they really don't. I have received back feedback from these would-be extorsionists because I didn't give in to their bullying, but airbnb did not remove their reviews, saying it is freedom of speech... I don't think airbnb realises that it is the host that generates their salaries, not the travellers, because without us there would be not property for the traveller to rent...

[Rebecca181]

@Susan990 Hello my fellow(ess) Oregonian - Your post is heartbreaking to read. Until a very successful Super Host with stellar reviews has this sort of unfortunate event happen to them, it is difficult to understand the genuine pain and frustration (dare I say righteous anger?) this can cause.

I wrote this post for ALL of us - Because this review system effects all of us, and the changes that are coming this July will impact all of us - Many of us quite negatively, no matter how wonderful our reviews are, how committed we are, how much we genuinely care about our listing, our guests, this community - Many people will be hurt needlessly because of a badly designed rating system and review policy. 

The amount of comments on this post of mine should speak for itself. And there will be even more in July as people realize how the changes are going to effect them. 

Let's get it fixed, Airbnb. Just because 'Host Voice' is now temporarily unavailable doesn't mean we can't get it changed. Let's be a true community and get it done.

[Sarah977]

[Rebecca181]

@Sarah977 I am so terribly jealous. For days I have been trying to figure out how you insert text in the manner that you do, with no luck. My head is exploding with memes that the standard meme-maker just can't handle! Always the highlight of my day (your memes...).

[Sarah977]

@Rebecca181   I did it that way because for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to insert one of those speech balloons. I'm a total techno-idiot. I did it in Paint. If I knew how to explain what I did, I would. Glad you enjoyed.