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!)

[Rebecca181]

@Sarah977 - I was speaking with Matthew the other day (he is tracking 'Plus' listings - How many started out in February in San Francisco; how many are left now): In my beach town we had 106 listings last month. Two weeks ago it dropped to 91. This week it dropped to 81. I have no idea what this means, and who is dropping out. And why so suddenly. Were these sub-par listings? Or are the property managers who started listing on Airbnb last year dropping out? Not sure. But I thought that was interesting data. Losing 25 listings out of 106 seems like quite a lot, especially given the fact that we also have many new listings due to a new property manager starting to post. So I'd guess we lost 30 listings - over 25% of our listings - In just this past month. What on earth will happen later this year under the new standards being rolled out?

[Sarah977]

Interesting @Rebecca181.  Do they have the same rating and review system for Plus as they have for the rest of us? If so, I can imagine that guests who choose Plus systems will be very nit-picky- after all, they are being led to think they are getting something perfectly luxurious, something to match their discerning tastes. And with many of those listings relying on property management companies and co-hosts, who may fall down on the job, the reviews could tank a place really quickly.

[Sarah977]

Any Plus hosts on here who can tell us if the same rating system is applied in Plus as for regular hosts?

[Mary996]

@Ute42.

Thanks for doing the maths! Appreciated. Just one thing I note that you 'agree' with the other commentator... rather than that she's necessarily 'right'.   xx

[David126]

One thing all Hosts can do is educate Guests that anything below 5 Stars is a kick in the teeth and that they need tp review accordingly.

[Ute42]

And what if they want to kick You?

[Rebecca181]

@Ute42 @David126 I got 'kicked' once. It was entirely deliberate: By an emotionally immature, labile guest that insisted she had booked two nights when she clearly had only booked one, as confirmed by me when she first booked, and as agreed upon by her. She knew that a poor review could cause great trouble for a host, and that's what she did - Gave me a terrible review. And I had done nothing wrong - Treated her the same as anybody; offered to help her call ABB to find a place to stay the next night, etc, etc. It was extremely disappointing, to see how ugly and vengeful people can be (but at my age, I've seen it before, particularly given my work background). 

Mercifully, I had documented our interactions on the ABB messaging system. I called to have the review removed, not expecting to have my request accepted. However, the C/S rep researched my case, spoke to a manager, and within 15 minutes this retaliatory review evaporated into the ethers. But not every host has been as fortunate as I was that night I called Support. 

It was after this experience that I realized the review system REALLY needs to be changed, at the very least, to prevent revenge reviews.

[Sarah977]

@Rebecca181   Off topic, but you have mentioned that you have gotten really satisfactory responses from airbnb support several times, on various issues. And others with legitimate issues seem to just get sloughed off. I wonder what the factors are in achieving successful resolutions? For sure there are helpful, knowledgable support staff and then those who aren't. But there must be more to it than that.

[Rebecca181]

@Sarah977 I wish everyone had the same overall positive experiences as I have had with ABB Customer Support and Case Management, but obviously they don't. Could change for me one day - which is why I support seeking to change poorly designed policies that could drive good hosts out of the platform, just to save our sanity.

One 'trick' I use is I generally call support at 1 or 2 in the morning. Sometimes I end up at the Florida support center and everyone there has been absolutely amazing - So knowledgeable, so supportive, very much 'in tune' with the community vibe and sincere about supporting hosts. I have invited them all to stay at my Cottage, that's how wonderful they all were.

With that said, I called support at 1 am recently and had an equally responsive and competent rep from what sounded like the Phillipines office. So you never know. But in general, I do have good luck calling very, very early in the morning. Shorter hold times, too. I use the Super Host number.

I also wonder if it is because I am a high producer with 100% occupancy since I opened one year ago. But then again, I have seen other high producing hosts treated poorly by support, so that theory of mine is questionable. 

Could be the way I present my issue - Sales, Marketing background during my winsome youth, and also I have been a licensed therapist for many years so I am pretty skilled in relating with people and presenting my issues calmly and respectfully. But that's hard to judge objectively.

Ultimately, we should all be treated the same way when seeking help with an issue, concern, or problem, regardless of our abilities or communication skills. Isn't that one of the tenants of Airbnb, to not 'discriminate' based on... just about anything? I mean, geez, if somebody brings their Emotional Support Peacock to our ABB we must accept it! But I digress...

[Sarah977]

Yes, I was kind of thinking along those lines as well- how a host presents their case. I've seen so many long-winded rants on here, full of run-on sentences and really hard to read because some of it seems almost incoherent. While there seem to be plenty of hosts with really legitimate issues- guests totally trashing their homes or having parties of 30 when they booked for 4, and while I can see that they have understandable reasons to be very upset, I often wonder if they presented their case to airbnb in the same way they presented it here on the forum, and that that is why they got ignored or badly treated by support staff.

But for all I know, there are tons of hosts who presented their case unemotionally, succinctly, and politely and were still shoved under the rug.

[Ariane7]

Yes indeed you do digress, you give yourself a lot of pats on the back and you really don't add very much to this conversation which is about the fact that we are not happy with the review system... telling us you are happy with aribnb support team is a kick in our backside, just like getting a bad review... When I have phoned airbnb they are also very nice and polite but it doesn't mean that changes anything, they still then write me an email to say that the traveller can write anything he likes since nothing is against their rules. Even if the traveller lies and you can prove it they still are polite and friendly on the phone but then you get that ghastly email still confirming that they will not remove the review since its the travellers right to write something, even if it's a load of lies...

[Sarah977]

@Ariane7  Was your post directed at me? If so, I certainly never said I was happy with the airbnb support team- I've had very frustrating experiences with them myself. Nor was I patting myself on the back- I was just trying to understand why some hosts experience that they have very successful outcomes from airbnb support and others nothing but non-appropriate responses and no help at all.

[Helen427]

Educating Airbnb about chronological order and context how these nasty reviews is no different to bullying by some Guests, they are the same ones who bully & abuse on Facebook and think they know everything.

My own experience of an IB Guest who booked 12 days with me has been devastating as he wrote " I would not recommend to stay" despite the fact he gave me 4 stars in all ratings.

Airbnb must use certain words that drag your ratings right down to 1 star if one has such a recommendation as that's what the result is.

It's demeaning and discriminating against Hosts in general.

incidentally I wouldn't want that guest back and he was put out he couldn't come back as had tried to Rebook my Room and failed to abide by my house rules, surely to goodness "commonsense and courtesies" are still common practice in our civilized society

[Mary996]

@Rebecca181 

but it worked for you! so if it ain't broke why fix it?

[Shawn117]

David, I think some guests suffer from what I call the 'school teacher syndrome'. Remember the well meaning teacher who never gave 100%  because they felt that there is always more you can do as a student. (probably true).  I think some guests actually think it is not appropriate to give all 5 star ratings for a similar reason and giving all 5 star ratings in not good for hosts. They don't however consider we are not trying to be the Hilton Hotel.  Perhaps the rating system needs to move away from stars and start using terms that range from 1. below standard, 2. just acceptable, 3. acceptable 4. above standard 5. higher standard.  This then gives guests a more considered way to respond to their experience.