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!)

[James566]

 Hi David, shows the system is broke if hosts feel they need to educate guests. Guests are there for a holiday/stay, hosts shouldn't really be needing to discuss guest ratings with them to try and encourage a better/fairer rating. 

The scoring system is ridiculous as everyone interprets it differently, they should totally scrap it and solely rely on guests comments to advise potential future guests, if you end up with a whole heap of comments like "location not as described" or "beds too hard" etc then this is what will determine your likely future bookings.

 Like when you are looking to book somewhere do you really care if it has a 4.8 rating or a lowly 4.6 rating, I look at what previous guests have to say. Heaven forbid a 3 star rating simply because somebody judged your accomodation against hotel standards but then comments had a wonderful stay, great budget accomodation as described.

systems broke, get rid of it. Guest comments will ensure you are meeting the market expectations, AirBnB shouldn't be trying to score hosts using some system that is applied differently by different guests.

[Helen427]

Some people like hard beds, just like others may prefer soft or medium.

I had a guest complain my bed was hard, alas the base is wood and the mattress is NZ wool mix and he had plonked a very firm/ hard Airbed on top of it so perhaps he was really complaining about the bed he eventually used in my home that he borrowed from someone else and not mine.

Wool is generally a softer substance!!

[Rebecca181]

@Kelly149 I am going to provide examples using Airbnb's own rating criteria and there use of a bell curve versus weighted average, but I need a friend to help me do this - He is the one who noticed ABB is doing this and explained this to me in the first place; it is because of the use of a bell curve to find our 'average' rating score that @Ute42's example is both correct and disturbing (see her comment, above). 

Once I get a good, applicable example together with the help of my friend I will post it here as a comment and tag you on it. I am terrible at math!!!

[Ashley197]

@Rebecca181, thanks for writing this! All good points. The obvious standout for me: "guests who may have violated House Rules intentionally and blatantly are still allowed to leave reviews" -- how does this help anyone? It seems like hosts should be able to check a box that says if House Rules were violated, give evidence / documentation for it, and then be able to have AirBnB intervene to not allow reviews at that point. I can't wrap my head around why it would be beneficial for guests or hosts to have a guest writing a review who was violating house rules they agreed to beforehand. I really hope AirBnB will consider revising this non-host-friendly policy. 

[Rebecca181]

@Ashley197 Good points you make, and I agree. It also does not serve Airbnb at a Public Relations level. Such reviews are negative, unnecessary, and unpleasant, and could turn off a person who is contemplating using Airbnb for the first time. There is no benefit at all, seems to me. Trying to look at it through Airbnb's eyes, I wonder if it looks too 'controlling' to block a review. My answer to that: Hosts are subject to all kinds of 'controlling' tactics from Airbnb, and if we don't like it, we can leave the platform. So the same can go for guests. All ABB needs to do is write it into their policies and procedures and terms of service that guests who violated House Rules will not have the right to leave a review. Easy Peezy - And then we can all live happily everafter.

[Mary996]

Hmmm @Ashley197

That's an interesting idea! Though I'm tending towards leave all Reviews unless they can be contested.... as in the above case which succeeded. I had Guests who caused damage. I really believed that they would want to compensate me but I was too late to leave a review as I held out for the mediation process. I would say what happened another time and ask to amend the review to include confirmation of settlement. Or, I might invite other Hosts to contact me in the Review about the outcome. That might be a motivator to negligent Guests!!

[Ariane7]

I recently had a guest arrive 4 hours late, I send her a text message to say when are you turning up because I can't wait any longer I have other engagements. She wrote back 'ok we'll be there in 45 minutes'. This then gave me 5 minutes to show her around and tell her about the amenities etc.. I rushed out wishing her a good stay... she then rated me 4/5 for communication, 4/5 for check-in. Had she arrived on time I would have taken my time... I am thinking about adding this to my contract as part of the house rules.
When I have tried to enforce my house rules, guests do not take this well and will then leave bad feedback in retaliation. Guests have become too powerful and are using the review system against us for their own personal gain and satisfaction...

[Mary996]

I know how you feel. I'm considering a keysafe  but personally I don't make other arrangements on the day of arrival of my Guests.

[Richard405]

ABB is more and more like the big banks these days, hosts slowly become slaves of the reviewing system.

[Mike340]

@Rebecca181

There needs indeed to be an Airbnb "team" involving guests/hosts and AirBnb to really get to grips with the entire review system in order it can be re-thought and re-launched...it is far too primitive and deeply flawed, as we all know.

You get the impression AirBnb see looking into it as opening Pandora's box and it all becoming too complex, seeing as want it to be AI with little or no staff involvement....however ..at present it just is not good enough, especially when you have them wanting to reward Superhosts on one hand and leave them open to a flawed review system on the other...it does not make sense

[Rebecca181]

@Mike340 Precisely! I noticed early on that I feel like I am in a classic 'dysfunctional relationship' with Airbnb. I feel simultaneously valued and de-valued; empowered and disempowered; heard and not heard; supported and not supported; etc, etc, etc. Sometimes Airbnb feels like a Benevolent Power bestowing gifts and at other times like a dystopian Orwellian nightmare - Particularly when I read hosts' experiences of trying to receive compensation under the Host Protection Guarantee when guests damage their home. It doesn't have to be this way. Airbnb is better than that, I really believe that. And your idea of us all coming together as a community to revise this faulty review system is a most excellent one. I entirely agree.

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

@Rebecca181 I definitely agree with you that the review system needs to be revised! I would also add that Airbnb must introduce new badges in order to guide the guests more accurately and also display the years of experience that each hosts have on the badges.On Airbnb someone can qualify to become a Superhosts in 10 days which may not really reflect the reality.Hosting is all about experience,dedication and passion but many Superhosts do not possess these qualities!!!

[Rebecca181]

That's a really good point, @Oomesh-Kumarsingh0, I agree with you. For example, outstanding hosts who accept long-term stays may not qualify to be a Super Host as they can not get the 10 reviews they need to achieve this status. This should be amended as well.

[Mary996]

@Rebecca181 

Thanks for your various points! I was unaware of the qualifying factors for the Superhost status. I was wondering if you might possibly have a link? And also may I ask ...is it 10 reviews within a certain period of time?

[Jayne39]

I think a major issue with this rating system is that lots of guests from lots of different cultures rate in different ways. Before joining AirBNB I would rarely have given a 5 star review - not because a property wasn;t nice or great, but because culturally I've always seen 5 stars as 'going above and beyond' with 3 stars being as I'd expect and 4 stars being good. A lot of other people rate this way - especially newer guests coming from different platforms. I also think the idea of stars is confusing, especially with the push to get usual hotel guests to stay with AirBNB - people naturally start applying the hotel star standard to AirBNB properties - so I think you'll find more people giving 3 stars - not because there was anythign wrong, but because they felt the accomodation was equal to a 3 star hotel. 

I really think AirBNB needs to address this head on - as at the momenti think hosts are at risk of being penalised unfairly for honest misunderstandings.