Reviews Required To Not Lose Superhost - Rude To Ask Guests For Reviews

[Alan138]

I am starting this discussion in hopes that AirBNB management will see it and modify their Superhost qualification requirements because SO MANY of us have replied to this discusion all in agreement that they should change the requirement. SO Please reply and comment if you agree this should be changed.

I am a Superhost and quickly on my way to losing my Superhost status even though my superhost level of service has not changed one bit.

I have learned that you must maintain a certain percentage of reviews to keep your superhost status. In other words, if enough of my guests do not decide to leave a review I will end up losing my superhost status.

First, in my opinion, asking your guests to leave a reviews is EXACTLY like a waitor at a restruant asking you to leave a tip. It is just simply rude no matter how you slice and dice it.

Second, I now have 4 regular guests who come stay every week and/or 1-2 times per month. It is ridiculous for teh same one person to have to write a review 4 times a month, every month, month after month, for me to not lose my Superhost rating. To ask them to do so so I do not lose my superhost status goes beyond being rude but becomes abusive to my guest. Additionally, 4 reduntant reviews from the same guest every month, 24 of the saem reviews from the same guest in 6 months, my review panel will certainly start to look suspicious like they are made up reviews.

Third, it is well know in life that happy customers are less likely to leave a review while pissed off customers always leave a review and that is true no matter what product or service cosumers buy out there. Also many people are just people that do not spend their time to write reviews.

Requiring a superhost to make sure all of their guests write reviews to keep their superhost status is an incorrect system design that does NOT serve the guests whatsoever. Having to secure enough reviews to firts earn your superhost status is fine but once you are a superhost, percentage of guests writing reviews shoudl no longer be required.

So what do you think? Please tell AirBNB to change their system or you yourself will eventually be a superhost that no longer has a superhost rating just like me.

[Sandra856]

@Fiona58 Airbnb did change the requirements half a year ago - so we are luckily no longer rated after if guests choose to leave a review :-). 

[Sandra856]

@Chad175 @Tori44 @Alexandra199 When I logged into my airbnb account today I noticed it said under my superhost status that I needed to look at my review numbers as I only got 14% and that I needed at least 50% to stay a superhost. There is a big bug in the system. Just so you all know. I calculated my reviews since July 1st, 2018 and I got 47 reviews. I have had 67 booking so far. So more than 50% of my guests did leave a review. It could never be just 14%. I wrote to airbnb support and got a message back straight a head that there is a bug and that they are working on fixing it. So look at how many bookings you have had since July 1st 2018 and how many of your guests that left a review. If you click on your profile picture all reviews will be in cronological order. So easier to count. 

[Tori44]

@Sandra856 thank you so much for this. I logged on and it said mine was 28% which I thought seemed low but hadn't worked it out for myself. Feeling relieved ! 

[Sarah977]

@Sandra856  Even their bug isn't consistent 🙂 Mine also suddenly said 14%, and I had 100% review rate!

[Sandra856]

@Sarah977 No, haha... I was like.. I know I have had to change my tactic when it comes to reviews but 14 % was just ridiculously low. And you who got 100%.. haha 🙂 

I have quite a few guests not leaving me a review and it is always, always those who screw up. Usually young newbies to airbnb. Those I have to wait for because the decided they would rather have tea or dinner in the city center than check in when expected or those who I have to ask to please pack their luggage and check out way after they were supposed to check out AND after I told them my scheduel is tight so 10 PM is latest check out time. Those who use the hair dryer after midnight despite making it clear not to after 10 PM.

Luckily they have never reviewed me and I always review last minute in those cases. My guess is that they think my review of them won't show up if they don't review or they just don't care as they didn't care to read my houserules or respect me or my home. I don't know. I can only guess 🙂 

[Alexandra199]

Yes i think i've go the same issue....yet another Airbnb bug! They really need to sort out their systems

[Maria-Sophia0]

I agree, I have the highest ratings on all aspects except the number of reviews, now what?

[Kamil31]

I think it is something wrong with this new criteria. I have only 17% reviews from guests (50% to still have superhost status). I suspect there is some error in the algorithms because it seems to me that all my guests leave opinions. I am going to report it to the support...

[Sarah977]

@Kamil31  Yes, there have been many threads started on this today- it seems all hosts are seeing these wildly inaccurate numbers. We're all reporting it, but a few hosts said when they contacted Airbnb, they said it's a system-wide bug that they are aware of and they are working on it.We'll all just have to hang tight.

[Kamil31]

My status is fixed - now 76%  (50% to still have superhost status) !
😉

[Jamie206]

Asking for a review has no bearing on anything. People that don't like writing reviews aren't going to do it.

It is an unfair criteria for Airbnb to judge a host upon the unpredictable actions of someone or something outside your control. End of story. Airbnb need to revise this non-sense. We work dilegently to provide amazing accommodation and experience for guests, we should be rewarded, not punished constantly. Not to mention all the money we make for Airbnb....

It really makes me start looking at the other platforms.

[James55]

Even asking guests to leave reviews doesn’t guarantee they will do so. Guests

forget or get busy, especially when returning from a vacation.  Why on earth is this being made a responsibility of the host when as hosts we cannot control whether a guest leaves a review or not. Losing Superhost can negatively effect your hosting business and in some markets that means putting you out of business - class action suit anyone? AirBnB, stop this as a requirement of Superhost! 

[Hiro15]

I am glad that I found this discussion on “Trips Reviewed”.  Several days ago, exactly on 7/2/19, I stumbled upon “Trips Reviewed” when I clicked “Opportunities”.  Trips Reviewed figure was 28%.  I instinctively knew that the percentage is the total number of guest’s reviews on host divided by total number of stays.  At the same time, I right away knew that 28% was grossly inaccurate because the percentage from the time I began hosting in Jan. 2018 through 7/2/19 was 81.5%.  Thinking Airbnb might be using a rolling 12-month period to calculate the figure, I looked at the record from 7/1/18 to 6/30/19.  It came to 76.6%.  

I called customer support to find out why the figure was so grossly inaccurate. 
She did not seem aware that it was a system-wide bug, as Sarah mentioned above.  The rep. simply explained to me that the percentage was calculated the number of actual reviews divided by total number of stays, which I had already figured out by the time I called.  I then asked her what time frame

I am glad that I found this discussion on “Trips Reviewed”.  Several days ago, exactly on 7/2/19, I stumbled upon “Trips Reviewed” when I clicked “Opportunities”.  Trips Reviewed figure was 28%.  I instinctively knew that the percentage is the total number of guest’s reviews on host divided by total number of stays.  At the same time, I right away knew that 28% was grossly inaccurate because the percentage from the time I began hosting in Jan. 2018 through 7/2/19 was 81.5%.  Thinking AirBnB might be using a rolling 12-month period to calculate the figure, I looked at the record from 7/1/18 to 6/30/19.  It came to 76.6%.  

I called customer support to find out why the figure was so grossly inaccurate. 
She did not seem aware that it was a system-wide bug, as Sarah977 mentioned above.  The rep. simply explained to me that the percentage was calculated the number of actual reviews divided by total number of stays, which I had already figured out by the time I called.  I then asked her what time frame AirBnB uses to calculate the figure, she said “from start of the year”, which means Jan.1 2019.  It sounded odd because if that’s the case, all of us start from scratch every year, like resetting every year completely ignoring past history and efforts on the part of the hosts.  

While I was on the phone with her, I quickly calculated the number from Jan.1 2019, it came to 72.7%.  

I couldn’t believe AirBnB’s software system or algorithm could screw up so badly in calculating such a simple figure.  She did a quick calculation herself looking at my record and agreed that 28% was grossly inaccurate and stated that she would refer this matter to appropriate department to fix it.   Big credit to her, she called me back the following day and said it was fixed.  My figure was revised from 28% to 69%, which I think is still a bit off.

In all this, what is still unclear to me is exactly what time frame (duration) Airbnb uses to calculate the figure, from Jan. 1st every year, rolling 12-month period, prior three or four assessment periods or something else.  Unless we know for sure what time frame is used, we will never know if the figure is correct.  

AirBnB needs to clearly specify the time frame for the calculation under “Trips Reviewed” stating that  “The percentage is calculated number of reviews by guests divided by total number of stays completed on a rolling 12 month period (or whatever time frame actually used) as of the end of last month.” or something like that.

Separately, I agree that lack of reviews by repeat guests be somehow adjusted to calculate Trips Reviewed percentage figure.   I had a guest who stayed seven times in a span of four months.  After the second stay, we both agreed not to write reviews.  What could you write after two stays in a span of a few weeks anyway?  He repeatedly stayed at my place obviously because he liked it.   Airbnb could exclude no reviews from the same/repeat guest after two stays, maybe in a span of six months, if the guest did not write a review.  If the guest writes a review, then it should be counted to calculate Trips Reviewed percentage.  

[Sarah977]

@Hiro15It's based on the previous 365 days, so 1 year back from the assessment date.- rolling 12 month period.

[Hiro15]

Thank you Sarah977.   So the answer the Airbnb customer rep gave me (from first of the year) was indeed wrong.  Is there any mention about the time frame (one year up to the latest assessment date) in Airbnb site?   If Airbnb uses the same time frame for all the stats under "What you are doing well", it should be noted so like "All the numbers below are calculated based on the previous 365 days as of today", so it is clear to everybody.