The frustrations with hosting, especially with ratings...trolls in the system?

[Joa1]

I am both an Airbnb host, and guest.  I have written in the Community Forum about my frustration with the lack of clarity and direction provided by Airbnb to both hosts and guests in regards to the Airbnb review system.  I just hosted another Airbnb host in my place, and we were discussing the issues we are coming up against.  From talking to other hosts, and participating in and reading the Community Center Forum, it seems that a large number of hosts are having the same problems.

First of all is the issue of the refusal by Airbnb to remove or modify negative reviews by disgruntled guests who have broken the host's house rules, or who have caused property damage.  If an extremely bad review is a complete anomaly for a host Airbnb should review the situation and contact the guest to clarify what their issues were.  It is completely unfair for Airbnb to allow "trolls" to affect a host's overall ratings when previous reviews are good.

Secondly, when a guest gives less than a 5 stars in any of specific areas of their review (cleanliness, check-in, etc.) they have the option of leaving a comment as to why they chose to give that review.  If Airbnb does in fact want to improve the "experience" for both hosts, and guests, a comment on a less than 5 star review should be obligatory.  The host needs to know specifically what this guest found lacking in order to improve the situation for future guests.  As it is, we are left in a vacuum of not knowing why we were rated down in a particular area.  This would be extremely simple to do...if Airbnb has algorithms to continually modify our listing pages with statistics such as the percent of "recent" guests who gave 5 stars for cleanliness, they can certainly modify the guest review page to include obligatory comments.

Which brings up the issue of the stats that are now showing up on our listing pages now, and how are they generated?  There was absolutely no notice from Airbnb that they were modifying my listing page with this information.  What do they mean by "recent" guests?  They provide no information to define who "recent" guests were.  In general I get good reviews, but I had one guest who for some reason gave me 4 stars on check-in (it was a totally normal as usual check-in).  No other guests in my 6 years of hosting have given me 4 stars for check-in.  Yet, now it appears on my listing page that 90% of my "recent" guests thought check-in was good.  Come on Airbnb...play fair...

Finally, Why doesn't Airbnb provide hosts with the names of all of the guests who will be staying.  It is uncomfortable for both the guests and the hosts for the host to have to ask each additional guest their name when they are checking-in.  If Airbnb wants to make the guest-host experience "great" (as they like to say), why are they not transparent in providing the host with the names all of the guests?

I really don't understand why Airbnb seems to be working against us hosts instead of with us.  I thought the point was to provide a great experience for BOTH the guests and the hosts.

[Chamaine0]

I totally agree with everything you said. One of the things I have my owners do if they get less than 5 stars is contact guest through AirBnB message with this:

Hello thank you again for your stay with us. I noticed in your review that there where something’s less than stellar for you. Your feedback on what we could do to improve these issues would be greatly appreciate by us. We strive hard to make our guests stays wonderful and I know the next guest would appreciate your feedback as well. 

We get about85% who do respond back to us and while we cannot change their rating at least we understand for those why we received them. 

[Fay26]

Thanks Charmaine, that is a very helpful response that you give. I will certainly borrow it. 

[Rafael-and-Elina0]

I just got dinged with an overall 4 star review, everything else including the comments being positive (except for location, 4-stars on that because a car is needed to reach our suburban location!).  Since Airbnb does not guide guests on the rating scale, 1-4 = poor, 5=good, it might fall upon us as hosts to "educate" the guests politely when they check in, especially those new to Airbnb.  Does anyone currently do this and have some suggestions or text that is placed in their house rules manual?

[Sarah977]

@Rafael-and-Elina0   Yes, many hosts are now educating guests about the rating system and if you type some keywords into the search engine here you'll find threads and many comments and ideas on how best to do this.

[Cheryl259]

Airbnb....you are failing all of your hosts with the way you rate...it is hard to achieve super host status and keep it, but now you are making it harder without explaination.  It is truly unfair in every way I can think of, is this your way of getting hosts to jump ship and go else where?  What are you really trying to achieve...honesty and clarity would be the best thing you can do for everyone...hosts and guest...I believe you need to educate guests on rating because it is not clear what their rating impacts......and make a true rating system that does not punish the hosts.  I believe most hosts really ware there for you and our guests to provide great accomadations.

Guests need to understand the value of what they are getting...because this ain't the Ritz.....but it is so much more.

[Carlma-And-John0]

Very good points. I look forward to a reply from AirBnB.

[KandT0]

Too often we are hosting guests who arrive with additional pax not included in their reservation and for whom we have not been paid. Sometimes this is deliberate and sometimes unintentional.

Bringing additional guests to our home without agreement in advance is in breach of our house rules.

We then have to request additional payment from these guests.

Often we then receive from these guests feedback or star ratings that does damage to our overall rating and possibly our Superhost status.

This is retaliatory feedback by these guests.

When it can be demonstrated that guests are dishonest or have broken hosts' rules, we should be able to have their feedback and ratings stricken from our record.

We've tried asking support about this in the past, but we got stonewalled.

It needs to be fixed.

[Sarah977]

@KandT0   It sounds like unauthorized guests are an ongoing problem for you. I suggest you make it very clear to guests through the messaging system that there is a charge for extra guests and that all guests who are coming need to be included on the booking. Many guests don't read through all the house rules and information on your listing. So you need to re-interate it when a guest books. This will help to avoid this situation (altho some guests will do it anyway, but much less).

[KandT0]

Such guests are an occasional problem for us, @Sarah977, but the damage they do to our ratings is unjustified, unacceptable, and takes time and effort to repair.

Guests acknowledge rules and other things to note at the point they click the button to book, but you are right to say it often does not mean they actually read and understood what they acknowledged.

Thanks for taking the time to make a suggestion, but from experience we know that guests also do not read messages we send, so that will have a limited effect.

The obvious solution is for an errant guest's damaging feedback and ratings to be voided.

I'd say the problem of unapproved, unpaid guests is a greater problem for hosts (and for Airbnb's bottom line) than some might realize. Those who allow self check-in and are not present at the time will never know. Dishonest guests are counting on it to give themselves a self-awarded discount.

[Sarah977]

@KandT0  Sorry you have to deal with guests like this. Of course errant guests' ratings should be voided, but Airbnb seems to be selectively deaf.

The point about reinterating rules which you find guests often break, even if some don't read it,  is basically to have proof through the messaging system if you need to contact airbnb re guest behavior- at least they can see that you made these things very clear to the guest with a follow-up to the listing info since guests are remiss in reading it the first time.

[KandT0]

We haven't had support be unhelpful when we put in the claim to be paid for extra pax. As far as we can tell, no guest has dug in their heels and refused to pay, so we can't say what stance support would take then.

The issue is when a guest is clearly errant -- either through negligence or dishonesty -- and yet we still get dinged on ratings because they harbour resentment about having to pay for what they should have paid from the outset. In fact they should pay an additional penalty for causing us unexpected extra work when we have to prepare more beds, bedding and whatnot.

One prime example of that is a guy who booked for one and turned up at 9pm with six of his family members. He dinged us on ratings because he was "unaware" we lived in. (It seems he believed he'd rented a whole furnished house for seven people in Tokyo for $50+. LOL!!) I have to suspect he was just smarting at being caught out and having to pay what was due.

Support would not even consider deleting his ratings.

More occurrences since then have now led us to post a warning that we will add on a penalty for guests who turn up but are not included in the reservation. 

[Wendy410]

Hi all...

Just wanted to say, I found this conversation interesting, and relative.  My last guest thrashed our cottage, even though she previously mentioned how beautiful it was, etc...ranting and raving about cleanliness, cuteness...then my cleaning person texts me the photos after she checked out and  I was horrofied.  On the bright side, she did reimburse me for the $ amount in damages that I requested, and Airbnb was awesome in assisting with that, but here's the dilemma...  She hasnt rated me and I am afraid to (negatively) rate her, and definitely would not reccommend her, but as many have previously stated she could very well give me a neg review as she's upset that she had to right her wrongs.   I'm still debating what to do...just thought I would share that.

[KandT0]

She can still review and rate you, @Wendy410, even if you don't rate her. If only one party leaves feedback, it will be published at the end of the 14 days.

Your solution might be to wait until the very end of the 14-day period. Time it as close as you can, and then put in your feedback. The other party then won't have much time left to react and get their review in.

That also works the other way round, in which case you would only be able to put in a written response to the comments left about you. You would not get to enter any star ratings. 

[Azzuri0]

Just had a guest check in in to my villa in Bali…. so my villa is in a middle of rice field 1 km from the main road… it is clearly stated in the description, and this woman complains to me  when she arrives how the villa is not what she expected that its to far from the center…. When I ask her did you read the description before you booked, she answers no, I just liked the pictures … anyway I didn’t want to listen to her complain so I just offer her a full refund if she cancels but the two guys with her say they don’t want to cancel and they will still stay… its been less than an hour she is in the villa and she keeps harassing my staff with a million requests and questions and they don’t even speak English so I have no idea what she wants….anyway, just another airbnb rant about a guest….

[Anna67]

Airbnb always tells hosts "their voice is important" but I have complained multiple times about all these issues and more and everything is still in the guest's best interest not the host. What about airbnb crazy review sorting system? I have reviews at the top from 2 even 3 years old! The reviews are not sorted by date!! Its ridicous and creates false information for both guests and hosts..