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.

[Bev-And-Misha0]

I totally agree with the above blogger Joa from Mexico.  I received 4 stars from one guest on Over all experience.  No reason given as to why they gave us 4 stars??  The same with another guest who gave us 4 stars on Communication.  We communicated with them daily.  I would like to know what it was that this particular guest thought it was necessary to give us 4 stars?  How many bookings with 5 stars does it take to change the Overall rating 4.9 to 5 stars?  And, how does 94 percent 5 star reviews change to a higher score of say 98 percent or 100 percent??  I cannot find an answer to these questions on Airbnb's help section.

[Syl11]

Hi all hosts and all you wonderful caring superhosts

I only joined last week because I was curious as to why my bookings were down, obviously being winter here and i prefer to not drop my rates. I only am trying to get decent guests. Usually the ones that ask for discounts turn out to be the ones that break all my house rules so therefore I hold firm with or without bookings.

All the things and topics I read I now come to a conclusion that HOSTING comes with all the good, great, bad territory. After all we opened our homes to strangers, whom luckily most are great. But the very few that are offensive are offensive. 

I now also come to that conclusion that I'm not going to let any of those reviews upset me or let it upset me because its not suppose to be about being upset by those reviews.

I'm done with reading so much negative stuff because I simply have to move on.

I now know i'm not the only person experiencing what hosting brings along with it.

For guests reading all these threads, just be kind to your hosts and superhosts. If its that bad, simply book into a boutique hotel, pay not to interact with normal people and get on with your lives!

 Gotta go to work! thats not hosting xxx

[Debbie210]

I Agree, we should have all of the names of the guests given to us! Because the guests, never lie about how many people are staying at our houses or apartments! LOL

I don't like the rating system, where the guest rates the host, on the "value" of the home.  When there are 1- Occupancy taxes and 2-  Airbnb fees included with the daily rate.  I think that can really bring down our rating rankings!