Pardon me for a long-ish response, but I am beginning to think Airbnb needs to take some of the onus for educating guests on how reviews work and what makes a fair review. I am curious to hear what others think about this and whether hosts should take this further with Airbnb.
I recently read an article about how the discrepancy between the way hosts and guests think of reviews causes hosts a lot of stress. Here is the article, I think its well worth the read and fairly accurate:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sethporges/2016/06/29/the-one-issue-with-airbnb-reviews-that-causes-hos...
I tend to think there are two issues with reviews:
a) Ratings in general - Any time we are asked to review something we start over-thinking, over-analyzing and tried to be "dis-passionate". This is proved to be true most commonly with test audience when they are asked to watch a film in order to leave a review. They suddenly become over-critical, and almost never enjoy the film as much as a regular viewer who watches for the sheer experience. Unfortunately, not much can be done about this aspect of human pyschology.
b) Ratings by guests - Airbnb style of hosting where hosts also get to review guests is fairly new to the hospitality industry (or any industry for that matter). Guests are used to a world in which the reviewing was always one sided, consumers got to review what they consumed: hotel stay/item that they bought etc. This old style mentality is pervasive, and can sometimes lead to a sense of entitlement where guests presume THEIR review of a listing is the only thing that matters, and the hosts are the ONLY ones responsible for creating a stellar experience. One can't blame the guests, afterall guests don't receive threatening emails from Airbnb saying if they got 4 star rating, Airbnb wont let them make another booking on their system!. So, in a way Airbnb has put the onus on hosts to be at their best but it is less stringent on the guests. Also it has put the entire onus of educating guests about reviews on the hosts. This is where I think Airbnb can and should support its hosts.
This is what Airbnb could do (just my thoughts, maybe others can chip in as well?)
a) Before check-in, Airbnb could educate Airbnb guests (espcially the first time Airbnb guests) that hosts also review guests and that Airbnb's entire model is based on two way trust and responsibility. A pleasant experience at Airbnb is a shared experience.
b) Airbnb could also give some guidance to guests regarding what I call "compassionate reviewing". Before check-in/ after check-in/ on review form, Airbnb could inform the guests that reviews affect hosts in many ways - such as in the search results, their host status etc. It could also educate guests on what makes a great review - for eg if the guest stayed at a small townhome, where the service was perfect & the host did whatever they could to make their stay comfortable, then guests should give the rating based on that particualr experience instead of comparing their experience with their last stay at the Ritz Carlon because that won't be fair!
c) Airbnb should not allow the rating for location to affect any statuses like super host, search results etc. as hosts have no control over their location and guests know nearly exacly where they are going to stay even before they book (on that note why is location even reviewed, reviews should be for things that are unknown before the stay!) Either way I am unsure if Airbnb takes the location review into account in any manner. Maybe someone else knows?
If Airbnb did some or all of the above (it shouldn't be difficult), it would do it's bit in educating guests about reviews, and reduce the discomfort and down right stress on the hosts about bending over backwards to get "5 star reviews", because "4 star reviews" are actually bad!
I am curious what other people think about all this?
Swati
