Airbnb Behavior, Consumer Push for Host Education, Revamp Review System, Consumer Health Before Airbnb Politics

[Matt434]

Dear Airbnb Host-Family Community, 

Long-term business guest; black sheep siblings:

The following is an open letter to you and Brian, the CEO

I'm a business guest consumer of hundreds of long-term stay transactions with different, and complex hosts and using Airbnb services for match making for all of them. I speak for all long-term guests here in the following:  Sellers of long-term stay space on Airbnb expect the consumer to have the space 99% turn over recheck-in ready for the next guest, and this is the fault of Airbnb. This is especially problematic during a global pandemic.  The do-it-yourself cleaner, seller of space on Airbnb, if not delighted upon inspection, after being separated from their space for a month or more, and paid long ago from present day inspection, will attack the consumer in the review system; are free to be careless and creatively critical with verbiage in their public statement, the problem is widespread, and this endangers the consumer in multiple ways.  Airbnb’s lax host education and host accountability, Airbnb lax public review system authored by hosts of consumer character and reputation, and Airbnb defaulting to represent the seller in review verbiage protest, puts long-term business stay guests (consumer’s) health and lives in danger.   Experienced long-term guests are intimidated to communicate their beliefs regarding cleanliness, health or safety to the seller, during the stay. This fear is that the inexperienced, amateur, new, do-it-yourself cleaner dad/mom, tired landlord, tired property manager, out-of-work and/or short-term quick in and out stay minded sellers, authoring social media attack of the consumer after check-out, enabled by Airbnb, and Airbnb defaulting to protect the seller.

Below are the solutions to the current, wide-spread, chronic; repeat problem, that puts consumers' health in jeopardy, who purchase space & time (long-term) from sellers; fathered and reinforced by their managing partner Airbnb.

The Seller (the host):

1. The Seller must take and pass annual online classes for credit in cleanliness, turnover of space, and managing their space, understand spread germs, their expectation as a seller, cleaner, etc. before hosting.
2. Seller must be educated and be certified in health cleanliness by Airbnb education system or third party.
3. Seller be licensed to sell space for month or more stays
4. Seller must have three buyer consumer (guest) experiences themselves, before hosting. (both short-term experience and one month or more experience.)
5. Seller must use a licensed professional cleaner for long-term stays.
6. Seller must disclose in the listing if they are a do-it yourself cleaner or use a professional licensed company for turnover of space.
7. Seller cannot get paid in full for long-term stays until check out date.
8. Seller must disclose in the review of the consumer if they are the owner, leaser, sub-leasor, manager, friend, co-host, neighbor, relative, daughter, son.
9. Seller cannot give reviews on cleanliness of unit against consumer, that defaults to expectations of the seller.
10. Seller cannot retaliate and publicly attack defame the character of consumer in relation to consumer’s beliefs of health, cleanliness, and safety. regarding cleanliness and health.  (i.e., consumer requests wearing masks, changing under bedding from the previous guest, not having seller’s contractors, workmen, relatives enter unit, seller’s pets not entering unit, seller not comparing long-term guests to other guests, short-term guests as intimidation.

Airbnb:

1. Airbnb Can Not put back up a review after it has publicly announced it removed the review because of violation of terms, and attack on character of the consumer.
2. Airbnb Can Not contact a guest (after checkout and with no open review issue) to reprimand, accuse, threaten, and punish the consumer based on Airbnb’s own personal interpretations, assumptions, and application of internal politics.
3. Airbnb Can Not tell the consumer it can communicate to sellers on its platform to request to remove a review, then reprimand and threaten the consumer for doing so.
4. Airbnb disallow reviews from sellers against consumers on unit cleanliness that default to expectations of the seller.
5. Airbnb disallow ambiguous, irrelevant, inaccurate reviews against and attacking a consumer character, that are related to the consumers beliefs in health, cleanliness, and safety.
6. Airbnb actively police for verbiage and actively remove false statements that criticize and attack the consumer for conflicts and beliefs in health and safety.
7. Airbnb police for obvious seller verbiage retaliatory complaining attack of consumers that involve seller objections to having to clean the space.
8.  Airbnb holds back part of consumer payment in escrow to apply to professional cleaning companies so not to default to seller responsibility to clean. 

In a time of a global pandemic, the problem has heightened. Consumers purchasing long-term stay space on Airbnb are put in a position with inexperienced sellers in that trade, who lack education accountability by Airbnb. Consumers on Airbnb are intimidated by seller critical social media attacks.  The parent company Airbnb's lack of higher standards, careless review system policing, Airbnb review politics put above consumer health and safety, and Airbnb extreme policing of guests to protect its sellers, further worsens this problem.  Airbnb politics cannot come before the consumers' health, safety, and freedom of expression.   The chronic problem is solved by Airbnb growing up, raising its standards in educating hosts in cleanliness, updating its review system to a higher level of conscious standard, and consumers speaking up. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Matt434 words almost fail me but luckily they haven't so.....

Pretty stupid springs to mind. Perhaps education is also needed in those trying to make the rules.

I could counter pretty much all of the points you make but really can't be bothered.

I will say again - Get over your experience - You will make yourself ill otherwise.....

All you are doing is proving the host is, on the balance of probabilities, right with regard to 'odd requests'

[Mark116]

What an odd request.

[Sarah977]

What, no "solutions" proposed for obnoxious guests? Why am I not surprised.

Obsession over a 3 line review he didn't like, that wasn't even particularly bad. This is the third topic post on this. Yes, definitely proving that the host was to be believed. Total lack of self-awareness.

[Mark116]

@Sarah977  If anything, this proves the point, that a dozen or even two dozen good reviews mean little to nothing.  And that when analyzing a guest's reviews any neutral or negative one should be give 2/3 the weight of the others.  Even though I  have hosted a couple of guests who had poor reviews, nothing insane like parties or breaking appliances, but clearly the host had  not been happy...and I just doubled or tripled the amount of communication/direction I gave and it worked out.  This, I wouldn't touch w/the proverbial 10 foot pole.

[Huma0]

@Mark116 

I am starting to agree with you wholeheartedly. I have always given a guest the benefit of the doubt if they had one bad review and several good ones. I would check the reviews the host had left for others (sometimes it was clear it was the host with the problem, not the guest), but the main deciding factor was how the guest reacted when I asked to hear their side of the story.

Hearing @Matt434 's side to this story would make me run a mile. Odd doesn't even begin to describe it. 

[Colleen253]

Good grief @Matt434. This hissy fit (3 posts so far on the subject) over a review that was not in the least bit slanderous is only reinforcing that the host who had concerns was right. The entire Airbnb hosting world now knows that you are a guest to be avoided at all costs. 

[Johanna394]

I see @Matt434 that you forgot to present any solutions for abysmal guests and their education. Why is that, if I may ask?

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Matt434  Airbnb has had a solution for guests like you for a few years now, since when it allowed hotels and agencies to join Airbnb. They are educated pros, use pro cleaners and always rate their guests with 5* and short "Nice guest" reviews. Some of them have hundreds, and some even thousands of listings I am sure you would fit perfectly in their world 🙂

[Louise0]

Hmmm, one of those posts that has me pondering, "I wonder how many lines went into penning those lines?".

[Sarah977]

And now there's another review where the host says they agree with the previous host, that there was an unusual amount of cleaning time required, and that it took a long time to put everything that had been moved and not put back, back in their place.

[Colleen253]

@Sarah977 "And now there's another review where the host says they agree with the previous host"

Oh lord, batten down the hatches. 

[Lennox6]

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@Matt434 wrote:

Dear Airbnb Host-Family Community, 

Long-term business guest; black sheep siblings:

The following is an open letter to you and Brian, the CEO

I'm a business guest consumer of hundreds of long-term stay transactions with different, and complex hosts and using Airbnb services for match making for all of them. I speak for all long-term guests here in the following:  Sellers of long-term stay space on Airbnb expect the consumer to have the space 99% turn over recheck-in ready for the next guest, and this is the fault of Airbnb. This is especially problematic during a global pandemic.  The do-it-yourself cleaner, seller of space on Airbnb, if not delighted upon inspection, after being separated from their space for a month or more, and paid long ago from present day inspection, will attack the consumer in the review system; are free to be careless and creatively critical with verbiage in their public statement, the problem is widespread, and this endangers the consumer in multiple ways.  Airbnb’s lax host education and host accountability, Airbnb lax public review system authored by hosts of consumer character and reputation, and Airbnb defaulting to represent the seller in review verbiage protest, puts long-term business stay guests (consumer’s) health and lives in danger.   Experienced long-term guests are intimidated to communicate their beliefs regarding cleanliness, health or safety to the seller, during the stay. This fear is that the inexperienced, amateur, new, do-it-yourself cleaner dad/mom, tired landlord, tired property manager, out-of-work and/or short-term quick in and out stay minded sellers, authoring social media attack of the consumer after check-out, enabled by Airbnb, and Airbnb defaulting to protect the seller.

Below are the solutions to the current, wide-spread, chronic; repeat problem, that puts consumers' health in jeopardy, who purchase space & time (long-term) from sellers; fathered and reinforced by their managing partner Airbnb.

The Seller (the host):

1. The Seller must take and pass annual online classes for credit in cleanliness, turnover of space, and managing their space, understand spread germs, their expectation as a seller, cleaner, etc. before hosting.
2. Seller must be educated and be certified in health cleanliness by Airbnb education system or third party.
3. Seller be licensed to sell space for month or more stays
4. Seller must have three buyer consumer (guest) experiences themselves, before hosting. (both short-term experience and one month or more experience.)
5. Seller must use a licensed professional cleaner for long-term stays.
6. Seller must disclose in the listing if they are a do-it yourself cleaner or use a professional licensed company for turnover of space.
7. Seller cannot get paid in full for long-term stays until check out date.
8. Seller must disclose in the review of the consumer if they are the owner, leaser, sub-leasor, manager, friend, co-host, neighbor, relative, daughter, son.
9. Seller cannot give reviews on cleanliness of unit against consumer, that defaults to expectations of the seller.
10. Seller cannot retaliate and publicly attack defame the character of consumer in relation to consumer’s beliefs of health, cleanliness, and safety. regarding cleanliness and health.  (i.e., consumer requests wearing masks, changing under bedding from the previous guest, not having seller’s contractors, workmen, relatives enter unit, seller’s pets not entering unit, seller not comparing long-term guests to other guests, short-term guests as intimidation.

Airbnb:

1. Airbnb Can Not put back up a review after it has publicly announced it removed the review because of violation of terms, and attack on character of the consumer.
2. Airbnb Can Not contact a guest (after checkout and with no open review issue) to reprimand, accuse, threaten, and punish the consumer based on Airbnb’s own personal interpretations, assumptions, and application of internal politics.
3. Airbnb Can Not tell the consumer it can communicate to sellers on its platform to request to remove a review, then reprimand and threaten the consumer for doing so.
4. Airbnb disallow reviews from sellers against consumers on unit cleanliness that default to expectations of the seller.
5. Airbnb disallow ambiguous, irrelevant, inaccurate reviews against and attacking a consumer character, that are related to the consumers beliefs in health, cleanliness, and safety.
6. Airbnb actively police for verbiage and actively remove false statements that criticize and attack the consumer for conflicts and beliefs in health and safety.
7. Airbnb police for obvious seller verbiage retaliatory complaining attack of consumers that involve seller objections to having to clean the space.
8.  Airbnb holds back part of consumer payment in escrow to apply to professional cleaning companies so not to default to seller responsibility to clean. 

Recently at the university I have been researching economic processes that take place at the level of small and medium business. At https://edubirdie.com/examples/a-modest-proposal/ I recently read very constructive information about a modest proposal.

In a time of a global pandemic, the problem has heightened. Consumers purchasing long-term stay space on Airbnb are put in a position with inexperienced sellers in that trade, who lack education accountability by Airbnb. Consumers on Airbnb are intimidated by seller critical social media attacks.  The parent company Airbnb's lack of higher standards, careless review system policing, Airbnb review politics put above consumer health and safety, and Airbnb extreme policing of guests to protect its sellers, further worsens this problem.  Airbnb politics cannot come before the consumers' health, safety, and freedom of expression.   The chronic problem is solved by Airbnb growing up, raising its standards in educating hosts in cleanliness, updating its review system to a higher level of conscious standard, and consumers speaking up. 

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Very strange request indeed.