Airbnb review sorting is based on national origin, language

Airbnb review sorting is based on national origin, language

Has anyone else noticed, Airbnb sorts reviews on your listing using an algorithm based on national origin and language of the guest?

 I was surprised about this, yet confirmed this on my listing.

I have a 3 month old review from a US guest remain at top of my listing's reviews, yet a dozen or so NEWER reviews written by guests from other countries are "buried" on lower pages where no one viewing my listing sees them.  Because the old one is 3-star and the dozen newer are 5-star, this is an issue.  Are these other guest opinions "less important" than the review written by the US guest?   When asked, Airbnb admitted yes their algorithm discriminates based on national origin and language, but offered no plans to change it.

I feel airbnb should change their review sorting policy to NOT discriminate based on national origin.

 

5 Replies 5
Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Dave52  Yes, many hosts are aware about this review sorting. It seems stupid to me, unless the reviews are written in a different language. I can understand, for instance, why a guest from France might like to see the reviews in French first, unless they are fluent in English. As far as I'm aware, they do show in chronological order on your profile, but not on your listing.

It's not even a matter of good or bad reviews- several guests could have complained that the mattress wasn't comfortable a year ago, and then the host changes the mattress. If the "bad mattress" reviews are first, the guest would think that was still an issue.

@Sarah977  You hit the nail on the head perfectly!  Because conditions change over time, things get fixed, etc, more recent reviews should be first.  But airbnb's sorting algorithm does not reflect this.  The one guest from the US complained about several small things, and I worked hard to resolve each one.  New guests arrived and over the course of the next few months, every guest gives my place 5-star reviews.  Yet the OLD review stayed on top for all to see!  I could not figure out why newest reviews from this month are all buried way down on page 6 or 7 of the reviews.  Then they admitted it is because of their nationality!  As if someone from Australia or Germany or Japan has a less valuable opinion than someone from the US.  Absurb!   I asked them to change the order of the reviews to give an accurate CURRENT representation of my place, but they refused!  Their ordering of reviews discriminates based on national origin for no apparent reason.  This, from a company that loudly CLAIMS to be non-discriminatory.

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Dave52  Yes, I agree, it's discriminatory to do it. What if they put all the Black guests' reviews together? I wonder how that would go over.  It definitely could be seen as discrimination that they sort them according to nationality.. I think we should all send them feedback saying that the review ordering reeks of discrimination. 

Mike-And-Jane0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

@Dave52 My understanding is that it puts the reviews from a guests home country above others. Is this what you are seeing? If not then who knows what their thinking is but it would be far more relevant to prioritise the latest (and hence most up to date with respect to changes) reviews

@Mike-And-Jane0 Airbnb CS never explained it clearly to me, other than they use an "algorithm" to sort reviews based on nationality and language.  I explained to them that apartment conditions change over time, good hosts fix things, add new features, bad hosts don't, they should always put the most recent reviews on top to show the most accurate current condition of the listing.  But they refused to change their algorithm and for some reason feel the nationality of the guest is relevant to the review's importance.  It's a BIG DEAL because most people browsing through listings obviously will only read the first few reviews for your listing.  I also had prospective guests ask me why I had no recent reviews, but in fact I did, they just did not see them because they had been "buried" by airbnb on page 6 or 7 because of the guest's nationality.  Prioritizing reviews based on nationality is textbook discrimination, and makes no sense.  I wonder who is at home at airbnb to pay attention to things like this?