Harmful reviews

[Ronda4]

Having been a host for over six years and a repeat Superhost for all of that time, I feel that the review system has become unfit for purpose, and I hope I can explain why.

Most of the chats on forums these days contain multiple concerns over guests’ reviews.  Towards the end of 2021 I had three sets of guests award me 4*.  One was removed but because I reported the other two too late CS have not been able to do anything.  I had contacted straight away Hostleaders but my email was not responded to.

THE GUEST TRYING IT ON …

My guests from San Francisco, wrote a very pleasant review, but this savvy couple knew only too well that whatever they said in words the 4* review would stick. Their complaint was that the Wifi wasn't working when it was. I rushed out of a meeting back to the Studio as guest had said ‘this doesn’t suit us’ only to find they had left for the day.  I tested the wifi fro outside the accommodation and it worked perfectly.  I offered to find the guest alternative accommodation and refund them the rest of their stay, they declined.  The husband said he was a computer engineer, he even came into the house to look at my router as the implication was that I was turning it off and on. When I asked him what he thought the problem was he couldn't tell me. I was dammed if I was going to play their game and I knew that this couple would use their review to try and damage my reputation. I am certain this guest was trying to gain a refund or discount.

THE GUEST USING THEIR OWN CRITERIA FOR REVIEW …

These guests were on honeymoon and they had stayed at a number of Airbnb's during their trip to the UK. Their stay at the Studio was the last stop. The problem when you ask guests if they thought an Airbnb was value for money without proper guidelines, is that you get a blanket comparison. In all likelihood they may have preferred the Shepherd's hut in the middle of a field and without doubt it may have seemed great value, but is it fair to apply the same criteria to an airbnb in an upscale smart area in central London?  Would you expect to pay the same for the Hilton hotel in Mayfair as the Hilton in Hangar Lane?  How could this couple possibly understand or know the difference in value between my property in central London and the Shepherd's hut in the middle of nowhere? I don't think this guest set out to deliberately award a low star rating, but this is the consequence.  Despite the champagne, flowers and cakes I left on their arrival it was another 4* review.

THE IGNORANT AND INCOMPETENT GUEST …

Another set of guests over the Christmas holidays were a couple of students from Brighton.  Had I known they were students I would have thought twice about accepting the booking. There was very little contact with the guest as she refused to respond to most of my messages. She never read my listing (there is a microwave, kettle, toaster and fridge) nor the housekeeping notes and complained in her review that there was no cooking facilities!  She makes some strange comment about a pot that contained liquid, which I can only imagine was the kettle designed to boil water! She couldn’t get in using my simple instructions, she couldn’t use the electric heater, she broke the tap at the kitchen sink and left everything very very dirty. She had even removed bin liners so that we had to disinfect the bins after finding incontinence/sanitary pads in them. A four star review for reasons that are totally down to the guest's incompetence and ignorance is just unreasonable and unacceptable!  This guest’s review was removed.

There is no doubt that reviews are important and serve a purpose but the questions need to be objective not subjective.  My Airbnb compared to the Hilton hotel in Mayfair is not 5*, but the location, price, setting, hospitality and experience is 5*.  I have somehow managed to hang on to my Superhost status but it shouldn’t be this hard.

As already said Hostleaders did not reply to my email.  CS did reply after three weeks and agreed with all my representations. 

The review system is to allow guests and hosts to give true feedback it is not there for revenge, entitlement, to extort, to vent anger or for any subjective reason.  Having said that, it is the borderline cases, like the first two examples above, that cause the most damage.

Does anyone agree? 

[Elaine701]

@Ronda4 

I see you're somewhat new here, and therefore it's only fair to give you some rope. 

However, retaliatory guest reviews have been a major topic for years. The system isn't fair, facilitates extortion, and doesn't lend itself to fairness. ... With SOME guests. There are blogs and websites that instruct would-be guests on how to extort free or cheap stays using fabricated claims and reviews to get refunds. It's not new, really, but most guests still have a moral compass and don't (consciously) engage in this stuff. The key is to be able to identify which ones are more likely to be problematic. It's an acquired skill. 

There are, however, ways of preventing these things. Seasoned hosts have learned to carefully screen their guests before they book, but also tactics to use when they violate rules, cause damage, or attempt to extort the host. 

Read through these forums. There's a lot of good information about this subject, as it comes up very often. 

Very sorry you've been victimised by this, but we've all had to deal with this at one time or another. You really have to watch your own back. The platforms simply won't. 

[Ronda4]

@Elaine701 

Appreciate your reply and thank you I will definitely search the CC.

I am not new here I just don’t post very often.

CS told me that they are not listened to so I was hoping to get some wind behind this.

[Sarah977]

@Ronda4  As Elaine points out, hosts have been complaining about the unfair review system for years and it falls on deaf ears. Airbnb obviously has no intention of changing it, although I think I can safely say that all hosts would agree with you as to its flaws.

There was a post from Airbnb a few years ago, in the Airbnb Updates section here, where they told us they were making changes to make it more fair. My response, which was one of the first to that post, pointing out how Airbnb's proposed changes would do little to cause guests to review more fairly, garnered over 2000 thumbs up. And that post generated pages of responses from hosts saying much the same thing.

Yet Airbnb ignored it.

[Ronda4]

@Sarah977 

Thanks for responding.  I understand that this has been a hot topic for many years.

As an experienced host do you think there is a solution?  What would you change about the review system?  How important are reviews in this process.

[Sarah977]

@Ronda4  I've been quite lucky in that I have always gotten lovely, appreciative guests who leave sweet 5* reviews, so personally, it hasn't been an issue for me.

But as I see it, reviews and the Superhost carrot are ways that Airbnb keeps hosts stressed out, dancing around trying to please unreasonable guests, afraid to confront guests about unacceptable behavior, terrified of a bad review. 

And guests who tend to leave bad reviews if called out on something may actually be less inclined to do so if the host is firm about house rules, etc. When a guest like that has a host who is constantly apologizing in response to trivial or bogus complaints, or bending over backwards to try to accommodate them, they see the host as vulnerable, so the guest just pushes more, and then goes in for the kill in the review. 

The only way to combat it is to not play into it and to stop being afraid of bad reviews. One revenge review among pages of great reviews is not going to destroy anyone's business. Guests aren't some homogenous group of stupid people who will believe that your place was a filthy dump when you have a bunch of reviews saying it was super clean. And revenge reviews often just make the guest look bad. A review filled with complaints, when other guests have said they had a great stay with a great host sticks out like a sore thumb and will be dismissed by most future guests as an outlier without validity. 

And of course a host can always leave a response to a review if they feel it requires that to set the reecord straight.

I don't think most guests care whether a place has a 4.6 or a 5 star rating. They care that it's in the right location, has the right amount of space for them, at the right price. If guests cared so much about ratings and reviews, none of us would have ever gotten our first booking, when we had zero reviews.

[Sarah977]

@Ronda4  I just took a look at your review page and with all due respect, your responses do you more harm than good. 

You left a critical response to a really positive written review, the guests who dicked you around with the Wifi. You never should have responded to that review- everything they wrote was great. Your issues with them during the stay are to be mentioned in your review of them, not in a response. 

Then you responded to another totally positive review by asking why the guest didn't give you 5*s. 

Review responses appear on your review page, not the guest's- they are read by future guests who will wonder why you called out guests who left a great review and be wary of booking with you.

Only respond to what was written in a review- not private feedback, not the star rating, not any issues you had with the guests during their stay. Responses  are used to correct misleading information, lies, or to indicate that a legitimate issue a guest mentioned in the review has been corrected,  for the benefit of future guests. They are not to be used to address the guest who wrote the review. If their behavior was objectionable, that gets mentioned in the review you wrote for them. If you want to ask why they left 4*s when they said they loved their stay you do that in a private message to them.

Honestly, If I were you, I would ask Airbnb to remove those two responses you left. 

[Ronda4]

@Sarah977 

Thank you for your recommendations much appreciated. 

Well done on your excellent 5* reviews!

Regarding the review process, if guests don’t pay much attention to that why have star ratings at all?  

if you had the ear of Airbnb, what would you want to say to them about the review process?

[Elaine701]

@Ronda4 

Ratings do matter, but mainly to the guests you really want to have. Ratings have less weight with guests who are just looking for the cheapest price. These are generally the guests you should avoid. They tend to be the most problematic. 

I think what @Sarah977  is pointing out is that receiving a bad review isn't necessarily the disaster that Airbnb would have you believe. We all want happy guests, but we'll all get unhappy ones at some point.

The most effective way to avoid this is by screening your guests as well as you can before they book, to ensure they'll be happy with their choice. And of course, maintaining as high standards as you can, so that you naturally have fewer unhappy ones. If you're wise about that, then you may never have any unhappy guests.