Host Reviews

[Patrick121]

Hi,

Should a host be compelled to post a review once the guest has posted their review ? We stayed at a Super Host place recently and my honest review marked them down for a couple of areas (when we arrived we found out that the guest was overseas and person charged with welcoming us and giving us instructions was nowehere to be seen). Perhaps this was the reason we didnt get a review ?

[Amaris0]

Reviews are voluntary, you can't compel anyone to leave them or even enforce a situation where people are made to leave them; a guest pays for accommodation which a host provides, that is the exchange of service, reviews as a nice to have following the service received/ provided, more as a guide for future hosts/ guests.

There are many reasons why review might not be left such as travelling on to different locations, some people just don’t believe in doing reviews after paying amongst other reasons.

Ama

[Bridget0]

Patrick, the host doesn't see what you wrote before theirs goes up, so whatever you wrote wouldn't be a factor. Sounds like things were confused on their end at a fundamental level- no one to greet you- probably this fell through the cracks too.

[Gretchen0]

It could be they just haven't got around to leaving a review and because they were absent, maybe they are waiting to hear back from whoever was taking care of their property to hear what kind of condition it was left after your stay. They can't see what you've written until after the end of the waiting period, so your feedback is probably still hidden.

[Ana7]

@Patrick121 may I aks why you marked them down? Just because you didn't meet them? Did you know in advance they won't be there when you arrive? It is really a problem for hosts to travel because then they are compelled to find somebody who will run the business for them, and there are hundreds of possibilities then for things to go wrong. It is actually a big problem.

[Patrick121]

Hi Ana,

When we arrived at the address given on AirBnB there were 4 double storey houses of similar size on this property.  We believed the host, or someone would be there to let us know which house, which part of that house, keys ? and any other usual information. We had not received any contact from the host since their acceptance a couple of months earlier. Instead we found a man building a new fence.  He said " the owners of that house have gone overseas for 3 months".  However he didnt know if they were our host or maybe it was one of the other houses.  I had not received a resposne from the host when I made contact the day before our arrival, so I assumed all was good.  I tried to call the host several times by phone then, but no response.  I left messages on their phone and tried the other alternative numbers. They didnt work !. We left after half an hour and drove to a shopping ceentre to get supplies, thinking what we were going to do-with the new and serious prospect of no place to stay !!!.  I tried calling again, success  at last.  The host was indeed overseas and had apparently arrnaged for someone to be there.  That person was never seen.  We got the required information by phone and thats how we found the right place. The host's partner arrived 3 days later but made no contact with us until I initiated it, not really knowing who that person was. In summary we felt very stressed at the prospect of not having a place to stay, having paid a lot of money for a week for that place .

[Helen82]

Yeah, there's a lot of reasons hosts may not leave reviews. One of them (and the most popular of course) is that if they don't write a review, yours won't be posted to their listing. Clever huh?-because lets say I'm a superhost, and then botch a planned trip for someone by not cleaning all that well, or not providing what you thought you would get, well then, all I have to do is not write you a review, and who is going to know? It won't affect my ratings. It's a tricky bit of business that. The other side of it is, if they are a superhost, maybe they don't want reviews from everyone, only the people where they REALLY stand out and give stellar ratings. Or maybe they just don't care. But remember hosts have a few weeks (is it two weeks?) to write the review too, it doesn't have to be so quick.

[Ana7]

@Helen82 are you sure that is true? I believe that no matter whether the host writes the review or not, the review written by the guest will show at their listing after the 14 days review period.

[Wayne9]

In general, I think one of the best features of Airbnb is the review system. It helps both the host an guest to see reviews and make a decision on a booking.

Wayne

[Emma61]

yes, i thought the same about the review system. that even if i didn't write the guest a review if they had written me one it would show on my page after the 2 week period?