Is it possible to ask to the guests about their experiences with their hosts?

[Emilio153]

I think it is not possible to ask to guests about their experiences, we can only see their comments. 

It would be a great option. It would be much helpful to be able to contact those persons that posted a comment after their visit, than just reading a comment in which we usually don´t describe all aspects of an accommodation, and even if we liked the host we don´t really say all the wrong things that we found.

I think that by contacting directly a guest after their visit we would be much better and real information about the accomodation than only asking to the host. It would increase the trust to Airbnb accommodations and the quality of our stays. It is quite unpleasant when we arrive to a place and it is not exactly what was said in the comments or by the host.

[Sarah977]

@Emilio153  You know what I think? I think you're a good and honest person. That's why you can't understand that guests lie about things all the time- yes, they will say the bed was broken when it wasn't. yes, they will say the bathroom was smelly when it wasn't, yes, they will say the Wifi didn't work when it did. Yes, it is incredibly childish. Apparently there are a lot of guests who are incredibly childish. 

They will even complain about something not working during their stay, the host goes over to check it out, and it's working perfectly. Why do they do this? They don't think the host will come over to check it, and they are trying to get a free stay by complaining about things that aren't true. 

Believe me, it never occurred to most hosts when they started hosting that guests would outright lie, because most of us aren't used to hanging out with people who lie. 

[Sandra856]

@Sarah977 I think you are right about that. I guess it just feels weird to me because I feel I work so hard to give my guests a nice place to stay so the thought of complete strangers should discuss and talk about me and my home instead of just contacting me if they have any concerns creeps me out a bit. I choose to trust people. I let them into my home so it is very much not just ordinary business - not to me at least. @Emilio153 If you want to make sure that the place you book is fine just pick those with a lot of great reviews - maybe a superhost. The guests might not say that a place is dirty directly in the review - but the star rating will tell you.

[Emilio153]

"Or they were unreachable on the day of arrival, were late on check-in or were angry when they arrived because they had a domestic fight during the trip or their teenage kids were driving them crazy. We also had guests who were angry because we didn't let them use A/C while the outside temperature was 21C or less"

This is a good example. I would contact them, and ask about the situation. Then to you. In the end, I would have a better picture of the reality to decide if I wanna go to your place or not.

I don´t know which serious downsides airbnb has,  but airbnb is about people visiting unknown places. I think that getting a better information about such places is what will make airbnb most trustable...we have hosts to ask and reviews, but it can be improved by adding this feature of asking guests.

[Sarah977]

@Emilio153  Guests are free to comment on any aspects of their stay in the review that they choose. What makes you think people would appreciate you, a complete stranger, calling them up and asking them questions? The majority of hosts try to be as accurate as possible in their listing descriptions and when they answer questions guests may have. It's in a host's best interests to do so, as they can get bad reviews if things aren't as described.

You know what would be a good idea? If guests actually throroughly read through the entire listing descriptions, house rules and cancellation policies, so they were clear on exactly what they were booking,  instead of just looking at the photos and the price and skimming quickly through the description, arriving to think they were getting an entire place, when it's clear that it's a private room in a shared home, or being surprised that there's a dog (which they are allergic to or afraid of), when the host mentioned the dog 3 times in the listing info.

[Emilio153]

No calling guests but just sending a message.

I have used many times airbnb, and what you find in many cases is not what the host told you.

Also, many people is afraid of writing wrong things as the host can then give you also a bad feedback and your profile will be not that nice for next trip.

Also, sometimes you get close to the host and become almost a friend, so, it is hard to point out some wrong things that you saw in the flat. 

Being able to contact guests would give you an additional information that would help you to choose a better place. Nothing bad on it 🙂

[Sarah977]

@Emilio153  I'm not sure what you mean by many guests being afraid to mention things in their review because the host can give bad feedback?  Reviews are blind- a host can't see a guest's review at all until the reviews are both published, or if only one party leaves a review, that review will be published after 14 days. So neither hosts nor guests can leave a bad review just because the other person did.

If you mean the host's response to a guest's bad review, usually a host responds because the guest was complaining about something that was never offered in the first place, or like I wrote above, the guest is blaming the host for the guest's own failure to actually read and understand what they were booking. I know sometimes a host can be a little crazy, and write a long, ranting response to a bad review, but really, that just makes the host look bad. Just like some guests can be a little crazy, but there's not much we can do about that.

I've no doubt that there are some bad hosts out there who are misrepresenting their listings, but that is exactly why there is a review process- so that hosts with inaccurate listings have guests talk about that in the review to warn other guests. 

And if  a guest becomes almost friends with a host, why wouldn't they just tell the host that they need to make their listing info more accurate? Isn't that what friends do, be honest with each other? 

Let me ask you something- would you think it was a good idea for hosts to message each other and say "So, I read your review of Emilio, where you said he was a good guest, but tell me, really, was he okay?"

It's people not being honest in their reviews that's the problem. It's not some popularity contest, it's just a review- it should state the facts.

[Emilio153]

Respect your last comment about hosts asking about the guests would be also great...that is what you want also, to know all about that guest...why not? They also would get all the information that you need about your guests. Nobody like surprises.

[Emilio153]

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[Emilio153]

A host gave me a good comment. But I didnt. He replied saying that I left all untidy... 🙂 

The point is that with the option of contacting guess by a message you could get and extra valuable info...thats a fact..I dont know why you are so against it 🙂 

Airbnb could make an extra inbox that you visit if you want only..so you dont need to reply nobody if you dont want to. But many people will be fine in replying and this could help travellers.

[Sarah977]

@Emilio153  I'm not against it- I just think it wouldn't be necessary at all if both guests and hosts were simply honest in their reviews- I don't understand why people find it so difficult to just say the truth.

And that's what I mean about a host's response can sound a bit crazy- you have pages of great reviews as a guest, so that response the host left about you being untidy just makes the host look bad. No host is going to believe that host when you have all those reviews saying what a good guest you were.

Guests also leave reviews with lies- mostly when they get called out on something during their stay, like they tried to sneak in more people or were eating all the host's food. Then they write a review saying the place was filthy, when the host has 70 reviews all saying it was immaculately clean 🙂

[Emilio153]

Well, in here we get into another topic, why people in the world are not very nice and honest sometimes s.... 🙂 sadly the reality is that they are not. This is a business. 

So, simply with this feature we could help to solve a little this problem and have the possibility of get an extra information about the place we wanna visit. I think all in this is positive...

[Sandra856]

@Emilio153 I'm not sure Airbnb is allowed to give complete strangers access to contact their customers/ the guests? Host's do choose to host on the platform and of course they can be contacted. 

[Emilio153]

Yes, it is not allowed.

But if guests could contact another guests who reviewed an apartment (just by clicking on the review, a new window could show up to send a private message to that guest) we could get very valuable information about the place, much better than only seeing the reviews (we don´t always say all details about all we saw) or contacting the host (who always would say that the flat is totally clean, quiet..etc).

[Sandra856]

@Emilio153 When I say allowed I mean legally. If you don't trust airbnb maybe then just stick to hotels instead. 

[Emilio153]

I trust it quite a lot but, what about improving it and making it must trustable? it would be better right? 🙂