My host doesn't want me to write a bad review

[Deanna142]

Hi global Airbnb friends,

I have been using Airbnb for a long time and have been an excellent guest. I have never encountered a situation where the host texted me using my cellphone number which I don't know where he got it. He doesn't want me to leave him any negative reviews. Please read the screengrab from my phone. 

My experience staying at his property was fine. He tried his best to make himself available for me to ask questions although he doesn't live in his property. But I don't feel comfortable after reading his text. It makes me wonder how accurate other people's reviews about his place are. More importantly, if people leave him a negative review,  would he write a negative review to them, too? Then how do I know which reviews are true or false?

I greatly appreciate it if you can share your experience and provide me some tips on how to handle this situation. 

Deanna

[Sandra126]

The number you have given to Airbnb when you signed up is freely available for hosts. I can only guess that this host has had some lower reviews and wants to keep the business going. Anything less than 5 on Airbnb is a bad rating and yes, hurts. 5 is counted as the listing being as you expected, 4 means much room for improvement and 3 means close the doors now. I don't tell my guests how to rate but I know that some do try to tell their guests how the system works. I'm sure other hosts will chip in more. 

[Deanna142]

Hi Sandra,

Thanks for your helpful information. I do understand that reviews are important to their business. But I feel pressured to give a 5-star because he wants me to do the same for him. What if I didn't give a 5-star and there are some improvements around his property he needs to work on which he has. I also concerned that if he would retaliate me by giving me a bad review as well. 

Please advice.

D

[Sandra126]

He can't retaliate. He won't know what you have written until simultaneous publishing. I would definitely mention in the private feedback section that you felt pushed. If it was a 5, give a 5. If it was a 4, give a four. But unless it was a complete disaster, don't do 3. You can write comments both in public and private section. I once had a guest leave me 1 star because it's the best! A glowing review and a 1. But hey, what can you do.

[Gordon0]

It's a bit pushy, @Deanna142, and overly needy. It's one thing to point out 'how it works', but this guy's got the tone wrong. If the stay was good I'd be tempted to five-star it, but dink the communication by a star. I'd also mention privately he's overstepped the mark. 

[Helen3]

I don’t think it’s appropriate for a host to 1) to text you with this sort of information  and 2) tell you not to leave a review if you want to give him less than five stars.  It’s one thing to help guests how the rating system works. Another to tell them they shouldn’t leave a review if you intend to give less than five stars.

I presume  he Texted you rather than use Airbnb’s messaging system so there wouldn’t be a record on Airbnb that he had done this.

Just leave the review you would have done anyway. 

[Ange2]

@Deanna142  If there are things you believe could be improved let the host know the details. As for reviews, they are neither true nor false, they are opinion, personal perception, character...: 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder' etc.  His message is heavy handed, but Airbnb's star system is a punitive system rather than an award system—5* is a pass, thus some hosts feel pressured/stressed and react with messages like the one you received. If you feel so inclined, you could mention privately your opinion of how he approached this.

[Emilia42]

Sorry to say that I am sure this happens so much more than we can see. I do not agree with his approach. At all. But I feel for his desperation. When you give a host a 4-star review, you are casting your vote to have them removed from the platform. If a host consistently received all 4-star reviews (with maybe a 3 star thrown in there once or twice) Airbnb would not keep them as hosts for long.

[Linda108]

@Deanna142   Reasonable concern about this host.  Not what most of us do, but unfortunately this platform punishes hosts for a 4 star which in any other system would be deemed good.  I am concerned about the host going beyond informing you about the rating system and communicating outside the Air BNB system to avoid (erroneously) leaving a trail about a message that he apparently knows is not okay.  

[Sarah977]

@Deanna142  As you can see from the responses here, others feel that the way this host tried to get his message across was a poor approach-I think many guests would react like you did. But as you can also see, we do sympathise and understand where he is coming from in being afraid of having his ratings tanked, because of how harshly Airbnb applies the ratings to hosts, which most guests are completely unaware of.

Airbnb tells guests on the review form that 4*s is a good rating, then they turn around and threaten hosts with delisting when their rating falls below 4.7. It's an extremely frustrating and irritating situation that they mislead guests and punish hosts- and, as you say, if 5*s is the norm not to get threatening messages from Airbnb, it makes the star ratings not believable. In a sane world, there should be nothing whatsoever wrong with something being rated 4*s and considered "Good".

Some of my guests who are aware of how harshly the ratings can affect hosts have told me that if the place is basically fine, and the host is nice and attentive, that they rate 5*s and mention anything they feel could be improved to the host in private feedback. You can also rate 5*, but mention something you feel needs improvement in the written review, to let other guests know.

Of course there are places that definitely don't deserve 5*s, no matter what, places that are dirty, that have broken appliances or fail to have the amenities listed, or ones where the host doesn't address legitimate guest issues raised during the stay. 

You say you've had a lot of stays on Airbnb, so I'm a little surprised you weren't aware that hosts' and guests' phone numbers are visible to each other after a booking is confirmed.

I wouldn't worry about a bad review- if I were in your shoes, I would tell the host that you had every intention of rating him 5*s, but that his approach in messaging you about the star ratings is very off-putting, and that he might want to rethink sending such a message to guests again.

It's quite true that if everyone is pressured to leave 5* ratings, that makes the ratings unbelievable. But if I were a guest, I'd not find star ratings to be valuable to me in making a decision anyway, as they are so subjective- what might be a wonderful 5* location to you, might be an inconvenient, less than desirable location to another, so it's what people actually write that I'd go by. Same with ratings of guests- I'd take them with a grain of salt- what another host might have found annoying about a guest might be something that wouldn't bother me at all.

[Deanna142]

@Sarah977  Thanks for your tips and sharing your experience using Airbnb. In my experience, most hosts use the Airbnb messaging system to communicate with me. They never use my phone number to text message me. 

I also think that reading other people's reviews are more essential than just looking at the rating. I agree that some reviews are objective, but if a lot of people talk about/complain/recommend the same thing, it helps me to make a more educated guess if I should stay at that property.

[Sarah977]

@Deanna142  It's the star ratings I feel are too subjective to be of value, and I know a lot of us just wish they would be eliminated entirely. Written reviews are also subjective- what one person considers clean might not be what another does, but if they actually write about it, it would give me more to go on than just a star rating. For sure if I read in several written reviews that a place was dirty, for instance, that would stop me from booking it, because if several guests found it so, I'd believe it. If the host had a string of great reviews saying it was really clean and just one that claimed it was dirty, I'd dismiss that as the guest having just been disgruntled about being called out for disregarding house rules, or showing up with extra guests they haven't paid for, and deciding to make up stuff for the review. But if I just saw a 3* average cleanliness rating, I'd have no idea why it has that rating, since maybe a guest was mad about something else and just decided to rate it 1*, bringing what was formerly a 5* average way down.

There's even guests who've rated a place 1*, and when the host questioned them about it, asking what was wrong, since there were no complaints during the stay, the guest is shocked- they hit the wrong button, thinking they were giving 5*s and Airbnb won't let users change it afterwards, even if they say it was a total error.

The host texting you about this, rather than using the Airbnb messaging system, tells me he didn't want his message to be seen by Airbnb. I do sometimes text or phone with guests, but it's more in situations where they are just letting me know they've arrived at the bus station, where I go pick them up, or if they aren't answering an Airbnb message I sent, to tell them to please respond, since guests sometimes don't even have their notifications turned on.