Planning a Trip to London (Fitzrovia area) and Am Concerned with Fake Reviews

Eric1109
Level 2
Saint Paul, MN

Planning a Trip to London (Fitzrovia area) and Am Concerned with Fake Reviews

Hello, my wife and I have used Airbnb pretty extensively in the last four years and a majority of my experiences have been wonderful. However, last year I had a "learning experience" in Montreal with an horrendous Airbnb host who didn't answer messages/calls for weeks, left us stranded in a Starbucks with our luggage,  then switched properties on us at the last minute after we arrived in the city. The new unit was nice but we later found out the shower was broken, there was mold in the clothes washer, among a few other things. 

 

After digging through this Montreal host's, mostly five star, reviews I saw every so often reviewers were echoing the exact same problems we experienced -- bad communication, poorly maintained property, bait and switch, charging additional fees and requesting they be paid outside of Airbnb. In retrospect I learned what appeared to be an individual host was actually a property management company who owns multiple properties in an around Montreal and lists them on Airbnb. After dealing with Airbnb customer support they assured me that the host was "educated" on proper customer service and they offered me a $25 credit for my trouble. 

 

We're planning a trip to London now and want to try to prevent this from happening again. We found a few great listings in the Fitzrovia area of London but some of them appear to be the same kind of situation...not individual hosts but larger companies renting out a plethora of properties. I'm also seeing reviews that seem fake. Needless to say we're nervous. 

 

I really like the concept of Airbnb and we've had so many good experiences in the past. I also prefer the "live like a local" experience you get staying in an actual residential neighborhood versus the more sterile hotel experience. 

 

Are there any way to insure your "host" is an actual property owner and not a property management company?  I'm beginning to lose faith in Airbnb and feel like I can't trust the property reviews anymore. 

10 Replies 10
Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Eric1109   Since Airbnb has opted and even actively encouraged these property management companies with tons of listings to use the platform, this is one of the pitfalls. Hosts have been asking Airbnb to separate traditional "live like a local", hands-on, caring hosts from these faceless types of listings, so guests can easily filter for those, but Airbnb has been unresponsive. It would be very helpful if, as a guest, you sent your feedback on this to Airbnb, as they really don't listen to hosts since guest fees are primarily what they make their profit on.

One thing you can do when looking at reviews is to cross-reference. Click on the host profile pic of the property being reviewed. This will take you to the host's profile page and you can see all the reviews that the host has left for guests. If those reviews look generic and are quite brief, such as "Nice guests", that could be a clue that this is property managed and that there really isn't any hands-on host, as those hosts tend to leave more personalized reviews.

Read thoroughly through the listing descriptions. The ones handled by management companies tend to have descriptions that read like real estate ads- just lauding the virtues of the property without sounding at all like there is a person behind them that cares about their guests, provides a personalized experience, and will be there for you should any problems arise. Friendly, caring hosts who are on-site or close by tend to put more of themselves into the the listing details.

Also, you can send a message to the host and guage from the response, rather than instant booking something. Ask if there is a hands-on host/homeowener, or if it's company-managed. 

I know all this takes time, and guests shouldn't have to go through all this to sort through which listings are what, which is why it's important for guests to give feedback to Airbnb about the need to be able to filter hotel/property managed-type listings from more traditional hosts.

I'm not sure what you mean by "fake" reviews. People can only leave a review if they have actually made a booking and showed up. Could you post an example of what you mean by "fake review"?

Thank you for your very throughtful response, Sarah!

 

This is what I was afraid of. I got the impression that Airbnb was supporting these larger companies by the tone of my conversation with customer support.  I'll definitely take your advice and provide feedback. One more negative experience like the one I had in Montreal and I will likely stop using this platform, which would make us sad because we've made some great memories and friends of legitimate hosts. 

 

From what I've read online, unscrupulous hosts are gaming the system by having people they know book with them on days they have no reservations then after the "guests" leave five star reviews they refund them outside of Airbnb. Some are even creating fake profiles themselves and leaving glaring reviews of their own properties. 

 

 

@Eric1109  Okay. Thanks for explaining what you meant by fake reviews. I'm sure that does happen and there wouldn't be any way of knowing for sure. 

Valerie192
Level 10
Inglewood, CA

Hi @Eric1109 , You might have already figured this out,  but if you click on the  host's profile, it should list all their properties. While this isn't a utilateral rule, if you see a ton of properties associated to their profile you can probably conjecture it is more PM run. If it is a single listing or 1-2 listings then likely it will be a more personal, local owner. 

 

Also, I have personally found high success using Superhost in my filter search, although I am certainly biased as a superhost myself. And of course a PM host could also have made it to Superhost.

 

Bottom line though it is a matter of clicking through a bunch of listings and doing a lot of reading of reviews to ascertain if it appears to be a true local host or not - no great way to do it, as Sarah mentioned.

Thank you @Valerie192! We have been doing a lot of clicking to determine how many properties a host is managing. That's a great suggestion to use Superhost in the filter search...we'll try that and maybe it'll speed up the process a bit. We stayed with a Superhost in St. Thomas and it was the best Airbnb experiece we ever had. This is turning out to be a lot of work but it'll be worth it in the end if we have a positive experience. We appreciate your comment and suggestions! 

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Eric1109   I don't know if you are needing to book in a specific part of London, or what your budget is, but this host, Huma, is quite active on these forums and lists rooms in her beautiful Victorian home (where I've never been, but I'm impressed with her offerings and her hosting prowess), where she also lives. She has 3 room listings, you might want to check them out. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/14252680

Sandra126
Level 10
Daylesford, Australia

Don't lose faith, it is still great despite making things more difficult. We are all here, waiting for your custom! (but I am not in London...)

We all want guests like you, who wants the genuine, the real. Go for it, hope you have a great stay! And yes, wish I was going to stay at Huma's. There's a lot of love and care in that house.

We definitely won't give up on Airbnb yet. Filtering by SuperHost seems to have been the key.  Thank you! 

Rachel0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Eric1109  Hi, I was interested to read your post about coming to London, particularly as that is where I am!

I don't know whether this is your first visit or whether you have been before, but Fitzrovia is not really an area where you would "live like a local" as it is very central and very expensive and locals cannot afford to live there.  I would  hazard a guess that most of the listings in that area are going to be of the Property Management type rather than ones run by a live-in host.   

Londoners live in the suburbs.  For most, that means a tube/bus journey of around 30 to 40 minutes from the centre of town, although there are areas such as Islington, Camden Town, Shoreditch (very trendy now) and Hammersmith which are a little closer.  I live in an area called Ealing which is 30 mins by tube heading west from Oxford Circus and then a very short bus ride. Do feel free  to click on my photo and have a look, you would be welcome.

 

Hi @Rachel0 - Staying in the suburbs is something we didn't consider.  Your property looks beautiful.  I'll bring this option up to my wife today.  It would be wonderful to have a place away from the hustle and bustle of the city center to retreat to at the end of the day. Unfortunately it doesn't look like your property is available for our dates of May 14-22.  I've saved your property to my favorites so we'll look you up for future trips. Thanks for your note! 

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