Review system is seriously biased towards the guest!

Review system is seriously biased towards the guest!

Got to love the equality’s in the service industry 🤦🏼‍♀️

 

Today, Airbnb advised me that whilst my guests have the freedom to mark me on 6 areas between 1*-5* AND they can CHOOSE their overall rating, I’m not privileged enough to have the same freedom. 

So, for example, they have the power to give 5* for all 6 areas but then issue a 2* Overall. And no amount of challenging the logic behind this with Airbnb will get them to go back to the guest & request a reason for such scores. Apparently this is against their “freedom of choice” policy 🙄🤷🏼‍♀️

 

What is most infuriating, is it is only this Overall rating that counts towards the Hosts official Star Rating. 🧐 and the ability to achieve/maintain our Superhost status, which we pride ourselves on!

 

However, as a Host, I only have 3 areas I can rate 1-5* and my Overall Guest rating is AUTOMATICALLY calculated depending on these scores…
🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

To top it off, Airbnb do not have a complaints department. 🙄🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️
You are asked to simply leave feedback, which they openly advise THEY DO NOT RESPOND TO 🤯😡😤😡😠 Are you kidding me….. 

15 Replies 15

@Donna1107 Meanwhile, in the other 99.9% of the service industry, business owners have no chance to publicly rate or review their customers at all.  Imagine if they did!

 

For now, I'm relieved that Martin Luther King left that whole paragraph about Airbnb reviews out of his I Have A Dream speech. When we talk about equality these days, we're generally not asking for commercial relationships to become totally symmetrical.

 

 

 

Helen744Andrew0 Seriously ? this is an unique "industry " not one where people are adequately compensated monetarily . Lets be clear about that. Also one where most Airbnbers are using their own homes . Also lets be clear . Airbnb are making a moxa from providing a booking platform not a guest compensation service for every little tantrum throwing brat in the universe. We provide . They pay.Simple equation .If your guests do not like the place they do not come back simple. If hotels put up with some of this garbage then no wonder their fees are so high. People with border line personality disorders abound in Airbnbs. Most of us only complain when one or other of them is worse than normal and affect us badly . Airbnb provides little assistance or protection probably because that is not their job but overstep the mark in some type of punitive manner when guests complain . It is not good enough and to try and make people accept low rates in order to keep the money machine cranking 

 

@Helen 744. We all try to rank our guests fairly . We are generally honest and only rank them to chase the elusive stars artificially created by Airbnb for their own amusement. No other reason . So dont imagine hosts created this system or like it.

 

@Helen744 the thing that is an issue is that guests can give a five star rating for all points and then a four star overall or less. Donna is correct it is illogical.It is as she says 'nuts" Airbnb should take an average and calculate the average.This is rudimentary maths

 

Mike-And-Jane0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

@Donna1107 to be fair in the hotel side of the hospitality industry the hotels doesn't get to rate it's guests at all.

@Mike-And-Jane0  Yeah, but they get to charge their credit card if they damage things, and boot them out if necessary without having to deal with some company who tells them the party guests they kicked out will get a full refund 🙂

That is very true. 
it’s just the sheer “impartial” way in which Airbnb are trying to behave but if you look at it, it’s 100% biased to the guest. 
I just can’t get my head around it.

When you speak with the “support team” they just refer you back to the T&C’s. 
when I asked for them to show me rye T&C’s that apology to my complaint I’m told it’s what I agreed to when signing up.

it’s just pure madness. 

@Mike-And-Jane0   Most of the other STR platforms also don't feature guest ratings or prompt guests to create user profiles. Perhaps Airbnb wouldn't have put the guest review feature in at all, if it hadn't started out listing mostly homestays. 

I’ve no problem with the reviews if BOTH parties have exactly the same options to rate their guests. That’s my issue. 

 

@Donna1107   To what end? What would this accomplish?

 

When guests are choosing where to book, they have thousands of options to consider, on Airbnb and elsewhere, and lots of criteria to evaluate. But when a booking request comes in, a host only has to choose between two options:  accept or decline. It's nice when past hosts have written thoughtful reviews to aid in that decision, but the quality of communication in the request is usually a better indicator of how they'll be as guests. If you're actually finding that the dearth of star-rated fields is hindering your ability to decide whether to accept a guest, I can only suggest that you work on improving your correspondence to get more information from them directly. 

 

Is it that? Are you really having a hard time choosing your guests? Or do you just wish you had more ways to take revenge on that lady who gave you a bad review?

Helen 744@Andrew0 why are you having such a difficult time understanding what Donna is saying or trying to say. Do you actually work in your Airbnb . Are you not invested in it. Airbnb have created a weird system Donna is not alone in pointing it out. Bottom line is unless guests are aware that anything under five stars is punitive to us then one

 guest out of 100 can  take away our income. and if they are feeling spiteful or behaving badly they will do it too because they have been caught out. It is a dogs breakfast and what happens when someone remotely tries to control your private business.Things will change here . They have too. Bad reviews should not be put up if they are out of the blue one offs and should be removed if the host gives a reasonable explanation .
Sometimes hosts have no idea at all and they are being scammed for a refund.Private people are being scammed out of income by bad actors , after guests have had their trip.

@Donna1107  What other categories would you want to be able to rate guests on? How could they be "exactly the same options" as guests have? Location? Value? How could those be ratings for guests?

 

Frankly I am shocked at your review responses. Responses are not the place to speak to the guest and berate them for the ratings they left. They are meant to be a place to correct any misleading information in the review, or to indicate that you have now corrected a legitimate issue, for the benefit of future guests. Not to slag the guest, be defensive or aggressive. Review responses appear on your review page, not the guests'.

 

They are the host's opportunity to counter a bad or issue-mentioning written review with an explanation, correction, or apology for a legitimate issue. They are your chance to make yourself look good, and professional, to future guests.  Your responses do the exact opposite.

 

A review from one of your guests:

 

" We had a nice time with good communication."

 

Your response:

 

"I'm sorry you felt the apartment wasn't worthy of the 5* my other guests have given me. A real pity."

 

Then you go on to further criticize the guest.

 

Who do you think looks like the jerk here to potential guests reading your review page? The guest who left a complimentary review, or you, who apparently can't abide anyone leaving her less than 5*s?

 

I would venture a guess that your responses would send a lot of guests quickly moving on to look for a different listing. I sure wouldn't book with a host who got angry and vindictive if she wasn't consistently rated 5*s.

Helen @744 There is something seriously wrong when we can critizice any guest and they can take pot shots at us in a public forum after they have left. This system does not work for anyone Cheers H.

I had the same concern:

As a host, when I reviewed my guest, there was no way to give an overall rating.
But why the guest can have the option to mark the overall rating for the host, sometime in an unreasonable way?
For example, recently I received a one start overall rating, but any of the individual category had better one:
Cleanliness: 3 star
Communication: 2 star
Value: 2 star
Accuracy: 5 star
Check-in: 5 star
Location: 5 star

How and why Airbnb has such a rating system, which does't make sense, and looks unscientific, funny and stupid?