Review

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Andy1
Level 2
United Kingdom

Review

We recived a really bad review from a couple who stayed in our property for only one night!  They left the house in a complete mess and then went on to leave a very long and damaging review - which we didn't see as we were away and had no internet so it was too late to reply .  This is upseting because all the rest of the reviews for the summer were really good and this is now the last one and so the first one people will see when clicking onto them!   We would like to be able to either respond, or remove as it has affected bookings and we feel it is totaly unfair and also totally untrue.  The people who were in the week before left the review i have pasted below but didn't get it on the site on time!!   Any help would be greatly appreciated ?

 

Hi Andy, I am so sorry, but I appear to have missed the 'review' period. I had no idea it was time limited. We only got home yesterday and have not been with internet on our holiday. Had I known, I would have gone to a cyber café. We loved your house. We found it to be welcoming and well set up for visitors. It had everything that we could possibly need, was comfortable, well located and like a home from home. We all thoroughly enjoyed our stay at your house and hope that your next visitors like it as much as we did. Thank you.

 

1 Best Answer
Annette33
Level 10
Prescott, AZ

So sorry this happened... it's always an opportunity to figure out what one can do to not have a repeat of this kind of demanding guest. First, the review is in French, so that already cuts down on the number of people who can and will read it. The review speaks for itself, with complaining about the church bells, only having dvds to watch, etc... Don't sweat it!! Your other reviews are consistently positive, future guests will be smart enough to figure it out.

But here is what I what consider for the future if I were you:

Make sure that somehow you will be able to be close to internet reception when you have guests and reviews are most likely to come in, so you're able to respond or post reviews yourself.

As you are not near your place most of the time, as it is in France and you are in then UK, make extra sure you have a good cleaner and caRetaker there. It sounds like a large part of the complaint was about cleanliness. If there is some truth to it, you need to be on top of it and have better cleaning service.

You could also take this as an opportunity to define your description with more details, maybe you need to state that internet reception may be spotty, that the TV is not cable (even though you don't promise that in your amenities, people may not look at that and then act surprised).Links to other websites get blocked out by Airbnb, check your listing, i would take them out. And maybe you'd want to post less pictures of the area but more of the place itself, with better lighting and better pictures.

Good luck!

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37 Replies 37
Lexena0
Level 2
Burbank, CA

Hi Friend,

Are there any penalties if I missed to review a guest,?

Thanks,

Lexena

Tracy131
Level 6
Franklin, MA

I know bad review is upsetting but I think most people will see that you have very good reviews and will chalk the 1 bad review up to the guest being very unrealistic or weird. I wouldn't let one bad review stop me from renting your place..... several bad reviews would be another story. 

Just received a 2 out of 5 fir my decor...  I'd like to change my review of him now!

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Belinda69

 

I didn’t know decor was a category in the star ratings. Are you sure the rating wasn’t for something else?

Andy173
Level 2
New Orleans, LA

The review system is generally a great way to get word out about your place.........its also a bit of a nightmare.   If a property has a real problem it should be dealt with by AIRBNB through some kind of verification system.......multiple reviews, etc.    But there is no reason that a guest who has no reviews, and no AIRBNB experience shoud be able to leave a damaging review for a property that is rated at 4.9 and has thirty reviews.    The reviews MUST be weighted by the reviewer,  or we should be allowed to either remove or pin reviews to the top of our page.   JUST ONE BAD REVIEW CAN BE FINANCIALLY DAMAGING.  IF I AM DOING $60.000 IN BUSINESS A YEAR I DESERVE MORE OPTIONS!

I totally agree with you!

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

Is there any way to have star ratings changed? I'm guessing not, as the guest has the right to their opinion, but what about when it's something beyond your control?

 

E.g. recent guests marked me down on communication (something I consistently get 5 stars for as I have a 100% response rate and am always polite and try to be as helpful as I can be).

 

The feedback was "She wasn't responding when we send her a text but she was in the hospital so she couldn't help it."

 

The text they mention was the only one I didn't respond to immediately out of several they sent that day, because I was in the hospital and didn't expect to get a message at 1pm saying 'We're ready to check in now,' when they had already agreed to come at 3! They subsequently changed their check in many times, each time with about 5 minutes notice, eventually arriving after 7pm. I'd say their communication was very poor indeed, but I let it go because they were cheerful and friendly.

 

It's no big deal, but in the case when the guest admits something is not your fault, should they be allowed to mark you down on it? Is that fair?

Hello all, I recently incurred a negative situation with my rating review on my profile which is some thing to think about. I have locks on bedroom my bedroom doors to prevent guests not paying for extra guests. I do this because I have a very cheap nightly rate, so that I can cater to a larger market being couples or large groups of 8. I have on my profile listing under things guests should know and under house rules, to please enter correct amount of people at time of booking as bedrooms not occupied will be locked. I aim to have a large turnover of guests. If I have to change linen and clean for guests not paid, it is not really worth it especially when paying a cleaner. Recently a lady stayed for a week and booked for 1 person. She gave me a 4 star rating for accuracy but overall 5 star rating. Because she did not read the clearly stated information on my profile about extra guests. She marked me 4 stars for points being accuracy, which I find not fair as she did not read the information correctly. I also had a similar situation with another guest in regards to wifi. Now smack bang on the front of my profile it says 95% of guests gave 5 stars for accuracy. Please take a moment to think about the big picture, if we keep getting guests giving negative ratings based on false information, we could end up potentially having a really bad profile, where we do not get many bookings I pull out and you then make no money. (I wonder what the statistics could be) Now not only that, look at all the hours AIR Bnb pay staff to have to respond to these queries from guests about negative reviews (I wonder how much money gets spent on that) I have a suggestion why don’t you remove, the data off the front profile page of things like 95% of guests gave a 5 star rating. I rang air Bnb the the case manager said please forward onto our developers, as we can not do this and it needs to be changed so that we have access to it. I also find this hard to believe and feel like I was hand balled, and that maybe they can change it but couldn’t be bothered. But if that was not the case, then the case managers idea, is a great idea, also if you have a strict policy in place for review systems where you need evidence from the guest doing the wrong thing like my case that would fix many problems. In my case it is very clear in black and white. Hosts then understand that and prevent questing being asked I have the information on my profile and the comments the guest made based on not reading the information at all. End of story. The other thing is why don’t you remove star ratings all together, Or just from public review. Just have reviews on the guest profile and private feedback to guests, this would save much time for air Bnb and frustration for hosts. The other issue also is what ever formula air Bnb are using to write these startistics is not quite right, it’s technically false information. Because I have had over 30 5 stars And 1 maybe 2- 4 stars, the maths is not correct to say 95% It should be something like 99.7 etc This really should be fixed but just a suggestion. If all hosts bring this up to air Bnb it might help to make a movement for a improvement for every body including Air Bnb