Are we creating our own problem with Reviews?

[Gina32]

I have read with great interest posts from hosts all over about the rating/review system, yes it needs fixing and it is skewed to allow the guests to nit pick.

I have also wondered if we have created our own problem.

I look at many listings and think, they are beautiful rooms/apartments, who wouldn't want to go stay in them. They are what I will call over the top listings. We have all gone to a lot of trouble to create warm and welcoming spaces to share with travellers, but do the travellers really appreciate what you have created for them? Some do apparently, and give your glowing reviews, but many do not.

I also look at the rates you are choosing to ask for a stay in the beautiful spaces, and again I am wondering why you are under rating your space and service. In some locations this ends up being a pricing war spiralling downwards.

Lets get back to basics - Airbnb was created by some young people desperate to raise the rent money for the next week and they indentified an opportunity because there was a need during that particular week for places to stay. "Air beds on the floor with a basic breakfast" we have moved a long way from those beginings.

Therefore we have created guest expectations of "luxury for less", when actually we should have gone the other way "Private luxury for more". You, the guest, get to stay in some fantastic locations around the world, in someone elses home, and in some cases have that host at your bec and call, (like a butler!) and you don't think you should pay for the priviledge.

Many guests do not understand, the concept of Airbnb, and become a demanding guest, like they were in an hotel. Expecting pillow selections, bathrobes, slippers, complimentary luxury toiletries, fresh flowers, chocolates, wine, gourmet breakfasts, and the list goes on. Then the host is quivering in his boots because he does not want a bad review and if he doesn't supply these things the guests will not be happy.  STOP this syndrome please.

Hosts please ask yourselves, Am I under valuing my service? Truly answer.

Airbnb ask yourselves, Are we being fair to the hosts with the current review system?

[Robert328]

Agree! And the Airbnb system fuels the price war even from the outset by telling you places in your area are priced at a certain range. I ignore it and give a price which I think is fair.

They want cheaper, go somewhere with cheaper rate. They want hotel service, go to a hotel.

I just remind myself that those guests are not the kind of guests i would want staying at my place again in the future anyway. It's a matching service that Airbnb provides, like a dating service. If host and guest don't match in expectations, then we shouldn't force it. In the end, what ends up in your pool of guests (or hosts for guests) are those that match. You shouldn't change yourself just to get a date, should you?

[Cormac0]

@Gina32

I wholeheartedly agree with what you’ve said back to basics, but I think the train has left the station on that one, what we need to do is raise the awareness of below cost selling.

I’m looking at prices per night in some hosting that just can’t be making money in any known financial concept, and yet these hosting are driving down the price per night to ridicules levels and giving guest unreal expectations on what’s on offer.

I’ve done calculation using the “not so smart, smart pricing” to discover that I would been hosting for a month or more, at less than monthly rental rates I getting at present and having to pay the utilities cost as well.

What really going on is that Airbnb are chasing growth in numbers for their imminent IPO (initial Public offering) and essentially over trading which is very evident in the continual software issues and inability to have a help desk run by humans.

Nearly every day somebody is complaining about their inability to contact Airbnb representatives only to have a kind host explain how it can be done eventually, this involve twitter, emails, and phone calls.

Are we creating our own problem with Reviews?

Let’s review AirBnb

Communication * one star

Software ** two stars

Documentation * one star

Transparency * one star

Host support * one star

I think it’s time the host community sent Airbnb a letter of censure with the treat of being delisted.

[Alvin12]

I just had a guest who complained about everything (in his review) about my apartment. But by the big smile and warm greetings he and his guest gave me each day, I would have never know there was a problem. And I think Airbnb is in another world with this "smart pricing" system. I charge per night, not per person, and the smart pricing is suggesting I go down to, at times, $47/night...from $80...and I'm solidly booked until July at my price which is nothing in NYC!! If I were to go by Airbnb suggestion, I'd be broke...completely broke!

[Cormac0]

@Robert

is anybody using, the not so smart "smart pricing" (nsssp)?

Why is everything AirBnb does so opaque, I reviewed the last 7 receipts I received from Airbnb and I can't make head not tail of them,

two of the receipts seem to have no cleaning charge included for some inexplicable reason, the AirBnb fee they charged, I have no idea why the used the % they used and the weekly % discount applied has no rime not reason, It’s the sort of receipt I would expect to receive from children operating a lemonade stand in the local junior school not from a company valued at $30 billion.

I have spent many hours trying to ascertain how Airbnb calculate their receipts to no avail, rather than a mathematical working out of a receipt as an example one gets an endless loop of prose. It just not good enough, coming from an accounting back round I regard it as quite sinister!

[Yvonne16]

Agree agree agree. I've been doing airbnb for five years now and I've seen it change from guests looking forward to a relaxed homestay experience to a more demanding hotel experience courtesy ridiculous requirements re airbnb reviews which weight things too much to the guests pov. Also agree re smart pricing. My theory is the eager newbies sign up to this and end up hosting people at well below what is reasonable. I've heard them crow about how many forward bookings they have. 'Knock yourself out' I say The more experienced savvy hosters knows to avoid smart pricing and stick to their guns. There's usually enough last-minute bookings to fill our rooms at a much better rate. 

[Cormac0]

@Gina32@Yvonne16@Alvin12@Robert328

It must be nearly time we got archived...

They say sarcasm is the lowest from of wit.

[Gina32]

@Cormac0 @Yvonne16 @Robert328 @Alvin12

Thank you all for  your interaction on this subject. Yes we will probably go under the radar on this because we don't have enough following. Shame really because I really think we are the people who should be in control of our review system and helping all hosts, especially the newbes, how to price their product.

The smart pricing is anything but smart that's for sure. And the rating system is not so smart either anymore. I genuinely feel the system keeps getting tweaked by people who have never hosted anyone in their property at all, and do not have any idea of what it's like to be judged by some of the rude guests with over the top expectations of staying in someonelse's home.

The Guests are very confused about the rating system, they are rating 'property against property" or "property against hotel star system".... I hope that make sense to you, where they should be rating their actual stay at your place with you.

Robert - No we shouldn't change ourselves to get a date 🙂

Cormac - Yes the train has left the station, so now it is a challenge for Airbnb to get the review system right and stop suggesting ridiculous rates.

Alvin - stick to your reasonable price but also look at the service element and add that in too 🙂

Yvonne _ I've heard similar about foward bookings too....yep we all need to work smarter not harder. 

1.And anyone who says they are doing this just to meet the people - I don't believe you - you might as well list with Couchsurfing.

Price your product for profit.

2.Airbnb need to be readily available for contact by hosts. What I find works really well, is if you post something on their facebook page, you get immediate attention 🙂

3.The review system needs to get back to basics.

We need more "thumbs up" on this issue to be noticed A1 Host team.

[Cormac0]

@Gina32

I wonder what is the average amount of input to host voice before bloggers realise its probably a waste of time. 

Airbnb must surely have the larest archive in the world at the speed at which they close a tread down.

[Gina32]

@Cormac0 Agreed. just got notification that several of the threads I have been following have been archived!

It's coming soon ...wait for it.

[Bruce43]

well i learned a lot from that thread,thanks and i agree i was threatened by a guest from hell about my review.  nuff said     

i know and have learned the hard way

bye for now 

[Gina32]

@Bruce43 thanks for dropping by to the thread. Yes we can all learn from each other and so pleased to hear you found the conversation helpful. Good luck with hosting.  

[Pauline106]

As a newbee I am fast learning how much it costs to run your home as a bnb and that I am working for little to nothing.

I really put a great deal of time into this and at $60 per night I am working for next to nothing. I provide my guests a substantial breckfast along with a very nice house and AirBnb wants me to charge $42 per night. What an insult!

I have also learned that people do not see the effort that goes into providing a spotless home and an excellent experience. I just had a guest give me a less than stellar rating in terms of value and location. I vividly reacall how impressed he was with the room when he first saw it. Solid mahogany furniture, bamboo sheets, feather pillows, silk decorative  pillows, you get the idea....

My guest was constantly asking for more. In terms of breckfast I think he and his wafe were trying to stuff in as much as possible  so they didn't have to eat the rest of the day. He demanded much of my personal time in conversation. I did a wash for him because he didn't have a car to get to the laundrymat and was with me for a week with a wife that was less than healthy. Then he asked me to do another load before he left for his next place to vacation. He wanted the Hilton at bargain basement prices and I was the slave to give it to him.

One would expect he would have seen that he had hit the motherload, but no, he thought I was charging tooooo much and that the location was poor. So given all this, what did I do. I started the process of raising my prices.  I moved from being a newbee to an informed, knowledgable BnB provider.

When I looked at the time people expect from you in terms of conversation, ware and tear on your property, the time spent washing sheets, scrubbing toilets, the increase in electricity and water, the bookkeeping,  extra tax work at year end, staying up late at night to receive guests and the expectation of many to travel for less than half it costs for the cheepest motel in town, AirBnB's strategy to get people to offer accommodations for close to cost is counter intuitive.  And the pressure to get 5 star reviews, well that is another hornets nest in itself.

I agree with the previous host who said we should be educating those who are new at hosting to the real cost of providing accommodations and helping them to price their homes accordingly.  Because when people are offering 5 star accommodations at $42 a night the only one who wins is AirBnB. And in the end, the hosts can not operate on such a narrow margin - they either have to give up providing the service or raise their prices to meet the 5 stars required by AirBnB.