Put Reviews back in chronological order to reflect listing development

[Andrea9]

Mixing old and new reviews is confusing, and as a guest I would want to see latest and up-to-date reviews, because that's the situation going on right now.

Old reviews may reflect something good or bad that might not even be relevant anymore!!!!!

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Response from Airbnb

We agree that older reviews may not reflect current reality as you continue improving your listing and your hosting skills, often based on guest feedback. However, our research has shown that displaying reviews from guests of the same language and country leads to more bookings, and we want you to get as many bookings as possible.

The reviews that a guest sees on your listing are prioritized first by the guest’s native language and country, and second by chronological order. In some cases, older reviews may appear above more recent ones that aren’t in the guest’s native language or from the guest’s home country.

[Elenor0]

Reviews are now showing up in order of your own country first.

I agree that the most recent reviews should be first as they are the most accurate.

Also, it is useful to see opinions from an assortment of nationalities rather than just the locals.

[Andrea9]

The reviews on my English page are all mixed up, new and old. That's the problem.

[Michele4]

Exactly! I just want to see the most recent reviews independently from the country of origin. Everything else is just plain stupid, sorry

[Susie0]

Totally. Yelp mixes theirs too instead of chronological which is probably also inaccurate as things change.

[Gina101]

Just put them back in the order they were recieved please Airbnb. I know you are reading these comments, and your hosts are the ones that keep you in business, we are at the coal face everyday, having to explain your silly whims.

[Hilary-And-Ed0]

Agreed.  If guests are "telling us what we could do better", and then we do improve, that should show up over time with the reviews.  If a host gets less than perfect reviews in some area at the binning, and then adresses the issue, other prospective guests should be able to see that the more recent reviews show improvement in the area.

Put another way, the more recent the review, the more relevant it is to how the place is now, to what the host knows about hosting now, and to what the host has learned.

Reviews put in chronicological order will demonstrate this.

[Alyce-Jean--Sam-0]

Please Air put the reviews back in order. If we improve on something, it only makes sense that it shows up in reviews.

[Michelle417]

Agree whole-heartedly - please put the reviews back in chronological order!!! What possible benefit is this having on anyone's part?

[Michele4]

Exactly! I have 2 bookings per week and the review on top is from January. The second one from JUNE 2016 !!! The third from may last year! How does that reflect the changes I made??

[Louise0]

This latest 'enhancement' is utter madness.   

Of all the design and functionality mistakes that Airbnb has made in the years I've been hosting, this is absolutely the no. 1 corporate cluster-**bleep** of all time.  It's deceptive, confusing, detracts from the utility of the site and demoralises hosts.

 When I rely on reviews to make a purchase decision I am only interested in those which give a contemporaneous account of the quality of the offering.    To put it more plainly, unless I'm travelling by time machine I don't give a flying **bleep** what the accommodation was like 2 or 3 years ago.

[Louise0]

This latest 'enhancement' is utter madness.  It does nothing to improve the utility or user experience of the site, it's deceptive, misleading and demoralising for hosts.

When I rely on reviews to make a purchase decision I'm only interested in those which give a contemporaneous account of the quality of the offering; and this makes perfect sense.   Unless I'm travelling by time machine, why would I give a flying **bleep** what the place was like 2 or 3 years ago?

In particular, the decision to order reviews so that the reader is presented first with the views of those from their own country of domicile makes a mockery of Airbnb's espoused principles of inclusiveness and the breaking down of cultural stereotypes through the mechanism of inviting 'strangers' into our homes.  Your ham-fisted attempt at improving functionality is so obviously informed by your own cultural biases that it's a PR disaster in the making.

 
As a guest, I would find it offensive that Airbnb presumes that simply because I am located in Australia, that I would value the opinion of other Australian domiciled guests over those from other parts of the globe.  

Seriously Airbnb, do you think that just because we live in a particular country we all think alike?  What next?  Are you going to push reviews written by female guests over 50 up my list whenever I view a listing because, of course, we all think alike?

[Gillian15]

I agree....put the reviews back in order....I thought it was only my site that has been fiddled with! Hands off please, why change what is working? 

[Pete-and-Marie0]

I totally agree ..... so what can be done about this?...

[Nancy0]

Let me join this thread as well. You'll see this history of this issue from another thread that speaks about latest reviews not showing. What is interesting is that this new strange approach shows up on Firefox AND the Airbnb app. BUT, their preferred browser Chrome still shows reviews in chronological order. What is a mystery is that the app last week was fixed, and the reviews in chrono order. Now this new world of by country order. It appears I've not had guests for 3 months, when I have had them every month. Please, let everyone on this thread call and or write feedback, or Tweet if you have an acct. Customer Experience Sup explains they do not acty unless they understand this is a big issue. Lord knows if they really read this area.