Reviews Out of Chronological Order is HURTING Host Business!

Reviews Out of Chronological Order is HURTING Host Business!

Im having a BIG problem with the new policy to not order the reviews chronologically so that 1 unfavorable review from the worst guest I had in 5 years (out of most 5 star 51 reviews) keeps showing up at the top of my page while 5 great reviews are buried on page 4-5 where NO ONE will ever see them. Also makes it look like not many people stayed with me this year. Nobody at Airbnb can tell me WHY they changed this or how it's supposed to help Hosts get bookings when if fact it's HURTING hosts like me. I haven't had an inquiry in 32 days and this is NOT normal.. will cancel my account and go to Homeaway or VBRO if someone doesn't listen to me!

Any suggestions out there?


Response from Airbnb

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. Your experience as a host matters, and we’re constantly looking for ways to support your hosting success. You’re noticing that reviews are being sorted a bit differently than they had before. Here’s what’s changed and why:

We’re sorting reviews by language and country first so that when a traveler looks at your listing, they see reviews by your previous guests who either speak their language or are from their same country. This way when a French traveler looks at your listing, they’ll see all your reviews from French guests first, in chronological order—and then they’ll see the rest of your reviews, also in order. The intention is to help travelers find the reviews most accessible and relevant to them. So, not all travelers will see the same lineup of reviews.

This new sorting method does not take into account the review rating or sentiment of guest feedback, and we don’t intentionally surface poor reviews.

We made this change because we found that allowing guests to see reviews they understand helps them make a more informed decision and increases the chances you’ll get a booking. We’ll continue to take your feedback and concerns into consideration as we build and improve Airbnb with you in mind.


The Airbnb Team


24 Comments
JJ12
Level 1

Thank goodness it isn't just me! I am also in the same boat and have not had a booking for months. It isn't fair to guests like me who have been superhosts for ages and usually receive 5 stars. A recent (but not the latest) guest was not happy that she could not invite people who were not part of the reservation to our home. We also don't allow cooking as we have had some bad experiences in the past. She decided to give a bad review even though it states very clearly in the house rules that non guest could come into the house and we didn't provide cooking facilities. This negative review remains on top of the reviews list. I think it is time we closed our ABB account!

Kate260
Level 3

Hi JJ, I thought today we should do an online petition that can be sent to hosts to demand Airbnb change the review policy. I cant start this as Im dealing with my 95 yo Dad who is in Hospicenow.  I have not had a booking in more than a month, this is not normal for me...Meanwhile looking into other marketing options for my property.

 

Just dont get it, if we dont get bookings Airbnb doesnt make money either. just ridiculous!

 

good luck,

 

Kate

Marie438
Level 2

Hi,

 

We had the exact same problem except someone was downloading illegal movies and not respecting our house rules. We stopped getting bookings also due to the review, and the only solution was to start over and re-list our room. This does really reflect badly on the host when sometimes bad guests do wind up staying in our homes and you already had amazing reviews previously. Right now the requirements for having a bad review aren't enough to have it taken down so usually, the review stays on the profile. Having it remain on top is wrong too as the guest has already left.

 

Something should be done to flag bad guests for other hosts or something at least.

Airbnb
Official Account
Status changed to: Under Consideration
 
Loretta2
Level 7

Airbnb's ordering of reviews by language and guest's country of origin is misleading. For example, when I look at my listing, it seems I did not have any guests in 2016, as the reviews  that are shown first are for 2017 then go back to 2014! This is because most of my guests are from other countries, not my own. And this also suggests to potential guests that I favour English speakers, which is certainly not the case! Also, this policy does not allow for the possibility that a guest  from years ago might have complained or commented about something which has since been rectified. Reviews should go back to chronological order as they were before, starting from the most recent.

Fiona-and-Paul0
Level 2

I share Loretta's feelings on the several issuse she has raised;

Deleting foreign reviews for a sequence can make hosts look less popular at best at worst, not popular!

Changing the chronological order gives hosts no chance to show any 'issues' have been addressed

Deleting foreign reviews (which are btw easy to translate) suggest hosts don't handle 'foreigners' well. If several nationalities can compliment a host it offers great reasurance.

The ease of translation, you very conveniently arrange, means that the point you made in your response to Kate is much, much less valid. 

"we found that allowing guests to see reviews they understand helps them make a more informed decision and increases the chances you’ll get a booking."

Other negative impacts are more important I would argue.

 

Paul

I agree with everyone here. I also noticed our booking rate went down since this update was implemented and I don't think this filtering is helping anyone including guests. 

 

Airbnb can easily implement a filter such as Newest, Oldest, By Country etc. for reviews but Newest should always be default unless guest or host decides to display otherwise.

 

Not everyone in the US are from the US or not everyone in Italy are from Italy. Guests may live in the US but if they are Italian, French, Russian etc., they may want to see some reviews from people who are from their country or maybe even other countries so in this case filtering automatically by "Location" is useless. Unfortunately, no one is going to click on page 10 to see the reviews from other countries because I don't think anyone even knows about it including the rep from Airbnb that I talked to earlier. He was also surprised and had to investigate and call me back. Everyone will want to see the most recent review to make sure the rental is still in a good condition so not sure why it matters so much what your location is, what country you are from, or what language you speak since you have a great tool that translates to every language. Makes no sense.

 

This feature is definitely not helping anyone (guests and hosts) and should be reviewed and implemented properly so that it works for everyone.

Fiona-and-Paul0
Level 2

Completely agree with  Seda And Fabrice.  Has Airbnb responded with any sensible comments onthe subject recently? 

Can't they see the sense of their hosts arguments?  Why aren't more hosts writing in to say what a good idea it is to re-order reviews in this way?  Maybe because it isn't....

Teresa--Terri-0
Level 4

Love this solution! Meets needs on many different levels.

 

Seda And Fabrice

Wednesday

 

Airbnb can easily implement a filter such as Newest, Oldest, By Country etc. for reviews but Newest should always be default unless guest or host decides to display otherwise.

Kelli23
Level 2

Agreed...Airbnb SHOULD implement a filter such as Newest, Oldest, By Country etc. for reviews but Newest should always be default unless guest or host decides to display otherwise.