One of my best reviews, where an experienced Airbnb guest said "Definitely the best Airbnb I've stayed at." has been buried to the bottom of my written reviews by Airbnb... I know a few hosts have complained about this, but I just wanted to give my experience and ask if anyone has had any luck dealing with the issue recently.
I worked HARD for that review! Yet Airbnb, in their wisdom, have decided to bury it. I treat ALL my guests like celebrities (and they deserve it). I have invested a lot on the furnishings, decor and amenities to make the experience as special as I can. However, it is the first time someone finally gave me the accolade. Hoorah! Finally! Yeah, but no...
I read a flakey explanation from Airbnb about this somewhere and a customer service representative kindly said it was 'to ensure transparency and guarantee guests' experiences'... Sorry?!?! What about our experience as hosts? I earned that review and the 5 stars that came with it fair and square. I have hosted for a bit over a year. I haven't had any paid blog-type reviewers (or even any friends or family) stay at my property. So I cannot imagine there is anything to suggest the genuine review was not genuine.
All my other reviews are in chronological order.
And it's not like there isn't a customer service staff, who they are presumably paying for the time they are spending listening to our complaints. However (as nice as they all are) customer service never does anything to help.
Airbnb is by far not the only B&B hosting platform with weird, unfair actions against hosts. And if this were the only recent issue I would keep quiet and spend my one day off doing something other than kvetching (again)... I do appreciate the opportunity to market my property on a platform like Airbnb, but I am becoming increasingly fed up with this and a number of other ill-conceived, punishing practices that fail hosts – especially the hosts who make a big effort. They are being rewarded for their service after all.
It is hard enough suffering the guests who pay less than one bedroom in a standard hotel for a whole house (and yet still expect they should have had even more for their money)...or leave a mess or even damages... and then leave mediocre star ratings on top. This is, of course, related to the quandary that the rates many of us command are unsustainably low on balance (an expectation I strongly feel has been germinated and fostered by Airbnb).
I don't see the platform's algorithms (or human decision-makers) keeping outlier ratings by one screwed-up, entitled person out of our averages when they especially punish low volume hosts.
What about the nightmare Christmas guest who got a no-quibble free night from me (for a problem that could have been ameliorated if not totally avoided) and then decided by the time they got home they wanted even more money off and gave me a 3-star Overall Rating + other downgrades in subcategories, when I wouldn't give in... I have relatively low volume occupancy; that one unfair rating has kept me just under Superhost ALL YEAR. I documented and reported the incident to Airbnb.
We at least deserve to benefit from the guests who reward us for great efforts in the form of things like superlative accolades.
I honestly feel increasingly like Airbnb don't care that much about host's experience. I read that it's because there is a glut of properties. So Airbnb can afford to put hosts last. But it seems like the mysterious algorithm and computer-say's-no regulations that dictate what happens in the backroom to frequently ignores when it is unnecessarily messing conscientious hosts around.
