Ok, here's my vent, after we just got another 1 star review based on "They gave us the wrong address (despite the fact that the system sends you the address on your booking confirmation and it clearly, and demonstrably was not wrong, and it's all your fault). Airbnb, of-course, quoted me their review guidelines, and refused to remove it. It's not fake news, it's a fake review! 🙂
So, here it is: IS anyone else annoyed with Airbnb's policy of "washing their hands" clean and refusing to help in clear cut cases where guests leave frivolous/fake/irrelevant reviews. Their policy now states that they will not step in and "mediate reviews for fairness or content". Is it just me or does this sound like a joke to anyone else? Basically people can say whatever they want in the review, even blatant lies about the place without any evidence, and Airbnb will do nothing! Please, share your views even if you don't agree.
A little bit of background about our situation, to give you a perspective. We own a duplex in south Florida, in a nice location within a mile of the beach. It's a quiet, working class neighborhood. We're not really walking distance from local attractions, and our neighborhood is not a tourist destination, but our apartments are newly remodeled, we have plenty of parking, they are quiet, and we clean and manage them ourselves so we always guarantee a great level of service and cleanliness. Everything is cleaned top to bottom regardless of how clean it was left by previous guests. All the tourist spots are like 2 miles down the road, so we're a great budget place -- we are priced below average for our area, due to the fact we are not right in the center of the tourist area of town. However, the rest of the service, amenities and cleanliness are above average even when compared to the 'touristy' places. People often tell us they are impressed with the amenities, condition, and attention for the price. We are being realistic about ourselves, and expect guests to be realistic in their expectations as well. And when they're not, I need Airbnb to back up the hard work I do as a host.
So, back to the reviews, I'm not necessarily talking about really complicated situations where there are a lot of factors at play, blame in both the host and guest, etc. I'm talking about average, clear situations where Airbnb will not back me up as a host in their review system even though the guest is CLEARLY misunderstood, or failed to read our description, or just a "guest". It happens all the time. People are just looking to pay next to nothing, and completely ignore to read your house rules, expectations, descriptions etc. We have extremely clear rules and descriptions, and we message all guests prior to booking with a condensed list, just to make sure they have seen it. However, in reality, the majority of people just see a low price, flip 2-3 photos, and book without any more reading, questions, etc. Examples include people who claim the wrong address was sent to them, when it is clearly listed on the reservation documentation (we're not in a gated community, weird place; i'm not asking you to park on the dark side of the moon!). People who complain about the size/location of the apartment, despite the fact that it is provided to them prior to booking as well as all square footage. People who, after seeing pictures of the bedrooms from all angles, ask where are the bedroom TVs. People who break the rules, but then complain about issues which arose as a result of said breaking of rules. People who complain about the decor or style, despite having 30+ exact photos of the unit down to the color of the towels and bed-sheets. People who do not read the house rules, and then complain about things that are clearly outlined as important factors. People who complain about things that were specifically, personally discussed with them in messages prior to booking, and told clearly not to book if they expect such and such. People who throw parties and then complain there was inadequate parking (What!?). Cheap people looking for discounts on an already discounted place, and then making up accusations about your unit which they cannot back up with photos, so they can get their money back. Has anyone else encountered these issues?
Airbnb's policy is to shrug it off and do nothing, and appease you by saying "A few bad reviews won't hurt you in the long run if you're really running a good place". They said to me "We're counting on people just doing the right thing and not lying."
Are you kidding me, Airbnb, or are you just that naive!? I can just about hear Gordon Ramsey's voice in my head: WHAT warped fantasy world are you living in, Airbnb? It must be nice up in your heads with Peter Pan and the Easter Bunny, but we're talking about real life here! The majority of our 'guests' are not 'eclectic, young, traveling professionals looking for new experiences.' The majority are budget travelers for whom even motels are too expensive, looking to cram the maximum number of people for the lowest price and knowing they won't be able to get away with it in traditional hotels. Or locals who, for unknown and usually 'their-fault' reasons can't find regular rentals. I understand that Airbnb believes they're some sort of hippie commune of super friendly and educated people sharing life experiences in unique, mountain lodges while sipping wine with the host, and although there are those, the majority of your average Joes are nothing but! The luxury places or those who don't really 'need the money' may be ok declining half the reservations until they find that perfect shining star, but those of us trying to eek out a living out of this have no such luxuries. And we need help from Airbnb to keep it up!
Most of these guests are nice at heart, but we regularly have scammers who try to get the entire cost of the place refunded. We get parties all the time. Virtually nobody respects our maximum occupancy, no smoking, or pet rules. People smoke pot in virtually all the reservations. These are a mixed bag of new guests without reviews, and guests with little, but positive reviews. I am not sure if anyone at Airbnb has actually done the math, but for every review below 5 stars, you have to get at least the next 10 reviews 5 stars A+++ job to keep super host status. That might be fine when you're renting sporadically, with long reservations, to few, carefully curated guests. But for most of us this is a job, and we aim for 100% turnover, while maintaining the highest standards we possibly can. So a good overall way to think about it is that Airbnb needs to realize some people are running their places as an optimized business, and the rules change when you cater to the lowest common denominator. It's not a problem, but the Airbnb review system makes it a problem. So yes, most definitely the few bad apples will spoil the entire bunch in our case, and I don't feel that Airbnb cares enough to keep us happy, productive, and making them money. Advice such as raising our prices, curating guests more closely, etc, are not possible, since we are a BUSINESS. We purchased this building and we must make money on it in order to pay the mortgage and ourselves. We are priced fairly for what we offer. I don't mind dealing with difficult guests. That's what you have to do when you are running a business open to the public -- it's a cost of doing business. What I am asking is for Airbnb to have my back when that "guest" does walk in, and when it happens more often than you'd think.
I mean, how much more plainly can they possibly say "We don't want to spend the time and effort to protect our hosts, because it would require us to invest more time and money into training staff, as well as opening the door to additional potential liability. We also don't want to anger the guests, whom we get the bulk of our money from. Hosts are disposable and cost us nothing, so the easiest thing is to just do nothing"
Any thoughts? Fun stories? Venting? Let's get enough people talking about this so that Airbnb actually feels some pressure to do something about it. I thought after the Covid19 situation they reaffirmed their support of mom and pop hosts and vowed to be fairer and what not. I don't see it.
It would be a topic for a whole different conversation, but what can they do to force people to be more fair in their reviews? Maybe coach them on the fact that if it's not a 5 it might as well be a 1? Maybe just keep it as simple as 'do you recommend this place, yes or no' that's it? Maybe let hosts delete x amount of bad reviews per year? What do you all think?
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