I suggest you do not threaten hosts until they receive 3 guest stays in a row with below 4 stars average per guest. It’s very likely hosts that do not discriminate and use instant book are going to get bad ratings from bad guests from time to time. That should not initiate an “instant threat”. Contrarily, if a host is not getting some 4 star reviews that would worry me. I'd be concerned the host is discriminating or practicing bribery. By practising briber I would cite that it's well known that businesses wanting to accumulate good reviews in Yelp, Google or BBB will go to their customers and ask them to write a 5 star review in exchange of a discount or other benefit. If you put unreasonable pressure on hosts for 5 star reviews you'll defeat the purpose of reviews.
Since Airbnb relies on algorithms a lot, better adjust the algorithm to reward realistic results.
In the corporate world, if you get it right 80% of the time you are doing good. And if you hire an employee and they don’t take a few risks and get some bad results from time to time then you’ve hired someone who is too conservative. Some say, entrepreneurs that haven’t been bankrupt at least 3 times are not yet ready for prime time. For Airbnb to hold hosts feet to the fire for 5 star reviews is counter productive for everyone. It reduces Airbnb revenue, hosts revenue and encourages discrimination – frustrates guests who get refused.
First my background -- which should be relevant. I have been marketing, managing, remodeling and maintaining my own Waikiki vacation rentals for over 8.5 years including 560 guest stays. During that time my occupancy rate averaged greater than 90% while earning above average rent. I’ve set dozens of others up doing the same. I’m a top 2% real estate broker and when I sell my clients condotels I set them up with systems, best practices and remodel their units as needed. I’m a Real Estate Broker that founded and own my own firm. I’m an MBA. I’m a full stack web developer software engineer. I own millions in commercial and residential real estate. I have contracted work with the Fortune 1000. I’ve been very successful. That’s right, very successful.
Overall I love Airbnb. And the review system is both uniquely detailed and invaluable. In my opinion it currently contains a piece of well meaning but un-necessary aggravation that should be heavily modified or eliminated. Let me explain my point of view. Whenever I receive a review with 2 categories 4 stars you threaten to de-emphasize my Airbnb exposure. I find discrimination reprehensible but inadvertantly this punishment system encourages discrimination and would have a negative impact on Airbnb and host revenue. It's a fact that some percentage, say 1 out of 5 or 1 out of 10 guests is either ignorant or malicious. For example, I have guests from time to time that complain my unit is smaller than advertised. How can that be? Since day 1 I've displayed a full size image of the floorplan with dimensions. And in the text description the square footage, dimensions even bedding dimensions in American/standard, metric and Japanese measurements. And high resolution photos from every corner of each space. And I state statistics that show my unit is 33% larger than the average Waikiki Studio that sleeps up to 4 people. And this information is duplicated in the house manual which they had access to prior to booking and is sent to them immediately upon booking. The guests in this case give me low stars reviews for accuracy, complaining the unit was too small, when in effect they are incorrect. The guest failed. They didn’t perform basic due diligence – review the Airbnb listing, click the link to the house manual. And I get punished???
The only way for me to avoid this would be to remove my unit from instant book and go over every specification with each prospective guest in advance of booking. And I’d need to test each prospect on their understanding the review system. In the process I would either 1) lose them as a guest because they would think that process to cumbersome 2) I would discover some guests to be un-reasonable and refuse their booking. I would increase my average to 5 stars, eliminate most 4 star reviews. And this would in effect be discriminatory because those guests likely to fit profiled groups such as young and immature or from particular races or nationalities of people. And my occupancy rate would fall to around 50%. And Airbnb’s earnings off my listing would fall accordingly.
I don't like being pressured into discriminating. I love everyone in the world. It’s counterproductive and inhumane. That’s right, it’s counterproductive and inhumane. I'd switch back to my previous marketing structure before doing that.
To put Airbnb’s “punishment level” in context, my "corporate competitors" are
Aqua Skyline at Island Colony - trip advisor - 4.0 stars
Palms at Waikiki - trip advisor - 4.0 stars
Luana at Waikiki - trip advisor - 4.0 stars
My Airbnb average over 60 guests - 4.5 stars
These guys charge 50 to 100% more than I do and their units are not as nicely furnished. What is so bad about a 4 star review that would merit punishment???
Some guests that believe threatening a host with a bad review is a perfectly legitimate way to arbitrarily extract discounts or benefits from hosts. That “everybody does it and if you don’t you’re a fool”. That’s the 1 in 5 or 1 in 10 guests that is ignorant, un-professional or un-ethical.
If Airbnb gets too “star sensitive”, annoying or you de-emphasize my listing I would have to reconsider stopping instant book, starting to discriminate, resuming with another marketing channel or re-evaluate my entire relationship with Airbnb. And along with that would go my recommendations with my clients that I’ve also referred to Airbnb.
I believe in the instant book system because people love to have control and do things quickly and because it eliminates any possibility for discrimination. But with that comes all the silly clients who either don't read the Airbnb or think getting a great deal means using un-ethical practices. Fact: silly clients are just a cost of doing business -- let us accomodate them too without the annoying Airbnb threats -- i love silly guests too! Everybody is beautiful and tickles my fancy. However, they will drag down host’s stars ratings every now and then. Please don’t threaten us when this happens every now and then. Adjust your algorithm to threaten only after 3 consecutive reviews that averaged less than 4 stars each for hosts that are on Instant Book. That should focus on real host quality issues.
