Areas for Improvement advice...

[Gordy-and-Kate0]

Ok, so judging by the number of hosts I've seen posting about the lack of any official airbnb response to the review system, I doubt this will do any good but I need to bang this out.

Here's the situation: A recent guest gave us a good review, but only gave us four stars. I get that, in the grand scheme of things this isn't the end of the world and maybe writing this post is more of a way for me to get it out of my system than anything else. In the "accuracy" sub-section of the review the guest gave three areas for improvement: Size of home, amenities, photos. That's all well and good, but what good are these selections within the airbnb review system if they provide absolutely zero context for hosts?

What about the size of the home? I'm assuming this guest found it to be smaller than they anticipated, though I don't know how that could be possible given our description and photos. I know it's subjective, but we have multiple 5 star reviews stating that the space was larger than expected by those guests. Regarding the photos, what about them needs to be improved? The photos are bright, in focus, and clearly show every room in the space, most with multiple angles, and were done using airbnb's own professional photography service. The mention of amenities as an area of improvement seems the most ridiculous part of the airbnb review process to me. At least with "size of home" and "photos", I can at least guess as to what might be running through a guest's mind when deciding to leave the feedback. With "amenities", however, it could literally mean anything. Did they not like the particular brand/style of soap? Or did they want more soap? The list of possibilities could be endless. 

Like I said, I'm likely making more of a big deal about this than is necessary, but I take hosting very seriously and truly want people to have an amazing stay with no surprises...exactly what I expect when I use airbnb as a guest myself. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. If nothing else, I at least feel a little better about the whole thing just having typed this out. 🙂

Gordy

[Letti0]

@Gordy-and-Kate0  You could message the guest privately and ask what she recommends in changes to the amenities so you can provid better optiona for future guests. She may tell you, the suggests may or may not be worth anything to you, But at least you'll know her mind frame. I've seen some pretty strange requests from guests on improving home amenities from other hosts. 

[Lisa723]

@Letti0 we have a suggestion box in our houses and some of the requests we get are pretty odd. The cards have a space for the suggestion and another one for who/what would benefit. The funniest one I recall is the suggestion for bigger beds (we have queen-size beds and king-size beds would not fit). The remark about who/what would benefit said "my marriage."

[Letti0]

@Lisa723  My business partner and I were talking about this just this morning. Her husband is like 6'5" and 230 pounds and every place she' s looking only have queens. "He won't fit in the bed with me, what kinda of anniversary get away is that?"

[Gordy-and-Kate0]

Thanks, Letitia! I did message them back regarding the areas for improvement, but have not heard back yet. I did see that they had left a private comment with their review stating that "box fans would be nice for some white noise." Go figure. 😐

[Lisa723]

 You're not alone... I got 4 stars for accuracy once with the explanation that the guest thought our (professional, unaltered) photos made the house look bigger than it is. I added the house's square footage to the listing. You could message the guest and ask what they meant by amenities.

[Gordy-and-Kate0]

Thanks, Lisa! Adding the square footage of the space is a good idea. I saw someone mention on the forum here about adding a floorplan illustration, so I may do that as well. That being said, I will say that at nearly 1,700 square feet, anyone finding our space to be on the small side might want to rethink their airbnb expectations. 🙂

[Letti0]

@Gordy-and-Kate0  See about using a friend that has AutoCad or Visio on their computers to do it. I paid over $650 to have one done of my 3200 sq. ft. Venue for the FIre Marshal for one of the occupany requirements. 

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

@Gordy-and-Kate0

Your place looks great and as you say, it's annoying to be marked down and not really understand why..

This is just a suggestion....are your photo's professionally done and overselling your place? We take our own and find that guests always say it looks better than in the photos. 

We have fallen once for the professional photo trick - it's was absolutely fine, however it felt much smaller than the photos led you to believe and more worn.

[Gordy-and-Kate0]

Thanks for the feedback, Gerry and Rashid. I absolutely undstand the pro photo trick thing. Having purchased many homes over the past few decades, I know all too well about the way photos can make something seem better than it does in person. Obviously, I'm biased, but if anything, the photos we have make the space seem a bit smaller than it really is. The house space is fairly large (nearly 1,700 square feet), which is difficult to get to come through in the photos. I'm chalking this up to guest subjectivity. They're entitled to their opinions, but the airbnb review process definitely does not do hosts many favors.

[Andrew157]

Guests are mad as a box of Frogs so rational thought cannot be applied to the review process. 

[Alex939]

I completely agree with you @Andrew157 - no rationality in this review process.

[Kath9]

Hahahaha @Andrew157, love it! Mad as a box of frogs 🙂

[Ava30]

@Gordy-and-Kate0 WOW, This Sounds exactly like a guest that I had not long before you posted this. She to give me lower stars in the accuracy area claiming house size and amenities also. And I did message her and ask her what she meant by that and never got an answer. My listing is a three bedroom house, my pictures made it quite clear what size it is, I even had somebody who used to live in the house look at the listing and they said it was an accurate representation of the home.   This guest was a 20 something female and her boyfriend. I felt like they got a pretty good deal, three bedroom house all to themselves for less than any local hotel.  The whole time she was in the house everything was fine, everything was wonderful, we are enjoying our stay. But when it came to review time BLAMMO!!  I wonder if it was the same person? LOL I also have to agree with Andrew, Guests CAN be mad as a box of frogs! 

[Alex939]

@Gordy-and-Kate0, @Ava30 I've had similar situations as you, no point to go back to remember. I think most of them liked the place and really enjoyed their stay, but when home they regret expenses (or something else) they made and must do something to balance their inner feelings.