Can Star Ratings Be Removed, Along With Deleted Reviews? Yes - They Can

Susan17
Level 10
Dublin, Ireland

Can Star Ratings Be Removed, Along With Deleted Reviews? Yes - They Can

The question of whether or not star ratings can be removed along with retaliatory or false reviews that violate Airbnb's T&Cs, comes up again and again, with hosts consistently being given conflicting, contradictory answers by CX staff. Many hosts have been told that it's impossible  to remove star ratings: it simply can't happen: istar ratings are automated  and there's no way for CX to manually over-ride that , etc etc

 

So here's the official answer, once and for all, straight from the mouth of Laura Chambers, General Manager of Core Hosts and Community, clearly stating - not once, but twice - that star ratings absolutely CAN  be removed. I strongly suggest everyone saves this video to send to your support agent the next time you're seeking to have malicious or retaliatory star ratings deleted, and being told that it can't be done.

 

At 3' 30...  LC  "The teams will be able to remove the review, and the star rating..."

At 5' 00...  LC  "The team now will be able to remove that review, and that rating..."

40 Replies 40
Susan17
Level 10
Dublin, Ireland

Link to the video...

 

https://youtu.be/U0wrRaY0qw0

Jennifer1421
Level 10
Peterborough, Canada

Thanks for posting this, @Susan17 

Have definitely bookmarked in case of future need!

Kelly149
Level 10
Austin, TX

once I had a damage claim guest write an incoherent 1* review & CS told me that it would be removed from my public profile (and indeed neither the text nor the Stars have ever shown in my profile) but that all ABB reps would be able to see it "as a part of my record"

 

who knows for sure?

Alon1
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Susan17 

 

It seems self-evident from Performance, where Reviews & Ratings are displayed together.

Thus when a Review is deleted so is the Rating.

 

Indeed, last year when a Case Manager deleted 3 Reviews (coz of undisclosed 3rd Party Bookings)

my Ratings also shot up. One listing which had been paused 5 days (recipient of 2 of these 3) suddenly leapt from 4.2 to 4.7 or 4.8, can't recall precisely. So I think we can be quite sure about it @Kelly149 

Rowena29
Level 10
Australia

Thanks so much for taking the time to post @Susan17 .  I have bookmarked for future reference.   and I agree with you - despite Alon and Kelly reporting positive experiences, I have read a number of posts on these boards where a host has fought to have a review removed, been successful, but their ranking which had been stellar and then plummeted, remained tanked. I remember one host in particular thought she was worse off - a low rating without even the hysterical review from a bizarre guest to justify the lower stars for future guests to see and dismiss....

Alon1
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Rowena29 

 

The Case Manager who deleted my 3 reviews informed me the system is automated. Remove the review and the ratings goes with it. End of story.

You were lucky, I had a really bad experience with my case manager, Jagriti. 

 

I had a similar experience with a guest that caused damages and a huge party during Covid that had to be reported, and the police got involved. Airbnb customer support told me that I don't need to write a review because none of use will be able to share the review, and before you know it I get the revenge review from my guest. I didn't even get a chance to review the guest and was lied to by airbnb customer service. Clearly the guests were outraged when they realized I had footage captured from neighbors' camera of their cars parked in my neighbors driveway and their guests going into other houses by mistake looking for party!

 

The reviewed the revenge review, this is 2 star compared to my all 5 star reviews and decided it was fair. How did they decide that and how was I advised not to leave a review when the guest did, that will all remain a mystery. I provided evidence that the review was not accurate and full of lies to revenge, but they want me to share that publicly, when some of this stuff is private messages and pictures that can't be shared. Airbnb is definitely losing my trust there, extremely disappointed... I wonder what it would take for @Airbnb  to do the fair thing and remove this biased review from my profile. 

Susan17
Level 10
Dublin, Ireland

@Alon1 

You've seen me posting long enough now to get what I'm about, and to know that I don't post anything that I haven't got a ton of compelling evidence, by which to confirm its veracity.

 

You've also been round long enough to know that nothing is ever consistent in Airbnb-land, and CX responses to just about everything, veer wildly from the sublime to the ridiculous... depending on the day, depending on the agent, depending on which way the wind is blowing..

 

And given the fact that Airbnb's opaque, elastic, indecipherable policies and practices flip-flop on an almost daily basis - according to whatever whim or PR offensive they happen to have going on at the time - definitive statements on how things do or don't operate on the platform, are simply impossible to make - particularly when matters are assesessed solely through the prism of one's own personal experiences. 

 

My goal here is merely to provide hosts with solid, irrefutable evidence, straight from source, of Airbnb's stated policy on the issue of ratings removal, because whether or not  you choose to believe it, it's an incontrovertible fact that CX agents have regularly refused to remove retaliatory and revenge ratings from innumerable host profiles, even though the accompanying reviews were being deleted. There's a mountain of evidence to support that conclusion, to be found across all hosting groups and forums

 

1Hopefully, the video clip I posted might be of some assistance to other hosts in the future who may find themselves in that unfortunate  position, and come to the CC searching for answers. It would be good if they could find the correct information. 

Alon1
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Susan17 

 

I'm not questioning that CX habitually provide contradictory advice, etc.

 

However, re:  'it's an incontrovertible fact that CX agents have regularly refused to remove retaliatory and revenge ratings from innumerable host profiles, even though the accompanying reviews were being deleted.'

 

I haven't come across a scrap of evidence for it, (i.e. review deletion, but ratings remaining.)

 I don't believe it's at CX discretion, or that there is one rule for me and another for everyone else.

 

I repeat what the Case Manager informed me, that it's automated. His name is Gesielli if you wish to locate him. I believe he's working in the USA. 

Alon1
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Susan17 

 

PS. Logic suggests if there was 100 Reviews & Ratings, but 3 Reviews were deleted, though not the ratings, the automated system would reflect it. The number of Reviews would show at 97 and the Ratings out of 100. 

 

I've never seen anything like this on any Host profile. 

 

 

Alon1
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Susan17 

 

pps: To be convinced by your argument one would need to see the Progress of any Host.

This internal view shows exactly how many Reviews and how many Ratings make up the numbers.

 

@Alon1  I have read many host accounts on this forum of Airbnb agreeing to delete the review but insisting that the star rating can't be removed. Whatever the case manager informed you is irrelevant. Case managers give out erroneous information all the time. You can talk to 3 different case managers and get 3 conflicting answers.

Alon1
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Sarah977 @Susan17 

 

Sarah,

 

In this case, I don't trust the 'many hosts' anymore than you distrust the Case managers.

 

Consequently, I set you the same challenge as Susan:

 

   Please contact anyone of these 'many hosts' and kindly ask them to post a screen-shot from their Performance. It should show a discrepancy between the number of Reviews and the number of Ratings.

 

If you or Susan manage to come up with one, I will admit I am wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

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