Customer Satisfaction

[Philip299]

I’ve used Airbnb almost 50 times in the last several years.

Recently I posted a review of one of my stays, giving a 4 out of 5 stars. When I followed up with customer support they could not show me where my review posted that score. I was told that it all goes into the total score and that I should be satisfied with that.

i am not as that is the same thing as when I go vote on an electronic machine with no paper trail. I have no way of knowing if my review actually influenced the score.

i also would like to see how many reviews each person has made. When I read a review of a place by a user, it would be very beneficial to know whether the poster has made one other review or 30. Thus would add more weight to their review. Otherwise when you check out Airbnb pressures you to make a review and I think most people just take the easy way out.

[Tony134]

THIS. THIS. THIS.  Of course you wouldn't know about all these intricacies, why should you be expected to as a guest? Most guests only use the system once or twice a year !

Airbnb needs to use mechanisms that are less complicated for guests, but keeps introducing more complicated ones instead.

[Amy38]

A 4 star for location?  Do you expect the host to relocate his house for your benefit?

get a life.

[Theodore29]

Guest reviews (ratings) DO influence the total score. Believe me, I'm a host (and co-host) of more than 10 properties and I've seen it happening. Airbnb algorithm is pretty basic: number of stars divided by number of reviews 😉

As for the "weight" a review has, you can certainly check how many times a guest has reviews properties by clicking on his/hers icon. But imho, all reviews should have the same weight for a candidate guest.

hope this helps

Theodore

[Philip299]

I think hosts might be able to see how many times a guest has reviewed. I am not able to.

[Sandra126]

@Philip299, you have on click on them to see how many reviews, if any. Should work the same for you as for a host.

eg I can see that you have received 32, and if I want to see what you wrote to those hosts I have to click on them, and look for the date when you stayed (can be tricky with older reviews, or ones where the host has hundreds of reviews)

[Philip299]

Sandra,

Afraid not. You can read about me as a potential guest as a host. I can read about you as a host as a potential guest. I cannot read about any other guest who have stayed at your place, so cannot validate what they have written before for any other stay. 

[Sandra856]

@Philip299 you can read the exact same reviews from other guests as hosts can. Just press on the guest profile and you will see reviews from previous visits from other hosts (IF the guest had any previous trips). I have many first timers. Press on the earlier hosts review on the guest profile and you will be able to visit the listing where the guest might have left a review. Some guests don't leave reviews. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Philip299@Sandra126

we can easily see what reviews our guest got from his hosts and gave to his hosts if we install Airewiew on our Chrome browser 🙂

[Sarah977]

@Philip299   Maybe you'd find it enlightening to read through the many threads on the forum by hosts about the highly flawed review system, if you haven't already.  We'd also like to see a wider scale of ratings, not 1-5. We'd also like to not be treated like misbehaved children by Airbnb for getting a 4* rating (they'll send threatening messages to hosts when this happens, even if the host has 100 5 star glowing reviews and the 4* is an outlier).

In the hotel or restaurant industry, people have a pretty clear understanding of what the difference is between a 5* and a 3* rating. But Airbnb, as you know, is just people offering space in their homes (although there are now many property managed listings with non-hands-on hosts)- a 5* rating on Airbnb means that the place was as described in the listing, that the host was attentive and answered your messages in a timely fashion, it was clean and comfortable, etc. It doesn't mean it was comparable to a Four Seasons hotel. Airbnb asks guests if it met their expectations. What do you base those expectations on? What do other guests base their expectations on? Is there something wrong with meeting someone's expectations? 

Really, I think the platform should do away with the star ratings altogether- they're too subjective, and as a guest, you have no idea why a place would be rated 4*s unless the guest talked about that in a written review. What might be a 4* experience for someone else might be a 5* or 3* experience for you.

Written reviews, as long as they are honest and say a bit about the place, rather than some generic "Great stay" seem much more valuable to base decisions on than star ratings.

BTW, hosts have the same problems you are experiencing as a guest-Some guests have a bunch of good reviews, then turn out to be a nightmare to host- that's because either the host is reticent to say anything bad about anyone, is afraid of some kind of retaliation for a bad review, or it was an off-site host situation where the host actually never meets the guests and just gives generic "Nice guests" reviews.

[Philip299]

Sarah,

You and I see it pretty much the same. I was in the hospitality business for 25 years, so I would like to think that Airbnb can take our comments constructively and improve their systems.

call me an optimist, but an unsettled and persistent one.

[Kelly149]

btw, @Philip299 if hosts do ever catch on that you tend to be a 4* max kind of guest, you may start to see your requests rejected or cancelled.

The review system is a farce and ABB is brutal about what 4*s do to a host. I would refuse to host a serial 4* giving guest....

[Philip299]

Kelly, I don’t believe I am a “serial” 4 star rater.  I’m not sure I can see a record of my ratings. Perhaps hosts can. I had no idea how this ridiculous “system” worked (or is rigged would be a better description) till I posted on a couple of these blogs, even though I’ve been using it since 2013.

That said you’re now telling me that if I don’t understand the system, and use 4 a lot,  I’m likely to be turned down by folks like you. That’s so unbelievable I don’t know what to make of it!

Not that I’m afraid of never being hosted again, (which as far as I know has not happened), but because I survived before Airbnb and can do so again.

[Gordon0]

@Philip299 I believe it’ll ultimately go the same way as Uber ratings. Poor rating = less attractive prospect (rider).

[Sarah977]

@Philip299  I'd really like to see you send feedback to Airbnb, directly to Brian Chesky, if possible. You're very articulate and fair. You quickly understood the issue for hosts around the review and rating system. And you've put a lot of $ in Airbnb's bank account with over 50 stays. They listen to guest concerns far more than host concerns, because guest fees are where they make their money. They're lying by omission to guests and good guests like you don't like it.

We've been telling them endlessly that they need to stop leading guests to think that a 4* is good, and then turning around and threatening to delist hosts for anything lower than 4.7. It's not fair to guests or hosts. I have a lot of interaction with my guests and explain to them how hosts are affected by reviews. Most of them are shocked. Some feel terrible because they say they left 4* reviews for their last stays, thinking it was good, and horrified that it could have led to their host, who was really nice, as was the place, to get punished.

This needs to change. Just quitting using Airbnb won't accomplish that. 

[Philip299]

Sarah,

Who is Brian and how do I contact him? When I get back, I’ll spend some time trying to do so.