Do you like Airbnb's review system.....do I hear Crickets!

[Robin4]

Every 3-6 months I get to stay in another Airbnb as a guest, and each time the requirements of the review system get more onorous.

At least for us hosts we simply get to write a review, private feedback, star rate 3 categories and give a thumbs up/down...easy!

Have a look at what the happless guest has to go through.....12 step/pages!

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

There we go, I think we are half way!

My question, although the second part is not obligatory, why is it attched to the review at all, when most of these things were covered in the listing description. I got frustrated with having to do it and I am sure most guests would get frustrated with it as well. What is the point of it other than the gathering of statistics.

On the other side of the coin I am now excepting guests from Homeaway/Stayz.

Have a look at the entirety of their review system.....

That was it, short and simply, I didn't have to dream up lots of superlatives to write, things to criticise!

And Tom has said he will email me the procedure he has to go through.

I am not enjoying the Airbnb review system these days and I know the guests are becoming frustrated with it as well.

What are others thoughts on this?

Cheers......Rob

[Alon1]

@Ann72 

I didn't mean to 'scold you'. If it comes across as that then please accept my apology.

I was rather intending to highlight the problem that confronts us original type hosts who are being threatened by these management companies. It has had one discernable effect, in that I now virtually only get guests who need to be in my location. In previous years, I'd get as many tourist types, but hardly any in the past few years. So it increasingly feels like being on an island.

[Ann72]

@Alon1 Apology accepted.  I don't know what to say about the rest, except that it occurs to me these management companies were probably threatened by Airbnb hosts.  Not to take their side, but just to look at the big picture.  I do believe the market will settle down a bit.

[Alon1]

@Ann72 

I don't understand what you mean by 'these management companies were probably threatened by Airbnb hosts'?

At least, we were here first and helped Airbnb build their brand name and make a fortune.

And there is nothing we can do to threaten anyone. 

In short, puzzled by your comment?

[Ann72]

@Alon1 These management companies had their own websites and other ways of getting bookings.  Then Airbnb happened.  Suddenly there were a lot of flats on the market that weren't under management.  And they had a portal that quickly became widely known internationally.  I'm sure the management companies felt they lost business to Airbnb hosts.

In Maine, where my listings are, there was an influx of Airbnb listings, and the local inns and b&bs, as well as the long-time vacation rental agencies, suffered.  Eventually they started listing on Airbnb as well.  That didn't affect my bookings, but it's a very different market from a major metropolitan area.  People who vacation in Maine often book cottages, so they're still looking for the same kind of offering, and there seems to be room for all of us.

[Ange2]

@Ann   "Are they trying to uncover inconsistencies? "   

I doubt it,  it's not Airbnb's wheelhouse.

Looks like they are trying to gather data to 'determine' what people like - maybe a predictive algorithm is in the works,  maybe gathering data for what they will offer with their own, owned, airbnbs when 'backyard' is launched and possibly to develop Plus category (or a new category)  'must haves'.

Anything else is overkill and a waste of time and money.

[Alon1]

@Robin4 @Branka-and-Silvia0 @Ava30 

I often reflect on the Airbnb Genesis story, and wonder how Chesky and Gebbia would have been rated by their own ever evolving sophisticated system of reviews and ratings for their original concept of '3 airbeds' for their apartment, struggling to pay the rent?

 I imagine 3 or perhaps 4 stars? Leading to warnings, pausing of listings and eventual delisting.

As they've become ever more successful they seem to have been divorced from the reality of their own conception.

Now it seems you have to be a Chessky Grand Master to fill in their Reviews & Ratings.

The only question, do they provide a clock for timing how long Guest has to fill in each step?

[Robin4]

@Alon1 @Ann72 @Rebecca181 

Hi Alon, although I am a relative newcomer, I have been in this business long enough to know that it goes in cycles!

Traditional hospitality sees it's pot of money disappearing to the STR platforms and decides...'Well if you can't beat them, join them'!  And boutique hotel operators spring up under the guise of Airbnb all over the place, some of them taking over entire apartments blocks.

The traditionalists say....'well hang on, your doing exactly what we are doing, you should be governed by the same rules and licencing requirements we are'! Local authorities are squeezed by the big end of the hotel lobby to make boutique operators licenced and regulated. It becomes too hard and Airbnb cuts the boutique operators adrift.

It last happened February 7th-14th in 2017 where many thousands of multi listing Airbnb accounts were closed for (as Airbnb themselves put it) 'Not providing an authentic Airbnb experience'! The pages of this forum at the time were flooded with paniced operators who suddenly found their living yanked away and no longer Airbnb hosts!

Now the problem has reappeared, not with multi listing individual hosts as it did last time, but with management companies who themselves simply represent the interests of many individual hosts.

Business is resourcefull and will always find a loophole to exploit Alon, you know that!

This phase will pass because it is only a matter of time now before officialdom says to Airbnb, we licence and regulate every host or you stop doing what you are doing, and Airbnb will cut their major entrepreneurs adrift again just as they did when the pressure was put on them last time! It is hosts like you and I that got this company where it is Alon, and Airbnb will be forced into the realization that 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing!

Sit tight mate, those shackles you are constrained by at the moment will be removed.....self preservation says it must happen!

Cheers......Rob

[David122]

One of my huge frustrations with the review system the way it is  has created a way for guests to  unfairly use it to hurt hosts for very small and minor issues that could have been fixed during the onset of their stay.

Lets say for instance the prior guest did not take the filter out of the coffee machine  or leave the heat on for the new guest.     

Sometimes guests will give this a one star for something minor and totally ruin a hosts reputation over something very small.

It seems like hosts could have 2 or 3  get out of jail cards to remove  some of these very low ratings that were clearly used for some kind of revinge.  It takes 3 to 5 ...  5 star ratings to recover from a very low rating from a guest.

I have told a guest at times that hosts really live for good ratings and not to use a minor expericence to damage a host especially if they are a super host.

Any thoughts on this?

[Jim-and-Marcia0]

Yes!  Some things just happen, at no fault of our own. When a guest doesn't inform the host of a problem that occurs during their stay and waits until they write their review, it really hurts

. 

We subscribe to high speed internet and one time the speed dropped unexpectedly. Gotta love technology!  The guest didn't say a word to us, even though we checked in with them numerous times during their stay to see if they needed anything. They marked us down on that, saying we misrepresented the amenity in our listing, and we got a slap on the wrist from Airbnb.

Once we found out what happened, we simply called our internet service provider and within 10 minutes the speed was back where it was supposed to be. The guest went 4 days without the service level he expected. Sheesh! And he notes this in his  public comments too... "internet very slow."  Fortunately that review was buried within a short time by favorable reviews. We recovered.

Funny how these experiences continue to haunt us in our minds. It also can change our impression of the guests who are trying their best to navigate the rating system questions. Who wants to welcome back a fine guest who left a 4-star or 3-star review?  Doesn't serve anyone well.

[Robin4]

 @Jim-and-Marcia0  @Branka & Silvia  @Ann  @Alon  @Emilia   @Rebecca  @David from Santa Fe, sorry mate, I can't tag you into this conversation!

David, that is why I put the screenshot I present to guests of my take on the rating system in this thread.

At no point in the review process do Airbnb explain to the guest the significance to the host of those overall star ratings. They graphically tell hosts the significance of them though, and they give us completely nonsensical explanations as to how they arrive at the protocol for their analysis......"After much consultation with the community we have established guests better understand and comprehend the significance of a 4.8 rating than they do 92% five star reviews"! ......Really......... is there another soul on the face of the earth outside of 888 Brannan Street that would agree with that statement?.....resoundingly...NO!

The basis of any review system is that it should be fair....each party should be reviewing by the same set of rules....otherwise, what's the point in having one, the results are going to be a false representation of someones thoughts. 

I had a mechanical services company in my working life and it was successful because I never through an employee under the bus! I backed them and helped them to be the best they could be at what they did. If a customer complained, I listened and help the employee to better master that situation next time.....not penalize them for their mistake. All that does is breed resentment.

Airbnb are going out of their way to mystify the review process! The wording of the review format is changing daily with some conjecture at the moment of when and if reviews will be published at all.https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Review-rules-changed/m-p/969493#M243186

None of us are going to be right all the time....heavens above, many hosts do not belong in this business at all, but, by tarring all your hosts with the same brush, all you are doing is discouraging people from being their best.

OK, off my soapbox!

Cheers......Rob

[Ange2]

"do they provide a clock for timing how long Guest has to fill in each step"

Ha! Ha!   @Alon  That is a cruel thought. The stress factor.  But,  then again, they do it to hosts, so why not extend the same courtesy to guests too? 🙂

[Rebecca181]

@Robin4 Thank you for confirming that Airbnb has persisted in requiring our guests to slog through what resembles Tolstoy's seminal (and lengthy) work, 'War and Peace' in order to leave a review about their stay in our dwellings. Hosts have reported a drop in their 'review' stats since this new (and not improved) review system was rolled out; many of us hosts mentioned our concerns about it; yet our complaints and concerns appear to be falling on (intentionally?) deaf ears. I simply don't know how this is serving anyone at this point - host or guest - and I feel strongly that something needs to be done about it - and soon. 

[Michelle-And-Michael0]

Thanks for posting this @Robin4 ..... I knew the guests review system had become tedious, but not to this extent. 

I'm surprised anyone even bothers to leave a review at all. I'll be much more grateful for those guests that do, in the future!

I always leave reviews for our guests.... but, I never like being 'harassed' to leave reviews elsewhere. 

Returning from a day out shopping, can often leads to an email or two about how my purchase experience went etc. etc. 

Receiving something by post..... another review for the postal service. etc..... and so it goes on. 

If there must be a review.... it really should be as short, uncomplicated and user friendly as possible. 

Cheers,

Michelle 🙂

[Robin4]

@Michelle-And-Michael0 

How are the M&Ms going? I have just spent a week in Corrimal with elder daughter where I did that chook mosaic which is on another thread! You sure are in a lovely part of the world, tucked away there under the escarpment!

You raise a really good point Michelle, it seems everything we buy or use now comes with the obligatory, 'Feedback'! Users are getting heartily sick of being bombarded with review requests, survey emails, feedback requests, not just on the computer but via phone apps. There are some apps that will not let you leave the page until you click to undertake something or other! Your only alternative is to restart your phone and open a new tab.

As I said in my opening Michelle, although I am a regular Airbnb guest there is a considerable amount of time between stays and every time I am faced with that review the procedure is more and more complex and fault-finding.

What do we say to guests....'to protect the safety of the system as we know it as far as the better performing hosts are concerned just give a 5 star or it will just be a matter of time before there are none of us superhosts left'

It seems to me middle management are killing this company, I don't know how you feel!

Cheers......Rob

[Michelle-And-Michael0]

@Robin4 We're going well, thanks. 

Next time you're visiting your daughter in Corrimal, you'd be most welcome to drop in for a tea and chat. Better still.... if you would like some alone time, I know a really nice Airbnb you can stay at!....  Lol 😉