Doing the right thing is penalising hosts

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

Doing the right thing is penalising hosts

A lot of posts recently have complained about poor star ratings based on things like 'Value' and 'Location' .

 

I am finding the same thing! People are loving their stay, say what a lovely lot of extras are provided and how they enjoyed the experience, but I am getting an increasing number of 4 stars. My 5 stars are now down to 91% from 98% a month ago.

I think it is tied up with the new system Airbnb have introduced for guests to rate their experience.

Airbnb are now actively asking guests in the review process what faults they found with the listing or the experience. Airbnb are prompting guests on such things as floors and carpets, temperature, smells, noise, even 'bugs' for goodness sake.

No longer is the guest asked......'Were you impressed with the cleanliness of the listing'?...a positive statement.

They are now asked.....'What was the main issue relating to the cleanliness of the listing' ......a negative statement.

I would guess many guests would have thought some trivial little issue not worth mentioning until Airbnb bought it up and required a response.

To put it in perspective, a 5 star is still a 5 star, just as it always has been, and if a guest simply clicks that 5 star in a particular category and ignores Airbnb's prompts, they move on to the next category. But if a guest decides to check what happens if they click 4 stars or less, that's the time the negative boxes and statements appear.

I have not been a guest under this new review process and what I have said here is pieced together from the sketchy information that is now coming to the forum from Lisa, Andrea and others, but I have seen enough of it to in future warn my guests what will happen in the review process, and how 'thinking you are doing the right thing' is in actual fact penalising the host. I have printed my 'Stats' page of one month ago showing my percentages and I have printed my current 'Stats' page to illustrate just what a couple of 4 star reviews does to the host. I showed it to my most recent guests who left here yesterday and they were genuinely shocked to see the result…..particularly when shown what happens to hosts who fall below a particular percentage level!

It seems, in a way, unethical to have to manipulate the system like this, it's almost scaring people into giving a 5 star, it's getting away from the genuineness of the review. But, that is what Airbnb are doing and I am just trying to fight back in any way that I can.

How do others feel about this?

Cheers....Rob

46 Replies 46
Scott80
Level 10
Honolulu, HI

I think they are trying to make the system more like a bell curve. Where There are few 1-star and 5-star ratings more 2 and 4-star ratings and 3-star rating predominiate. I think it is a good idea because the way it is now it is almost like gymnastics at the Olympics where 9.997 is third place, 9.998 is second place and 9.999 is the winner. I really dought that human can percieve 1/1000 of a difference between performances (or hosts) so having a bell-like distribution will make the ratings more valuable for everone. 

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Scott80 Yeah ok Scott that is fine but, if that's what the intention is, then get rid of this all consuming push by Airbnb to achieve nothing less than 5 stars!

A 4 star is seen as a failing on the part of the host....a few 3 stars will see your listing removed because of poor performance...and you might as well start looking for another way to make a dollar if you ever got a 2 star!!

My beef is they are telling us to do better on one hand, and they are telling guests to rate us down on the the other!

Cheers....Rob 

Lilian20
Level 10
Argelès-sur-Mer, France

Seems airbnb has brought in a lot of new guests and a lot of new hosts and now would be the time to give all these guests a better experience by squeezing hosts for results..

Actually Scott, we aren't really competing against each other. There are far more guests out there than hosts. So the scoring analogy doesn't work. Airbnb is simply tweaking a rating system that isn't broken.

David-and-Fiona0
Level 10
Panglao, Philippines

Once again AirBnb simply hasn’t thought this completely through. I applaud them for trying to make the platform better but all these constant and unilateral decisions are soooo frustrating. I watched some of the Q&A videos the other day and was astounded how naive the kids were representing their departments.

Annette33
Level 10
Prescott, AZ

Hi @Robin4 ! 🙂

As @Scott80 pointed out, this whole ratings system is just utterly ridiculous. On one I hand I appreciate a change towards a more realistic evaluation of a stay, but as you mentioned, hosts do get "punished" by Airbnb in all sorts of ways, and that is what keeps us on our toes to  get that coveted 5 star rating at all time, in all categories. I like to think of myself as not caring so much about it, but yes, it bugged me the one time a rather difficult sourpuss guest gave me a 4 overall, because the AC was not on ALL night long ( hello, the thermostat shuts itself off when the desired level of coolness, like 68 degrees is reached - in May at 5000 feet altitude, when it isn't hot in the first place!)

I think everything is in flux with Airbnb, at all times, things change constantly in their software platform, sometimes not well thought out or rather chaotic. And as @David-and-Fiona0 have noticed, there is still a lot of naivité and not enough of a focused, stream lined  approach going on, as if Airbnb were still in their first maverick stage of developing the company. All in all, I decided to go with the flow and not sweat the small stuff.  I just focus on getting the bookings I want and that  it only costs me abouyt 3% in service fees to Airbnb. That is pretty awesome, when we think about it. 

I still see the perfect 5 star ratings all across the board for your listing, so keep on doing what you're doing so well!

PS: I am reading right now the newest book on them, "The Airbnb Story" by Leigh Gallagher. It helps to appreciate how complex the whole Airbnb operation is and what their challenges are. (I'm barely a quarter into it, so can't give an overall evaluation yet.)

Cheers,

Your Arizona friend,

Annette

 

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Annette33 .......Hey sorry about the delay in responding! Once again you are right Annette, this is such a stupid thing to get our knickers in a knot over but, I put so much into my hosting! Ok, more fool me might be the thought, but as all that know me will say, I never go into anything half hearted, all my life I have made a rod for my back by crossing 'T's and dotting 'I's...maybe it's because I am a Virgo. I believe being pedantic is a Virgo trait.

There is possibly a bit of Airbnb in me as well because, I do regard a 4 star as a fail.....it never worried me when I kept on getting 5 after 5, but 3 fours in a month, and each of them I had absolutely no control over. The floors are polished concrete, they could not have been cleaner, not a 'bug' anywhere, I could not have provided more free stuff, the bloody fridge brims with it, I could not have made them more comfortable, I was totally flexible with arrival and departure times. I am all the time trying to dream up ways to make what I offer better. I personally feel let down by a system that tells me I have to try harder. 

So Annette, I should have a mindset more like yours and say simply....Do your best and don't sweat the small stuff.......but that's just not the way I am constructed.

Cheers.....Rob

Ira4
Level 10
Athens, Greece

@Robin4 I get what you say and I thin, we all face similar experiences. 

The best comment I have read on this forum about ratings was saying: Guests need to know that 5-star ratings are the default, not the extraordinary! I am thinking in which way I can pass this to my guests, without being rude or begging. Any ideas?

 

_______________________________________

 

In this thread, you will find how to Contact Airbnb!

 

If you want to see my listings, here they are:

Diamond Home 1

Diamond Home 2

Diamond Penthouse

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Ira4 You are right Ira and I will not make a point of waving this information in a guests face or 'browbeeting' them with it. 

But when talking with a guest the conversation about 'How have you found Airbnb' comes up, and I do get to have an insight into how the guest feels about the platform, and I let them know about how I feel about it. It's just an exchange of information from each side. And the thing I am finding is....a year ago the guest was just asked to leave a review....now the guest is asked for a critical analysis of their experience.

When my last guest saw the effect that 3 four stars from people who said their stay had been everything they had wanted, had on my statistics they were shocked. They had absolutely no idea that (from the hosts aspect) the Airbnb system would be so out of step with what the community at large would regard as the normal way a rating system operates.

 

So Ira, yes you are right, not good to beg but, everything in life is checks and balances, and before guest is told he needs to make a mention of that smell that some diesel truck made when it went past, or the condition of that persian rug that has been in the family for a century, and how that impacted on the star rating he gives, I think he needs to know how that star rating will be analysed in the hosts statistics!

Cheers.....Rob

 

@Ira4 - Many many years ago, I ran for a state political office and learned from the professionals that you must actually ASK people for their vote.  So, I adopted that philosophy and most of the time I actually "ASK" for a 5-star review, "if they are comfortable" or something like that.  I can't say whether or not that makes a difference, but because we have accepted a high ratio of brand new Airbnb Guests (that likely don't know the importance of 5 stars), I believe it's probably protected us from unwittingly harming us with a new Airbnber 4-star review.  Although we have a great 5-star listing!

@Lois-and-Darryl0

"I ran for a state political office and learned from the professionals that you must actually ASK people for their vote."

 

That's a really good statement, you do have to ask people for their vote,  but Darryl....or Lois, in most instances I feel guests have no idea what they are actually voting about!

Very few of us have a Donald Trump type listing at the top of Trump Tower....in fact none of us do....but THAT you would classify as 5 star. My listing is simply a converted garage sitting in the backblocks of South Australia...when compared to that Trump type listing mine would not rate 1 star. I do not provide an 'endless swimmer' outside the door....a manacured 18 hole golf course through a gate in the rear fence....

But, I charge $85Au per night. For that the guests get to sleep in one of the best electric beds on the planet! A fridge that boasts ham, eggs, milk, butter, a selection of cheeses, a bottle of Corona and one of Apple Cider, tubs of fruit and orange juice and a couple of bottles of spring water. A massive bowl of the best fruit I can find in my area, teas, coffees, cereals, nuts and crackers! The use of unlimited Wifi, a washing machine in their own bathroom to wash their clothes. I library with a great selection of books, the use of three different outdoor settings in a large rear cottage garden and barbeque grill use.....all for about half the cost of a bare cabin in the local caravan park. What is my package worth??

The only thing guest should consider and star rate should be the provided package...."On a scale of one to five did this accommodation provide you value and experience for the money you spent"?

If I could, I would say to the policy makers at Airbnb.....Lets start making Airbnb listings look good, not encourage them to be torn down!

 

Cheers.....Rob

@Lois-and-Darryl0 thank you for the answer. 

You are right that asking is a something that we often don't do and I also think that it has influence. 

 

_______________________________________

 

In this thread, you will find how to Contact Airbnb!

 

If you want to see my listings, here they are:

Diamond Home 1

Diamond Home 2

Diamond Penthouse

Sharla0
Level 4
Chattanooga, TN

If Airbnb intends to remain a social platform, then the balance between host and guest must be maintained. As soon as it skews toward the guest--with hosts left feeling powerless, especially when we are inviting strangers into our homes--the social platform fails and hosts start working for the Airbnb Corporation rather than Airbnb working for us. And then it's game over, that's when some enterprising other business steps in and provides what Airbnb used to provide. 

 

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Sharla0.....Very well said, agree with you 100%

Cheers....Rob