Guests who never leave Reviews - Suggestions for dealing with them

[Stephanie365]

As AirBNB hosts, we rely on reviews and in fact, AirBNB rewards or penalizes us based on our reviews.

I have encountered 2 guests who apparently never review their hosts. They receive reviews from their hosts but don't reciprocate.  For those of us with lower volume spaces, we really need every review to maintain our status not to mention the requirement that a certain percentage of guests who stay must leave a review.

So, while AirBNB is very strict on hosting requirements, is there a way that AirBNB can program in a warning to guests who use AirBNB but who don't leave reviews?  I know on occasion people won't leave a review here or there.  I'm not talking about these guests.  I'm talking about the ones where you see they have 3 reviews from hosts and you back track to see what they've left as guests and they haven't left a single review for anyone.  

I would like to see ABB implement something to this effect:

>"Marvin" stays at an ABB for the first time and doesn't leave a review.

     No action.

>"Marvin" stays at an ABB for the second time and 10 days after the experience has ended, Marvin still has not left a review.
     They should receive a notification to the effect of, "We have noticed that you haven't left reviews for your hosts. Our platform relies on reviews from hosts and guests to be successful. To avoid a flag on your account, please take a few moments and review your host."  Marvin ignores warning.

>"Marvin" stays at an ABB for the third time and 10 days after the experience, Marvin still has not left a review.
     Marvin should receive a notification that to the effect of, "Please take a moment to review your host.  You have 4 days left. As you have used the ABB platform 3 times and have not left a review, we will flag your account to inform hosts that you do not leave reviews if you don't complete one for your latest experience. By flagging your account, you will not be eligible to Instant Book any property and hosts will have the option of declining to host you penalty free."

In the future, when "Marvin" attemtps to book an experience, he will have to wait for approval from the host.  When his request comes through, the host should see a notification to the effect of, "This guest prefers not to leave reviews. Do you still want to host?"  The host should be able to check yes or no. If the host checks "No", the booking is cancelled penalty-free. 

If the host isn't so concerned about reviews as revenue and wishes to host anyways, the can click "Yes" and the booking would proceed as normal based on the host's requirements.

This way "Marvin" is not banned from using AirBNB, but hosts would have a penalty free option of not accepting Marvin as a guest. If the guest doesn't care that they can't IB or that they may have a harder time finding a host to take them, so be it. But the host should at least have a penalty free option of not accepting this guest. And the guest will have some motivation to leave a review.

[Elena87]

@Stephanie365

Honestly don't think this idea is going to fly.

Forcing people to do stuff they don't want to do never ends well.

Not every review is gold dust anyhow. Quantity rarely means better quality.

A business banning their customers for trivial matters is never the smartest tactic.

A guest and a host see airbnb differently, guests dip in and out (mostly infrequently) while hosts can be fully tuned in, already different cultures exist for service users. That's something not to forget.

[Chris232]

@Stephanie

AirBnB have aired the idea of Superguest.

Maybe one of the criterias to become a "Superguest" should  be to have x amount of 5 star reviews from hosts, and Hosts will only leave a review once the guest has submitted their own.

Maybe this would resolve your problem of not receiving reviews from Guests.

but bewarned ... sometimes no review is better than a bad 2 star review.

[Stephanie365]

@Chris232
I understand that not all reviews are good reviews. I definitely am not targeting the *occasional* review not left.  The whole, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all".

I am referring to guests who just don't think they need to bother with a review for ANYONE because they're too lazy to do it or don't think it's important. I'm talking the person who has 6 reviews themselves and has yet to leave a single review for anyone else.

@Elena87 
I didn't suggest banning at all. I specifically said my suggestion was a way to convey information without banning for non-participation.  because we all know ABB isn't going to block guests from booking because they want the revenue at all costs.

My suggestion was a way to let hosts know about a potential guest before allowing a booking to happen and leaving it up to the host whether or not to accept the guest knowing you won't get a review. Some people such as myself who are low-volume, really rely on reviews to maintain our statuses. If you have 100+ bookings per year, having a few come through who don't leave reviews won't affect that minimum percentage of reviews required by ABB to be a SH.

Basically, all I'm saying is if a guest is someone who refuses to leave a review for anyone for whatever reason, take away the guest's ability to Instant Book with anyone and when they send a request or inquiry, there is an alert to the host saying "This guest doesn't leave reviews". And make it so a host can decline without penalty.

Or if ABB doesn't want to call out guests for not playing, simply update their profile in such a way that hosts can see it before allowing them to book that shows how many reviews they've left.

Say next to the place where it shows the reviews left by hosts, add a place for review left FOR hosts with the number in parenthesis. And make it clickable so a host can just click to see a list of all reviews left by the guest, if any.

[Jeanne224]

Really? I would love if "Superguest" becomes a real thing! It may help stem this downward trajectory of guests getting progressively worse and not caring to adhere to household rules! 

[Stephanie365]

[Ange2]

@Stephanie365   How about coaxing guests to leave reviews with a message such as :  "Airbnb is based on trust and transparency built up through the review process. Writing a review for your host will make your future booking experience easier. "  or they could offer 'easier booking process' as a reward for writing a review, which it already is for hosts who won't take  Instant Book without reviews.  I am sure there are countless ways to sell or encourage writing a review as a reward. 

But,  bear in mind,  the review process (read survey) for guests has become onerous, that could be  a factor.  I have also had some guests who  just do not want to add to their digital footprint. But, I have given up on trying to address the myriad ways Airbnb penalizes hosts, often pitting host against guest and vice versa: ratings, overall, declines, not enough guest reviews,  so I'm actually okay with whatever the guest decides to do (or not!).

p.s. Reservations (x) made vs. Reviews   (x) is a good idea.  If a guest does not write reviews they can't book IB.

[Sarah977]

@Elena87  "A business banning their customers for trivial matters is never the smartest tactic."

It isn't a trivial matter because Airbnb uses the % of reviews left by guests as a criteria for achieving and retaining Superhost status. So you could have 100% 5* reviews, and glowing written reviews, but if more than half the guests fail to leave a review, you can kiss your Superhost status goodbye. 

And, as Stephanie pointed out, she never suggested banning these guests. She is suggesting they receive warnings,  just like hosts receive warnings when they fail to live up to Airbnb's standards. And that there are consequences for guests who never leave reviews,  just as there are consequences for hosts who fall below 4.7 or 4.8 ratings.

[Susan17]

It seems that hosts are increasingly spending all our waking hours (and, it seems, some of our sleeping hours too) stressing, obsessing and agonising over how to coax/cajole/coerce our hapless guests into leaving us those life-or-death 5 star reviews, and catastrophising over what terrible punishments and heinous penalties Airbnb will inflict on us if we fail to reach their ludicrously unattainable targets. 

Instead of hassling, badgering and ingratiating the Marvins of this world into completing 10-13 page reviews (spy charters) on us and our homes, should we not all be directing our energies into getting the point across to Airbnb - by whatever means necessary - that their absurd and abusive reviews and ratings system is simply not working out for anyone - hosts, guests or Airbnb itself?

[Sarah977]

@Susan17   Absolutely agree. The requirement that 50% of guests leave us reviews defies all logic. How many reviews get left for us is beyond our control and has nothing to do with our hosting abilities or the accomodations we offer. I would have no objection to being rated on what % of guests I leave reviews for. 

[Stephanie365]

@Susan17, In a backwards kind of way, that's part of my point. If AirBNB is going to hold us to the standards that 50% of our guests must leave a review for us to achieve SH, something that is completely beyond our control as far as "making" them do it, then AirBNB needs to address the issue somehow.

Either eliminate the requirement that a certain percentage of our guests leave reviews or provide incentives for them to do so, i.e. if you don't leave reviews for 80% of your stays, you are ineligible for Instant Book and whatever other entitlements guests might otherwise receive. That's why I threw in that hosts have an option not to accept your request based on your history of not playing the review game.

I have heard the review process for guests has become onerous. That's what happens when you have cubicle dwellers writing policy.

[Kelly149]

I think your suggestions are super reasonable & I have no expectation that anyone at abb cares a whit about it. 

Homeaway is much more sensible about reviews btw

would you consider straight up asking your guest? “It looks like from your profile that you don’t do reviews, can you tell me something about that?”

and then based on that answer either get CS to cancel them or explain to the guest why you need them to leave you a 5* review.  Until abb gets a clue about reviews I think we all have to be more proactive 

[Emilia42]

So you don't have to "black track" to find guest's reviews :

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/airreview/plkdnpjpnhhnmigmekaocdfokkmebdnm

[Linda-And-Richard0]

The majority of our guests have been good about leaving reviews.  I just ask at check-out if they would  please take a moment to leave a review.  Of the few that have not left reviews, 2 were fellow Airbnb hosts.  Surely they must know the importance of the review system.  I have now been an Airbnb guest   on two occasions.  I think the new review system is more time consuming and a bit confusing.

[Mary996]

Brilliant. Inspired. Totally well thought out and a perfect blueprint.

Hello ABB .... LOOK

Easy peasy for you xxxxx Please enact!