Hosts, have you noticed a decrease in the number of guests leaving reviews?

[Stephanie365]

For the first 9 months of hosting, every one of my guests have left reviews. But now, 3 of my last 6 guests have not left reviews even though their communication indicated they were satisfied.  Anyone else experiencing such a trend?

[Sarah977]

Am staying with a friend in Canada- she is an airbnb host and also just recently stayed at a place as a guest- she called me over to look at her computer screen to show me what appears when she, as a guest, is asked to review. It's ridiculous, pages of it and only at the end are they asked for their written review.

And the overall star rating? It doesn't appear as a star rating on the guest end at all, just check boxes. This is why we hosts are bamboozled (and guests are misled) when a guest raves about our places, writes a great review, and then leaves a 3* overall rating- the guest has checked the box that says "About the same as I expected". This is the middle box, so would translate to a 3* rating. The 4* rating box (remember, there are no stars attached to these boxes, only text) says "A bit better than I expected", and the top box says "Exceeded my expectations".

[Cor3]

Hi @Sarah,

Your somewhat shocking message about Airbnb changing their review system (by a guest) from stars to the “Met expectations”-style radio-button rating. Has kept me puzzling for some time (I’ve never been an Airbnb guest myself). And when I ask other people (whom have been a guest on Airbnb before), I never get a satisfactory answer from them (most have already forgotten about it).

I have noticed a significant decrease in the number of reviews left by guests - as well. In previous years, I received reviews from guests in about 95% of all cases. This year this percentage has suddenly dropped to about 75%.

So I’ve been searching the internet. And I stumbled on this article: https://indieweb.org/AirBnB_Reviews

That would really explain things! Wouldn’t it?

Apparently before the guests hits the stars. There is a phrase below each star:

1 = Terrible

2 = Bad

3 = Okay

4 = Good

5 = Great

Obviously I do not know how this is interpreted/translated to exactly, in other languages!

Once a guest does hit the appropriate star rating, then the associated piece of text remains on top.

I would interpret the “Met expectations”-style radio-button section (Section 3) not to replace the Overall Star rating section (Section 1). But as an additional rating. Although I do not see any feedback about this particular additional rating in my own dashboard?

So there are indeed 5 sections to be filled by a guest, during the review process.

I would expect section 2 to be a check-box style type of enquiry (I.e. You can tick multiple answers. My assumption: Because of the circle-color around the icons).

Now what does Airbnb do with this information?

As Airbnb is always desperately hungry for data and numbers.

My best guess is, that all of this is fed back into Airbnb’s AI!

We recently noticed the introduction of the Home Highlights Section in each listing. And I suppose Airbnb want to make the text in there more diverse – for each individual listing.

On top of this, Airbnb can actually use this data in combination with the Smart Pricing Mechanism.

As we recently also noticed that the Smart Pricing tips are actually improving (Especially when the horizon is about 1 to 3 months out). In the past - these tips were completely ridiculous. But nowadays they are much more in line, with what we have in mind for our seasonal pricing.

On the other side, Airbnb can also use this data to start messaging the hosts to improve their listing!

As apparently the listing does not completely reflect reality (In case there is a lot of feedback of type: “Much better than I expected”)

Although the review process for a guest is pretty extended, I think I can live with a style like that.

It’s not an awful amount of additional work. And reviewing a host can still be done in a couple of minutes.

A couple of weeks ago. One of our recent guests was able to do the review in under 4 minutes :-).

I hope this sheds some light on this topic.

[Fred13]

   Just encountered (and saw) this myself. Airbnb is so hung up on collecting 'data' they have turned leaving a review by guests into a 'final exam'. 

   In the past 50% of my guests hate to leave reviews anyway, I suspect now that average will really plunged.

[Sandra126]

Wow, I had no idea of this, how annoying. I have missed a few reviews lately too. If Airbnb insists on this happening, perhaps they could offer a great incentive such as ''by reviewing your trip you go into a draw to wil $1000 travel voucher'' or some such. Done as an annual draw it is absolutely peanuts for Airbnb, who could then use THAT win to turn into a ''feel-good'' ad for next year. And so on. I would write this idea up in Host Voice but is seems to be missing???

[Sarah977]

@Sandra126   Yes, about 2 months ago Host Voice was closed down, with the claim that airbnb was improving it, or some such. Yet it has never appeared in any form since.

[J-Renato0]

I think @Lawrene0 hit the nail on the head when she said

>>> "I see the review process from the guest side. It has become a monster."
>>> "I suspect many chuck it halfway through."

It is very unpleasant indeed to go through an inquisitive and silly list of questions.

What could be a pleasure to the guest became a nightmare. It does not make them feel comfortable.

It is said that, in the internet people loves writing comments and giving opinion, in a kind of spontaneous way.

However,  when they note that they are being used to provide information to big companies and to fill out forms they get tired and quit.

[Batul0]

Ok, so they've basically made it next to impossible to become A) A Superhost and B) for guests to leave reviews.  Filling out 5 pages of forms is basically data collection and it's ridiculous.  All that information is already in the listing, what is Airbnb doing? Trying to verify that the soap and tp were actually there?  If basic amenities are missing, doesn't Airbnb think that guests will remark on it organically?  

[Tolga1]

Yes, we have seen this too.  In the past we consistently had a 100% feedback rate.  This year it has fallen off a cliff so something has definitely made it harder or more of a headache.  No worries though, Airbnb will no doubt find a way to punish hosts for it, reduce our payouts and search rankings.  I can't wait!  Looking at alternatives...

[Alex939]

Yes, I have noticed the decrease in the number of guests leaving review, especially after May, June 2018 but wasn't aware of the reason. I've had 4 guests sequentially not leaving reviews and was starting to think that something somewhere should have changed. So here it is - this new review process. It may be the reason for guests to wait to come back home for leaving a review - it seems so complicated and confusing on a phone's interface. 

[Kim611]

I have just had a guest who was unable to leave a review because she was using her phone.  Wonderful people, would gladly host them again and they would gladly come back, but it is leaving a nasty feeling for her.  The phone interface is very spotty.

[Susan151]

The percentage of guests leaving reviews in the past month has dropped dramatically. I expect that the new inquisition the guests encounter is to blame. At least, AirBNB sill see how many guests abandon ship during their survey. Perhaps they will simplify the process as a response.

[Robert-And-Nancy0]

Our reviews have also decreased. Our previous guests actually told me upon departure that they do not leave reviews for any of their stays. I decided not to question any further although I was very curious. When I went in to clean the apartment I found a beautiful note telling us how much they loved the place and they left us a really nice gift. We struggle with the fact that we were A#1 with these guests but it will not be acknowledged on our Airbnb reviews. We also had a hard time deciding to leave them a review or not. We decided to review them as they really were the perfect guests and I though maybe, just maybe, they may change their mind.

Airbnb please lets make things simple........

[Batul0]

I honestly wonder if Airbnb is setting the stage for a more of a pay to play platform where Airbnb plus hosts (that pay a certain amount) get preferential treatment in terms of better rankings and visibility.  They're trying to capture the "luxury" end of the market and this is one way to implement that strategy. I feel like regular hosts will "organically" start to fall behind in the days to come and Airbnb could care less.  There are more guests than hosts and guests are the ones making them money, hosts are (for the most part) inconsequental.  All the steps Airbnb's taking seem to be moving towards a platform that's more "hotel" friendly....I'd be surprised if it'd didn't look like booking.com in the future! 🙂  

[William527]

This is exactly what HomeAway did, and exactly why I left it after years.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

I only host 3~4 guests a year........ thankfully every guest has been kind enough to leave me a review till now - I make a point of telling the guest how important it is for ME  to get reviews for every single stay because I host very few guests to start with. Thanks to everyone for the info/update about the change in how guests review. 

I really do not like the direction airbnb is taking...... they should just focus on what they are meant to do, be a booking platform!!!!!