How can I fix what is not broken!

[Robin4]

Here we go again. 

I thought I had this covered by my explanation page of how Airbnb reviews work in my house rules folder, and for the last 50 reviews it has worked ok but, last nights guests obviously didn't open the house rules folder and this is what I got.....

So, tonight my stats have taken a minor dive, I am back down to 92%. 

Airbnb, what did I do wrong here? Give me something, point to anything out of this review that I can work on to make this up to your standard!

If I didn't cop reviews like this (perfect except for that overall star) I would be sitting on 98%! I struggle to comprehend why doing my best, and being seen to be doing my best in the guests eyes is not good enough in the eyes of Airbnb......why is that?

If I need to fix something, I will fix it, but will someone in the organisation tell me why I am penalised for doing everything right!

We hosts do seriously travel a hard Airbnb road.

We are told to accept annonymous guests.

We are told to lower our prices for these guests.

Our guests are instructed to expect excellence at the cheapest price in town.

And we are penalised for doing everything right and by the book.

Surely sooner or later someone has to take notice of this!

Rant over!

Cheers......Rob

[Emilia42]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 agreed, I don't buy it either. Like this is the first time a guest has used a phone/computer to write a review and their "finger slipped." Even though Airbnb gives the option to save and edit or go back on every single page.

[Helen350]

@Emilia42 @Lilly28 @Branka-and-Silvia0 @Robin4 "Edit" - that's a point.... We get 2 days to edit IF the other party has not written theirs, so if you are first to review, you can edit finger slips....... But if you are the second to review, what you check/write stands. Understandable in a way, to avoid retaliation... I suppose the answer would be for a pause of 10, 20, 30 mins between hitting the star button & the review appearing on screen, - That way genuine mistakes in grading through finger slips, tiny screens, could be changed.....?

[Emilia42]

@Helen350, also when completing the review, it is multiple pages. So at any time the guest can click back to go to any previous page to check or fix the review before submitting. You can even save a review (before you push submit) and go back a few days later to finish it.

[Helen350]

@Emilia42 True!

[Helen350]

@Robin4 Indeed! Hard to see where you could have done better, or what would have lifted your 4* overall to 5*.... I remember a chap who gave me a very positive written review, & 5* for everything except overall which was a 3*! I always think if "Accuracy", "Cleanliness" & "Value" are 5* then how can the overall mark not be 5*? WE ARE NOT 5* HOTELS!

[Eva-and-Dimitar0]

Well that's the way Airbnb keep us on the short leash. To be fair last year we lost our superhost status because of a cancellation. Business was just as good. We also get plenty of "everything was perfect, but overall it was not". Last time we asked why it was "your building looked a bit shabby on the outside, probably this is not fair to you to rate".D-oh!

[Kim87]

Sorry @Robin4, i also get these every once in a while. There's nothing we can do. Unless airbnb forces guests who rate under 5 to tell what can be improve.

[Allison2]

It's interesting to me that Airbnb asks 20 questions on the hosts' efforts, down to whether I had washcloths, but they have never asked me how they performed as the middleman. As a party taking 20% of the revenue, shouldn't I get a chance to rate their performance?

Guests complain to me about how long it takes to complete profile verifications, issues with payments (and now split payments) and system downtime. As a guest I'm frustrated by the cluttered UI hawking EXPERIENCES, which are placed above the check-in info in the app. They want to sell me more stuff, not support the sale they already have.

In the market research world the "Overall" category becomes a catch-all for things that didn't get their own category. Cleanliness was 5*, but the fridge ran all night, so I roll that into my overall score.

If I had a great stay, but it took me 3 hours to work through Air's CS system about a billing issue, where does that frustration show in my ratings? Airbnb's involvement should be its own category.

Could it be your 4's are reflective of guest's frustration with Airbnb, not anything to do with your hosting efforts?

[Mike1034]

@Robin4 @Anonymous @Branka-and-Silvia0 @Emilia42 @David6 Isn't it stupid that overall rating is totally separated from each individual categories? One of my guests told me that she accidently pressed the 4 star for overall which was the last one after she had put all 5 stars in each category.

The other stupid thing is removing photo and profile visibility from hosts when a booking request comes from a guest.

[Robin4]

@Mike1034 

Hi Mike......You said, "One of my guests told me that she accidently pressed the 4 star for overall which was the last one after she had put all 5 stars in each category.", Mike, if she told you that, she is kidding you!

Here are the first 6 steps in the review process when a guest rates a host....

The first step is the for the overall  star rating......not the last Mike .

The second step is 'what was special '.

The third step is the deceptive one....'How did your stay compare to expectations'

This is where the confusion comes in. Airbnb are actively telling the guests a 3 overall is OK. The guest automatically links the first and the third step.....Ah, five options, five stars! Remember the guest has the option to go back and ammend that first step and insert a star rating that might better match the options Airbnb have given in step 3! 

This is the bit that is hurting us!

Now either Airbnb need to get rid of step three entirely or they need to get rid of the 5 star reviews as a percentage on the hosts stats. You can't have it both ways, tell hosts one thing and tell guests another.

@Anonymous  @Allison2  @Kim87 @Branka & Silvia1 @Emilia42 @David6

Cheers.......Rob

[Helen350]

@Robin4 Yikes! I had no idea Step 3 existed! - All the implications! 😞

[Robin4]

@Helen350 

That is why I put this graph in as part of my 'review explanation' page in my house rules folder.....

Possible guest answers relates to the star ratings in step 1.

It works well and explains what happens to the guest.

But it is only of use if the guest actually looks at the house rules folder and reads it.

Step three says that whichever of those prompt options the guest  may chose will not be shown to the host but will be used only as a general guest indicator on the hosts profile......

That is totally wrong!

The guest sees those step 3 prompts and uses those set their overall star rating.

Helen, it is just a stupid bit of programming design that neither hosts or guests respect. 

Cheers.......Rob

[Karen-and-Brian0]

Hi @Robin4 - great to see you're still here & still being the outstanding host that you are - I haven't checked in with the community since last year. I had a kind of epiphany when the stats were messed up  by a glitch earlier this week - we dropped below accepted minimum stars for Superhost, our reviews went from 100% to 20. Before I came here to learn it was just a glitch, I went through the mental process of - "I work really hard at this, I do my absolute best & if you've now gone with some other arbitrary way of rating me, screw you Airbnb! I'm not going to worry about Superhost status anymore & therefore you have no control of me".  It was extremely liberating.

Guests aren't aware of the rating system - to the majority of guests, unless they're Airbnb hosts themselves,  a 5 star would be absolute perfection, which they feel no one should honestly earn, 4 stars are excellent, 3 stars means great, 1 & 2 star categories that they're actually expressing unhappiness. You have taken the step of noting that in your binder & that's great. I debated taking that suggestion onboard but then I decided if I have to plead, I'm not going there. I'm with @Branka-and-Silvia0 on this one - life is too short for Airbnb to cause us more stress than they already do. 🙂

[Susie111]

@Robin4  My impression is that majority of people think that 4* is actually pretty good!

I had some guests who told me “what do you mean 4* is great we really enjoyed your place”

It’s Airbnb who is the bad guys here that they allow 4* star to potentially destroy your business.

I do like the badge only because l think it’s gets your listings up in the search list together with IB but I’m not sure.

Life it’s to precious to try to change the American corporation Airbnb, because it never will.

What do you think of Airbnb Luxe collection???

[Robin4]

@Susie111 

To be honest I haven't looked at Luxe yet Susie, a bit to much else on my plate.

But as an overall thought, gee they are rolling out a new one a year....you got give them an A for consistency. 2017 we had 'Select', 2018 we had 'Plus' and now 2019 we have 'Luxe' .....watch this space!

I will give them a title for next years roll-out....'Superhost'....oh hang on, that one got passed over back in 2016!

I wonder how all those people who dived into their wallets to become part of the 'Plus' scheme now feel that the top position they eagerly sought has just been upstaged yet again!

So much jockeying for a good position within one platform surely can't be seen as a good thing by guests. My feeling is they are just going to mistrust the platform as a whole just that bit more. I think it is actually going to drive guests away, not attract them.

You can offer too many options you know, search through class after class of listing, after a while guests will just throw their hands in the air and say...."What the hell, why don't we just book with Trivago, one click and it's all done"!  

Cheers......Rob