Looking carefully at Reviews

[Marilyn43]

Just a tip for new Hosts. Look carefully not only at the Reviews for Guests but check the number of Recommendations against the number of reviews. If different, there could be reasons for that.

[Susan151]

@Marilyn43. Strangely, not all of us can see the "number of recommendations" number. I sure wish that I could, but AirBNB hasn't deigned to give me this statistic. 

[Marilyn43]

Oh, that's a pity and really not fair. I only looked at this comparison this week after a couple of guests didn't 'come up to scratch' and I realized that although they'd been given Reviews they hadn't actually been recommended by all the Hosts.

[Marilyn43]

Check again though - it is usually in 'words' - e.g. "this guest has been recommende by X hosts"

[Sarah977]

@Marilyn43 Good point.

BTW, a little off topic, but I just got a booking from a guest who has been a member since 2016, but she didn't have one review. I asked her about that, and she said she joined back then, but hasn't actually used it ever, has been "armchair traveling". She's been a great communicator and sounds really nice, thanking me for all the info I've been sending her. 

So while a long-standing membership with zero reviews is often though of as a red flag, it isn't always necessarily.

@Susan151 So you don't see "This guest is recommended by 4 hosts" under the guest's profile photo to the left of your message stream with them?

[Susan151]

@Sarah977 

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@Susan151 So you don't see "This guest is recommended by 4 hosts" under the guest's profile photo to the left of your message stream with them?

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No. I don't. Other hosts I know have had this data point for almost a year, but some like me, don't have it at all.

[Sandra126]

@Marilyn43, don't be too hasty. This is a new thing, for hosts to tick if we recommend or not. So you can have a guest who stayed in 9 places, 5 of those before this system began. They will only be recommended by 4 hosts.

[Sarah977]

@Sandra126  A new thing since when? I always thought the thumbs up/thumbs down was the recommendation. It says "Would you recommend this guest?" right above it. And that's been there since I started hosting over 2 years ago.

[Marilyn43]

Yes, Sarah you're right and sorry Sandra but you're not. I've been hosting for almost 4 years and that thumbs up or down has been there for ALL of that time.

[Sandra126]

@Sarah977, @Marilyn43, Has not been there for my whole time of hosting, sorry! This is actually one of my old Host Voice suggestions, took them a couple of years to implement. I am glad they did. I used to manually write ''recommend to any future hosts'', actually I still do (sort of on autopilot) because there was no such button. Believe me.

[Sarah977]

@Sandra126 It isn't a botton, it's just the thumbs up/thumbs down. You haven't always had that option?

[Sandra126]

Just something to click on, no actual button. It used to just say: Is there anything you want to tell Airbb about this guest'' or some such. Now it is thumbs up or down.

[Ben551]

Just checked and None of my guests show the “This guest is recommended by x hosts” tag under their picture to the left of the message chain. Maybe it hasn’t been fully enabled for NZ and Aus?

[Marilyn43]

Hi Ben

@Ben551It should be above the list of Reviews.

[Ben551]

@Marilyn43thanks, though I just checked again and it's not there.  Not for any guest, and I have ones with a lot of reviews.... strange.  I even did a Ctrl+F to search for the word "recommended" anywhere on the pages... it's not there.