More and more complications

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

More and more complications

I love Airbnb but, I just don't know how much more of this useless 'tinkering' I can stand!

I have just about had enough!

 

Two fairly major changes have taken place recently that do not make sense on any level.

 

1/... The host review page:

 

Here is what we used to have until a couple of weeks ago.........

old review  1a.png

Write a review, give em some feedback, rate them in 3 categories and give them a thumbs up/down and submit it....all on the one page.

There was a certain logic to it. But I guess the powers that be thought....'Why should guests have all the review pain, lets give hosts a bit of curry too'!!

How best to achieve that........ like this of course......

 

New review process for hosts 1.png

 

It achieves precisely the same thing but it is now spread out over 6 pages. What person in full control of their faculties would consider that this is a warranted improvement.

There are so many glaring problems with the platform that have been ignored for years despite repeated calls, and all they can set the R&D department to do is come up with bleep like this and bugger up something that did at least work ok!!

 

2/.... Guest Resources:

This alteration is just plain insulting and is already the cause of complaints here on the CC.

There is a spot on each hosts listing page where we put in the specific details that we want a guest to know prior to their check-in.

Ironically it is still on the listing page...here it is, or was, an hour ago!

 

Guest resources..png

 

It says ..."Only visible to confirmed guests......WRONG....it's gone, guests don't get to see it at all any more. It used to be on their booking confirmation. 

But I have just booked a stay with a fellow host in August and when I do what I have always done and click ..."View Itinerary" instead of getting a statement of what I have booked with the guest resources on the left of page.......this is what I get......

Booking details 1.png

 

'Itinerary' has gone and been replaced by 'Trip Overview' and you then have to click on 'Your home reservation' and are then presented with this screen....

Booking details 3.png

 

All the guest gets is the house rules, who is staying, a stay date and the address. The guest resources have entirely disappeared and try as I might I could not find them anywhere on the booking confirmation. It simply says 'Check-in, instructions will be visible during your stay and that's it, the field is not expandable to reveal any resources....it's just general waffle about what we can do and what we can't!

 

Why on earth is this company hellbent on destroying what works and spending valuable time and resources introducing measures that don't!

 

As I said, I don't know how much more of this I will put up with. I wish to God someone would take a bit of notice and get us back where we were a couple of years ago!

 

Cheers......Rob

128 Replies 128

@Robin4 it's so frustrating when the product development team change things for absolutely no reason & makes the Airbnb platform even more cumbersome to use. They seem to deliberately ignore the K.I.S.S principle and make things more and more difficult for hosts and guests.

 

I'm surprised any of us are getting guests reviews anymore, I didn't realise how ridiculously & pointlessly lengthy the system now is until I did a guest review a couple of months ago.

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Cathie19  @Branka-and-Silvia0  @Beth80  @Jennifer1421 

@Rachel177 , the K.I.S.S. principal....Rachel, that is totally fanciful thinking.

As far as hosts are concerned this company subscribes to the K.H.U.T.A  principle....'kick hosts up the arse' principle!

Rachel, I cannot see a logical reason why either of these changes would be adopted. What is the point....

I could do a review on one page and get on with hosting, why change that one page to six.

Has any host complained about they way they review guests......we complain about the way guests have to review us but that's a different issue. What is the reasoning behind making a hosts review process more complicated? Uncle Brian......... I would like an answer?

 

What is the point in removing a booking confirmation/invoice and replacing it with attractions in the area you are proposing to visit?

Why must the keybox code, the Wifi log-on and password, the operation of the bloody Bidet, the carpark code be now hidden from confirmed guests?

 

This is really silly stuff! As I said Airbnb have been great to me and I love where they have got me. But they have not got me where I am because of stupid sh*t  like this. If this had been the way the platform operated 3 years ago, I never would have joined Airbnb........I am not a masochist!!

 

Cheers......Rob

Kevin940
Level 10
Quinns Rocks, Australia

@Robin0 @Rachel0 Air BnB Product Development Team have to find a way to keep their jobs, that's why there are nonsensicle changes.

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Robin4 

aaahh.. 95% of all their "improvements" are pointless, useless and user unfriendly...

 

when I catch some time I'll make a post (or maybe a video) about how much time is needed to make a new rule set on a calendar. And yes, from a few days ago and another stupid change (or is it a glitch?) even more time is needed! 

 

The best thing is - someone actually takes money to invent and make those stupid changes !!!

 

 

 

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

You are being way too nice~~~~~~  More like 98% 

Beth80
Level 10
State of Roraima, Brazil

@Robin4  I too do not understand why they insist on tinkering with the things that are obviously working yet ignoring the things the we the host , and their source of income, ask to be fixed. It seems more and more that they are almost deliberately killing themselves. If there was another platform available in my part of the world I would be switching. I'm quite envious of those of you that can list on multiple sites.

Cathie19
Level 10
Darwin, Australia

Good post @Robin4

Right here we have 4 X superhosts @Beth80, @Branka-and-Silvia0 feeling frustrated by this fanciful, freedom - reducing verbose review. By the time the guest gets to the end of it, (assuming they do....) they are giving hosts less positive reviews, when in fact, they are bored and fed up with Airbnb wanting a thesis from them. 

 

Example of a real scenario x 2 : If moving fast and travelling from Darwin to say Canberra by car, I will take four days +  to reach my destination. If travelling 1000kms a day. (Just under 4000kms)

The last thing I want to do after checkout and a 1000km drive, and looking at another 1000km drive, is fill in 6 pages of a superfluous and sanctimonious review. Seriously, it was an overnight stay, not a six month lease....

 

Many tourists do an eastern loop tour of Australia, or a western loop. We are talking thousands of kilometres. ( We use to do 10,000kms travelling just travelling south for family Xmas catch ups and a return home for school, across a four/ five week period.)

 

Another reality: Please start considering travellers who are sightseeing and also working their way around New Zealand and Australia, heading home via say Bali then other parts of Asia, before back to Europe.

(To compare a distance: London to Athens is about 3190kms)

 

Please Airbnb, please get your act together.

Why?

Because holiday makers and international tourists do not have the time or the inclination to pander to this silly system. It also makes you seem less than professional and the hosts are suffering with no review responses, or thumbs down, which is probably more from exhaustion from jumping through the hoops from the current review process.

 

Food for thought?

If it’s a LTR stay of 14+  days or more... go for it. Use this long winded procedure, if you must.

BUT if it is a 1-13 day STR, give everyone a break and go back to simple, one pager reviews that allows the guest the right of reply, without prompts of narrative from you. It’s not an exam...  PLEASE?

   

 

Beth80
Level 10
State of Roraima, Brazil

@Cathie19  I think Robin is talking about the 6 pages that we the hosts have to click through. And how the powers that be keep changing the way pages are set up without any regard to us as hosts. We think that the guests are still seeing certain rules and other information but when in fact the system has been changed...again. Very, very annoying.

@Jennifer1421   I use the app on my tablet, one reason being that it's set with a dual language keyboard,  and yes, there are certainly 6 pages of uselessness! This is a new change. 

The review system that the guest are asked to do is even worse.

@

 

Ugh!  Yes @Beth80 , you are absolutely correct! Thanks for pointing it out.

My bad.... I’ll do my detention now!

 

I’m just so fed up with the overall review system that is affecting hosts and guests alike. So please forgive my wobbly..... I’ll go back into my box now.

It’s not even a wibbly, wobbly, timey, wimey one. (some of you my get that reference) 

But the cumbersome nature of the reviews is in urgent need of repair..

 

As for information when booking, regarding general information and checking instructions, I’ve started to send this through myself, so I can be self reliant. I’ve got two trips coming up as a guest and have had the information independently forwarded to me, by the other two hosts as well..... so there is an issue within the system and with host confidence.

Thanks again Beth. 💐

I send through directions etc, independently as I find it forces the guest to see it straight away, and I don't trust that they will find it navigating the site, especially first timers. It is like having to resort to putting my check in times in capitals at the top of my listing after airbnb deemed it fit to infer that guests can choose a check in period. I was having a nervous breakdown with people announcing they would arrive at 10am! I am having collywobbles of the major kind and the season has just begun here, so you are not alone Cathie : )

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Rosemarie9 

Rosemarie, there is always a work around....god only knows we have to use a heap of work arounds here just to keep ourselves online and receiving guests. 

 

Yes, we can do this and that....but why should we have to? It used to be there and it worked, why isn't it still there? Why do we now have to find some other way to tell guests what they need to know, and no doubt have it sanitised if we try to do it within the company message stream because it falls outside the company's excepted timeframe!

 

I just can't understand why the company are continually kicking us in the teeth. My booking calendar is full....what am I doing wrong, I have 37 confirmed Airbnb reservations ahead of me! Isn't this something the company should be supporting me with and helping me?

 

I don't like to speak ill of the company but at the moment I think they are a bunch of ignorant, stupid sh*ts!

 

Cheers......Rob

Beth80
Level 10
State of Roraima, Brazil

@Cathie19 are you referring to Telly Tubbies? Seems familiar. 

@Robin4 

@As you guys are twelve hours ahead of me it's always interesting to read your stuff. I find out what changes to look for by reading your posts. Thank you! I've managed to catch a few bleeps in my listings thanks to you guys staying alert. The forum has been a huge help and great source of information and entertainment. 

That being said, how do we get complaints such as this actually seen and possibly addreessed by admin? I know "they" read at least some of the posts but rarely are they acted upon. Do they not understand that by upsetting the hosts they are forcing us to choose to not use their platform? @

 Dr Who. 🙃

Beth80
Level 10
State of Roraima, Brazil

@Cathie19  That makes sense. I've seen more Dr. Who than Telly Tubbies. 😁