Much of what Hosts experience are because other Hosts don't review Guests!

[Jann3]

I'm on my 5th Guest's stay...and my 20th applicant (for a future stay).

I have a complaint against the AirBnB Hosts: Over 3/4 of these Guests have stayed at properties, have profiles 2-4 years old, are "verified" -- and yet have NO reviews!

My complaint stems from the need for Hosts to investigate people; Investigate whether they're good Guests, left Host's properties intact, or perhaps caused damage at other Host's properties. This can never be known/inferred when PRIOR Hosts don't review the Guests! In two recent cases (I still rented to them) Guests have actually wanted to show me they DID make reservations and stayed at previous locations, they actually SHOW me the approved request for their prior stays were in their profile name! (ie: they didn't use another profile to rent...) Some Guests have opened their app, showed the reservation with me (so i knew it was the same profile) then scrolled back to previous stays...so I knew those Hosts should've reviewed them!

There's no excuse for every single Guest NOT to be reviewed by Hosts! It's part of doing business on AirBnB people! You may think it takes time...and it does, but it helps us all! AT LEAST do the thumbs up/down, and star rating. You can put a couple words in the review if you wish (good Guest, etc) but at least star-rate them!

End of rant! Thank you!

[Lisa515]

@Momi0 You rock. Generally people have said "this is my first foray into Airbnb" but I will confirm that next time someone does not have any reviews. Definitely worth the effort. 

[Momi0]

@Lisa515  aaawww Lisa, I just love it when someone says I rock....because I live on a rock! LOL!  Makes me laugh bc I want to be ONE with my hawaiian culture and if that means  "I Rock" then even better! hahaha.  

One thing to note:  I have actually been mocked, laughed at, and bullied by other hosts who thought my questions were invasive, rude, unecessary, ridiculous, and some even wrote that they would run 100 miles away from me if they ever tried to book with me if and when they got my REQUIRED questions.  Do I care?  Absolutely not.  Because I will do anthing and everything to protect my home, my family and my sanity!    (btw:  I have hosted 4 Airbnb hosts AND an Executive from Airbnb headquarters who all gave me 6 Stars)

Example of a question:  Do you like Cats and dogs?  (this tells me real quick if they read my listing or looked at my pics bc some will write back and say, WHOA I AM ALLERGIC TO CATS....YOU HAVE CATS?!?  Racer our cat is the 4th photo....duh!!!  

Funny thing is, more and more hosts are now using my system of sending a copy and paste job of Set questions to "newbies" or "Airbnb'ers" to answer to make sure they are the right fit.  Even if I get someone who has ONE review of 5 Stars, they are still required to answer my questions, because I have learned one very important thing in the last 26 months of hosting....

1.  Some Hosts do not write honest reviews.

2.  Some Hosts have admitted on this CC that they do NOT write honest reviews.

3.  Some Hosts are too lazy to write reviews.

4.  Some people get 5* reviews from their friends so they can use IB. (that's fraudulent)

5.  Some hosts will only write 3 words in their reviews but expect me to "read between the lines".  

6. Some hosts don't even meet their guests, but write fabulous reviews thinking they will get one in return only to discover that their home was damaged after the reviews were written and posted.  And wished they had waited to write their review.  Sorry, no do-overs!

So if I send someone 5-10 questions to make sure they are the right fit, so be it.  (trust me when I say their answers tell me alot).  I have declined based on people's answers.  Dodged a bullet with one very specific potential booking as they turned out to be a bad guests with another host.  Wasn't too hard to figure out where they ended up staying.  Its a small island. lol  - police ended up being called. 

My most recent guests (also a lawyer)  asked me if my questions were some kind of test, and I said "of course it is, and you passed which is why you and boyfriend are being hosted and spoiled rotten!  We all laughed!  And then we enjoyed a couple of Momi's Marvelous Mango Margaritas after dinner. 🙂

They were 5 Star guests plus plus!  (they even got me a yummy bottle of wine that had a label with my name MOMI on it....loved it!

[Peggy-And-Mike0]

@Nancy0has some great tips as I also get mostly newbies to Airbnb, and they don't realize sometimes they will be reviewed....her "butt clinch" moment is so true!  What I also do, a tip I picked up here months ago, is once the guests check out I send a message thanking them for their stay and alerting them that a message prompt for their review is coming.  If i already know how I'll rate them, I'll let them know they were five-star guests.  I repeat Nancy's comments about why it benefits them to get a positive review and then ask them for feedback, either via the public or private message feature (so they know if there was something they wanted to share, there is a private way to send it.)  I also tell them I will act upon their feedback.  It works like a charm.  I've gotten some really great tips from my guests via private message, especially from my first guests.  We have made changes/additions as a result so it's made us better hosts.    

[Andrew458]

I write a review on every guest. My standards for a five star review

1. Were they quiet?

2. Was anything damaged?

3. Did they seem to be toilet trained?

If yes to all, they are five stars.

To date, we have had all five star guests. 

Andrew

[Momi0]

@Andrew458  your post totally cracked me up!  LOL!!!  Thanks for sharing that.  So does that mean you give one less star for those guests who leave urine on the seats, covers and floors?  What about #2?  I had a guests who dropped dried flakes of #2 from his underwear all over the bathroom floor which was left there for 9 hours.   Apparently he had been wearing the same underwear for 3 or 4 days according to him, yuck double yuck........was my 3 Stars in his review appropriate then under category "Cleanliness?  LOL!!!!

Thanks again for the laugh out loud moment in my living room. 

[Lynne2]

I think that you may be preaching to the converted here.  People host for many different reasons.  Many of us do see it as a business, and each aspect is approached as professionally as possible.  But there are also many, many hosts out there who are just doing it as a little side-line.  Their properties may be wonderful, but they are not overly dependent on the income.  These could be the hosts not leaving reviews...and they may be unlikely to visit the forums to improve their business.  I leave reviews for all my guests and have a fairly high review rate.  I don't ever nag for reviews, but I do keep in contact with my guests.  I do agree, though, that hosts owe it to other hosts to write reviews.

[Lisa367]

That's because it's possible that the guest hasn't actually completed any trips.  They might have signed up for AIrbnb years ago, but never used it.  In addition, most hosts won't leave reviews for guests if the guests don't leave reviews for them.  It's a waste of a hosts time, honestly.  There's also another thing you could do... there's a setting in Airbnb that doesn't allow people to book unless they are verified AND have at least one positive review.  If it really bothers you that much, I'd turn that feature on.  However, if you're using instant book anyway, there's really no way to control who books your room... and we have had people stay with us that are just awful and I know they were awful at other host's houses as well and, of course, the host left them a positive review.  What Airbnb should do if they really want to make airbnb more of a community is allow for something called a "private host feedback" meaning feedback that only other hosts will see.   Like "Great guests but they always leave the windows open so you'll have to remind them to close them."  Things like that.

[Nancy67]

@Lisa367. 

Yes you can set a criteria for a guest being previously postivly reviewed  to book, however with instant book on, it populates in the algorithm of your listing to not  allow a non reviewed guest to see your property or book. 

I haven't been able to get anyone at ABNB corp  to give me stats on what the % of hosts require a previous review. It's not part of our c riteria- we take everyone and do our best

to educate them on the  importance of the review process and being a good guest. We also stay super busy that way. I suppose one has to consider that by accepting only guests who have at least 1 positive review and the volume of people coming into the culture- how many people you are  not booking because of this ? 

[Lisa515]

@Nancy67  hmm, I have IB on and still have folks requesting to book with me with no previous reviews.  They're managing to find me so I wonder if Airbnb has straightened that out.  

Can I just say there are soooo many little programming glitches within their website that it's almost comical.  I keep telling my daughter she should work for them (actually she was going to interview with them but then got shut down after taking a pre test or something - that's okay, she's going to Microsoft instead) bc SOMEONE needs to fix their problems.  Things like I had a base price set previously and have since increased my base price but now when I unblock future dates, I have to manually change the base price bc it can't do it. My YTD earnings were all jacked too and not even close to accurate.  And related to IB, I have my criteria set to a previous positive review and Govt ID but still get people booking with just "ID verified" which isn't the same.  I called about that once and they said they do in depth ID verifiication -- yeah, like making sure your Facebook account is same as your name on Airbnb, like that means anything.  Seriously, who are their programming people? They suck.  

[Nancy67]

Govt issues ID and ID verification are indeed different-- however with regard to the US- not all states issue ID yet that are Govt verified. My State is one of them. By next year you will have to get the new DL to comply with the airlines or not be able to board. Some people have accounts they created but never activated before Govt ID was a requirement. There are a million scenerios   In any case the algorithm should weed out anyone who doesn't meet your personal criteria. I have From day one taken one nighters and anyone who asks and the issues have been less than can be counted on one hand. 

[Lisa515]

@Nancy67. I'm in Michigan and we have the same DL scenario. However this is still govt ID as it's issued by the state. That's all I expect when it says Govt ID. If I check the box for Govt ID, I expect that criteria to be met regardless when they created their account. There's obviously a differentiation according to Airbnb or they wouldn't classify IDs differently, don't ya think? 

[Nancy67]

@Lisa515. Not sure. Perhaps Passport or Govt ID that is issued by the passport office to get into Fed buildings? Some States issue Govt ID? Not sure. I have all of the above.  It sure what else there is-- anyone else? Bueler? Bueler? 

[Nancy67]

@Lisa515 do you have the box checked that indicates you don't take unreviewed people? 

[Lisa515]

@Nancy67. I have the button selected that says those who have met my criteria (govt ID and positive review) can book without approval. 

[Ange2]

I have majority first time guests and 99% of the time they are great. I live here so it's easier to keep on top of things and possibly it makes them more considerate knowing I am around.  I might think differently if I were not on-site.