New trend. Why are Hosts not leaving reviews?

Alex1404
Level 4
Honolulu, HI

New trend. Why are Hosts not leaving reviews?

I've been using Airbnb a lot recently and always leave a review for the host and the place. I've noticed a new trend when hosts are not leaving reviews at all. Hosts message me and say that the place is left sparkling clean and thank me for your stay, but never leave any reviews.

 

I thought it was a vital part of the Airbnb experience because it helps with future rentals.  In my opinion, there should be a stricter policy in place for hosts violating the rules of reviewing. Is Airbnb doing anything to motivate or follow up with hosts that are not habitually leaving any reviews?  

143 Replies 143
Sara9349
Level 2
Saint George, Canada

I have written up reviews but Air BNB keeps prompting me to write a review. I don't know if they are being posted or not, the guests have left reviews but I'm not sure if it's a glitch in airbnb's system.

 

Here is my favorite:  (We are in Miami).   Guest not happy,  you get a low rating.  That is IMMEDIATELY followed by an automatic AirBnb message threatening you to temporarily shut you down.  I have more 5 star reviews than bad ones.  I find this AirBnb practice disrespectful to hosts to send threatening message.  Also I found many threads of hosts complaining,  but those threads get closed too so nobody can reply.  I am fairly new to AirBnb, and frankly hosts are treated poorly.  Airbnb is the only platform threatening hosts.  Also my other favorite: a guest complains,  sends a photo.   It could be made up like we experienced. AirBnb is the judge and jury.  No calls of course, just a message telling us guest getting a refund.   Pathetic I may say.  And since AirBnb created this,  we have guests trying to pull that stunt often to get their vacation subsidized.  Now I speak to my friends,  it is the consensus.  Not the only one. That's because AirBnb does not care much about their hosts.  So those specific guests probably do this regularly.  Not their first rodeo.  

Zheng49
Level 10
Toronto, Canada

I don't leave reviews typically unless the guest is deserving of a 5 star review, and i know they will also give me 5 star review.

 

Otherwise, I prefer to settle all matters through messaging. 

Nigam0
Level 1
Chicago, IL

@Alex1404 I think a lot of hosts are automating the guest experience using systems like Lodgify and Hospitable. 

 

Therefore they are much more passive instead of leaving reviews. 

 

I personally have automated my reviews on Hospitable so that every guests gets a review. 

I don't know if a lot of hosts are using hospitable or etc to automate the system, but I'm not sure I would want to leave every guest a review. That seems like a sure fire way to backfire for me.

 

As is, I do get a lot of guests that leave me 5 star reviews, and also some that would leave me a 4* review since they don't know how the review system works or the stay was less than perfect.

 

The thing is though, I no longer want to educate guests on the airbnb review system since it could be considered as review fishing. 

 

Another thing is, I guess hosts that VET their guests using the 'accept/deny reservation' process can possibly afford to review almost every single guest, since they can somewhat control what guests they are getting. For my listings with instant booking turned on, there is no way to control that. UNLESS they have instant booking turned on, and accept every single guest, then I could not take their opinion at face value and do the same thing they're doing since fundamentally it's not the same at all. 

Emiel1
Level 10
Leeuwarden, The Netherlands

@Alex1404,

As a host i can tell you Airbnb is not doing much to press hosts to leave a review. It's just the message to write a review and one or two reminders. But when not leaving a review nothing is communicated from Airbnb. I sometimes do not leave a review. Reasons are: simply forgotten, not knowing what to write, guest did not write a review etc..

Best regards,

Emiel

When things go "smoothly", there is little I can say that is meaningful.

 

How do I delete my great review for a host that did not leave me a review? Feel cheated.

@Jan10405  Cheated? You paid for a place to stay and apparently it was a nice stay if you wrote a great review. Reviews are not meant to be tit for tat. Some hosts and some guests fail to leave reviews. That is their choice, it isn't required. (I do review all my guests, though)

 

Rescinding your review just because the other party didn't leave one seems childish and vindictive.

 

Your review as a guest is meant to let future guests know of your experience at a listing. If your review was honest, there is no reason to remove it. 

 

The review isn't just for the host's benefit, you are informing your fellow guests of what to expect.

 

You never know what is going on in a person's life. If a guest didn't leave a review for me, I have no way of knowing if they just got diagnosed with cancer, or their mom died, and writing a review is the last thing on their minds, if they're on a camping with no Wifi signal,  if they just didn't get around to it on time, or if they just don't bother to leave reviews.

 

If you want hosts to leave you a review, there's nothing wrong with telling them you'd really appreciate it when you check out, or sending them a message to that effect afterwards. That may prompt them to do so if they aren't otherwise inclined to.

 

I could understand you being upset if you had no reviews yet, and wanted other hosts to see a good one so you wouldn't have trouble being accepted in the future. But you have 25 good reviews as a guest! You don't "need" this one review. Let it go, it's no big deal.

 

 

You're right. We don't have to give each other reviews.  

 

@Jan10405  If you want to make sure to book with hosts who will leave you a review, just click on the host's profile photo, which takes you to the host's profile page, where all their reviews will be listed. If you then click on one of the reviewing guest's photos, you'll be on the guest's profile page. Scroll down to see if that host left them a review.

 

If you do this for 4 or 5 of their guest reviews, and see they reviewed no one, you'll know that host doesn't bother themselves to leave reviews and know not to book with them if it's important to you.

 

The other thing is that we are living in a review crazy culture, where people are asked to review everything from their haircut to the place that changed their tires to the cafe they stopped into for 20 minutes for a coffee and a piece of pie.  While reviews for accomodations and guest behavior are pretty important, some folks are just sick of the whole review culture, and choose not to participate in it. Lots of hosts may only get a low % of their guests leaving reviews, even if the host always reviews- who knows why the guests don't bother.

As a new guest I’d consider reviews important from the hosts. I took the time to write a (good) review for my host. It was an honest review of course and I was happy to do it.  The discussions seem a little one-sided. Both parties to the transaction are benefiting.

 

My first stay was a freshman mistake, a host that has had “run ins” with previous guests and has berated them on this app . I did not see those reviews before my stay.  Fortunately, I did not engage in back-and-forth with her so things ended peacefully and safely. The host did however “get me back” for contacting Airbnb for guidance (not to refuse it but only for guidance) in her review  when I asked for clarity around her extra charges for a mandatory $160 cleaning fee (NOT in the listing). I had already paid a cleaning fee upfront. I was only 10 days into the <month stay and she informed me that ALL guests MUST pay it, regardless of how tidy you are.  Within the span of less than 2 days ( while I was working with Airbnb), she sent me several messages through the app, called and texted my private cell phone number complaining about how little money she gets from hosting and saying that she would kick me out if I didn’t pay up . I told her that our communication will only take place over the Airbnb platform, as they suggest  The host called the extra fees a house rule.  In her review, the host said that her cleaning team noted that I took the best care of her property and was cleaner than of any guest she’s ever had  but then the added a comment that I sometimes have a “problem” with following the house rules and with communication.  This was not an honest assessment, and I believe that she tried to  ruin my reputation because I asked Airbnb about the sudden extra charges. 

I sympathize with hosts having bad experiences/bad guests  but I wanted to point out that this is a two-way street and unfortunately sometimes hosts are not great as well. It seems as though it should be fairly straightforward if everyone is respectful 

Just to clarify, the positive review that I wrote was for my last host not my first one. 

I'm a new host and I've just had my first guests. I'm trying to leave a  (positive) review, but I'm being told that I don't have access to that page! I can't seem to get any help on this.

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Afric1

Hello Afric and welcome to the hosting community.

The procedure for reviewing is...... 24 hours after the scheduled end of the stay you will recieve and email or a messsge on the phone app to write a review. The reason for this delay is that Airbnb want the reviews to be written independantly of each other....they do not want collusion between the guest and the host in the writing of the review!

From the time of that prompt you will have 14 days to submit a review and the guest has the same amount of time. When both the host and the guests reviews are received by Airbnb they will become public on each others review page. Once that has happened you will each be offered the opportunity to leave a public review response to each others review!

 

Wait a bit longer Afric, that review prompt will come.

 

Cheers.......Rob