Property Management Guest Reviews are a Problem

[Tim-and-Holly0]

I have yet to see a property management company leave a guest a bad review which causes serious problems for private hosts. First, bad guests are not pointed out in the review process which leaves private hosts who rely on guest's reviews vulnerable when making a hosting decision. Secondly, it "pads" the guest's star ratings and keeps the ratings high enough so that Airbnb's automated system does not flag the guest for an internal audit. 

Let me illustrate. Guest #1 has seven reviews; four are private homeowners, one host who appears dubious himself, and two property management companies. The four private owners all wrote very bad reviews mentioning property damage, safety issues and rule violations. The dubious owner wrote, "Great." However, the property management companies left rave reviews.

Guest #2 has four reviews, two are private and two are management companies. Of the private reviews, one is poor and one is good. The two management companies wrote great reviews. This guest's stay with us ended when the police were called and it was obvious he had acted in similar manner at previous bookings but his reviews did not reflect his true actions.

This is just two recent illustrations of how property management company's reviews can hurt private owners. These companies should be reminded that Airbnb terms of service state,"10.2 Ratings and Reviews by Guests and Hosts must be accurate."

[Sarah977]

@Tim-and-Holly0  That's why I cross-reference reviews- if I see the host is a property management company, or some co-host with a ton of properties, I would totally discount those reviews. It's not that hard to pick out the suspicious ones to check- as you say, they normally say nothing more than "Great" or "Nice guests".

[Tim-and-Holly0]

@Sarah977:
Cross-referencing does not solve the problem of skewed star ratings that prevent the guest from receiving an internal audit that would remove them from the platform.

In the case of Guest #2, proper reviews would have provided a clear picture of past history and given me the grounds I needed to contact Airbnb and cancel his instant book. With good reviews there was no basis.

[Kelly149]

@Tim-and-Holly0 yep, this is why I disagree with hosts that say 'guest reviews tell me what I can expect from my guests'.... the abb review system is quite often smoke and mirrors

I'm sorry you got a bad egg

(btw, CS has told me that only a consistent 1* review status is enough to keep a guest from IB, so your premise is quite accurate)