Reasons to leave this platform! Outside country reviews buried!

Mandrake-And-Karen0
Level 10
Silver Spring, MD

Reasons to leave this platform! Outside country reviews buried!

Ugh! It's happened again.  A guest moves to the US from another country and books a stay but the address is not yet updated to being a US address.  Guest leaves a stellar review that places our rental at the top of most desirable places to stay.  Airbnb's system buries the review lower down where it is not seen by potential US guests seeking a future stay.  Meanwhile guests from outside the country see the review at the top of the list of most current reviews.  Calls in to customer services is a waste of time because they are logging in outside the US and are seeing the "outside of US reviews" at the top.  Told they will pass along the information to a US representative who would be able to see the problem but they can't guarantee it will be a US customer service rep seeing/responding to the issue.  All the while US guests are seeing gaps in bookings/reviews because of this issue.  When we are receiving messages from Airbnb that most guests bookings are within 350 miles from our rental it is detrimental that all bookings/reviews are posting in the order of their bookings.  Airbnb lists reviews for guests regardless of where they live or book in recent order.  There is no excuse for them not to do the same for US hosts!  This is just another thing that outrages me about Airbnb host inequities and blind eye on how their practices affect our bottom lines! THEY ARE CLUELESS because they continue to get money from us and don't see our priorities as their priorities.  Sad mistake.

 

We are building our business up locally and look forward to the day, hopefully sooner rather than later, that we can leave their platform.

 

Until then we hope Airbnb will take this issue seriously and remedy the situation for all hosts.

 

Mandrake & Karen

 

 

This is why your reviews aren't showing up at the top.  They are made by guest who are searching for a rental who live outside the country where your rental is or their address may not be current and reflects an out of country address that Airbnb is responding to.

31 Replies 31
Lawrence244
Level 2
Chicago, IL

@Mandrake-And-Karen0, Have you figured out another platform that fits your needs? If not, are you open to having a direct-booking site dedicated to your rental business? 

We have our own website.  We provide direct bookings for extended stays to those who find our business through referrals, networking, Facebook and Google.