Review System Needs To Be Revised

[Rebecca181]

New standards for hosts are coming into play this year. Unless I am misunderstanding something, all hosts must maintain at least a 4.7 overall performance rating to remain on the AIrbnb platform. Super Hosts must maintain a 4.8 overall performance rating. Ratings will be based on the lifetime performance of the host (please correct me if I am wrong on this).

Those of us who have looked closely at the new method of rating our 'performance' believe it will result in many excellent, conscientious, well-reviewed hosts receiving warnings about their performance, including threats of having their listing deactivated; Super Hosts may lose their Super Host status. This should be a concern not only to all of us Hosts, but also to Airbnb Guests and Airbnb Corporate (the entire Community, really) for the following reasons:

1) Hosts will feel even more uncertain about how to intervene when guests are breaking House Rules, fearing a retaliatory review.

2)  Hosts will feel even less confident about enabling Instant Booking, as one poorly behaved guest could torpedo their ratings with an unfair / retaliatory review as 'Overall Experience' ratings appear to be calculated via a bell curve methodology versus a weighted average.

3) Competent, experienced, well-performing hosts may be driven out of the system / have their listings deactivated due to unfair reviews - Even one unfair / retaliatory review could cause untold damage to a host's business and reputation; in fact, it appears their listing could actually be de-activated if their rating is brought down below 4.7, even from just one review.

4) Super Hosts may lose their hard-earned Super Host status due to an unfair, retaliatory review.

5) Guests who cancelled are for some inexplicable reason allowed to leave reviews. So someone who never stayed in our listing could give a  host a 4 star or less 'Overall Experience' rating and our listing could be negatively impacted - Perhaps drastically.

6) From what I heard from Hosts who also travel through Airbnb as guests, when guests receive the prompt to review their stay, and their host, they are led to believe that a 4 Star rating is 'Good'; a 5 Star rating is 'Fantastic'. The truth of the matter is, a 4 Star rating is not 'Good' for us hosts at all, and can negatively impact our stats, our status, and our listing.

7) Hosts that have longevity on Airbnb will be unfairly penalized when the Overall Performance rating is determined by his or her lifetime statistics because a bell curve methodology is being used, versus a weighted average. Some hosts who have been listed on Airbnb for years are even discussing the need to delete their listing and all of their hard-earned reviews so that they can start over again with a clean slate. Also, new listings / new hosts sometimes need a learning period; they should not be forever penalized by ratings they incurred when just starting out. 

The other issue is that Airbnb seemingly is becoming more and more guest-centric - to the point where Hosts / Super Hosts fear retaliatory guest behaviors, including 'bad' reviews, for simply doing things like enforcing their House Rules or pointing out House Rules that were clearly stated in their listing, but the guest did not read. Also, guests who may have violated House Rules intentionally and blatantly are still allowed to leave reviews, which is of particular concern if the Host had to intervene when a guest was obviously breaking a rule. Sometimes these unfair / malicious / retaliatory reviews destroy a host's stats and can cause them to receive warnings that they need to 'improve' etc, or even cause a high-performing host to lose their Super Host status. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on all of this before putting this out on Host Voice - Particularly if I am not understanding the new rating system being rolled out in July.  I actually hope that I am grossly misunderstanding something - Maybe it is not as dire as I currently believe! My initial suggestion is that a weighted average be used, not a bell curve, and all sub-categories be factored into the 'Overall Experience (aka 'Performance') rating (currently they are not - I confirmed this with an Airbnb customer support rep and his manager);  I'd love to get suggestions from all of you to incorporate into my eventual 'Host Voice' post (unless another host beats me to it!)

[Rebecca181]

@Branka & Silvia (can't tag you for some reason) @Matthew285 As I said before, this new system Airbnb cooked up will turn most all hosts, including Super Hosts, into Sisyphus, forever rolling the stone uphill for all of Eternity. Exhausting, depleting, demoralizing, and defenitely demotivating. Meaning, if AIrbnb hopes to motivate Hosts and Super Hosts to 'go beyond' for our guests, this new system will work against that goal.

Most hosts will end up having to do what I did if they choose to remain on the platform: Stop caring about reviews because it takes all of the joy out of hosting and causes me to nearly resent my guests and/or behave in codependent ways ("gotta get those five stars out of them!"); keep doing all the same things I have been doing to ensure the guest has a wonderful stay because that's just the kind of person I am (I care about quality and treating people well); and realize I could lose my Super Host status and even be de-listed because of one or more less-than-five-star-reviews that will not have been deserved (I have already received one retaliatory review but I could prove it and Airbnb did remove it, which I appreciated - But not every host has been so fortunate). 

It is my hope that Airbnb will rethink this entire review and rating process and create a fair review system that genuinely supports ALL competent Hosts and Super Hosts so that we can genuinely THRIVE AIrbnb platform motivated by passion, security, and joy; not just SURVIVE on the platform, motivated by fear, insecurity, and anxiety.

[Ute42]

Hi Branka and Silvia,

I am not familiar with croatian mathematics, in Germany we are using this method:

5,00	=	100,00	%
2,50	=	50,00	%
3,00	=	60,00	%
4,00	=	80,00	%
4,70	=	94,00	%
4,80	=	96,00	%

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Ute0 I understand , but here is what I have on my Progress page. Airbnb obviously use different math then you do

[Ute42]

Dear @Branka0 and Silvia, thank You for posting a screenshot of Your rating situation. Maybe this following example will shed a light on the confusion that You have.

A host has 10 reviews:

5+5+5+5+5+5+5+5+3+4 = 47 devided by 10 = 4.7* average rating.

1. The maximum average rating would be 5.0* = 100% if this host had nothing but 5* reviews. But this host only achieved an average rating of 4.7* = 94% due to one 3* and one 4* review.

2. This host has eight 5* reviews out of 10. Thus he has 80% 5* reviews.
   
   

--------------

Pls look at Your personal rating status closely. It says: ( 90% 5 star reviews). It does not say: With Your average rating of 4.7 You have reached 90% of the maximum possible 100% which would be 5* reviews only. You are getting confused by 2 completely different values.

[Ute42]

@Branka-and-Silvia0

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[Branka-and-Silvia0]

Tnx for the explanation @Ute42 , you are right, I confused % of 5* ratings with an average rating 🙂

So, what are the new roules? 4,8 or more and you are superhost and 4,7 or less and you are history?

[Ute42]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 @Rebecca181

Dear Branka & Silvia , these are the new rules for being a superhost:

You are correct. If Your rating falls below 4.8* average, You're out.

If You have 18 consecutive 5 star reviews in a row and You get one single 1* review, Your new average will be 4,79* and You've lost Your superhost status.

If You have 17 consecutive 5 star reviewes in a row and You get one single 1* review, Your new average will be 4.53 and You will get a warning from airbnb or Your listing may be suspended. You have hosted 17 guests that were 100% happy and You're fired.

Cool, isn't it?

[Ute42]

Branka & Silvia

...

[Ange2]

@Branka & Silvia "It means one retaliation review or guest mistake can put you out of bussines"

that is so completely crazy unless hosts are no longer the people you care about encouraging and keeping happy because you have a glut of them.  Really, what is the point of even bothering to improve or as mentioned by @Rebecca181  take on this Sisyphian task, if just one review out of many can destroy a listing, and/or it takes months or longer and demands perfect scores to claw back a 4.7 or 4.8.

Airb could add additional factors to the star equation rating, for example:  longevity, consistency in performance, and reward every five or so 5-star reviews with extra points so the one bad rating gets washed out and the host maintains an average that doesn't get them kicked off or penalized.  The fact that the hosts contribution: longevity, consistency, majority 5 stars etc. is not a factor and nothing to do with host's rating, and yet acceptance rate and % of reviews is, is very telling.

Seems to me that the stars are essentially for internal purposes anyway, few guests understand them, Airbnb make no effort to explain their import to guests, and they make no sense in relation to the way hotel stars are perceived.  Uber is the only close comparison for understanding how they work, and they use it in the same way as Airb as a tool for elimination or elevation of the people who provide the product they sell on their platform.

[Rebecca181]

@Ute42 @Fred13 @Branka-and-Silvia0 Do any of you know whether or not Airbnb has a board, and, on this board, is there an actual HOST who can talk some sense into these people?

[Sarah977]

OMG @Rebecca181  what a novel idea, to actually have a host (or even 2!) in on the decision making process. As usual, you are far too logical.

[Rebecca181]

@Sarah977 Well, it just makes sense. We traditional-type hosts are grossly under-represented at this point, given the big hoopla about 'Plus' and 'Beyond' and other Star Trekian-type programs. The Suits brought in to do this IPO thing need a big whopping does of reality. For example, they need to be told that there will be very few hosts left by this September if they don't revise the review system, STAT. I know, I'm a one-note Janey, but there are worse things to be!

[Ute42]

@Rebecca181 @Fred13 @Sarah977 
@Branka & Silvia

Dear Rebecca,

airbnb right now is a privatly financed company and not listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Investement companies provided airbnb with a couple of billions USD to run the Company over the course of the last 10 years. Airbnb does have a board of directors, but these board members are not hosts and will never be hosts, board members are people that are in close relationship with said investment companies. Their focus is on profit, nothing else.

Board members do not run the company and make no decision on the requirements of being a superhost, such decisions are made by management. My husband recently wrote a message to a board member of one of the big vacation rental platforms and he got the answer back: „As a board member of the majority shareholder of XXX, I cannot discuss pricing models with you. I'm sure you understand that management of the company must at all times speak for the company“.

Somewhen in the (near) future airbnb will go public, this ist called an IPO (Initial Public Offering) and airbnb stocks will then be available for trade at the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange). On this very day of the IPO, said investement companies will make a lot of money, we don't talk about millions, we are talking billions. And the better the companies financial figures in the year prior to the IPO are, the more money they will make.

This is the reason why airbnb is now bringing in hotels, vacation rental agencies and why they are pushing so hard on the hosts to improve the hosting performance. Because the more satisfied the guest are with their stay, the more they will come back and rent again.

You, dear Rebecca, may be under the impression that airbnb has not well thought about the consequences that the new Superhost requirements for hosts will have, but they did think about it. They know exactly what the consequences are, they are doing this on purpose to bring up the hosting performance by setting almost unachievable goals for being a superhost and thus bring up the companies value for the IPO: We have the best hosts that go above and beyond, we provide the best rental experience for the guests, we have the lowest prices, the largest inventory and we are the best company of all and that's why our stocks will be expensive at the IPO.

It's not about host satisvaction, about loyalty or any of these old fashioned values, it's about money.

[Rebecca181]

@Ute42 Good, succinct summary of the current realities that plague us. I worked in Silicon Valley during the 'boom' years and worked with many boards of many 'hot' start-up companies; as well as the heads of the companies (e.g., I knew Google when they had six people). And I therefore am aware of all you share, above. It is good that others here are also aware of all you describe.

We are promoted as a community. The board that will be created during and following the IPO needs to understand the business and the community or they cannot make wise decisions. The founders have an opportunity to uphold their own self-professed values. Maybe they will surprise us. In a good way. Versus what is happening currently, (e.g., "SURPRISE! You've had a zillion five star revews and ecstatic guests, but some whacko just gave you a one star review and you are not only no longer a super host - You fell below 4.7 and are no longer on our platform!!!")

[Sarah977]

@Ute42   I totally get this, it's not at all surprising information. But there's a crucial missing part to this corporate thinking- if they create rules and rating systems which make it barely attainable for hosts to remain on the platform, and they lose a ton of hosts because of it, the guests using the platform will dwindle as well. I don't believe most people look for accomodation through airbnb because they want a "Plus" type listing- modern and generic. If they did, they could just book a hotel room. There are millions of users who are looking for the kind of accomodation that small hosts offer- when that is gone, those guests will also be gone, along with their booking fees.