Review rules : changed?

Ben551
Level 10
Wellington, New Zealand

Review rules : changed?

Greetings all ~

 

A question came up in one of the Facebook Airbnb groups I’m in and I didn’t know the answer.

 

Recently, folks noticed a very subtle difference in the wording of the How do Reviews Work page.  They don’t believe it was like this before, though I couldn’t say.

 

Quoting part of a post:

I noticed that the wording has changed .... https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/13/how-do-reviews-work "You have 14 days after checkout to write a review for a trip. Reviews will be posted once both the host and guest complete a review." .... It used to specifically say that a review would be posted after 14 days even if the other party had not reciprocated.”

 

So I had a quick look at what it told me at the end of a review I gave today:

9B79BE04-726E-4164-B7B6-23BD97A47C18.png

 

 

Noticing it doesn’t say “or after 14 days” on the splash screen. Did it before?

 

The Facebook community are fairly confident this is different than it was before and has been changed very recently. If it is, then the consequences are significant for the review system.

 

Thoughts? Conspiracy theory or actual change?

 

 

Edit: holy crap, I just had a thought... is it possible they are implementing some, or part, of the changes recommended in this other post?? 😮 Doubtful... right? 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Making-reviews-more-fair-for-hosts/bc-p/959758/hi...

85 Replies 85
Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Ben551  @Rebecca181  @Ben551 @Ann72 @Emiel1 

 

is this new as well?

 

Group reviews

If a reservation has more than one confirmed guest, the host's review will appear on all of the guests' profiles.

@Branka-and-Silvia0 It’s been that way for as long as I’ve been hosting, albeit that isn’t long. Is that not how it worked before? I have always found it confusing.

 

I have a guest who booked for next month who had a bunch of reviews on her profile calling her a man’s name. At first I thought her account had been recycled or sold... then I realised they were all reviews her husband had received, where she was a member of the group.

@Ben551 

I have no idea, never checked 🙂

@Branka-and-Silvia0 I've seen that for awhile, too.  Corollary to that:  one person books for a group, adds the others, but none of them have pictures.  Grr.

@Branka0 & Silva - Perhaps this is the residue of the now-defunct 'Group Pay / Group Stay' catastrophe?

I’ve seen this in my own research @Branca5  and Silvia, but it can only happen if the other guests are registered and also have airbnb profiles.

"Shared reviews" have been around for quite some time. In common with the now defunct split-payments feature, its primary objective was/is to accelerate the number of new sign-ups to the site, through requiring each participating guest to register as an Airbnb member. Gotta keep those figures sky-rocketing in preparation for the IPO bonanza! 

 

And of course, it all adds yet another layer of perplexity and obfuscation to the platform. Nothing Airbnb loves more than a bit of chaos and confusion. 

Suzanne302
Level 10
Wilmington, NC

@Rebecca181 

 

Exactly what I came to say! Why the duck (replace that d with an f) does ABB not lay out it's practices and/or changes? Why do we have to speculate at all? What's the mystery?

 

If the company makes changes they should make announcements to hosts. It's simple really. Whenever an app on my phone is updated I get a nice little list of all the "improvements" they've made with the latest update. No reason ABB can't do the same.

 

That is IF, this change is actually taking place. I hope it's just a change in wording. It wouldn't make sense not to publish reviews. Hosts who think they will be reviewed badly will simply abstain from reviewing and vice versa. That type of system doesn't help anyone, guest or host.

@Suzanne302 I like "why the duck"!  🙂

 

Airbnb has introduced an updates page here:  https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/bg-p/blog-en

 


There's an article about "Making Reviews More Fair to Hosts."  But, as is true with most of their communications, it's vague and opaque.  We have to be very good at reading between the lines.  😞

@Suzanne302 @Ann72 

It's quite simple, really... 

 

"Truth arises more readily from error, than from confusion" ~ Francis Bacon

@Susan17 Great quote - I'm keeping that one!

@Suzanne0 The entire platform seems to be in a constant state of 'beta testing' - Nothing stays the same for more than a few hours, it seems. Every day I'd have to check to see what's been changed that effected my listing and then try and fix it so that I wouldn't be negatively affected. I do not have to do this on any of the other booking sites I use. Airbnb is like a big dysfunctional family system where the 'rules' change constantly and our role as hosts is to be seen and not heard (although this CC here creates the illusion that are voices actually count). 

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Susan17   Fascinating information. And infuriating. Explains so much, if not all, of why Airbnb operates the way it does.

Robyn226
Level 2
Toronto, Canada

How can we raise this as an issue to Airbnb? I posted a review after a guest left it a complete mess. I didn’t receive notice that they wrote me a review but I got an angry text message saying they were now going to leave me a bad review. This is not right and will cause many issues. 

Alon1
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Robyn226 

 

Make sure to take a screen-shot of Guest 'angry text message' with threat of 'bad review'. 

If it materlaiizes, send copy of text msg to Airbnb and they should delete the Review as it violates their 'Content Policy'.