Reviews Required To Not Lose Superhost - Rude To Ask Guests For Reviews

[Alan138]

I am starting this discussion in hopes that AirBNB management will see it and modify their Superhost qualification requirements because SO MANY of us have replied to this discusion all in agreement that they should change the requirement. SO Please reply and comment if you agree this should be changed.

I am a Superhost and quickly on my way to losing my Superhost status even though my superhost level of service has not changed one bit.

I have learned that you must maintain a certain percentage of reviews to keep your superhost status. In other words, if enough of my guests do not decide to leave a review I will end up losing my superhost status.

First, in my opinion, asking your guests to leave a reviews is EXACTLY like a waitor at a restruant asking you to leave a tip. It is just simply rude no matter how you slice and dice it.

Second, I now have 4 regular guests who come stay every week and/or 1-2 times per month. It is ridiculous for teh same one person to have to write a review 4 times a month, every month, month after month, for me to not lose my Superhost rating. To ask them to do so so I do not lose my superhost status goes beyond being rude but becomes abusive to my guest. Additionally, 4 reduntant reviews from the same guest every month, 24 of the saem reviews from the same guest in 6 months, my review panel will certainly start to look suspicious like they are made up reviews.

Third, it is well know in life that happy customers are less likely to leave a review while pissed off customers always leave a review and that is true no matter what product or service cosumers buy out there. Also many people are just people that do not spend their time to write reviews.

Requiring a superhost to make sure all of their guests write reviews to keep their superhost status is an incorrect system design that does NOT serve the guests whatsoever. Having to secure enough reviews to firts earn your superhost status is fine but once you are a superhost, percentage of guests writing reviews shoudl no longer be required.

So what do you think? Please tell AirBNB to change their system or you yourself will eventually be a superhost that no longer has a superhost rating just like me.

[Sarah977]

@Hiro15  I think it actually says that it's based on the previous 365 days in small text under the Superhost stats on the Opportunities page. I know I've seen it there- I'll check when i go there to see if it's still there or one of the things they've removed for no reason.

It's pretty sad that the Airbnb rep got something so basic incorrect. 

[Hiro15]

I looked at the "Opportunities" page again.  There is no mention "on the previous 365 days" anywhere on the page.  The only mention closest to "365 days" is "10 stays in the past year" under "Stays hosted".  My page might be different from yours because you are a Superhost and I am not .....   The fact that the customer support rep. gave me a wrong answer, which i thought did not make any sense at all, indicates that this time frame issue is not so "basic" or apparent among many people including Airbnb customer support.   

[Sarah977]

@Hiro15  Yes, I looked and I don't see it now, maybe it was never there. But if you look at the "assessment period" line, right above the stats, it becomes clear (Don't know if you can see that on the Superhost page since you aren't Superhost yet). For instance, the current one says Oct.1st, 2018- Sept.30, 2109. Clicking on the down arrow there shows the past assessment periods- the latest being July 1st, 2018- June 30th, 2019.

And there's plenty of basic info that Airbnb reps get wrong- they appear to be very poorly trained and many are simply incompetent.

[Hiro15]

Yes I see it (actually I was seeing it all along).   But since the figure I first saw on 7/1 was 28%, which was grossly off, I was not able to "connect" these rolling 12-month periods with the "Trips Reviewed" figure shown. 

I just clicked the previous 12-month period "July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019", I see 75%, and the current period, October 1, 2018 to Sept. 30, 2019, 69%.   It seems that now the software is calculating the figure correctly.   But since the current period ends Sept. 30, 2019, still more than 2.5 months away, the "current figure" is based on the the previous 3 quarters starting October 1, 2018 plus only 7 days in July as of today.   So the accurate description of the time frame used for the calculation for the current figure would be "the three quarters plus whatever number of days in the current quarter (in this case, 7 days in July) leading up to the next assessment date (Oct. 1, 2019) ." and not rolling 12 months all the time.   

Now I have a clear understanding of the exact time frame the calculation is based on.  Yes, I agree.  Airbnb rep should be able to explain this basic information correctly and clearly to us.   Thank you for you help Sarah977.  

[Hiro15]

When I looked at "Opportunities" page yesterday, "Trips Reviewed" was gone.  Today, it reappeared but with completely different numbers (35 and Target 5 in my case) which look like just the number of reviews rather than the percentage of the reviews we have discussed last few days.  I suppose Airbnb changed its mind about "Trips Reviewed".  The problem is that there is NO explanation anywhere about this change.  I suppose we need to pay attention to all those stats as goal posts move around quite often without us knowing.   In the meantime, i have just attained Superhost status.  I am glad that I caught that grossly incorrect 28% "Trips Reviewed" figure just in time for the assessment deadline.    

[Debra282]

I had a recent guest who was extremely happy, but for some unknown reason just did not leave a review.  It's also possible that someone might not leave a review for privacy issues.  No host should be penalized for that.

[Susan1188]

My observations:

- First of all, asking for a review is NOT the same as asking for a tip.  A tip is money.  A review just takes a few seconds when the person is waiting for boarding their plane at the airport.

- Secondly, everyone knows (at least in North America) that you are supposed to leave a tip if service was adequate.  Many, many guests have no clue how important the review process is to their host.

- Thirdly, a tip is MONEY and a review is completely FREE.  geez.

As a result, I believe in setting he climate and educating about reviews.

- when the guest compliments you, is happy on arrival about the apartment, tells you something positive, you can plant the seed by saying thanks and I hope I can count on you  to leave a review.

- put "leave a review"- in your departure and checkout procedures

- if all went well leave a review yourself for the guest and let him know you recommended him so that he can do instant booking in the future then ask him to please review your property

- if no damage done tell the guest there will be nothing withheld from damage deposit and ask if he could review his stay

- include in your renter documentation an explanation of airbnb review expectations and the fact that 4 star is a punishment not a compliment.

None of this do I find shocking, I spent hours making sure my guest's stay is perfect.  The least they can do is leave a review.