@Wayne70 your suggestions are excellent, and are exactly how I would set things up... if everyone were as honest and reasonable as you are.
I think the reason they do not implement suggestion 3: to be able to remove reviews by "mutual" agreement is because this could happen:
- Dishonest guest leaves terrible, unjustified 1-star review.
- Host, who never had a hint bad review was coming, asks why.
- Dishonest guest says he will "mutually agree" to remove review in exchange for big refund.
- Bad person profits.
There are already lots of attempts at extortion even under the current setup. But since no one can change or remove reviews, once the reviews are posted, the attempts at extortion will end. (Once the bad review is up and unchangeable, the dishonest person has no leverage.)
But if the reviews *could* be taken down, the window of opportunity for extortion goes on and on.
Actually, now that I think about it, being able to "edit" reviews allows for the same type of extortion (if the edit is allowed to happen after they are publicly posted.)