SPARKLING CLEAN note

Alan192
Level 9
Ottawa, Canada

SPARKLING CLEAN note

After four years of hosting, most of the time being a Super Host, and having a 5 star rating for cleanliness; AIRBNB began a new feature where a guest can give a host an additional accolade in their review by clicking on "sparkling clean".  Sounds good right?  However, now at the top of my listing page the first thing guests see is "9% of recent guests said this place is sparkling clean".  If someone looking for a place sees this, what would they think?  I  would interpret this as meaning 91% don't find it clean.  Since AIRBNB put this on my listing, my bookings have gone to zero.  I spoke with AIRBNB and they tell me the 5 stars for cleanliness is still on the page, the prospective guest has to scroll down to see this.  Guests have no way on knowing this "sparkling clean" mention is an addition to reviews.  If this is the first thing I see at the top of the page, I would not scroll down, I would move on, as I would conclude that it is not clean, according to 91%, since only 9% said it was sparkling clean.  Based on the bookings, even an inquiry, dropping to zero since this was implemented, it would seem  I am not alone in my perception of what this means.  I have asked AIRBNB to remove it, but of course it is a system  thing and they cannot.  Has anyone else noticed on their page this attribution, and if so, have your bookings declined?  

6 Replies 6
Alexandra316
Level 10
Lincoln, Canada

@Alan192 Yours gives it as a percentage? Mine says "17 recent guests have said this place is sparkling clean", which I also don't like: it seems meaningless to me. What does recent mean? Out of how many? If it's out of 17, that's awesome: if it's out of 150, that doesn't sound so hot either. In the case of a percentage, I would also say it doesn't make sense: it's not like the guest is asked to choose between the house being dirty or clean, it's just an optional compliment that can be given if the guest wants to.

 

I'm generally not a fan of the highlights section. My secondary listing, my cottage, decided to home in on the hot tub. I get people asking all the time if it's a private hot tub as a result: it's not, it's a shared tub that's a resort amenity. I wish there was some way to choose what you want to highlight rather than have them make seemingly random choices.

 

Daniel1598
Level 10
Fairfax, VA

@Alan192 We had a discussion about this on a different thread. Here is the link:

 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Dynamic-Reviews/m-p/954861#M239638

 

While I have no problems with the additional accolade, because it actually helps me, I can see the frustration with a 9% rating discouraging future guests. Hopefully airbnb comes up with a creative solution for hosts who may be affected negatively.

@Daniel0     Thanks for the link, much appreciated.

 

 

Carmen842
Level 1
Montreal, Canada

I think this is situation is happening to a lot of the listings (I have looked at quite a few) and I think that travelers will end up figuring out for themselves that the data is probably not accurate and will end up booking anyway. No stress.

Emilia42
Level 10
Orono, ME

Are you sure it says 9%? or "9 recent guests said this place was sparkling clean". I have never seen it noted as a percentage.

Hi @Emilia42  I read it a number of times (every time I communciated with AIRBNB) , as did the AIRBNB customer service and back office people, and it was expressed as 9%, no question on that fact.  I had never seen it on anyone else's expressed as a percentage.  After several weeks, and removing my listing (placed it on snooze), and a lot (a lot) of emails back and forth, AIRBNB changed it to read "9 recent guests".  Why or how  it written as a percentage previously?; apparently a mystery.  Interestingly since it has been changed from percentage to number of recent guests, inquiries and bookings began again.  Given that once they placed it as a percentage, and everything dried up to the point of zero, and now expressed as a number of guests, it is flowing again, it seems fairly clear that my belief that expressing it as a percentage was being perceived, as I thought, as a huge negative.  Will AIRBNB acknowledge that?  Doubt it.  But I am glad they have corrected this "mystery" input.  I have to wonder if this was an error on someone's part when they entered it, or if it was a test to see what happens if a percentage is used.  I wonder.