Updating Guest Communication Stars

[Tim-and-Amber0]

Hello!

I'm new here (and to hosting), so please point me in the right direction if there is a better place for this to go.  

I'm also not sure if this is a question or a feature request, but it would be great if hosts could update the communication stars after we see a guest's review.  I understand and appreciate the reasons for keeping reviews private until both parties have completed them, and locking them in once complete. However, we just had the unfortunate experience of finding out that someone had unmet needs during their stay because they didnt vocalize them, which I understand is not a particularly unique situation.  I know we can reply to the review, which we plan to do, but there's no way for us to give other hosts the heads up that our guest isnt as a direct of a communicator as she initially seems.

It seems counter-intuitive to have hosts rate how well someone expressed their needs before we are able to see their review and discern if there were needs that they never told us about.   Since the purpose of the communication stars (as I understand it) is to indicate how well a guest communicates their needs to their hosts, it seems that we should be able to complete, or at least revise, that one little piece of information after we see a guest's review.  If this isnt possible now, how do we get ideas like this in front of the product team?

This would also provide a much better gauge for future hosts on how transparently the guest communicates about their needs.  As a host, I would love to know how direct of a communicator a guest is, so I can provide the best possible experience for my guests.  I tend to be fairly straight-forward so it's easy for me to assume the same is true for others.  It would be great to know when I have a guest who may not be as direct so I know to be more sensitive to subtleties like their body language.

-amber

[Huma0]

@Tim-and-Amber0 

There was a section on this community called Host Voice where you could put forward suggestions to Airbnb that could get upvoted by other members. I do not know if it still exists because it did disappear for a while.

However, I think you will get no joy on getting this one changed. The whole blind, non-changeable angle is a cornerstone of the Airbnb review process and I doubt Airbnb would consider changing that for a particular category at all, especially for the reasons you mention. They even let guests who never stayed at all to rate on things like cleanliness and check in, so I don't think they are going to be too concerned about how well the guest communicated their needs.

What you mention is of course fairly common. The only way around it is to try your best to encourage guests to let you know of any issues or needs. Of course, it doesn't always work. Many guests will tell you everything is 'perfect' when asked and then mention gripes in their reviews, ratings or feedback. It's frustrating but if hosts or guests were allowed to change any part of their review/ratings after seeing the other party's review, it would defeat the whole process and could easily be abused.

When you respond to the review, do it as diplomatically as possible, remembering that your audience for that response is not the guest you are responding to, but the future guests who will read it.

[Huma0]

By the way, I am assuming the review you are referring to is the lady who found your dogs too friendly! I wouldn't make too much of that if I were you. She has been pretty positive overall.

Out of interest, was there a way of changing this for her if she had mentioned it to you?

I have three guest friendly cats. Guests can prevent the cats coming in their bedrooms if they prefer, but I can't stop the cats from approaching them in communal areas. The only thing I can do is try to discourage guests who are uncomfortable around cats from booking, but even then, some people lie about it because they want the room no matter what.