Can one bad guest review on Airbnb ruin the future chances to book a room?

[Robin4]

Somebody asked me that question the other day and this is how I answered it.

I would not worry about it too much, either as a host or a guest, reviews are not what they used to be!

The Airbnb review system has become so bogged down in needless programming that there is now very little trust given to the review process by either host or guest. Both are saying they were misled by past reviews!

Many guests are choosing to bypass reviewing because it is no longer seen as an accurate reflection of their thoughts. The reaction is, "I would rather just say nothing than have my thoughts taken out of context and get some ok host into trouble".

Many hosts are now saying to guests, "I hope you enjoyed your stay but, if you feel it was not a 5 star experience please don’t leave me a review because anything less than 5 stars I will be punished for"!

Through the various forums these comments are becoming more and more frequent.

Airbnb are actively advising guests to find fault with what hosts offer, and this has two negative effects!

1/......The end result of that is we all pat each other on the back and say what wonderful human beings we are simply to stay out of trouble!

2/.....It breeds entitled guests who feel they can 'push the choke' because they become aware that hosts need their good reviews!

I personally don’t look at guests reviews any more……guests with 8 past five star reviews ask masses of questions and turn out to be difficult guests. They have only got those 8 fives because those previous hosts swept poor behaviour under the carpet so as not to hurt themselves, and I have been guilty of doing just that myself!

I have struck guests that have been seriously criticised for behaviour in the past that they have taken notice of comments made, and made sure they didn’t repeat their mistakes. They have been excellent guests……….A review can be just a snapshot in time!

It’s a seriously flawed system. In short term renting we need to use our own experience when accepting, either as hosts or guests, it’s the way we come to each other that is a far better indicator than what others may have said in the past.

Cheers……..Rob

[Ange2]

@Alon1   Thank you. Odd!  I had never seen it in my notification feed as a message with a rocket icon.

[Alon1]

@Ange2 

None of us have to the best of my knowledge.

Maybe it's an indication that Airbnb plan to conquer space.

I believe it's already possible to book a place on the International Space Station  

Elon Musk will organize transport.

[Suzanne302]

@Ange2 @Alon1  The "levels" had been turned off for a few hours or more I think yesterday? ie, They must have been tinkering with things and instead of your level, it displayed, "not relevant" or something like that, I can't quite remember.

Now that they're turned back on, we're all getting re-notifications of our most recent level. (the more you contributed to the CC, the higher your level went, up to 10) You "leveled up" and got this same notification when you first started posting in the forum, but probably forgot!

[Sarah977]

@Ange2  I got one as well. Seems odd, as I've been at Level 10 for eons already. Maybe it's supposed to be some kind of self-esteem builder. Honestly, I outgrew gold stars by 1st grade.

[Robin4]

@Sarah977  @Stephanie @Ange2 @Alon1 

Yeah we all got one!

I am informed that it contains a tracker and the shape of the rocket is symbolic. When we step out of line to far with our comments here that rocket out of Airbnb is where our account will end up!  ;-))

You know there are certain similarities between being an Airbnb host and that old toilet joke!

*image removed inline with community guidelines*

Cheers......Rob

[Stephanie]

Hey @Robin4 ,

I know we are just joking around but you know I couldn't leave that image there, with that profanity included. 

Cheers,

Steph

[Robin4]

@Stephanie 

I had a fair idea you might!

Never mind, spoiled a good joke though Steph!

Cheers.....Rob

[Stephanie]

@Robin4  I'm not known for much, but spoiling peoples fun is up there...

[Robin4]

@Stephanie 

Oh well, time being midnight here I will take my bat, ball and...... profanity and go to bed!

I have  guests for 6 nights at the moment, that takes a bit of pressure off me so I might even get a sleep in!

See ya.

Cheers.....Rob

[Sean433]

Think of it this way. Airbnb threatens to de-list those who falls below a 4.5 rating. In any other website a 4.5 rating is considered very good and a perfect 5 is exceptionally rare, not even the Ritz has a perfect 5 star rating.

It's a smart tactic  on airbnb's side yet sort of cunning and one that will lead to people becoming aware it is manipulated by airbnb. This pressure to be above 4.5 is creating a breed of hosts who do everything they can to convince their guests include guilt tripping them into leaving a 5 star review. Some hosts even say that they will give the guest a 5 star review in hopes to receive one back. What this does is create a flawed review system whereby the only winner is airbnb.

The host loses out because he/she is constantly stressed out that even a small suggestion from a guest will lead to a bad review. The guest is sort of stressed out in that they want a good review so that they can continue booking places.

But who wins in all of this? Not the host nor the guest, only airbnb which can claim they have the highest average ratings of any platform although it is flawed and based out of fear.

Sometimes new guests come onto the platform having only used booking.com or expedia and give us a 4 star rating which in their eyes is very good. But in ours, we take it very personally that they did not give us a 5 star and it creates a certain sense of anxiety and a feeling of failure. What this will do to less resilient hosts out there is eventually make them leave airbnb out of resentment for hosting because the standards set out are unattainable.

[Kat84]

So meaningful post, thanks for sharing. 

Airbnb threatens to de-list those who falls below a 4.5 rating. How do they do it? (so sad to hear that)

I would like to add, that guests can create multiple profiles and reviews will not affect them. Unlike for us - the journey with one profile is very long... 

[Nicky104]

Oh wow it is crazy to hear this..  I recently got my first bad review ever and was very disappointed by it because i also left the guest a bad review because of her lack of communication ( not receiving my messages some how led to her being misinformed about the room) .  I did some investigating and saw that when i look at my listing , as a guest,  it does not show every single review that people have left in the past, thus being that Airbnb is manipulating new future guests into seeing only good reviews?  Tell me if you think this is true and if you had noticed this.

[Kat84]

As I can see, Airbnb uses Rotating system. Good reviews will be mixed with bad ones. If the bad review was the latest, then it will be definitely on top. So, as soon as you can try to override it with a good review. Pretty fair. But ALL reviews will be shown, no review is hidden. 

[Yolanda79]

Airbnb definitely caters to and sides with the guests. I lost my superhost status because three guests did not read the entire description which mentions that I live on the property and have two small dogs that stay outside in the backyard. My listing is under “entire guest suite” which Airbnb defines as a space that is attached to or part of the host’s house. I even messaged a guest to make sure they understood that i live on the property but they will have complete privacy. No response. Well I received 3 stars from these guests because I’m on the property , even though they NEVER saw or heard me. Is it the hosts fault when the guest doesn’t read the description and then leaves a bad review , saying it’s “shady” that they don’t find out i’m on the property until after they check in? . Airbnb refused to take the reviews down again because it doesn’t violate their policy.  To tell you the truth I’m glad i’m not a superhost. It increases the guests expectations. . 

[Paul1904]

Very correct considerations. I just want to add that the star counting system misses the calculations. You can give 5 stars to every single item, but in the end as a total you can give the general experience a different value, for empy 3 and the calculation system does not give you 5 stars. Why? If everything was perfect at 5 stars the math average of the general experience cannot be different from 5 stars. Also, the review writing system is wrong, the owners are obliged to write their review without knowing what the guests wrote. In this way the owners who go to read the profiles of the guests will find them always beautiful, while the guests who go to read the reviews of the apartments can find written anything. It is also useless for the owner to write a public reply because it is not written on the guest profile. Once on a sign inside a hotel in Italy, I read: If you're happy with us, tell your friends, if you've had a problem, tell us. Wouldn't this be a more civilized way of behaving?