Concerns and frustrations with the review system

[Brock11]

I am starting this conversation to bring attention to the MANY flaws in the Air BNB guest review system and the impact these flaws have on us as hosts. 

Id like to start off by saying that I love the entire rest of the platform, app etc and have nothing but good things to say about it all. 

The Guest review system and Air BNBs complete lack of concerns for my complaints regarding have been EXTREMELY frustrating. I have called in several times now to outline and detail these flaws, have received the exact same “non response” every time and there’s been absolutely no follow up or changes whatsoever. 

I will list the issues below in short form. I can go into much more detail on all of them and add ideas for solutions if Air BNB is actually interested in hearing it.

Please add to this conversation so that MAYBE they will actually address the issues. 

1) Guests do not have to justify all or any of their reviews in any way at all. Explanation should be required. 

2) Guests do not have to raise concerns by contacting a host during their stay which would give us an opportunity to address them. Instead they can say nothing the entire time and blast you in a public review. 

3) Guests can outright lie in their reviews and as long as it doesn’t violate Air BNBs conduct policy Air BNB will not do anything about it. 

4) Guests can leave 5 stars in every individual category and then a 4 star overall rating (for no particular reason) and it ends up being the 4 star that goes on our record. It SHOULD BE averaged across the categories 

5) Air BNB offers no help to hosts when it comes to explaining to guests exactly how the review system works and exactly how much it affects us as hosts. 

6) The “Value” category should not be a part of it that affects us as hosts at all. I have absolutely no control over what a person perceived as good or bad “value”

7) When guests have negative feedback that is Air BNBs fault or there own because they don’t know how to use the site/app properly it can potentially harm our ratings but there is no contingency for that. (I had a guest claim that claims he didn’t receive any checkin instructions in an email and also didn’t have access to them in the app who then waited until they arrived and were already angry to inform of me of this) 

😎 When trying to address these issues with Air BNB they have been incredibly unhelpful with no promises of addressing any of these issues or of a follow up of any kind at all. 

[Brock11]

The biggest problem with trying to “capture” bad guests is that a lot of the time you don’t even realize they were bad guests until you read their review and find it to be ignorant, picky, false etc and then obviously you’ve already left theirs

[Kath9]

Actually @Brock11, this is what would be considered a retaliatory review and is the precise reason that we can't see reviews until we've left one (a policy I happen to strongly agree with). Guests should be rated on their behaviour as guests, not the review they have left! Unfortunately this is out of our control. However, another good thing is that we do have the opportunity to respond to reviews publicly, thank goodness, because imagine how much more frustrating it would be if we couldn't!

[Brock11]

I understand and agree with what you’re saying but regardless of being able to “respond” the review stands no matter what and affects our average no matter what and there is absolutely no way of warning other hosts about these particular type of ignorant guests. 

[Ariane7]

Future potential guests do not bother to read the hosts response they only read the bad feedback and then move on to another listing. It doesn't matter that a host leaves a response, the damage has been done. And a guest can lie, it's their 'opinion' and therefore there is nothing that airbnb are willing to do about it...

[Ellen85]

I've been a super host for two years and in all that time I've never given a bad review, just an occasional mediocre one! AirBnB used to ask if we had private comments to share with them, but that option seems to have disappeared. Since then, if something has been of concern to me as a host, I've been reluctant to review the guest except with a more bland word such as "fine." But I will select "no" when asked if I would recommend (which has happened maybe three times!).

It's a dicey process. Can be challenging on both sides. And different for different types of rental situations (in owner's home, separate, location, etc.).

[Robert523]

THAT is the problem. I had a guest that communicated with me every day about where to eat, where to see redwoods, which beaches to go to, etc. I gave them 5 stars for communication. Turns out that the deadbolt on my door was not working (the handle was fine and the door was able to be locked) and they never mentioned it in all those communications. It is a full house rental, but I live on the property about 20 feet away, they could easily have told me in person, sent a message, left a note, anything. They also said only one bed was comfy. I have been hosting 3 years and never heard that, but had they told me that while they were here, I would have done everything to make it better. It took me about one minute to fix the lock, and I would have gone immediately to get a mattress pad or whatever they'd have needed. Instead, 3 star review! One of 5 total in almost 3 years, the others from way back when I started. Oh yeah, I ALWAYS ask, pretty much each day a guest is here, if they need anything or if they are having any issues! So they get 5 stars for communication when in fact they were not communicating well at all....

[Brock11]

Yeah completely ridiculous and Air BNB DOES NOT CARE! It’s infuriating 

[Ariane7]

Airbnb always has the final say and it is inevitably in favour of the guest. Even when a guest has blatantly lied in their review, airbnb says it's the guests 'opinion' and therefore they will not delete the review. When I have made a request for damages, airbnb had always sided with the guest and unless the guest admits they have damaged anything, then my word as a host is NOT good enough. I now ask for an acutal security deposit on arrival, I find that guests are a lot more attentive to not damaging anything and 99% of the time I give them back their security check on departure...

[Nikki184]

I totally agree, I have been too nice in my reviews because everyone seems so lovely, and generally I only meet them on arrival as the Annex is entirely self contained. 

I just received my first ever negative review ( it was done privately thank goodness) but the guest gave me 3*. To date I’ve only had 5* review and I am ridiculous upset by his untruths and I assume I’m going to lose my super host status.

Needless to say muggins here gave him a lovely glowing review! So unfair, I will be less friendly in the future cause you just never know!

[Ariane7]

My rental property is in France and French people are not culturally raised with the same reasoning when it comes to leaving a review. They think that a 3 star means it was what was expected, 4 stars would be better than expected and of course 5 stars would be very much better than excepted, so they they when they leave 3 stars everywhere they don't realise this rating is based on an American way of rating, which is 5 stars means it's what was expected, 4 stars a little below what was expected and 3 stars well below what was expected etc.. so instead of having left a 'good' review they have actually left a bad review.
Airbnb has to understand the mentality of the culture, because I get bad ratings by French people because they don't know about the American culture behind this. The time I tried to explain to a guest on departure about this was, he obviously hadn't understood and reported me to airbnb saying I had tried to bribe his review. Needless to say I was given a very bad star rating on all aspects even location and I'm only 40 metres from the beautiful, sandy beach...

[Ange2]

@Brock11    You can ask Airbnb to remove your review of the guest. I did it with a particularly egregious guest who flat-out lied and made things up in his review of my listing.   I decided that I did not want to be party to recommending him to other hosts (many hosts rely on reviews) even though my review of him was lukewarm.  Airbnb appear to have no problem if you want to remove your review of the guest, guests can also remove their reviews of hosts (not sure if the ratings go away too).

[Lynette57]

Well I must be doing something wrong @Kath9   As quite a few times Ive written reviews for guests that have never been published and when I have asked CS I was told they would be published only IF the guest also wrote a review.

I can say though that I have only had one really bad guest that I wrote a review for and it was taken down because CS claimed it was racist as I mentioned it was an Indian family.

Ordinarily I write reviews for all my guests,  But I cant be bothered hassling guests to write a review for me, and unless im doing something really wrong they are not all being published even when they are usually praising a good guest. 

Maybe next time 🙂

[Kath9]

@Lynette57, that's odd because my reviews of guests have been published even if they haven't left a review. So, not sure what's going on there...

[Brock11]

You’re just understanding what she’s saying. When guests write a review it is visible and affects your rating wether you also write them a review or not

[Sandra856]

@Lynette57 Reviews are ALWAYS posted when the 14 days of review period is over. They are not posted in chronological order - so that could be the reason why you didn't notice them? If only one part leaves a review the review is not published before after the 14 day review period is over.