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. 

[Ariane7]

If you review a bad guest before they have left you feedback, and they obviously know they were a bad guest, then even the fact that they don't know what you put, they will obviously retaliate and leave you deliberate bad feedback whether true or not (and as airbnb says, even if they lie, it's their 'opinion' and therefore not worthy of being deleted), so I never leave any feedback to a bad guest, unless they leave me feedback first, then I tell the truth. But it's not worth encouraging bad guests to leave feedback because it's bound to be bad...

[Helen350]

Leave bad feedback for bad guests till the very last moment @Ariane7 . - Guest checks out Mon 1st...  you're invited to leave review c. 13.00 Mon - you review c.12.55 on Mon 15th..... that way they have no time to write you a retaliatory review! 

[Donna689]

Thank you.

[Alice595]

@Brock11 @Alexandra316 @Stephanie 

The points listed above are very valid. And there are tons of complaints related to them in this forum. I can add two to the lists which had been mentioned and had annoyed hosts a lot

(1) A guest could still leave a review without staying in the host's place as long as the booking is not canceled 12 or 24 hours prior to check in.

(2) A guest is allowed to leave a retaliatory review when there are some kinds of confrontations such as arguments for some issues, damage claims, violation of house rules, guests wanted to cancel after checkin etc.

The remedy for those two are just not allow reviews on both sides if Airbnb wants to be fair to both sides.

[Inna22]

Ebay has a mutual revision process for reviews. I personally would never. Pay a guest  to revise it, but sometimes they just simply don’t understand how detrimental it is to Host to get four stars as many mentioned here. Some of those guests will happily revise  if they learn the consequences for their review

[Kath9]

@Brock11, I 100% agree with all of your points, which as others have said, have been raised many many times before. The review system is good in some ways (e.g. reviews being hidden until both parties have posted) but deeply flawed in so many other ways.

I'm surprised to see @Stephanie weigh in as this almost never happens. Stephanie, hearing hosts' frutrations and actually doing something about them would be a much better use of your time than asking about people's best travel snaps or most interesting jobs! You asked for some suggestions in response to Brock's grievances so here are some for what it's worth:

3) If there is clear evidence of lies (although this could be difficult to substantiate) the review should be removed.

4) 100% agree on this one. Why are stars averaged for guests but not hosts? For Petes sake, just average the stars!!!!!

5) There should be a clear explanation on the review page about how reviews work. Nowadays, guests think Airbnbs = hotels and simply fail to consider the price they are paying. For example, my listing is for travellers on a budget - my fee is far too low to cover professional cleaning and I work full-time so it is simply not possible to have sparkling clean windows and zero cobwebs 365 days per year.

6) Get rid of value and location. Stick to cleanliness, communication, accuracy and check in. 

7) 100% agree, in particular where guests have rated down based on their own failure to read the listing! These reviews are usually not difficult to substantiate and should be removed, full stop.

I can see from Airbnb's perspective that there would be many cases of he said, she said, and that it would be difficult to look into every single case. So how about allowing at least Superhosts to have 2 outlier reviews removed per year? 

[Brock11]

Thank you. 100% agree with those solutions. And again if I find enough time I’ll add to it. So incredibly frustrating 

[Ariane7]

I had a guest blatantly lie in his bad review to me about not having a view from the bedroom window, but there is even a photo on my listing of the view from the window which proves his review was a lie but Airbnb's response was that it was the guest's opinion and therefore his review stayed up. What I have found is that when someone wants to take revenge they then exaggerate and give a bad star rating on all aspects; I am 40 metres from the beach and yet I have had 1 star for 'location'. I often get a bad rating for 'value' when the guest finds out how much I actually charge and so presume I am pocketing all the extra fees that they have had to pay. But what I don't understand is how they get to complain about the price when they are the ones that chose the place , reserved and paid for it, how do they then decide at the end of their stay that the price is no longer what they wanted. If they don't like the price then go elsewhere, but they shouldn't be allowed to complain afterwards with a low star rating...

[Susan1188]

I love the Airbnb platform and for the most part have had lovely guests, more bookings than expected, and overall good experience.

At the same time I totally agree with the frustration expressed here.

Forums are filled with good hosts and honest people who are at their wits end, losing sleep and extremely distressed due to the unfairness of (1) being subjected to "superhost" pressure and threat to appear lower in search results (2) not being able to remove an unfair, dishonest, retaliatory review.  

In fact, highest human stress occurs when (1) you feel something was unfair and (2) you feel out of control to do anything about it.  The Airbnb algorithm seems almost purposely developed to exploit this.

Some very clear and practical suggestions for improvement:

- Let hosts introduce 1 case per year (or 1 case for every 20, 30 guests?) to remove an outlier dishonest review.  

- If host flags the guest for violation of house rules, guest should not be able to leave a review.

- If host introduces a substantiated damage claim, guest should not be able to leave a review.

- If guest cancels and does not come to the property, guest should not be able to leave a review.

- If host can show thru texts and messages that the guest did not read house rules or listing, guest should not be able to leave a review.

[Thomas1033]

We had a particular guest leave a review and publically comment we didn’t provide an iron (not an amenity) or a washer (never asked to use it). Leave 4 stars and told me that he thought that was good???  Umm he’s also a host???  Absolutely infuriated me as I had left a great review despite him leaving the place with the stench of curry but otherwise spotless.  I thought it would be petty to mention a smell.  After a few more curry incidents that we’ve never mentioned in reviews we simply now ban cooking curry.  But anyways I agree the review system is flawed considerably and demanding hosts to have 5 stars but not guests is absurd. Yvonna (cohost)

[Brock11]

Yes I’ve had similar situations with something like a lightbulb being out 

[Justus9]

I definitely agree that the perceived value rating should go away. I got a 4 star on that once because my rates were a bit elevated due to it being 4th of July weekend. It goes without saying that you pay a premium for holiday weekends in a tourist town; so yes the rates were higher than they usually are. Compared to other listings mine was actually still quite affordable. But good luck convincing that to somebody who may be used to a rate 20$ a night cheaper.

[Thandi4]

Good Morning everyone I am new at Air and above concerns are my frustration.  It means by Airbnb the client is always right and it difficult to accept this.

[Ariane7]

Yes it's difficult to understand since without the host airbnb wouldn't exist but for them the guest is always right. I once made a claim for substantial damage that was done and airbnb told me that the guest only accepted having broken a few glasses and so refunded me 24EUR instead of the 1700EUR I was claiming. I now mention in my listings that the guest will be asked to sign a contract. In the contract they must provide official identification and it states that they must provide a security check on check-in. This way I am assured that in the event of damage I can recuperate my losses. Be careful too because all a guest needs to do is claim that your property was not clean and they are refunded in full, (after they have stayed the whole time). This happened to me when they had taken photos of behind the kitchen cabinets. Guests are getting smarter and smarter in trying to find ways to get refunded, we have to stay one step ahead...

[Donna689]

The cleaning issue is so true.  I get excellent raves about my cleanliness and all guests have to do is claim the house is not clean and they get a 100% refund, despite my cleaning bills.