Guests who never leave a five star review?

[Jane563]

A while back I was talking to a client, who has booked airbnb for the first time. She mentioned to me that she would never leave a five star review because “nothing can be that perfect.” After explaining how important reviews are to hosts, I refused to let her book my room when she visits Brighton later this year.

She went ahead with her planned trip, and sure enough gave the host four stars. The host gave her the same rating, and in his private feedback explained that ...”No guest can be that perfect.”

She remembers saying she doesn’t give five star ratings to the host, but is very angry not to get one herself! So angry that she asked how to contact airbnb and get the rating removed! According to her, she was an “exemplary guest!”

[Suzanne-and-Mark0]

Hello 

Can any one HELP me I am Host, I'v had a older woman stay, ( the guest only stayed 1 night of 3 nights booked,... out of the 200 guests we have had stay with us , this woman was a nightmare, she was such a difficult guest from the time she booked),    

I was the one whom said would you like to find other accommodation, up until this point it was all running ok, when i had communicated with her,  she  jumped on it , she wanted a out, ...when she came to get her things form the studio, i went to meet her (as my husband did checkin with her),

so went to meet her, it started out ok, then she yelled and started abusing me,  plus when i got to the back door she had somome in the room that was a unchecked in guest on the property ( this is in my rules that no unbooked in guests are to be on the property) I had raised this with her and the person with her started screaming at me , I walked away in tears to ring Airbnb as I have never incounted this and did not know what to do,...  

In this the guest said there was a cockroach in the room , apon talking to this guest she left the door open all night and said it came in throught the door not sure why as we have aircon ( we do not  have Cockroachs ...over 200 guests have said the studio is sparkiling clean) ,

this has been a Frustrating experience on the behalf of airBNB as I was made get a pest guy in .... $220.00

In Australia i got a natural pest guy in to do the spray as i have a fully ORGANIC property , now the there telling me the Pest Guy is not a registered Business, so angery at this point......

A isue that I am dealing with now 7 days later...

Airbnb are now wanting to refund the guest for the 3 nights,

This guest has lied, and Abused me Yelled and Screamed at me, had an unchecked in person on the property whom also abused me they both ganged up on me and  Airbnb will not do anything to support me on this matter ..

WHERE do i go now....  ???

I have currently blocked out all Available Nights on  my listing....

AS  airbnb have not given me and Support or HELP ...

[Michelle-And-Michael0]

What an awful experience.... she sounds like a nightmare of a guest. Your listing looks great and you've got all 5 star reviews, so obviously this lady was looking for an excuse to cancel.

Did you call Airbnb Sydney directly..... 02 8520 3333

Did you let Airbnb know that she broke your house rules by having an unregistered guest there? 

Best to let Airbnb or the guest cancel the reservation. It will go against you, if you cancel.

@Suzanne-and-Mark0 Its probably best if you would like more suggestions and help from this Community forum that you start a new conversation. No one will see your post unless they are looking at the original post about the 5 star reviews. 

Best of luck 

Michelle 🙂

[Suzanne-and-Mark0]

Hello Michelle and Michael

thanks heaps

 I have since started a new conversation up

I didn’t not know that this community was here, so didn’t fully understand how to use it have not had to in the past,  

I’m more aware of how to use this now thanks heaps

[Vickie56]

https://www.bbb.org/us/il/chicago/profile/travel-agency/see-australia-and-new-zealand-llc-0654-88018... .....this might help...I did not have all the info so you may need to search more but it might be a start...I am disapointed that people like those seem to need to make kindhearted people feel bad...I suppose some may be going through something that just causes an overload ...and the others are just trying to make everyone miserable ..but I would like to know why Airbnb has not taken the right steps to straighten this out ...it`s disapointing that they would not help people who come across these types of humans ..kind of makes them just like them to me ...I would certainly post everywhere I could to try and warn others though if they continue this ...It is not fair that you should have to suffer more because of being a decent person while these types go about their lives doing more damage ....I will certainly be leary of trying this site now and unless they right the wrong I will be warning others ...So sorry you were treated this way ..But there are great people out there and understanding ones ..So don't let it make you stop being you ....

[Carlota27]

Hello Suzane,

This sounds like a nightmare!    Please let me know how this issue is going?    I wonder if something like that happen to me, what would be next?  

Thank you in advance!

Carlota  

Dundas, ON, Canada.

[Jan386]

I tried to reply that you should report to police n  it was blocked out in pink

[Paul1637]

---

@Suzanne-and-Mark0 wrote:

Hello 

Can any one HELP me I am Host, I'v had a older woman stay, ( the guest only stayed 1 night of 3 nights booked,... out of the 200 guests we have had stay with us , this woman was a nightmare, she was such a difficult guest from the time she booked),    

I was the one whom said would you like to find other accommodation, up until this point it was all running ok, when i had communicated with her,  she  jumped on it , she wanted a out, ...when she came to get her things form the studio, i went to meet her (as my husband did checkin with her),

so went to meet her, it started out ok, then she yelled and started abusing me,  plus when i got to the back door she had somome in the room that was a unchecked in guest on the property ( this is in my rules that no unbooked in guests are to be on the property) I had raised this with her and the person with her started screaming at me , I walked away in tears to ring Airbnb as I have never incounted this and did not know what to do,...  

In this the guest said there was a cockroach in the room , apon talking to this guest she left the door open all night and said it came in throught the door not sure why as we have aircon ( we do not  have Cockroachs ...over 200 guests have said the studio is sparkiling clean) ,

this has been a Frustrating experience on the behalf of airBNB as I was made get a pest guy in .... $220.00

In Australia i got a natural pest guy in to do the spray as i have a fully ORGANIC property , now the there telling me the Pest Guy is not a registered Business, so angery at this point......

A isue that I am dealing with now 7 days later...

Airbnb are now wanting to refund the guest for the 3 nights,

This guest has lied, and Abused me Yelled and Screamed at me, had an unchecked in person on the property whom also abused me they both ganged up on me and  Airbnb will not do anything to support me on this matter ..

WHERE do i go now....  ???

I have currently blocked out all Available Nights on  my listing....

AS  airbnb have not given me and Support or HELP ...

---

[Karen1450]

That is terrible. I’m sorry this is happening to you. What a nightmare. Unfortunately, I have no advice I can give. 

[Jody79]

I was a guest for a couple years prior to going into hosting.  I had given mostly 5* reviews, however there were a couple of 4*'s I gave.  Now that I understand how the star rating works and affects the hosts, I feel really bad about the 4*'s.  Had I known, I would have given them both 5*'s and just provided the private feedback.  I feel that Airbnb should make clear to guests how the star rating truly works for the host.  It is incredibly unfair to both the host and the guest not to provide both the same star criteria.

[Susan17]

And here's exactly what happens in a review system where only 5 stars is acceptable - it loses all integrity and credibility, and becomes utterly worthless.

Reputation Inflation “erodes the comparability of feedback scores over time and reduces the informativeness of a reputation system—potentially making it completely uninformative.”

https://medium.com/s/story/5-star-design-how-ratings-influence-human-behaviour-d625c16993b3

[Jody79]

Really good article @Susan17!  My profession is supplier quality and one of our job functions is doing evaluations or audits of our suppliers.  I helped to develop a supplier evaluation workbook that involves 100+ questions, each with criteria and each 'graded' on a 1 - 5 point system.  The definition of this is as follows:  If they meet what we expect of them they get a 3.  3 is average, they meet the requirement/expectations.  If they are doing a really good job in that area they get a 4.  Only if they are considered a benchmark in an area will they get a 5.  A 5 means we can't think of anything they can do better.  If they mostly meet the requirement, but are missing something or not doing something very well they will get a 2.  A 1 is given if they have nothing in place.  If we rate a supplier above or below a 3 for any given question we have to justify it.  What made them exceed in an area/what made them deficient?  If a supplier averages 3 or above, they are considered acceptable and an approved supplier.  If below, we either work with them to improve, or we find another supplier.  In this way, when we have a supplier that scores above a 4 average, we know this is an exceptional supplier.  The score has real meaning.

As the article mentions, when you are penalized for anything other than being a benchmark, the system no longer has meaning.  A vast majority of us are not a benchmark, we cannot be.  I have always been much more lenient and forgiving when dealing with personal services such as an Uber ride or a stay at an ABB than I am with my suppliers, however knowing what I know now, the experience would have to be much less than what I expected for me to give someone less than a 5* now.  It would take a blatant mis-representation of their offering.  This is sad because you're right, it has become utterly worthless.

[Alon1]

@Susan17 

Thanks for posting this article.

I found the best part -, funniest & or not so funny the "Shed in Dulwich":

Our reliance on five-star ratings and our tendency to accept them at face value was cleverly demonstrated in a story involving the “Shed at Dulwich.” Essentially, a bloke in South London managed to turn his garden shed into TripAdvisor’s top-rated London restaurant without serving a single dish, simply through exploiting TripAdvisor’s rating system. The best part, and what is most relevant here, is that people really bought it and even travelled abroad to experience it without knowing it wasn’t actually a restaurant. It was appointment-only, and the creator, Oobah Butler, routinely rejected requests to spread the impression it was fully booked. I think this is a good example of two things. First, that the rating feature is open to exploitation and doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story. Second, that people often don’t bother to find out the actual story behind the rating.

[Mary996]

@Susan17 What a story..."The Shed at Dulwich". Loved it. Thanks for the entertainment. Yup can see the relevance!!

[Mary1135]

Such an interesting thread.

And now I have an ironic situation, maybe you all can give me your thoughts.

I recently stayed in an Airbnb that was NOT as described.  This matters to me, as a Superhost who tries to give accurate info about my place.

The host was not there when we arrived, she had "just run out to the store".  We waited at her "wedding venue", since the spot is in her description.  She mentioned the pool in the description -- I wouldn't let anyone I like, or even a dog, swim in that filthy pool.

When she finally arrived, she had us follow her to the place, which was the next house over (not as described).  She laughed that the house is "stuck in the 70's", which was no joke.  It was exactly like an elderly relative had just died there and all they did was remove the body.  The carpet was gross.  The tub was gross.  There was one shower, it was dark in there, and we couldn't get the hot water to work for the first 2 days.   Wifi worked in only one room.   The entire place was just depressing as hell.

However it did seem like they tried to clean it, and the bedding was new.  There were clean towels.  The lights worked.  There was a back porch with really cruddy furniture, but we sat out there sometimes (and a grill she said we could use, but it had decades of greasy filth in it).

The price was medium (but a lot of factors go into the price).  

So...what would you do here, as a host and now a guest?  How would you rate this?

After some thought, I decided to not rate it at all.  The host wrote a review immediately after we left, but of course it doesn't matter if I don't review.  I can't give this place a 5.   When I consider how hard I work, and how much money I've put into fixing it up, and how guests rate me down over dumb things, or things beyond my control, this place just doesn't compare.

[Sarah977]

@Mary1135   Well, if you didn't want to review or give her low stars, I'd at least send her private feedback, saying you could tell they'd made an effort as far as the clean bedding and towels, but that the place really isn't acceptable otherwise and point out that while, as a fellow host, you didn't wish to tank her ratings, that if she doesn't step up her game (get rid of the filthy carpet and do something about the gross tub and pool, look for some inexpensive second-hand furniture in decent shape, or at least spruce up what's there) she'll likely get bad ratings from other guests.