Honest reviews please...

[Annette33]

A lot seems to be going on at Airbnb these days, revamping their image, making rules for us hosts tighter and tighter, while making booking for guests easier,  such as indicating  - all cleverly hidden under the politically correct umbrella to be against discrimination -  that instant booking will the the way of all future bookings, just like a commercial hotel or motel booking! 

Lots of us hosts are getting disgruntled about the idea of having less and less control over our own listing but only getting tighter rules by Airbnb to comply with. I am one of them.

These changes will  possibly be implemented very soon, but here is where we as hosts have leverage, at least right now:

1.) We need to be more honest in our reviews of guests! I have seen it many times now that hosts complain about guests in the community forum here, but when I go to their page and backtrack the situation, I find that they leave very nice reviews for the guests they just complained about!  I always look over the reviews on potential future guests, but what good are those reviews if you can't trust them - and sure enough - 98% of reviews are all in the "this guest was  wonderful" category!

This fake and artificially high approval number of guests would actually be a great validation for Airbnb to rely on, should they really push for IB :  like, all our Airbnb guests are wonderful, so as hosts, as proven by your own reviewes,  you really don't have a problem to accept anybody, so IB is the best solution for everybody!

2.) I think the reluctancy to honestly evaluate a guest stems from either inexperience or fear about their own reviews from guests, fueled by not understanding how the process works or not wanting to offend anybody... it plays right into the hands of Airbnb to keep us docile and compliant, cause we fear we'll get punished if we don't get that 4.9 average and behave exactly as we are supposed to.

But really, what if we were showing our boundaries and not worry so much about not being perfect by Airbnb standards?

 So what if some disgruntled guest might give us a "bad" review?  What would really change? Not much! The whole review ladder would just be more honest - and actually give guests better feedback! 

It's all in the numbers: If I read one bad review among a lot of great reviews, I dismiss it as coming from a disgruntled weirdo, but a lot of them , and I know to avoid the place. It all works itself out, so maybe there are a few hosts on Airbnb that have sub par lodging or don't have the personality to be a good host, but the majority of us is offering great value and great hospitality at low pricing!

Makes you really wonder why actually Airbnb is pushing this totally fake system of reviews -and we all comply!!

Lets not forget: Airbnb needs all of us to host, otherwise they is no Airbnb, so we do have some leverage!

[Brittany1]

Great points @Annette33

 I always write a bad review for the bad guests but struggle with the so/so inbetweeners. I feel guilty potentially ruining someone's chances of renting another place because they didn't meet my standards (maybe my standards are too high). Honestly my standards are set by the guests themselves. Most guests, 90% seriously do rock in every way. They are great communicators, leave the place spotless, turn ac and lights off, follow my check-out checklist and alert me as soon as they have left. So when a guest doesn't do a few of those things how would you recommend I review them? Open to suggestions.

[Annette33]

@Brittany1, thanx! You helped me clarify my viewpoints on how to rate guests: the bad ones, I would and will definitely say something about it. The in between ones, I write no review, especially if they haven't written us one. Why bother? The real good ones, it's so easy to say something real nice and personal, and that's what I do! 

But as we all seem to agree here, the whole rating system is not very helpful, my best insights come from communicating a bit with future/potential guests before they arrive: it gives me an uncanny feel for what they are going to be like in person. 

But I also try not to take anything personal, in that way it is "just business", I just want everything to go smoothly, without drama or disappointment. 

[Andrea9]

Agree!

And I'm actually wondering what in fact constitutes a 'good review' that puts a guest on IB.

Is it the stars? and is a 4 given code yellow as with hosts? or 3?...

IB for only guests with good reviews for ex.  what does that even mean. I'd want some explaining.

[Margot17]

I agree!

I gave a guest a 4 on cleanliness because she didn't wash the dishes as I request in the house manual. It's not a big deal, but it is very rare for me to have anything but 5 star guests in every category. I don't know what happens with the ratings. Does Airbnb only use them to give a guest IB status? I think the rating system is not clearly explained by Airbnb. It also feels like a report card - everyone wants straight A's. We end up not being honest in our reviews so how useful are they? I think it's time for a change!

[Sandra126]

Excellent points.

I can't imagine how I will keep Superhost going if/when I have to do IB, because I will be wanting to cancel the inappropriate toddlers and one night Saturdays for instance. So the host reviews will mean less. Will anyone be a Superhost? Or will the system get scrapped?

[Jo11]

The only guest I REALLY wanted to leave a negative review cancelled her 2 night booking late on the 2nd night. This then left me unable to leave a review as AirBnb automatically decided the 2 night stay didn't happen. Frustrating at best.

[Karen-and-Brian0]

Hi @Annette33 I am guilty of ranting here, then giving an o.k./good review (ugh, I know! It seems so disingenuous). I completely understand where you're coming from. My reasoning in both cases was: the booking guest brought friends. I really have no way of knowing who were the offending guests, and don't want to ruin someone's profile by slamming them for something one of their friends did or failed to do. For example: last week-end, most had used numerous towels and thrown them and the bedding on the floor, but one had neatly made the bed & folded their provided number of towels. Maybe the neat one was the booking guest, and maybe not. If she was, I'd hate to make her pay for her clod friends when she may never travel with them again. If it were a single person, or husband & wife who no doubt travel together all the time, that would be different. Maybe I need to change the way I approach it.

I also think that maybe my standards are too picky and I need to cut the guests some slack - after all, nothing was destroyed, no rules were broken - so then, I don't feel I can give a bad review. My secret code for other hosts is - if I don't say 'come back anytime" "would love to host you again" etc., it means I wouldn't. When a host writes that, I feel they mean it & I take that as a good chance that they are a good guest. 

I was hoping Airbnb takes the stars into consideration, because that's where I feel I can be really honest.

Glad you started this topic! -Karen

[Andrea9]

@Karen-and-Brian0

Technically the person booking is responsible that their guests follow the house rules, although I've read that some hosts make hard copies of the house rules and pass them out to all or only the bring-along guests. One host even asks all or only the bring-alongs to additionally sign them.

Signing is possibly a tad invasive, unless you get a bad vibe upon meeting them or with 20-year olds.

Simply handing them out can always be done in a nice way, while it brings the point across.

How we handle it all depends on whether we've reached our breaking point or not!

I've been lucky with my guests, but I notice how the good ones set a standard, so that a really okay guest but slightly more sloppy one really sticks out. And my own mother always really drummed into us to respect other's property and treat it more carefully than our own, so my standards tend to be sky high too. And I would even be completely embarrassed at leaving a sloppy mess for somebody else to clean up!

[Karen-and-Brian0]

@Andrea9 Me too! I always clean before I leave a place, even a hotel. I couldn't bear to be seen as a slob!

I know the booking guest is responsible for their group, and maybe I need to change my mindset on it and make them take the brunt with a poor review? With a group of adults, I can't really see the booking guest going around telling the other adults to stop using so many towels, pick up the bedclothes from the floor, hang their towels up, take the garbage out (ok that one should have been done by the booking guest). If the place was trashed, or something was broken, then yes for sure. My negative experiences so far have just been huge, undamaging messes left by persons unknown, but definitely not by everyone in the group. There's always been at least 1 guest in the group who has been a neat freak like me and I think - what if that they were the booking guest? I just don't know.

[Annette33]

@Karen-and-Brian0. I totally get your point! I would never step out and critique someone for something  if I am not even sure who it was.

One could only go as far as saying in the review that traveling with many people in the group has some draw backs and some in the group were not that well behaved.... you were not out of line in expecting people to make do with all the towels you provided them with, don't doubt yourself here, please. 🙂

So as it is, reviews aren't worth much, I am just looking for ways we can be more accurate on it, as that is the leverage we have, and it would just help all of us! While at the same time, it is a clever tool by Airbnb to keep us all in line and somewhat fearful. I am just advocating to pay less attention to all of that, and more attention to the truth in every situation.

[Karen-and-Brian0]

@Annette33 Thanks for that, I was starting to feel like a whiner about those frigging towels! I completely agree, reviews aren't worth much and are misleading. From what I gather, there is a definite reluctance among hosts to give a bad review as they fear retaliation - the reviews being published at the same time was designed to eliminate this, I'm sure, but it doesn't do much good when guests can get host reviews removed seemingly easily & quickly and hosts are not able to have guest's reviews removed. I don't know this for a fact, I have just put that together from discussions here. Thoughts?

I do understand that someone with Super Host status feels a lot of pressure to maintain it too. I decided early on that I wasn't going to aim for that goal. No pressure here! 

[Annette33]

@Karen-and-Brian0, I'm with  you about the super host status: reminds me of getting gold stars in kindergarten... 😉

[Laura932]

I'm a super host and I leave honest reviews. Not details to embarrass anyone, but enough that you, as an owner , would know that these people are not ideal . "Judy communicated clearly and left our house in fair condition. " 

[Mariann4]

Hello @Karen-and-Brian0.

I am a new host and have just found these pages of advices and mishaps.

I just had a similar experience as you had; three guests where one had the profile on AirBnB. In my case I was at home, since I let out a private room. So I easily could see who was making the mess and not.

What I decided to do was to focus on the guest with the profile in my review. I said they were three, but only gave one a personal review. Then I used the option to send my profiled guest a private message where I asked him to be more careful with who he used his profile with while travelling. And I explained why: that I saw him being a perfect guest, but his friend was not. And that I didn't want to trash his rating due to his ignorant friend.

I never got a reply to my message. But we gave eachother nice feedback.

Mariann 🙂