Hosts giving 5-star reviews, despite the experience (or the truth)…

[Gordon0]

Just had two guests (’recommended by’ 5 hosts) check out. And quite frankly, I couldn’t have waited much longer to see them leave.

In short(ish); 

Turned up at 22:30 (despite stating ‘2-3pm’) having decided dinner with friends (without telling me, natch) was more important than my time. Parked in wrong space (despite clear instructions), struggled to open the door (why, just why?) and when they did get open it, slammed it like their lives depended on it. On every subsequent exit and entry.

Spent three days being loud and generally annoying.

Last night I got a message (followed up by a call from an unknown number…which I answered, more fool me): “we left our keys inside, you need to come home”.

When I did, no thank you. 

But I was (rather unpolitely) informed they would be leaving their cases the next day (check out day) until 10pm, because they had night flights home.

Erm, no you won’t, because we’re leaving for our own holidays the same day.

“Ahh, no more guests - we’ll keep the key”.

My “Nope, sorry” met with a pair of ar5e-smacked faces. 

Left the room in a right old mess (I don’t charge a cleaning fee). Four bags of rubbish (the bins are a 30-second walk of the house), half-eaten yoghurts on the dresser, more hair on the floor than a hairdresser’s on a prom-night, and more. And all the walls suitcase-scuffed (those Rimowa ones make a fine mess), and towels a soggy heap on the floor.

Not a quick read, but my somewhat long and drawn-out point/question is, why do hosts feel the need to give guests the ‘thumbs up’ when clearly they can’t wait to see the back of them. These two hadn’t changed their ways for me only, surely?

[Cathie19]

So sorry @Gordon0 that you had to experience guests with no manners. They are so self absorbed they have no concept of anyone outside themselves. I also agree that hosts need to be aligning with one another. I’ve experienced guests who ran a hospitality business who left the place in a terrible state. Not damaged, but so messy, dirty, sticky and absolutely exhausting to bring back to the normal bench mark. They didn’t care or respect: foodstuffs and crumbs from corn chips etc everywhere...... everywhere! Dirty dishes, dirty coffee machine overflowing and the group full, sticky fruit - a whole watermelon dropped and smashed on the floor and then left it in the sink... they didn’t know what to do with it????? Seriously??? The kitchen bin was 20cms away, or the large household bin was ten metres away! 

Wipe or mop the sugar mess and seeds off the floor? This person had been given the thumbs up on previous occasions as well, by other hosts and I could not in my right mind, recommend them.... 

Why?

 >  Guests generally hold most of the cards and sway with Airbnb.

 >   So hosts, there is absolutely NOTHING to be gained by being super polite to the poor mannered guest. All you are doing is keeping them inside the Airbnb STR platform; and they don’t deserve it. Let’s praise the great guest, teach the newbies what’s required and the non believers with entitled or narcissistic tendencies can go rent a hotel or motel room.......

ALL AND POWERFUL ACTION:

Calling all hosts: to UNITE and be a force...... self propelled and self reliant.

👍🏼. 2019 New Year Resolution should be: “We’re  not going to take it anymore! We’ll shout it from the rooftops that you are not clean, you don’t play nice or responsibly, nor are you interested in learning the Airbnb community way!”

- Be respectful or be gone from the platform!

[Kath9]

@Cathie19, yes to your call for action! We need to have each others' backs and we need to be honest in our reviews (as difficult as that can be). We should expect respect from our guests and if they do not play by the rules, they should not be able to book again. Full stop. A very happy 2019 to you - may your year be filled with wonderful guests.

[Cathie19]

Same to you Kath! 😀💐

[Casita-By-The-Texas-Bay0]

Sorry you had to deal with such guests...may the new year bring you better guests your way!

I think there should be a space where hosts can leave a "blind" review of the guest for future hosts...communication just between hosts that can help make a better call at the time of accepting a new guest.

[Mark116]

@Gordon0This is part of the reason we accept first timers, because having had several guests with glowing reviews from other hosts....I now know that host reviews can't really be trusted.  In fact, a goodly number of people who are using airbnb just for the money savings [which is fine] and never bother to leave a review are guests with half a dozen or more stellar reviews.  And yes, some of these people, cannot possibly have been the great guests their reviews depict because messy, uncaring, disrepectful people are the same and not going to change from house to house.

[Ronald150]

So you are saying that someone with 3 or 4  good reviews can, stop playing nice because if they do not leave a review,  they cannot get a  bad one?

If this is true than perhaps the platform can start telling us how many times a guest has not left a review. Hosts can than decide if they want to take their chances. hosting such guests. 

I have been hosting for several years and during 2018, I have noticed an upswing of guests who leave the place dirty. This is not going to get better if hosts are not fair with their reviews. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Ronald150

if a host don't leave a review and a guest do leave a review then guest's reveiw will be published after 14 days. And vice versa.

What Mark wants to say is that many hosts don't review their bad guests.

[Susan1188]

That's a great idea, the platform should say how many stays the guest has done, and how many reviews he has left.

Very revealing, because in many cases people probably don't leave a review for poor guests hoping he will also not leave one and they'll be done with it.

Is it not possible to sort of see this, if you look on the guests profile you can see the properties that he has reviewed, and sometimes you can see that he has reviewed more hosts than those that have recommended him.  Red flag?

[Nikolai12]

I think the problem is that hosts get rated and guests do not. Guests only have reviews, so if you have time to read 10 or 20 reviews every time a guest checks in then do the math how many times out of their booking they haven’t had a review....good luck. I think the simple solution is honest reviews by hosts AND if we get stars so should guests.

[Alon1]

Nikolai,

Firstly, it seems to me that your address of the 'problem' isn't accurate.

I'm sure you've noticed every time you are asked to Review a Guest, it includes 5 Star Ratings on 3 criteria: Cleanliness, Communication, Observance of House Rules; lastly thumbs up or down re Recommendation.

I believe Hosts with Instant Book listings are privy to this information. Like you I don't do IB, so it requires an IB Host to verify it. 

Airbnb's decision to privelege in this fashion is obviously linked to their promotional drive to encourage IB. It seems to reflect the company's corporate evolution of hierarchical structures, which has become evermore elaborate with the introduction of Super Host & Plus listings. 

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Secondly, it's not possible 'to do the maths', precisely because Hosts are not privy to 'how many times out of their booking they haven't had a review'. 

Personally, I don't think it matters, because there are too many variables to take into consideration, as noted by me and quite a few others in parts of this post.

However, I do make the time to read every single review a Guest has, and similarly check if the Guest also reviewed their Host, along with both parties' Responses. --Still, my decision whether to accept a Guest  or not is ultimately based on my interaction with the Guest during Inquiry. If the interaction is to my satisfaction it's all that matters. -- The initial interaction is of course equally pertinent to first time users who don't have any reviews. 

Consequently, If anything goes wrong during the Guest's stay, I don't look for reasons or execuses, such as blaming other Host Reviews! 

In 6  years my experience has largely been an overwhelmingly positive one; but I'm not suprised with the odd problem now and again. I put it down plain and simple  to the nature of this enterprise of dealing with a lot of strangers. 

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Lastly, your wish for  'honest reviews' seems highly subjective and ultimately unfathomable. Who is anyone to say that another's Host's review isn't 'honest'? -- I don't doubt that some reviews are not as I or someone else would wish them, but there is no way to influence a global forum of Hosts with so many personal and cultural differences. 

The bottom line is that it's your home or property, and one should do everything one can to satisfy one's own concerns. 

[Christine615]

I think we should be allowed to change our ratings. I'm now waiting on "iffy" guests before writing their reviews. I used to be tempted to give people the benefit of the doubt, but no more. There are two guests I would like to rate "not recommended."

And actually - it would be nice if there could be a rating that ONLY hosts could see. I think a lot of us would be more likely to rate "not recommended" if that were true.

I'm older and wiser now - because I also want to know who to allow in my home and who to block.

[Emilia42]

@Gordon, I think the biggest problem is that all hosting situations are different and when reading reviews we have little way of telling if the previous host's particular hosting style matches that of your own. For instance, having your experience I would definitely not give these guests a good review. But in my case, I have keyless entry so there is no key to forget or misplace. I do not care what time the guests arrive as I work all day up the road and they can let themselves in whenever they get there (without needing to notify me.) I am never home so would rarely hear them open and close the doors and would only really notice they were loud if they woke me. I have a large lot to park. While I try to direct the guest, if they park in another spot I might not even notice. I actually have gotten a couple suggestions for adding more hooks in the bathroom; with a lack of towel hooks I expect towels to be pilled on the floor. The space I rent is so small it is hard to leave a mess. I always expect hair (but will comment in a review when I find NO hair as a positive.) So I suppose what I am saying is that I would probably be one of those hosts who would positively rate these guests based on my limited interaction with them. I wish there was a better way. If you have any suggestions as how to word my reviews to better help future hosts I would love to hear them.

[Lawrene0]

@Gordon0, you could write, "These guests are more suited to @Emilia42." 

🙂

Or "more suited to Lawrene." (Bit of hardship would do them good.)

But I hear you. I wonder, too, how such inconsiderate guests get good reviews. 

[Marco65]

@Lawrene0 I wonder, however, how these reckless guests can exist!:/