I am not sure if you are still engaged in this thread but yes, I understand what you are saying.
We have been hosts for 12 years and have seen just about everything. We have 8 unique properties in sought after locations in Switzerland.
We have taken every measure possible to be as transparent in our listing 'offer' as one can humanly be. We have not taken the last step of putting our list of negatives about our apartments in the first 500 character description but it is heading that way.
That leads me to the next part, it wouldn't matter if we did that anyway. We are noticing a horrifying trend of guests booking, staying, then giving us lower than 5 stars about minor things they had access to before they 'accepted' our offer.
For example, F stayed at our newest property that has 54 reviews. 53 of these reviews are 5-star. There are a few 4-stars sprinkled into the mix but those are shoulder shrug issues and nothing like F's.
The biggest kick in the butt was 3-stars overall and 3-stars for ACCURACY.
Whenever you want to give less than 4-stars, the system prompts you with some descriptive bubbles or you can make a custom bubble. He chose to say, 'Three floors down without elevator, too much rules'.
So, like you say, either something is accurate or it isn't. This is not subjective.
I view all bookings from a basic, legal contract of sale, point of view, we have the 'offer', our listing and all it's descriptive sections. The guest is then obligated to read the offer, and if they choose to 'accept' it by agreeing to the price and terms of payment, etc... We then have a legal contract of sale.
In accepting, it must be assumed that the guest has read what they can EXPECT to receive and we are obligated to provide it.
In F's case, he didn't expect to walk down three flights of stairs. Why didn't he expect this? He failed to perform his due diligence and did not see that we clearly state in the safety section, 'Must climb stairs' nor did he read in the 'Other Things to Note' where we again, explicitly write 'It is necessary to walk up/down three flights of stairs to the apartment. There isn’t a lift.' We also do not have 'lift' as an amenity on our list. These sections are visible pre-acceptance. Every place has rules, ours has 6, basics, no smoking, take off your shoes, quiet after 22:00 by-law, etc...not so many rules but this was not a point of argument, it is an amount and that means it's subjective and can never be removed.
So here is the battle I am currently embroiled in with Airbnb, F has failed to do what is obligated of him as the buyer, due diligence. Buyer beware means, inform yourself of what you can reasonably expect to receive. If you don't do this, you may experience disappointment, or unexpected negative consequences.
I have been arguing that this review fails to inform future, potential guests because our offer is already fully transparent and our search placement should not be penalized by F's lack of due diligence. His failure was that he created false expectations out of ignorance, ignorance we tried to steer around by being up-front and transparent in our listing.
The Guest Favorite Algorithm has supplanted Superhost and this review was so bad (it included several 4 stars as well), that we will need another 50 5-star reviews to undo the damage.
The accuracy metric needs exceptions to the all-powerful Review Removal Policy.
This is the 5th such review we have received this year, in the past 12 years we had about 3 altogether. We have entered a new phase of guests, guests that do not take the time to be responsible for their choices. They make it the host's fault and Airbnb gets right behind that in such an un-bending way, it is very aggravating.
I have tried every angle to get some traction with Airbnb taking steps to educate guests on how to be good guests. A two-minute, 5 step video by Brian Chesky that lays out what hosts are expecting their guests to do before they book, after they book, and what is relevant in the review. I cannot get beyond the 2nd line of defense. I get a lot of false sincerity and long winded apologies but no action.
Speaking of action, we have a policy of not writing public responses. Mostly because we never want to draw additional attention to the topic and never want to seem defensive. We do, however, ask guests to remove their reviews and provide screenshots where they should have seen the details before booking. None have yet removed their review and I only send one message and one follow-up, never badgering, always professional. It's hard not to call them a name or two that might fit but I always leave a few days to cool down before I send the message.
I would get on board with any efforts to improve the review removal policy or guest education movement.
For us, we have hindered our own search placement and removed several of our properties from instant booking and are now screening requests to ensure the guests are aware and agree to certain parts of our 'offer'.
