No wonder guests don't leave reviews

[Carol354]

We have had a rash of guests either give us 4★ overall or not leave a review. Our review percentage is now down to 80%. I hadn't bothered checking my progress for a while but I think I had roughly 90% of my guests leave me reviews previously. My husband always asks our guests to review - his wording is "it helps us & it helps you."

After being guests ourselves on a NZ holiday I think I know the reason for the change.

We stayed at four different Airbnbs, each for one night only.

Here is what came up when it was time to write my reviews..

"How was stay?"

Stars now have an explanation - & 4★ "good" will look good to most guests. No explanation that aything under 5★ will hurt a host.

Next "was anything extra special" this is where the "sparking clean" & "extra touches" comes from on our listing page. These are little emoticons - checking them the work of a minute.

Next is where it gets a bit loaded. "How did stay at ****'s compare with your expectations." The final one technically met my expectations as this is a very well known Airbnb but surely that isn't as good as "exceeded my expectations." so I checked thatinstead.

"Then private note."

Then individual star ratings (this is a long way from the overall rating)

The first 2 Airbnbs had "tell us more about ****'s place which was a 3 page (!) optional checklist of what was offered at each Airbnb.

Then finally the most important thing - the review.

The final 2 Airbnbs had the checklist afterwards. I didn't bother filling out for them. I'm on holiday after all.

Then an offer to get $30 off next trip.

Airbnb, this may be fine for guests that are just going to one place but not for travellers using muliple Airbnbs. I was actually relieved when I used other accommodation options, so I didn't have to go through all this!

[Ben551]

@Carol354  good god, that's insane.  I kinda wish you had taken a screen shot of all of this...  I too have noticed a drop in the number of guests bothering to give a review.  Some aren't bothering at all and no wonder!

[Carol354]

Screenshots would be a good idea if anyone else is using AIrbnb as a guest.

People are sick of having to rate stuff.

While I was on holiday, Google Maps kept wanting a rating, had to rate an Uber driver in Wellington, the mindless app I have been playing for a year kept wanting a rating. People are sick of this, so you really need to keep it short & sweet if you want a response. The first two stays where I filled out everything took me 15 minutes each to complete.

[Alon1]

@Ben551 @Carol354 

Ben, 

Robin in his thorough way has posted a screen shot on another thread. I'm sure you've seen it.

You can either find it in 'Search' or contact @Robin  to post it again here. 

[Ava30]

I have no idea how to get this forum to allow me to post the link, but this is the title of the post with all of @Robin's wonderful screen shots -  Do You like Airbnb's review system .... Do I hear crickets? Just search that and you will find it.

[Robin4 · Accepted solution]

@Carol354  @Ava30 @Alon1 

Carol, here is the link to that post.....

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Do-you-like-Airbnb-s-review-system-do-I-hear-Crickets/m-...

Carol, I also include this following page inside the cover of my house rules. It may seem that we are begging for good reviews but I am not, I am simply stating the anomolies between the way guests are advised and the way hosts are treated in the reviews system. Most guests when they see this are shocked to see they way they have reviewed in the past was actually hurting hosts when their objective was to help them. They feel angry that Airbnb would go out of their way to mis-represent their feelings.....

If you wish to use this screenshot Carol, just right click it and save as a picture file to 'My Pictures'. You can open it in 'Paint' and by using the texting tools in Paint put your own personal details in place of mine.

In more than 30 reviews since I have put this page into the house rules folder I have not received less than a 5 star review.

We have to fight the company's 'bloody minded' attitude towards hosts in the review proces as best we can.

Cheers.....Rob

[Helen56]

Hi @Robin4  Is there any chance you could  add this as a Word Doc?

[Robin4]

@Helen56 

Regretably no Helen, I was not the author of this work and consequently don't have an original of the printed version of it! It was originally done by@Kath  from Albany in Western Australia, I liked it and got her permission to use it, so I took a screenshot of her work and saved it as a Portable Networks Graphic (PNG) file which I saved to my pictures.

Kath's version was a little different from mine, but what I did was open the PGN file in 'Microsoft Paint' and using the text tools in Paint, overwrote Kaths details with my own. I then added the two picture files of the Superhost badge at the top and my profile photo at the bottom and resized to A4 format to end up with what you see here.

Unfortunately Helen I am an 'old dog' and you know what they say.....you can't teach an old dog new tricks! Maybe @Ben has the capability to reconvert a PGN file to a Word doc.

Alternatively you could contact Kath and ask her if she could provide you with her original text in Word doc form!

Or as a third option I could overwrite my details with those that you might provide and repost here so you can save it and print straight from it!

Cheers......Rob

[Ben551]

Hey @Robin4  thanks SO much for posting that, it's excellent and so helpful.

I'm going to add a page to my guest Welcome Book that has this in it. I think it's essential information to manage guest expectations ahead of review time.

[Norbert73]

Thanks very much for posting this. We just had our listing paused for 5 days because of one stupid idiot who gave us a rating of 1 for accuracy because he didn't expect our place to be connected to a shop because he obviously hadn't read through our listing properly. He then gave us a 3 star rating for everything else, which was also totally incorrect really. So I very much appreciate your above post.

[Carol354]

Thank you Rob for that useful rating sheet. I am going to print it out. Sorry to have been so slow to respond. I find having to sign in every time I want to use this messageboard a bit of a turn off.

[Beth80]

@Carol354 Lately when I mention the review I say  " if you could just do the little stars, all 5 of them please 😉 you don't have to write anything as I know the review process is a pain"  I'm just trying to keep my numbers up and my guests coming back. 3 pages of check boxes? No way would I be willing to do that while on holiday. I have to say ABB is damaging us and themselves with this kind of review process.

[Angie29]

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@Beth80 wrote:

@Carol354 Lately when I mention the review I say  " if you could just do the little stars, all 5 of them please 😉 you don't have to write anything as I know the review process is a pain"  I'm just trying to keep my numbers up and my guests coming back. 3 pages of check boxes? No way would I be willing to do that while on holiday. I have to say ABB is damaging us and themselves with this kind of review process.

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What a wonderful idea!!!  Thank you, Beth.  What are the results?  Has it worked so far for you?  Either way, I will use your quote and send it to my guests.    

[Beth80]

@Angie29  So far it seems to be working. Most of the time they leave a few words but they are all filling out the review. 

[Cormac0]

@Carol354 

It's not a review process its market research! at every opportunity Airbnb get other people to do the work for free...