Retaliatory And Spiteful Reviews

[Ryan-and-Darnie0]

Long time superhost here. Overall, the platform has been working great for us, but we recently encountered a problem that has caused us a lot of stress. This is honest feedback, and I believe Airbnb and hosts are more successful when the platform is successful.

We have hosted hundred of reservations and thousands of guests. The vast majority of guests have good intentions. When there's a legitimate complaint, we do our best to make it right and voluntarily offer refunds when it is warranted.

But we believe there is a blind spot in Airbnb's review moderation policy that is hurting honest and diligent hosts like us, and holding the platform back a little from being better for everyone.

Airbnb's review moderation policy accounts for explicit extortion and quid pro quo on both sides. Unfortunately, as all experienced hosts know, hosts are sometimes held hostage to an implicit and unstated extortion by the occasional bad faith guest. This happened to us recently, and is causing us a lot of stress. It's unfairly affected our performance and we are concerned we may lose our superhost status, not to mention bookings, because of a couple of spiteful reviews that were unwarranted.

1) A savvy guest can implicitly threaten a negative review by signaling a trivial, petty or otherwise illegitimate complaint. The host will be obliged to offer a refund, even if it is unwarranted out of fear of retaliation (a bad review).

2) Hosts may be fearful of filing legitimate property damage claims due to retaliation or spiteful reviews since untruthful reviews are not moderated according to Airbnb's policy.

This situation may not be commonplace, but an unwarranted 1 star review with unqualified or untruthful comments can have a disproportionately negative impact on performance and take a long time to recover from.

In our case, we had two guests who damaged our property so we filed a claim. Literally within one minute of filing the claim, both guests submitted 1 star reviews and make untruthful claims in their reviews. These reviews are anomalous (we're superhosts for a reason) but they have a big impact on our performance. 

A couple of suggestions for @Airbnb to consider:

1) There should be exceptions in the moderation policy for demonstrably untruthful reviews. We are told that review moderators are only able to do a very narrow investigation and look only at the content of the review itself. They have no background or context regarding the reservation. Moderation should take a more comprehensive approach and have all the info before making a decision about moderation. This only seems fair.

2) Automatically suspend, or moderate, reviews for reservations where a property damage claim has been filed. Alternatively, give hosts more time to file claims. Currently, hosts are required to rush to file a claim before the next guest checks in, which in many cases could literally be a few minutes after the damage is reported, leaving no time to investigate properly or explore alternative options.

Thanks!

R&D

cc: @Airbnb 

[Nathaniel0]

Airbnb has implemented a policy that suspends listings should they not get consistent 5 star reviews. This policy needs to be cancelled immediately for the following reasons:
When Airbnb suspends the listing there are several flaws:

1. The listing can not be accessed in any way. Meaning it can not be edited or reviewed from both the host and the Airbnb support staff.

2. The review / performance detailed metrics can not be viewed
if the metrics cannot be viewed then there is no way for the host to know what he needs to improve during the 5-day suspension period

3. This seems like an IT oversight

4. This policy seems to have been approved within Airbnb with little thought. Little thought as to why reviews are low, little thought as to how to assess an account or listing. And little thought as to why the policy is in place. This policy does not support the host at all. If hosts are not supported there is no Airbnb.

5. If you look at any website and look at reviews, the overall status may be high, but you will always see bad reviews from some disgruntled customer. (many times just reading the review you can tell that the customer is unreasonable and petty)

6. If Airbnb suspends a listing they are preventing the host from bringing in revenue which in turn prevents Airbnb from bringing in revenue.

7. During the pandemic there are also many variables that lead to poor reviews.

8. In summary, this policy or algorithm needs to be eliminated.

[Ryan-and-Darnie0]

@Nathaniel0 Agreed. We actually received a warning email from Airbnb about this because the revenge reviews we received were written the same week, coincidentally. It was definitely concerning to think that this listing could potentially be suspended just based on frivolous reviews with no due process.

[Allison44]

Fully agree.  Untruthful reviews ( several) can trigger AirBnb management to send a ‘warning’ email to a host telling them their Listing could be suspended!! No investigation, nothing.  Solely based on negative, often untruthful reviews.  This is SO unfair.  There would be no AirBnb if there were no hosts offering accommodation.  Hosts should not discount their  total and over-welming importance in the supply-chain of the AirBnb platform.  AirBnb can unfairly criticise hosts (ie unfairly make threats to hosts unfairly based on hostile reviews), but it’s up to hosts to call out discriminatory and unfair practices which treats hosts unfairly. 

allison

Level 10,

Bathurst, Australia.

[Dave52]

@Nathaniel0   You said "airbnb suspends listings should they not get consistent 5 star reviews".  What does this mean exactly?  I've seen active airbnb listings with 4.5 or 4.2 average ratings.  Is this something new?

[Dave52]

@Ryan-and-Darnie0  Agree 100%.  Timely post.  It is a major airbnb blind spot.  Airbnb should have a special department to investigate retaliatory reviews.  They should be relatively straightforward to spot, as long as everything is documented through the platform.  Gross violation of house rules, damage to property should both be grounds for dismissal of a guest review.  Looking at it from both sides, there is no motivation for a host to illegitimately claim a guest violated house rules or damaged property provided they have the back up.  Why would they?  A long time host who rarely if ever files a damage claim or needs to admonish a guest for violating house rules doesn't one morning wake up and decide to do it for no good reason.

YET, there is reason for a guest who caused damage or violated house rules to 1. threaten or 2. write a 1 star review.  On the first point, they'll threaten it as leverage.  On the second point, they do it as revenge which is unfortunately a human condition that cannot be solved by algorithm.  This should be relatively easy to determine through the evidence of the case.

Finally, continuing to allow revenge reviews will make alot of hosts ignore bad behavior like late night parties.  Exactly the kind of parties airbnb wants to avoid.  Why take the risk of a 1 star review when airbnb won't have your back?  Stopping revenge reviews will improve the airbnb community.  

[Ryan-and-Darnie0]

@Dave52 Agreed, the motivation and impact is asymmetrical and there needs to be due process for review moderation that takes more into consideration simply than the contents of the review itself. 

Another idea we just had is allowing superhosts the option to remove 1 review per month per listing. This seems like a reasonable compromise. if the listing only gets the occasional anomalous revenge review, then being able to remove 1 review per month should satisfy that.

[Janice68]

I have encountered similar situations on several occasions. I have had to give refunds to guests who were booked long-term, but decided to leave early. Their departures were due to finding permanent housing while relocating. I have a policy of "no refunds for early leaves" but folks skim over this rule in my listings. Refunds were issued under the threat of a bad review.

I can appreciate the business model that Airbnb has adopted by using reviews as a means to keep hosts' performance levels high. However, this policy is flawed. I would encourage a review of Airbnb's moderation policy to protect hosts from unwarranted "dings" on their records. The impact of lost revenue does not only impact the host but AirBnB as well.

[Ryan-and-Darnie0]

@Janice68 Totally understand the QC dilemma Airbnb is facing here, it's not a simple problem. But, IMHO truthful reviews is the best way to ensure guests get what they expect.

[Allison44]

Janice 68 in Western Salem, NC

you are absolutely correct - the review system is flawed.  As a host, all of us have had ‘suck-up’ to unreasonable guests ( ie making unreasonable requests re equipment they claim isn’t working within a property, stealing commodities, causing damage to linen & towels (stains), and many other scenarios, therefore AirBnb needs to have the backs of hosts.

AirBnb tells guests & hosts to leave honest and fair reviews. Although it is a human flaw to try and advantage themselves, leaving untruthful and unfair reviews disadvantages one of the two planks in the platform, ie the Accommodation providers!

AirBnb needs to allocate more resources to tackling the - Reviews by hostile guests- and the consequences of this, to make the system more trustworthy!

Regards

Allison

level 10,

Bathurst, Australia.

[Adriano-and-Maria0]

Hi Allison,  I just had 1 guest who said he was visiting his girlfriend.  I asked him if the girlfriend was going to stay overnight he said no.  Little did I know she was visiting him afternoon till late at night and then sneaking in early morning.  So deceitful of them.  Left all lights on all night.  I texted him about the situation that if girlfriend was going to stay there was extra fee for any other guests.  He said he was well aware of that.

Then On the 3rd day the gate at the front was closed.  But he  didn't know how  open it from the outside.

 He called me and I came outside straight away to open gate.  He accussed me of locking them outside.  The girlfriend was not happy.  They left on the third night and wanted their refund for other nights.  They accused me of everything under the sun.  Totally untrue.  Dealing with this right now and not a good feeling.  

[Allison44]

Hello Adriano. - and- Maria

What you have described is unconscionable! The guest is breaking the rules.  But they want you as a host to refund after they departed early.  I had a situation like that recently, and I thought never again.  I believe ‘your gut feeling’ re particular guests is what you should rely on! Sometimes the lack of courtesy displayed by a guest, when booking sends up ‘red flags’.

best of luck sorting the refund.

Allison

level 10,

Bathurst, Australia

[Jillian115]

@Ryan-and-Darnie0 Posted something last week about a revenge review which was just a possibility at the time, but frustrating because I felt trapped. Either let the guest know I was unhappy and suffer the bad review or let them continue on with their party. When I asked airbnb if I go tell them no parties can they prevented from leaving a review. The answer was a very rude no. They still get to leave a review.  Anyway about 4 days later I received a private message from an Admin to check out this message from the  Global Head of Hosting https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Catherine-s-Host-Update-reviews-party-ban-policy-... . I don't know if they will stand behind it but it looks like you may be able to get it cleared based on the article. 

[Ryan-and-Darnie0]

@Jillian115 Totally empathize, we have been there several times. I suspect most of  the time hosts will err on the side of not risking a negative review because ultimately they know that has a far greater impact to their bottom-line that a broken rule, an broken household item or missing DVD or whatever. Those things are cheap compared to a bad review and bad actors take advantage of that. Our housekeepers who have been in the business longer than we have tell us the same thing all the time 😞

[Dave52]

@Ryan-and-Darnie0  You are right, most hosts myself included don't sweat the small stuff which is fine,  I consider it the cost of doing business.  I don't even think about the revenge review in those cases.  It's the BIG stuff that becomes problematic.  Especially the 2AM noise, neighbors complaining.   After the third complaint what to do?  Nicely ask the guest to quiet down and hope they don't 1-star review you, or ignore the neighbors???  It puts the host in a tough spot when you know airbnb CS will blow you off and say the guest has the right to their opinion.