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 

[Lan1]

Sorry to hear about your frustration regarding the price issue due to the instant booking.  Normally if you set a minimum price, Airbnb should NOT change it BELOW. I can't explain what was wrong. You should contact the support term.  The quality of service totally depends on your luck. Few representatives were able to resolve your issues but the majority never understood your issue and provided the help.

Some are just hosts like you and me ( support ambassador?).

I had many party issues due to instant booking ( from my observation and other skilled hosts' comments).

Sorry I am not able to give you an explanation of the price issue.

Wish you the best!

Lan 

[Natalie142]

HI, Tricia, Allow me to chime in on your questions about penalty free cancellations. As per policy you can cancel if you are not comfortable. When speaking with Airbnb you must say these 3 words only: "I am not comfortable with this reservation, Kindly cancel, it came as an instant book". You made a mistake going to explain all these details, which is clearly double booking issue, and hence it is not covered under the policy. Remember - Airbnb agents are on a recorded line and they have metrics to meet. I am not sure what those metrics are, but "uphoilding the policy" must be one of them.

Regarding additional discount below Automated pricing. You have a cancellation policy that is Strict / Non refundable . 

Offer a non-refundable option

A non-refundable option is a discount you can offer on top of other discounts and cancellation policies that gives you greater protection against cancellations.

How they work

• You set your discount, which is typically 10% off the base price in everywhere but China
• Your discounted rate appears in search
• At checkout, guests either select your standard rate—subject to your cancellation policy—or the discounted, non-refundable rate
• If they cancel, you keep your entire payout for all nights booked, minus the cleaning fee if they cancel before check-in
• A reservation would be eligible if the check-out date is within 60 days
• The discount is applicable if the reservation is not booked with a pre-approval or special offer

One thing to understand about price automation: it will ALWAYS be set to your lowest price. I have not seen it move a dollar from that number. Maybe my area is oversaturated by AIRBNBs and there is never a shortage, I am not sure. I feel that having the price automation on pushes you up on the search list. So, add linens fee or airconditioner heat fee, or simply increase the nightly rate on the automation by 10%. 

Hope this helps

[Glen846]

@Tricia92 smart pricing prioritises getting bookings, for airbnb, and cheaper stays, for guests (so they'll book) over getting the best price for a host. Do yourself a favour and get either pricelabs or airdna. These services plug into your Airbnb profile and dynamically manage your daily prices based on market data and various criteria that you can set yourself. Increased my revenue by quite a bit and took the hassle out of doing pricing manually. 

[Natalie142]

I could not agree more with instant book being a cause of serious issues with bookings. Here is How I have combated it and still keep the instant book on, since it is a MAIN driver in bookings:

 - you have 3 instant books that you can cancel penalty free per year.

- limit the number of nights to 4

- never -ever accept 1 night over the weekend- you will be guaranteed to have a party

-install a camera at the apartment door entrance to monitor the check in.

- set exorbitant amount for extra guests. Example: Place can sleep 6, set the nightly price for 6 people, all extra are at 280 per person. If you have a recording showing that 15 people entered. you may instantly send a request for extra people and have them vacate or pay.

- request names and ages of everyone in the group in your automated welcome message.

- set another Exorbitant amount for moving/ tempering with smoke alarms, attach it in the welcome message.

 - if they want to cancel after receiveing those 2 welcome messages - allow them. It would have been a party that you have just prevented. 

- Oh, and no midnight check in. This a huge party give away.

-Lastly check the number of wifi devices on your router - if your gut feeling is telling you that there is a party. People have their Iphones named, so you will see list of everyone in attendance with names.

Hope this helps you start liking instant book, if at all possible

[James-and-Rosalynn0]

We just went around and around with Airbnb when a guest left us a 1 star review. We have all the videos that support guest violated host rules and Airbnb cancelled their reservation.  Dosen't make since how Airbnb could allow a review to remain from a guest whose intent meant was to discredit the host. No other compliants from other guest on the basis this guest has claimed. This was clearly a retaliation review and Airbnb has not remove it.

[Anne1057]

I could not agree more. Besides reviews that are manipulative and retaliatory, I have also experienced guests who ignore the information provided - that the house is in a valley in a place where high humidity is a constant. We explain that google maps does not give accurate directions (the remote location is a selling point) and to please follow the directions we supply.

Most people pay attention and understand that what they are renting is what has been described. However, occasionally we have had guests claim that we have given them an inaccurate location, posted untrue descriptions of the house and complaining of humidity. 

It is very discouraging that the platform enables this sort of libel without flagging an inconsistent rating. When a 1 star review is posted within a day of a five-star review, and after a consistent period of high-ratings, surely the platform can flag this for further investigation before allowing it to go public and hurting our business?