Reviews

[Irma370]

Hello, do you   owners have  same problems as we do,like  guests  are  very nice and they  come to spend  their  time  with us, when they are  in our place everything  is top 10, no complains ,no  regrets, many words of  gratefulness ,but  tomorrow there  is like  akward, very bad reviews and  low scores, which are  not  exact  or objective any way? It has become very periplexing , and  annoying .Thank you  in advance 🫶

[Mary1523]

Just got to say, love this note! I will be stealing some parts of this, if thats ok?

I find with a 6 bedroom farm property I'm constantly having to explain/justify that a spiderweb or two doesn't mean the property isn't clean, and therefore i shouldn't get a rating of 4 just because of that....the larger the property the harder to manage guest expectations on reviews!

[Irma370]

Thank  you @Mary1523 ,so much .❤️

[Sara-And-Rob0]

I agree with this post by @Robin4 110%.  The review system that we work within is absolutely broken and now that no guest reviews can ever be removed, we are at the mercy of very subjective viewpoints.  This is made even worse since the advent of Guest Favourite, which has, in effect, supplanted Superhost as the flag to wave.  Unfortunately, this new algorithm measures each metric and in a very uneven and random manner.  

I'd love to agree recommending writing more descriptive listing details, etc...but in fact, this would be based on the assumption that guests are reading the details, which in our experience, they are not and then when their expectations are not realized (due to lack of diligence), they will and do, give us lower stars, thereby blaming hosts for their lack of work to make sure they had reasonable expectations.  

Our most common responses to questions from guests these days, 'As outlined in our description...' or 'You can find all the check-in details with photos in your Airbnb app, as outlined in our message from yesterday...'  .

Airbnb needs to step up and start producing short, informative videos for educating guests what is needed by them to ensure a great experience is waiting and to not take it our on host's reviews if they fail to do this.

We exist in a negative feedback loop on Airbnb, often failing to receive any actionable feedback from reviews that damage our algorithmic standing.  Which, at the end of the day is the only thing that truly matters to us.

[Farah148]

@Irma370 Totally agree with you.  I don’t understand how people, even if host is the first to reach out and offer any help if needed, can stay silent and not give the host an opportunity to at least try and rectify any issues they have.  I had a guest, that I knew might be a little more high maintenance—using AirReview extension, I saw that they rated some hosts 4 stars even though they noted they would book again and their detailed review had no noted faults.  So, I wasn’t surprised that they gave me an overall 5 star, but gave a 3 star for check-in because they had a hard time seeing numbers on the smart lock (it’s one of those with numbers that light up once you press the screen, and was noted on my instructions before check-in).  I sent a welcome message, letting them know to reach out with any issues…if they had said something about the lock, I would have provided a manual key for them to use.  I’m also perplexed that they also mentioned an issue about something else that wasn’t actually an issue on my part, and they acknowledged issue was on them. Thankfully, the only impact on the 3 star check-in rating is that my listing is considered top 10%, instead of 5% now.

[Irma370]

@Farah148 , I do not  know what happened with a people , but this  year ,I  have a feelling  to working in a Manging  Terorism Center,  but Tourism , considering guests  reviews, and all of the complaining .😕😊🫶

[Sara-And-Rob0]

On another note that I touched on in my reply to @Robin4 here is an example of not receiving actionable information.  For the record, the guest reported no problems during her 2 day stay.  We are transparent in our description that our chalet is located behind a very popular tourist photo point.  The guest also paid the lowest nightly rate of anyone in 2024, less than half of our standard rate. Our photos match and description is updated regularly when even the smallest change is made.  We strive for transparency...but again, if guests don't read things or look at reviews and photos, they will create unrealistic expectations and voila, we get a review like this.  

I messaged the guest after receiving this review to ask for a little insight into her choices and like 99% of my inquiries for more actionable intel, the message was read and not answered.

This is the essence of a broken review system where we had/have no opportunity to improve our offer.  Basically, this review fails to inform future guests and because the words fail to break the sacred Review Removal Policy, we can only accept our lumps.  

For the record, when a guest chooses 4 stars, the Airbnb description is 'Very Good'.  But as @Robin4 put it so beautifully, this actually means 'Not good enough'.  I have printed their post and posted it on my magnetic board where I keep my paper calendars and select glowing reviews and postings to keep my attitude in alignment.