Unethical Superhosts

Kent2
Level 2
Bozeman, MT

Unethical Superhosts

I am a Superhost and also a traveler.  I recently rented a 3 br condo in Washington, Utah for just one night.  Three couples and we needed a place to sleep between Las Vegas and Lake Powell.  The condo was sterile, clean, comfortable and quite basic.  No real complaints about the space per se.  Before arrival the Superhost, let's call her Selby, asked for my personal email address via the Airbnb message platform.  She said she needed it to send me a pdf of the house rules.  Didn't think much of that (other than she could have had the .pdf in the cloud and sent me a link).  After we checked out we had little or no internet connection on our houseboat and so didn't get around to writing a review.   But then, within a day of our departure, she sent me not one but two emails, a couple of days apart, basically bribing me to give her a 5 star rating.  She asked me to do her a "huge favor" and give her 5 stars because 4 stars might hurt her Superhost status.  Then she offered discounts if I came back in the future and most egregiously, she told me she had already reviewed me as a "perfect guest".  

This was annoying and alarming to me since a: if she had actually paid any personal attention to my booking, she would have seen I have been a host for 8 years and not sent a remedial, rather condescending explanation of the star rating system.  But mostly I was appalled that this was clearly her modus operandi.  She gets the private email for a semi-valid reason, then AUTOMATICALLY generates boilerplate emails to coerce the guest into a favorable review.    

 

I called Airbnb Support and they showed very little interest and I had to push them on whether they wanted to have behavior like this reported or not.  They finally said, "yeah, you can report the listing".  But what I really wanted to do was to provide Airbnb Support with copies of the emails since they are smoking guns.  

 

I also checked some of Selby's other reviews of past guests and they are EXACTLY the same as the review I got.  Boilerplate and probably automatically generated since she uses a website called Guesty.com.  

 

Had she not shown such bad taste and leaned on me, and never contacted me to push for the rating, I would have given her a 5 just because the place met our needs.  But as a result of her actions, I gave a 3 overall and 1 for communications.  The only real gripe about the space was that she demanded that the towels and ONLY the white towels, be put into the washer... BEFORE 10 AM!  One has to wonder where the $150 for cleaning is spent on this rather small condo that was used by us for less than 12 hours. 

 

What do people think?  Should Airbnb revisit her Superhost status?  It sure seems like that kind of behavior which is explicitly mentioned as unacceptable in the TOS, should have consequences.  

8 Replies 8
Mike-And-Jane0
Top Contributor
England, United Kingdom

@Kent2 I am pleased to see that asking for a 5 star review can backfire. If it does so with sufficient guests this host will automatically lose her superhost status.

One can only hope that she does some soul searching when Airbnb admin contacts about this, as they say they will.  

Kia272
Level 10
Takoma Park, MD

@Kent2 I very much agree with you on this, but it's not a measure of Superhost status, and therefore AirBnB won't do anything. I think it's a HUGE mistake for hosts to do things such as this. If they've got a 5* place, they'll get 5* reviews, other than hosting the occasional permanently disgruntled guest who will always find fault. 

 

I stayed at an AirBnB last year- actually two reservations at the beginning and end of a backpacking trip. The host blatantly asked for 5* reviews by any means she could- AirBnB messaging, the house manual, more AirBnB messaging. I was REALLY annoyed. I finally opted to not review at all. The property was basically okay (not enough toilet paper???), but I couldn't see actually damaging her rating due to a pet peeve of a host (me). 

 

So, while I understand your annoyance, I think the best is to simply deprive a host of what they are actively seeking, and maybe they'll get the message. Now that the reviews are done, you could definitely message her and let her know how much damage her 5* request did. Maybe she'll learn something? Kia

Actually, Airbnb Support reported that they are contacting the host and putting a "mark" in their record for this behavior.  So, unless Airbnb is lying, they do things sometime.  Support told me that unethical efforts to influence a review IS  a big thing to them, as it should be. 

@Kent2  AirBnB support frequently SAYS they are doing things that they actually don't do. It's just to get you off the phone. I very much doubt that they are doing anything about this host. But they did get you off the phone. 

 

While I understand your feelings about this, calling AirBnB seems a bit vindictive. Sometimes it's best to just let things play out as they will. Karma usually takes care of things like this. 

 

BTW, sometimes I'm fake-nice to guests that I'm super annoyed with, because I don't want a bad review. Is that unethical? 

Karma rolls slow and can handle a nudge now and then.  I'm not yet so cynical that Airbnb Support's business model is that two-faced.  Doesn't make sense as a business model.  Time will tell.  As to whether being fake-nice is unethical, each of us must decide.  

In virtually every town in every country, especially my own, if I see someone litter I'll ask them if they realized they dropped something and point it out.  Except maybe, late at night, in Compton.  A lot goes into ethical behavior and I'm not a saint.  But failing to act accumulates in our own karma.

Helen3
Top Contributor
Bristol, United Kingdom

Unfortunately there are some hosts that ask for five star reviews which I agree is unethical . @Kent2 

 

However I think it was rather harsh to leave a three star review overall because you were asked to start a wash before you left the listing.

 

and to give one star for communication because you were upset by the email asking for a five star review . 

I am a bit confused by your answer.  We agree that the host in question's behavior was unethical.    Being an unethical host is no small thing.  Lack of ethics in one area is a pretty good indication of lack of ethics in other areas.    My three star review had nothing to do with starting the wash.  I objected to the notion that guests should be cleaners who pay for cleaning.  Three stars was halfway between 5 and 1.  Seemed fair to me given the circumstances.    And, happy to be harsh with the 1 star for comms.  If the comms aren't honest, what value do they have?