Unfair Reviews

[Coleen11]

Hi everyone

Question, just to hear your thoughts:

I have been transparent to inform on my property description that it’s on a busy road with traffic noise, so that prospective guests can make an informed choice to book or not to. Additionally, I have an Airbnb automated message which informs guests of this again when they are about to book. So I always presume those booking are okay with this. It is a city apartment and I understand some are light sleepers etc.

Now my question is, is it fair for a guest to then review my apartment poorly because of this? I have a guest who gave me 3 stars because of this.

I’m a serial Superhost. I find Airbnbs resolution methods on this rather too automated. They don’t take time to understand the context but just send these long irrelevant responses to my complaint talking about not violating their rules etc. I asked them if a guest can rate me poorly because they want 2 beds when I advertised 1 bed and they just send long replies. 

I feel it’s very unfair. I work very hard to get my ratings and be transparent. Every property is not for everyone and that’s why guests should choose what’s for them. People live in noisy traffic cities all over the world so there are always guests who can. So why didn’t this guest find a quiet place. Why book my place only to give me 3 stars. It’s very hard to climb back up from just one poor guest review. I’ve been hosting for 14 years. 

thank you for your responses. 

[Mike-And-Jane0 · Accepted solution]

@Coleen11 It is very clear from reading past reviews that you have done your utmost to improve the apartment and keep guests happy. Sadly though your (understandable) frustration does come through in your response to recent reviews. There is no point challenging the reviews on noise as Airbnb absolutely allows such reviews even when you have been clear in your listing. I wonder though if you could do more to explain to people how damaging a 3 star or lower review is. For instance we have the following paragraph in our check-out instructions. I don't know if it helps or not but if it avoids one low rating then it is worthwhile.

We hope you enjoyed your time with us and will leave a review on Airbnb. The Airbnb system is somewhat strange in that an average of 4.7 stars is ‘the level of performance that’s expected from hosts on Airbnb’

[Coleen11]

Thank you. Yes, I am quite frustrated with it as I feel it’s a system malfunction too. Eg. if I say my apartment is a 1 bed and a guest books but then rates it 3 star because they wanted 2 beds…and this makes a review not to be true…yet the system can’t throw it out…meantime the rating creates a blemish on the listing….I feel Airbnb needs to look into these kind of issues which I think are quite simple to correct. I mean a review should help a host to improve yet how do I improve on a location? Only the guest can book where it’s quieter surely. but thank you Mike-andJane0, your feedback is most valued and I will incorporate into my routine.