do people believe that the reviews on airbnb are reliable.? can false reviews be posted or bought?

Barbara2868
Level 2
Laval, Canada

do people believe that the reviews on airbnb are reliable.? can false reviews be posted or bought?

we stayed at an airbnb with 160 reviews and the place was rated as nearly 5 out of 5.

when we got there we found a badly  maintained apartment, poorly  functioning

plumbing. cleaning was something they had apparently never heard of:

the fridge gaskets were BLACK. the floor was neither swept nor sanitized.

the bed linen were horrible. there were cockroaches. there house was on a main street with diesel buses running early morning to early evening non-stop.

in the evening there were the bars : that meant nearly 24 hours a day horrendous noise. in addition the owners lived in the first floor or 

the property and were chain smokers so the entrance area reeked of nicotine. 

we moved to a hotel after 6 nights although we had booked 17 nights.  we left mexcio after 13 days

instead of staying the planned 8 weeks and cancelled 3 other airbnb reservations. 

how is it possible that nobody other than us noticed any of these things or took offence?

mind-boggling. i will never trust another airbnb review.

 

12 Replies 12
Inna22
Level 10
Chicago, IL

@Barbara2868 There were a few known cases of scammers giving each other reviews. You have to actually book the property to do that. Airbnb has been on top of it lately and removes reviews if the rental price is much cheaper than normal.

 

I have stayed at a handful of airbnbs with glowing reviews that either had major deficiencies or were flat out horrible. One was advertised as two bedroom but literally had no door in the second one. Not one person mentioned it and the place was something like 100 reviews, 4.9 rating. One host gave one set of towels for the stay (not per person but per booking) and charged for extra. The listing explicitly said luxurious bedding and towels provided. Again, no mentioning in reviews and not a cheap place. 

 

I ask myself the same question. I wonder if I am more picky than others, or if I am a princess on a popper's budget. 

 

I doubted it is rigging but certainly want to know as a host how I can keep my guests as happy. Mine seem to complain about every tiny thing and my 4.8 stars are earned with blood and tears

@Inna22  where did you hear about ABB removing reviews if the price was lower than usual?

 

@Branka-and-Silvia0 a relative of mine booked my daughters airbnb. The relative wanted a guest review. She decided to help him. He actually stayed at her house a few years ago for a month so technically he has been her guest 🙂 She lowered the price to like $10 and they exchanged reviews. That was at least thee years ago. A few months ago she got a message that airbnb bot determined it to not be a genuine review and it was removed. It doesn’t matter to her- she has lots of reviews and this one was from long ago and we never asked the relative if his was taken down 

@Inna22  better late than never 😄 😄 😄

 

Fun fact about prices.... I was playing with my prices once and have set one single night at 10€.  A few days later I put my regular price of 50€/night back again.  After that, for a few next months Airbnb constantly suggested I should lower my price to 6€ .... which is impossible bc 10€ was/is the min setting 😄 😄 😄

It just confirmed my theory that ABB will always suggest a few € lower prices, no matter the season or occupancy rate

@Branka-and-Silvia0 I am sorry for the naive newbies who might trust the pricing suggestions are thoughtful and follow. Why can’t they partner up with price labs or someone like that. I am sure it cost them the same to build their own system and upkeep it. 
although whoever programmed it must be laughing really hard at all of us because they just set it up to always go down 

Its a race to the bottom with Airbnb prices and its infuriating. Just shows you their price tips have absolutely no consideration for local pricing or quality of listing. 

 

Alexandra199
Level 10
Gretton, United Kingdom

Totally agree with what you wrote! My experience of Airbnb as aguest has not been great. I've stayed at properties with 5 star reviews and what you get is not a patch on what I offer at my properties. I have also wondered if I am being over picky. There is a good consensus of hosts who will tell you the worst guests to host are other hosts! I try to be kind when I review and usually give good reviews, but on one occasion it was so bad I privately wrote to the host to tell them I thought what they offered was unacceptable. It would therefore seem I am part of the problem!  I guess as a host who obsesses about reviews, I know how awful it is to get 4 stars so I hold back a bit.

Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

@Barbara2868  This case is definitely an outlier because a host may develop a scam to get great reviews, but  it is a hard hustle to maintain in the long run. Perhaps all those glowing reviews occurred in a short span, that be interesting to note. If a place has great reviews over a long time (a few years), including recently  and all of the same level than surely that listing can be trusted.

 

Airbnb's next move should be to clean out their 'inventory of hosts' that do not fit their new direction. I bet that has not been addressed really seriously in years, but I am sure it is already on their 'must-do' table.

I have had a few bad reviews, which were all from guests who misbehaved and totally didnot follow my house rules. They stayed with more people than booked for; used hard drugs; partied until late at night (400h mornings); did damage etc. And the moment I politely let them know this is unacceptable, they indeed give you a "1" as a rating, while they stayed at my place in the centre of Amsterdam for a very low rate and decided they could scam me a bit by staying with extra ppl in my apartment. Perhaps I should ask 3x a higher price than my current rate, to avoid free loaders who misbehave? So far, I do not see AIRBNB take effective actions against inappropriate behaviour of guests. 

 

it is sad that people behave like this/ when my husband and i stay at a hotel or apartment we treat the property as if it were our own/ with care and respect/ by the same token we expect travel lodging to be maintained and clean when we arrive/

with airbnb we have ended up in dumps 3x now/ although the lodgings were reviewed at  close to 5 out of 5/ airbnb does not do itself or its hosts a favour by  NOT maintaining a decent standard: people who DO have a standard will no longer book with them and airbnb hosts will end up with more and more guests of the type you describe/"das eben ist der fluch der boesen taten" quoted freely from schiller🤣this morning the most popular radio host in montreal stated that airbnb reviews cannot be trusted /,while i commend your efforts and sympathize with your ordeals, airbnb has lost ALL credibility in my eyes🇨🇦

does not really seem like an outlier to me. see remark below Inna 22 from Chicago who states they have had similar experiences. i also have been discussing this with people locally and it is interesting to hear how many have actually had horrid experiences with airbnb.

there is something entirely illogical and unbelievable :when you book an airbnb reviewed about 150  times  as nearly  5 out of 5 and cannot sleep because of noise, furthermore the lodging is unclean/plumbing does not work properly /plus their are cockroaches./and in addition it would have been nice to know that the owners who lived on the first floor were absolute chain smokers /and the entire reception area was infused with the smell of nicotine.   these are not minor issues / too much is too much. People do not go on holiday to end up  in a dump.

 

i am more inclined to trust tripadvisor or booking.com reviews simply because they actually post A LOT Of bad reviews and some really bad ones. that is sooner rare on airbnb and i have to ask why.?

the room with roof terrace CALLE 56  462 a (the address is etched in my mind) was not fit to live in,  yet it is rated better than the truly luxurious airbnb we had stayed at on our previous trip to Merida. We broke off our stay and went to see another airbnb (case rosa in Chelem) which was a word of mouth referral, but is also listed on airbnb. the bathroom faucet was completely rusted and i mean RUSTED/ i have a photo to prove it/ and the whole place was dingy/ run down and not very clean. we we walked in / had a look /and walked straight out and got a taxi to a two star hotel in progreso, there are no luxury  hotels in progreso but this one felt like luxury after our airbnb experience!

the 2 star hotel was super clean, quiet and friendly, the bed linens were crisp. there were no cockroaches. /nobody smoked in the hotel.

So given that 3 out of 4 airbnb experiences we have had were catastrophes i would say 

that crappy lodging rated 5 out 5 is by no means an exception on airbnb. I sympathize with  those hosts that put in time money and effort to 

create a hospitable and pleasant environment and have difficult or unfair guests. BUT  misleading or false reviews are prone to ruin a holiday.

this was about 15 hour travel each way car and air combined.. We were really looking forward to our holiday after 2 years of covid. my conclusion:  If you do not want your vacation ruined do not trust airbnb reviews! they need to shape up. This was the final straw.  

I see. Is this the Casa Rosa in Chelem (Mexico) you walked out of because you found it also unacceptable and yet it had an overall 5/5 rating after (49) reviews on > Trip Advisor?

 

( https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g1205929-d2210960-Reviews-Casa_Rosa-Chelem_Yucatan_Peninsul... )

 

If so, it is a place that its newest Trip Advisor review was back in 2018 and perhaps it hasn't been looked after since by the sounds of it. Perhaps they just re-opened before bothering to remove the cob webs? Or is now under new 'management'. That alone would have made anyone nervous.

 

I finally found a 'Casa Rosa' on Airbnb:

 

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/923991?source_impression_id=p3_1675632619_6MXLa%2BBtatkxPThn&guests=4&a...

 

Which appears to be the same place, listed now at $50 (from, $75 originally) per night (for 4 people) which calculates to a whopping $12.50 usd per night / per person. It has 48 reviews with Airbnb, but only 6 in the last 4 years (since 2018) when they left Trip Advisor. The last one being 9 months ago. Maybe, just maybe there is a reason why.

 

I would venture to say such a place (considering the ridiculous price) is not exactly representative of Airbnb listings today.