the very first question asked of the guest in the review is...

[Lawrene0]

Hello, fellow hosts!

Last week I was a guest for three nights. Not keen on travel right now, but I had to for work. 

It was interesting to see, though, what guests are asked these days.

So, first of all, the stay went very well. The host sent daily messages asking whether everything was okay, and I replied as soon as I could every day that, yes, everything was fine. Lots of thanking each other on both sides. The usual. 🙂

I opened the review link at the end of the stay. The first question was,

"Did you feel unsafe during this stay? We would like to know what happened."

Good lord. Shouldn't I have notified someone immediately if I had felt unsafe? Why would I leave it to the review? Do they want me to be that sort of guest? 

Anyway, the second question was all about whether the host was misleading or I had any issues.

Screenshots of both are below. I took them because I was appalled that the accent is on the negative. "Unsafe", "misleading" -- what's that all about? 

In my own case, I am waiting for a review from my own guest a week ago, a local who thought I should have notified her that she might hear rumbles of thunder in the distance during her stay. Oh goody. Now she can report that she felt unsafe because she didn't think to check her weather app.

I feel like this is a trap. I feel like there are enough traps with the reviews that we don't need another one. 

The rest of the questions were about whether the amenities were provided, etc., but I have seen those before. It was just the first two questions that were different from last time I was a guest. Just to be clear, this was not the "survey" at the end. This was the start of the review, before the stars, before the written portion.  Here are the screenshots:

[Mark116]

So, still no answer from any Airbnb admins?  

Disappointing. 

[Sarah977]

@Mark116 The silence speaks volumes, doesn't it? It usually takes them a couple of weeks to a month to come up with some "spin" and empty words in their reply that they think will placate us.

[Mark116]

@Sarah977   It really is like an abusive relationship where the abuser always says how sorry they are, they've learned their lesson....and then, do the same thing again and again.   The thing is, we know they don't care about hosts, but, basic marketing/psychology/survey development, would indicate to never ever start off with 3 negative questions, especially something like 'did you feel unsafe' which will then color the entire survey unless the goal was to increase the negatives.  Airbnb isn't a bunch of guys in the basement, its a multi billion, multi national corporation with access to the best senior managers and consultants that money can buy.  And yet, this is the product 'Did you feel unsafe?' 

[Dave52]

@Mark116 It is not even the negative part that is troubling.  It is fine to ask the guest to comment on pros and cons of their stay or suggest improvements.  

[Kenneth12]

Uh,  is there ever an answer?  "Admins?"  What "admins?"

Take a look at the resumes of the so-called Community Managers.  They're high schoolers.    They obviously have no power whatsoever in Airbnb's heirachy,  including no power to bring issues to decision-makers or effectuate any change whatsoever.

[Kenneth12]

Thank you.  I recently screenshot all the new questions,  then found the safety question when doing a review today.   Alas,    I would have checked it for a stay about a month ago.

All hosts should be aware of all the new questions-- time to learn what hand soap is,  people! -- and respond accordingly.

[Dave52]

The hotel front desk never asks "how was your stay?" its always "did you feel unsafe?"  (sarc)

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

Here's an interesting article from last year referring to NOW!

It says that Airbnb are using guests to verify every home and host. Is this what the review changes are about?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2019/11/06/airbnb-ceo-pledges-verify-all-million-listings-mass...

It says:

Airbnb CEO pledges to verify all 7 million listings in sweeping review of site

By Hannah Sampson

November 6, 2019

After a bruising week, Airbnb announced several measures Wednesday to bolster trust and protect the safety of its users better. The news followed the deaths of five people after a shooting at an “Airbnb mansion party” in California last week.

In an email to employees, CEO Brian Chesky said the home-renting platform would start verifying all 7 million listings, a process expected to stretch into late 2020. By Dec. 15 of next year, he wrote, a review of every home and host on Airbnb will be complete, “with the objective of 100 percent verification.”

He did not detail how that process will take place but said during the New York Times’s DealBook Conference that the review would use a combination of company and community resources — guests, in other words.

So that out of the way.. Airbnb are vetting houses and hosts, for why?

Maybe this is a clue:

The negligence lawsuit for the Orinda shooting alleges the property owner, Wojciech Stasieczek, failed to vet his guests, (Airbnb booked guests) "knew or ought to have known that the renters of the premises were using his minimally furnished rental property to throw large parties," and that he "allowed the opportunity for violence and crime to occur." (The host was told:  The guests were a family, trying to get away from the polluted air that the wildfires were causing).

The owner may(?), or may not have been complicit in allowing parties, but when ONLY one guest needs to be registered on the booking regardless of amount of guests, and that guest has been verified by Airbnb, and the guest lies, who should be responsible for that group there? 

https://nypost.com/2019/11/02/renter-lied-to-airbnb-host-saying-asthmatic-family-needed-escape-from-...

Why are hosts worldwide being inspected and verified for safety issues when it is the booking system and its failings, Airbnb verification, and the animosity of all the other guests which are all contributing factors and hosts have been pointing this out for years? Safety here, is not of the hosts' making.

Making - the hosts 'scapegoat' here, it looks like.

@Mark116 @Sarah977 

[Kenneth12]

How many listings would fail a local fire codes inspection?

Look,  traditional individual hosts are probably getting screwed...  but that's been going on forever,   we're long past that.

It's the guy running 50 sketchy apartments,  who still manages to make superhost,   that this can catch.

ABB needs standards.

[Huma0]

The article ends with this: 

While Dev said he expects the company to follow through with its verification plan, he also thought Airbnb could go beyond the money-back guarantee that Chesky announced Wednesday. He said the company should give guest the promise of 120 percent back if they have to change their plans unexpectedly because a listing fell short.

“Money back for a last-minute negative surprise is small solace for guests being rendered homeless, even temporarily,” Dev said.

While I can see the logic behind this and it certainly makes sense if you are a 'good' guest who got swindled into booking with a shady host, I'm pretty sure this would open up an enormous can of worms. We already know about guests playing the system and getting refunds by making up listing defects. They may be the minority, but it seems to happen more often than it should if this CC is anything to go by.

Offering guests a more expensive stay than they paid for, e.g. to the value of 120% is a big incentive to those scammers.

It would be fine if the resolution centre worked like it should and case managers usually made sound decisions, but we know that is not how it is, especially right now. How can we be confident that Airbnb will make an unbiased decision based on evidence and taking into account the hosts' previous reviews, rather than just automatically taking the guest's word as gospel?

Also relying on guests for information and verification of listings, while at the same time, not probably verifying those guests, doesn't seem like a very sound strategy, but I guess it saves them a lot of money and allows them to tick that box for their IPO.

[Ute42]

.

@Huma0 

Oh boy, it's getting worse and worse all the time.

Wifi too slow? No problem, You'll get a 120% back. I think we'll see a lot of slow Wifis soon.

[Brenda328]

@Huma0   We all have had a hotel stay where maybe the hotel wasn't as nice as we would have liked or maybe the room wasn't cleaned thoroughly.  There have been multiple times I've stayed at hotels and the fitness center or the hot tub/pool was closed for some reason.

But in what alternate reality have you ever gotten your money back from a hotel, much less 120% of your money???  Those instances are extremely few and far between.  Airbnb is really entering uncharted waters here.

[Huma0]

@Brenda328 @Ute42 

Sorry, just to clarify, I just pasted part of the article that @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 mentioned. 

So it's not taken out of context, the 120% is not what Airbnb is planning, but rather what someone is saying they should do because 100% or offering as good a place or nicer, is not enough to compensate for a guest having to leave an accommodation that's not up to scratch.

Economically, it's not that viable for Airbnb, especially if guests were to start playing the system. Even if they take back 100% of the payout from the first host, they would still have to stump up the extra 20% to pay the second host.

[Anonymous]

@Kenneth12  You seem to be on some kind of crusade today, but I don't really understand why you feel the need to attack the forum's moderators. Whatever grievances you have with them has nothing to do with this topic.

The fact that you've had experiences as a guest that left you feeling unsafe is relevant, but still:  once the stay is over, it's far too late to resolve that. What guests (and hosts) need when they have urgent safety concerns is a well-staffed customer-service line that's prepared to help them while something can still be done - not a questionnaire to fill out days later.

[Huma0]

@Anonymous 

Exactly. If the guest really feels unsafe, isn't it more important that they can contact Airbnb? Recently, there have been a lot more posts than usual from guests complaining that they can't get through to Airbnb or that no one is getting back to them.

Some of these were in sticky situations. I recall one lady who said she had been sexually assaulted in an Airbnb and was shocked that CS were so slow to act and that the listing was still up. I believe Quincy stepped in to try to get her a quicker response.

I don't know the exact details of that situation and what happened there but, if Airbnb is really trying to protect the guests' safety, isn't it a bit too late by the time they have complied and analysed data from the reviews for 'verification' purposes? Verification should be about the listing being as described, photos being accuarate, facilities in place, cleanliness. Safety is a whole different issue.