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:

[Kat162]

This is terrifying! Thanks @Lawrene0 for bringing this to our attention! As a host, I rarely get to use Air BnB as a guest. It would be so lovely if we had a dashboard feature to keep us up to date on how guests 'see' booking details; what their confirmation looks like & what Air BnB guides them to do, what their 3 day reminder email looks like, what questions are being asked during the review process, etc. This would allow us to host better if we can 'see' the process through the guests' eyes.

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

Thanks for all the comments here and to @Lawrene0 for spotting this. Reading your speculation of why this might be displaying definitely has an essence of the Sherlock Homes slightly. 

Myself and a few other hosts here, actually talked at length about this in our bi-weekly EN CC social meetup the other evening, so I have even more feedback to add to this.

For those of you who weren't there, just to repeat we are currently looking into this further to find our more of the logic behind it and also to highlight your feelings on it (I agree all very reasonable). 

I'm hoping to hear more soon, but I will keep you updated on this. 

Thanks again,

Lizzie

(Hoping you all see my response here, there are quite a lot of you to @ mention you all) 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Lizzie 

Failing any contribution of feedback here to add to the conversation, it clearly looks like Brian Chesky is using guests to act as unofficial (and unqualified) inspectors to "verify" hosts and their homes, and the review system appears to be cherry picking the hosts whose reviews are most likely to provide the favourable responses that Airbnb require to these very specific, pointed questions, in order to paint the requisite safe, secure and sanitary picture for potential IPO investors.

That would create irrefutable safety data wouldn't it?  Who knows?

What we do know for absolute certainty, is that Airbnb programmed the review system to do it this way.

[Cathie19]

@Lawrene0, @Alon1 , @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 , @Ute42 , @Robin4 , @Kenneth12 , @Huma0, @Melodie-And-John0, @Clara116, @Ann72, @Roberta2,  @Marissa107, @Debra300 

 et all.

I’d like to verify @Lizzie is quite correct regarding her feedback to you. 

As a host who attended the latest Zoom “social get together”, besides the social theme, there were actually a few host concerns that were openly raised, and discussed, with this one being front and centre from Zoom host participants in Australia, Canada, America, Spain and England. 

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Cathie19 

Was there anything different discussed there than to what is being discussed here Cathie?

"We know stuff that you don't know and it's being fed back" was just a little lacking in detail and veiled in the same Airbnb transparency we're all used to. That's all. ?

[Ann72]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0  That's all.  We were all speculating about the reason for that question - was it about Covid or was it about the location?  Or something else altogether?  And the admins let us know they'd try to get to the bottom of it for us.

[Cathie19]

Morning @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0  from Darwin, I hope you have had a good evening. As @Ann72  stated below, “that’s all.”

It was an open unstructured conversation of all hosts raising personal concerns and speculating.

@Lizzie was equally concerned and planned to find out more. Her word and actions is not something I would question, for from a personal perspective, she has always followed through with follow up information or assisted the wheel to create change where it’s possible.  As for my initial comment, there was no hiding or holding back of information or detail..................  🙂

[Marisa182]

Wow! This safety issue really worries me. I am now hosting my second guest since last November, yes almost a year ago. This guest booked for one week and is due to check out tomorrow. I haven't yet counted the messaging back and forth, but there has to be close to or even more than 30. He feels unsafe about everything... the flash flood warning last night that was not for my area, the daddy long legs spider he saw outside of the basement apartment, the safety of the tap water. I'm not looking forward to a review from this guest even though I did all I could, even late at night, to calm him down.

[Cathie19]

Thinking of you @Marisa182 , for times are tough enough! 💐 

[Ann72]

@Marisa182  Oh my I'm joining @Cathie19 in thinking of you with your Nervous Nellie guest!

[Cathie19]

@Ann72  & @Marissa182, Maybe nervous nellies shouldn’t be travelling in the current climate if they feel so unsafe before they even arrive.

[Marisa182]

Thank goodness I have not had another nervous nellie, and so glad when the week was up without too many issues of a serious nature. He was a graduate student at UMD.... I hope he manages okay as he goes through life.

[Colleen253]

@Marisa182  If a guest is truly that skittish and scared, how did he come to be travelling to your listing in the first place, during a pandemic? You'd think he'd be home hiding under the bed. Hopefully he's not angling for reasons to wrangle a refund from Airbnb post stay. Hope all turns out ok for you with this guest.

[Marisa182]

Thanks for your thoughts, Colleen. I must say, this guest was nothing like most of my guests... It's been so long I had just about forgotten him, but now I remember that he was a foreign graduate student at a nearby university. Thank goodness the week passed without any serious issues... I love hosting guests from around the globe, and tomorrow I have a guest from your lovey country, Victoria, Canada. Best, Marisa

[Catherine-Powell · Accepted solution]

@Lawrene0 

Hi Lawrene - i just wanted to let you know i am actively looking into this. I agree with much of the sentiment expressed. As always we need to balance the welfare and concerns of both hosts and guests, but i believe essential information can be obtained without the negative inference. we will come back when we have news. Best, Catherine