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:

[Lawrene0]

Really appreciate this, @Catherine-Powell . Looking forward to hearing.

[Sarah977]

@Catherine-Powell  Thanks for responding. Guests should never be asked "Did you feel unsafe?" Something is either safe or not, like a rickety staircase is unsafe. It's matter of fact. Hosts should never be judged on what a guest "feels"- that's just totally subjective.

[Kath9]

@Lawrene0 @Sarah977 @Colleen253 @Cathie19 @Ann72 @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 @Alexandra316 @Anonymous @Emiel1 @Huma0 @Helen350 

Okay, at the request of @Emilia42, I am reporting back on my recent review experience (as a guest). Unlike Lawrene, I did not get the 'Did you feel unsafe?' question. Could it be that this is reserved for certain countries or listings? I did get the 'Was their anything unexpected about your stay'? question, but this was only asked later on in the optional questions (after 'Tell us more about Maza's place'). The optional extras are a bit weird because they ask if the listing had things that were never on offer (pool, spa, etc.). Also, I am still unsure whether the overall stars are based on the first question ('How was your stay at X's place'?) or 'Describe your trip' ('Much better than expected', 'A bit better than expected', etc.).

Anyway, I've taken screenshots of every step in the review process (except for the step where you give individual stars for cleanliness, communication, value, location, etc. because I forgot!):

[Ann72]

@Kath9  This info is worth its weight in gold!

I feel for the guests, actually, having to go through all this.  I know I'd stop after they say the review is all done.  And under "Describe Your Trip," right? is that a star value?  Where is that factored in?  I'm amazed most people don't choose the 2nd or 3rd response, to be honest.

[Colleen253]

I agree @Ann72!

Thanks for posting this @Kath9 

[Kath9]

@Ann72, in the past, it seemed that the overall stars were based on the 'Describe your trip' question, meaning that if a guest rated your place 'as expected', you would only get 3 stars. However, I'm not sure whether the overall rating is now based on the first question: 'How was your stay at X's place?'. I sincerely hope so. I have no idea how the 'Describe your trip' question is factored into the star value - maybe it contributes to the overall rating. Perhaps @Lizzie or @Catherine-Powell could help with the answer to that?

[Cathie19]

Thanks @Kath9 @for the wonderful information. I do hope you had a great weekend! 

[Kath9]

Thanks@Cathie19 , I did have a great weekend! It was just nice to go somewhere else for the first time since February!

[Cathie19]

Oh @Kath9, I hear you! Especially as the Australian government has extended the closed borders emergency ruling. So Australians are banned from international travel for another three months from September. Can’t legally get on a plan and leave the Australian shores! My suitcases and backpacks look so sad...... 💐

[Emilia42]

Thanks @Kath9, that is exactly how the review process looked when I reviewed a host 2 weeks ago (she was following ECP as well.) My best guess is that what @Lawrene0 saw is a new format that they are rolling out but like all things Airbnb it takes a while to make it system-wide. I hope Catherine Powell can put a stop to it! 

The 'step 3 Describe your Trip' has nothing to do with the overall star rating. That is a completely separate question and does not translate anywhere into stars. 

[Kath9]

@Emilia42  yes, perhaps the questions that @Lawrene0 saw was a trial or something, although I'm still wondering whether it might be specific to certain listings that maybe had issues in the past? (although I'm sure Lawrene would have chosen her accommodation carefully).

Good to know about the 'Describe your Trip' having nothing to do with the overall star rating - I thought that used to be the case, but maybe no longer.

[Huma0]

@Kath9 

That's interesting. Thanks for posting this. Did the listing have the Enhanced Cleaning Protocol or not? Perhaps the 'unsafe' question only comes up for listings offering the ECP.

As for asking questions about amenities that were not on offer, that would explain why we get those notifications when editing our listings, such as "Does your listing have a dishwasher? Recent guests have indicated that it does." The weird thing is that I always get these questions about stuff that I already ticked in the amenities list, rather than things I didn't, but those ticks keep mysteriously vanishing.

[Kath9]

@Huma0, yes the listing had the Enhanced Cleaning Protocol, so that still doesn't explain it. Maybe it comes up for listings that don't have ECP! That would make more sense.

Re the amenities: I find this so annoying. It's makes your accommodation feel so inferior if you don't have a pool, spa, gym, room service, presidential suite, etc. etc. Jeez, what happened to the home away from home with locals, blah, blah, blah...

[Michelle53]

@Kath9  Thanks for posting this. I have to say it makes me very uneasy to read a bunch of questions related to amenities I don't offer.  I feel it sets an expectation for future stays that these things should be offered. 

As someone posted some time back,  a guest's experience at a prior stay can influence their experience at a current stay, in terms of amenities provided, and what they come to think of as "standard". 

Where are we headed with all this ?   Grade "A" and Grade "B" listings, like Grade "A" and Grade "B" hosts ?

[Ann72]

I agree @Michelle53.  Why ask if there was a pool (for instance) when it was never offered, reviews have never mentioned it, etc.?  My first thought was just like yours - oh great, they ask if there was a pool, and there wasn't, so now the guest thinks there should have been and gives a lower rating because there wasn't.