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]

@Lawrene0

Wow.  Truly disgusting.

@Lizzie @Quincy @Catherine-Powell 

Any explanation here?  Is this how the reviews look now?  Is this what the prompts are, which, no offense, but really appears to be begging guests to report something negative.  

[Dave52]

@Lawrene0 It's almost unbelievable.  Does Jenn's place have a lot of bad reviews or low star rating, so the algorithm pushes out these review questions ?  Can't believe every review starts by asking if they felt unsafe or misleading description.  I haven't been an airbnb guest for a while but don't remember anything like this.  

[Lawrene0]

No, @Dave52 , she is a superhost with glowing reviews. 

[Dave52]

@Lawrene0 Unbelievable!

[Jon2761]

@Lawrene0  This is unwelcome news, thanks for the warning. After our last experience with a horrible guest, I can honestly say that as a host I didn't feel safe having her in my home.

[Mark116]

I think we're past the point of "Airbnb doesn't get it"  or "Airbnb is under pressure and didn't vet XX" and are well into territory of 'when they show you who they are, believe them' and Airbnb shows us every day that they are mindbogglingly antagonistic toward their hosts.  These aren't bugs, or mistakes, they are purposeful. 

[Kelly149]

GAHHHHH!! Ridiculous!!!

[Ross648]

The relationship between hosts and AirBnB/guests/review system abuse resembles an abusive marriage.  

He was so fun at first!   Remember the good old days! 

His view is his view, don't try to question the way he sees things. 

When he loses his temper (and you can't predict why) you will suffer!  Best just to fall on your face in supplication and maybe he won't give you a hostile review.  

Do everything you can to appease him!  Pick him up, buy him Frette Sheets, offer him your first born IN CASE he happens to be a Satanist. 

And remember, when he smacks you, it's your fault.  

[Michelle53]

@Lawrene0  Do you think question 1 might be Covid-related, rather than a general question about e.g. the neighborhood, or the host ?

I feel like someone could easily have answered that negatively if they were one of those people who think the neighborhood is "shady". 

I would feel less concerned about all this if there wasn't so much emphasis placed on superhost status all the time. I know one is heavily manipulated by ratings, but there are benefits to superhost status, as was even mentioned here, as if someone without superhost status would immediately become suspect of wrongdoing.    "Does Jenn's place have a lot of bad reviews or low star rating, so the algorithm pushes out these review questions ?" @Dave52 's comment.  And, conversely, someone with superhost status couldn't possibly do anything wrong.

Almost makes me feel like throwing in the towel completely.

[Mark116]

@Michelle53   Does it matter?  To start off a review with all negatives..did you feel unsafe, were there any inaccuracies, and so on, wking hard to get the guest in a negative frame of mind to nitpick and think back, oh, I don't know, maybe a lamp was different.  I presume 'unsure' will count against hosts as well.  It's just insane to bait the guest into making negative claims instead of lead with something positive.

I would also think if it was COVID, wouldn't 'clean and sanitary' be a closer approximation than 'safe' which conjures up all kinds of other issues.

[Michelle53]

@Mark116  It certainly didn't matter to me, when I read the initial post.   I looked at it as leading with negatives, which just seems wrong, irrespective. Later commentary pushed one of my buttons that had already heartily been pushed today. 

For those of us trying to work insanely hard to create a welcoming space for guests, in spite of not being the Ritz Carlton,  I don't think we need further punishment.

The beatings will continue until morale improves. 

[Sandra126]

This is rather poor psychology. I'm pleased to be on a break. 

When I first started with Airbnb, many years ago, I was deeply impressed. They kept making tweaks and every time they changed something, it was for the better. I couldn't stop raving about this, because my experience has been that companies make changes for the worse, not better. It seemed that they listened and looked, and acted accordingly. I just loved it. But this is now another notch of irrational poorly thought through behaviour. I'm so sorry for this. Wish I could say I'm shocked but I'm not.

[Cathie19]

My thoughts exactly @Sandra126. Why would any company deliberately aim to create a negative atmosphere?

Maybe @Catherine-Powell  could have an urgent look at this negative marketing approach. Not only is it creating a negative vibe and steering guideline against the host’s listing, it actually creates an overall negative vibe around @Airbnb itself! 

I wonder how many guests then choose to use a different type of accomodation or a different rental platform. It definitely is a poor business decision............

[Dave52]

@Cathie19  Exactly.  Kind of begs the question "do most guests feel unsafe?"  

[Denice0]

The new Airbnb safety question explains the review I just received.  I've had numerous guests this summer, and this is the first guest to mention safety or covid.  Note: I do let guests know we have self check-in, wear masks, and leave at least a 3 day gap between reservations.

"We felt safe and appreciated the Covid precautions"

Please Air: at least ask - did you feel safe?  instead of - did you feel unsafe?