Ratings affecting your listings - Sent to Airbnb support

[G-Helga0]

You say that my voice is both powerful and essential -  but I feel powerless against Airbnb as they put their own rules how hosts are treated.

As I have many times discussed with Airbnb support that I get a message in my dashboard for room 2 and it is truly an unfair claim from Airbnb behalf. 

" 󱠃Review basic requirements

Your listing could be at risk for not meeting some of the basic requirements."

The thing is - I have been down rated for not having a stove to cook.

"It says in my listing that there is no stove or oven and guest can there for not cook."

To complain about what is not available for you, even knowing so before you book and Rate you down for it is very unfair and should not be allowed to affect your Ratings as a Host. Airbnb has  punishment to the Hosts if Stars go under 4 star to often.

So like I say - a host should not be punished for nothing. Ratings should not have that much impact when they are totally unfair to the host.

But does Airbnb want to do anythning about it - NO - they don´t want to do anything. 

And to say that  my voice is both powerful and essential - is hypocrisy.  I have now at least 4 times asked Airbnb to fix this problem, because the problem is not mine, it is their problem to fix.

For me it looks like that I would buy my self a pair of shoes and then complain that it wasn't  a jacket, is that FAIR?

Best regards Helga

[Paul1255 · Accepted solution]

Hi @G-Helga0 I hope you are well.

Very much feel for you here, and a lot of other hosts going through similar/same things with the review system.

The way it is weighted against hosts is unfair, but unlikely to change any time soon.

There is a thread a little further up the "top" section where your post is currently sitting which you'll want have a look at, it's also about reviews. The responses from hosts are more interesting than the original post itself  🙂

Paul.

[G-Helga0]

Thank you Paul for your empathy, it is really appreciated. I just had to get this out, knowing it wont change anything. 

Kind regards Helga

[Rozaleen0]

very true we  have reviews from canceled stays who didn’t stay at all in our accommodation and review bad our accommodation because they didn’t have the full refund , guest change plans last minute we do effort to prepare paying staff and cleaning and guests are taking any responsibility , up on that they are aible to review .

airbnb is going strong all reviews are real and verified ??  it looks that airbnb is more in favor of the guest than the host 

[Lydia94]

Airbnb know the reason when a guest give a bad review. But the guests are more important to Airbnb than the host because the large money for Airbnb comes from the guest, so all the rights are for the guest. This are all the reasons for a bad review from the guest

no refund for early cancelation

asking the guest to respect the house rules

the guest burns the new carpet in the room - 1 star

all this is reported to Airbnb, but like you say Airbnb don,t care about the hosts.

I have 8 rooms, and it is my home and we are consistend with our house keeping

the guests are not consistend and we have to put up with very bad practices on part

of the guests. Basic commen sense tells you, there can not be 200 reviews with the

house clean and 30 reviews with the house dirty.

My contract state once a week house keeping, but I have my staff go twice a week

to make sure the kitchen and bathrooms are clean and a guest with a private bathroom

complains that her bathroom is not clean and the host pay the price in the review.

I reached the point to give up because other host don,t wish to fight the matter.

[G-Helga0]

I my self have high standard of wanting to have evrything clean where I am staying. However, if it says in the Description how often private bathrooms are cleaned while guest is staying, the guest should not be able to rate one down because of his own dirt. 

Airbnb says that they will remove unfair reviews - but they don´t, even though they agree to you. 

We have shared bathrooms in my Guesthouse, so every day we clean shared spaces. 

The thing is that Airbnb puts a pressure on the Host to not going to low in ratings, but don´t take care of unfair or even not the truth is written. That is something I feel should be possible to remove from your property ratings. 

[Ale113]

Hi,

Very real and usual situation. But I even have a worse deal with Abnb: i write guests cannot use the living room but in the advert it's said kitchen, toilet and dinning room are shared spaces. And lots of details lile this.

[Sarah977]

@Ale113  You are in control of editing your listing to make sure that it doesn't say that there are shared common spaces when there are not. That's not Airbnb's fault- it's yours.

That said, hosts sometimes report that things just got changed in their setting without them doing anything, so it's important to check your listing often to make sure all the settings and info are correct and as you had set them. Allso, Airbnb is constantly adding things without notifying us, like that shared spaces part.

To edit the shared spaces, go to your edit listing page and scroll down to "spaces" under your listing description. Uncheck shared living room and kitchen and whatever else you need to.

[Ale113]

Hello @Sarah977

Thanks for your attention but you are wrong (and I know how to change parametre in my personal page). What I am saying is that, even if I write down the information properly, for some strange reason, Airbnb does not change it.

So it's not my fault, is Aribnb's!!

[Ale113]

[V44]

Hi....

I feel your pain...air bnb just **bleep** on me too. Because I cancelled a booking 2 months out.

I went from Superhost to nothing. I have had zero bookings in 4 weeks and they just feed you some crap about what why who how....regardless of how amazing a host uou may be. I am now closing my bnb as getting a lodger to recompense the thousands spent on making my place top notch....so i feel your pain like i said but no one is going to make me jump thro hoops. So air bnb go shove your **bleep**ty platform right up your a hole. Im done.

[Ute42]

.

@V44   

Forget about the superhost – that's not important.

The reason You didn't get bookings anymore is, that You got an entry in Your reviewhistory stating:

• The host cancelled this reaservation xx days prior to check in

Such an entry kills almost every listing. You should never ever cancel a reservation from Your side.

By the way: On the platform bookingdotcom if You cancel a reservation You are obliged to rehouse the guest. And if the new place is more expensive, You have to pick up the expense.

There are very good reasons why platforms decourage hosts from cancelling.

[Geri26]

On the topic of cancellations, how unfair is it that hosts get the message that @Ute42  describes above but when a guest cancels, there is no indication if a guest cancels of it in their review history?  And while I'm ranting, how unfair is it that hosts have to give a reason to potential guest if their query or request is declined or denied but guests can cancel without having to provide any reason at all??.

And don't get me started on guests who play the system - today had an issue with a guest who asked me to cancel via a text, not the app and then completely ignored my messages for the rest of today telling him to stick to the platform and that he would have to cancel himself .Finally had to ring 'support' myself to get it cancelled but had to provide screenshots of the text message....Maybe phone numbers shouldn't be provided until the actual day of arrival to avoid such complications - ah, now there's a thought......

Ok. Rant over,  But don't really feel any better now lol  so heading of to bed 😞

[G-Helga0]

Hi -  nice to have a conversation to all of you. There are many things that I am happy with Airbnb and because I am also on Hotel.com (Expedia) Booking.com, TripAdvisor and   I can tell you that they are all the same, it´s all about money. But that is also why we are here.  I like to be a Super-host and I think it matters, at least when I am booking a place, I alway look at ratings. So I want to do my best, but anyway - our voices should matter. So lets press on Airbnb to re-consider about the ratings. If ratings are based on unfairness and lies, then they shoud be removed.