Catastrophic Error ;)

[Peter890]

Hi all,

Recently had a great guest, left us a perfect set of 5 stars in ever category and a 5 star overall review.

Except that all the stars in the overall rating were dark, not light. So it was a zero star review. All the individual ratings (location, cleanliness etc) were correctly reported as 5 stars but the overall rating was zero.

When I asked he aplogised profusely and said either he or the system made a mistake. When I spoke to airbnb they said nothing can be done. I complained quite hard as the guest said in messaging that this was a mistake and they could precisely see this. I hit a blank wall of indifference from airbnb "the system doesn't allow it". As an ex programmer I know that changing it is a 30 second job in the database - so when they say "it can't be done" what they really mean is "we won't do it" 😉

As a superhost we do care about reviews. And airbnb encourage us to care about it even more with the new requirement to achieve 4.8 to maintain superhost. I don't expect airbnb to arbitrate on disputed reviews (you know the ones, 5 stars in every category then 4 stars overall!) as that would be a fools errand. But to not correct an obvious human or system error is more like negligence...

Anyone have any experience to relate?

And one little UI question, when guests fill in ratings does it default to zero stars?  Or does it recognise that no stars given (no click) means no review, not a zero star review?

To say I am extremely unhappy about this understates the situation quite dramatically 😉

Peter

[Mike340]

@Peter890

Of course it is all crazy...but the clear answer is...they just do not have the people available to make these changes.

Maybe when they give Superhost the 100 dollars travel credit  reward in one hand they should let them use that credit against non existant customer service in the other...

[Peter890]

@Mike495, the crazy thing is that they answered the phone and spent time explaining that they simply won't do it - "I have no facility on my screen to do that". And sent me posting guidelines. And followed up on my complaint. In the time that took it could have been fixed 10 times over, so it is not so much lack of people, it is simply a policy not to do it. When we are being pushed hard on host standards - as measured by these reviews - and there is such a clear error, a lack of corporate will to even address the issue feels rotten 😉

[Huma0]

@Peter890

It is not true that they can't do it. There seems to be a huge disparity between what one CS rep says and another. 

I had a 4 star review changed to a 5 star one because the guest made a mistake. The rep agreed, after writing to the guest and confirming with her (was already there in the message thread, but she wanted to double check) that she did indeed intend to leave 5 stars overall.

Okay, this was a while ago (last Summer I think) so perhaps Airbnb have changed their policy on this, but if I was you, I would fight this. If you can't get a rep to help you out, try Airbnb's social media, especially Twitter, which I have heard can be more effective, although I've not tried it myself.

RE whether stars default to 0, I don't think so. It was my belief that if a guest writes a review, they must also leave an overall star rating. I could be wrong, but in nearly 150 reviews, I have never received one with the overall star rating missing or defaulting to 0.

The individual star categories are another matter. The guest does not need to fill in all or any of them. They can pick and choose. Misleadingly, when a guest does not fill in a sub category rating, it shows you in your Progress tab under the review that the rating is 5 stars. It is not, unless they left 5.

If you keep an eye on the overall percentages next to the star ratings, you will see if the guest rated that category because it will have either gone up or down. If there is no change in the percentage, they didn't fill it in, even if under the review it says they gave you 5 in every category. I hope that makes sense!

[Robert-And-Nancy0]

To me there is something wrong with the Airbnb site. I just spend over 30 minutes trying to leave a review to which I kept getting an error screen. I had to copy and paste and rewrite a few times. I had the same problem yesterday. After all was done, I realized that not all of my review of the guest went through. Airbnb needs to work on their site and adjust when their site fails.

[Fred13]

@Peter890 Every business entity shows, on occasion, an outright foolish step in their thinking, but usually when it is pointed out when the light finally comes on, they change it quickly (and quietly).

   For some inexplicable reason, Airbnb tends to be very stubborn, like slow-minded, and I suspect that it comes from the basic arrogance of their managerial base.  

   A very costly mistake I pointed out to them in February (and the solution), met with silly shrugs for 2 months, and finally was done and the very solution I gave them adopted in April; it entailed changing their code btw. As a business person this lackadasical, 3rd- world attitude is bewildering. 

[Lawrene0]

@Peter890, I remembered another host mentioned this and tried to look it up. Found this instead: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/review-accidentally-gave-zero-stars/m-p/493191

It looks like it is possible on both sides for us to skip star screens then not be prompted to go back and fill them in. Default does indeed look to be zero. 

With what is at stake with stars, five should be the default. 

I will be a guest next week again, so I'm going to pay close attention. No worries that I will give the host zero stars ("Sorry, host, but I needed to see"...), but I will check the UI and get back to you. 

[Fred13]

   The logical solution would be that it automatically 'averages' to the other stars and thus covers the mistake when it is made and meets the overall intent. 

[Peter890]

Update: I fed this through the in-app support channel and had a message from someone "in the Customer Experience Team"  saying it had been referred to a "dedicated case manager" in their "Trip Team".

The case manager said that a null review would not impact overall star rating, quote:

"

Still, I want to let you know that in this particular case, your guest didn't leave you any star rating so it won't have any negative impact on your hosting rating.

It just won't count as a review evaulationm (sic), you'll just have a great message without evaluation on your profile and it is way better if remains as it is instead of removing it if your guest contacts us to do so.

"

So in conclusion there are 2 points, a null review does not appear to be a zero star review. And if the guest escalates a faulty review it can be deleted.

I am purely reporting this for the benefit of any other hosts hitting the same problem! If I see anything to the contrary in the SH review at the end of the quarter, I will report back again 🙂

Peter

[Lawrene0]

I said I would check the UI when I was a guest this weekend and report back, @Peter, and here is what I found: It is incredibly hard to get past the overall stars screen without entering something. I cannot think how a guest manages that. There was no "next" arrow. The screen changed when I chose a number of stars. From what I saw, I would say you have to choose at least one star to move forward. (But we know that's not true.) I choose five because my host was brilliant and I didn't want to play around with the system at her expense. That was on a laptop. I'll have to try it with the phone next time. 

Thanks for the update on what happens with null stars. 

[Paul154]

,

I am sorry  this happened to you and I hope you can get relief from Airbnb.

Because their are so many steps to take during the review, this is an easy mistake. Carelessness, ignorance and fatigue occur.

When filling out the guest review, I need to scroll down to the all important "Thumbs up".

I am afraid there have been many times when I have bypassed the "Thumbs up" and submitted the guest review 😞

I wish Airbnb would allow an easier and faster review like Uber does. This could eliminate mistakes and allow for better compliance.