Trips Reviewed category

[Lindsay85]

I was on track to be a Superhost in the next review period but I recently checked in on my status and there is a new "Trips Reviewed" category which I didnt notice before. It also isnt in the Help articles about super hosts. Is this a new addition or something I just never saw before?

Its not asking me to to review all my guests (which I do) but is judging me on the reviews I make as a traveler. Unfortunitly that includes trips I did before becoming a host and did not understand the value of reviews so I am not at the highest rating here.

**[Moved to create new topic–title updated]

[Matthew285]

@Lindsay85 I believe you are misinterpreting what the "Trips Reviewed" statistic means.

You say "Its not asking me to to review all my guests (which I do) but is judging me on the reviews I make as a traveler."

The "Trips Reviewed" statistic measures how many of your guests write a review of you and your listing. It has nothing to do with your trips as a traveler.

If you have 10 guests and 8 of them write a review of you, then your "Trips Reviewed" is 80%.

The target for "Trips Reviewed" is 50%.

[Fred13]

Hmmm, I believe it may be referring to the % of guests that the ~hosts~ has reviewed; requiring a minimum of at least 50%. Not what % the ~guests~ have elected to leave a review, since the host has no control over that; if that is what it meant it would (or should) be called 'Percentage of Trip Reviews Elicited by the Host', which of course that would be a ridiculous criteria. I never noticed this one before either.

[Zappa0]

How can we get judged on how many they review? How can we control that?

[Matthew285]

@Fred13 it used to be exactly as you describe: the "Trips Reviewed" stat used to be the % of the guests reviewed by the host. I know that was true because my "Trips Reviewed" stat always had been 100% even though not all my guests had written a review. (I have always written a review for each guest.)

Then, when "Stats" switched to "Progress" and the new format for the "SuperHost" box happened, the "Trips Reviewed" indeed became "Percentage of Trips Reviews Elicited by the Host". I know this new reality to be true because my previous 100% "Trips Reviewed" became 74%, even though I have written and posted reviews for 100% of my guests. On the other hand, only 41 or 55 guests have written reviews, which is 74.5454% (I guess they round down?)

@Zappa0 the short answer is that we can't control how many guests write reviews. Yet we are judged on that.

Of course, we are also judged on the ratings the guests give us, and we can't really control that either. So this really isn't anything new.

[Fred13]

@Matthew285 IF it is like you say, that makes no sense. Are you sure your results are not a coincidense? I have manipulated that category to stay above 50% by writing a single review and cause it to go to 51% when yet have not gotten another review by the guest. Really, that would be absurd, for it means the hosts are being asked to 'mine' for reviews from the guests and how exactly do they do that? Directly asking/begging for them?  

[Marino20]

the fact that your Trips Reviewed stat was 100% has nothing to do with you writing reviews for your guest, but rather Airbnb used you (and me for that matther) as a beta tester to I dont know what purposes. I used to have a 64% review rate or something, and then after an update it switched to a 100%, after asking on these forums (edit: actually it was on reddit), I have been told that they are running beta testing to analyze the up and down sides of this category. However, this is a very dishonest move, in my opinion, because it puts us (and others) in media res situation, where our review rate might have had dropped under 50 before they reinstated it which would mean we lose the superhost status because they tricked us into not tracking the aforementioned category.

I hope my post is not too confusing.

edit: just checked my android airbnb app, there i still have the trips reviewed stat at 100%... the inconsistency is ridiculous.

[Vinay7]

Hi @Lindsay85, I joined Airbnb as a host in Jul 2017. The 'Trips Reviewed' has been there since, may be before. It certainly has been one of the criteria for attaining superhost status since I joined.

I am sure it means the number of trips that has to be reviewed by your guests and not the reviews you write.

[Fred13]

@Matthew285 Wrote to two of my contacts in Airbnb asking them to explain how exactly Trips Reviewed was being calculated today, and got two opposite answers! You may indeed be correct, and if so I would like to be sure. I don't necessarily like writing reviews, nor do my guests (114/300), despite the fact they have such a great time; they all write 'novels' on the Guest Book (we are on 3rd one now), which they love to read also.  

   I would love to go back to my old ways of leaving a review only if the guest leaves one, and forget about Superhost once and for all.  So if upon double checking it is indeed like you say, please let me know.

[Lawrene0]

@Lindsay85, @Matthew285, @Vinay7, @Fred13, @Zappa0, and all, I wrote to AirBnbHelp this morning after spending some time searching for the answer in Help and Policies. It is pretty bizarre that "Trips reviewed" is not explained in a system that marks it as important and that asks for reviews from both sides, and my experience differs from both Matthew's and Fred's. Also, I thought maybe an easy question would be respite for a rep in the 'Tweet Centre' chaos. It must have been. I received the answer in four minutes.  

Q: Does "Trips reviewed" in Progress -> Opportunities -> Superhost refer to reviews OF the host or reviews BY the host?

A: It would be of the host, Lawrene. We hope this clarifies the issue. 

So there we go. 

[Zappa0]

So we need to beg people to leave reviews to keep superhost. 

Honestly, Airbnb is becoming too complicated of a website. Every two seconds theres a new rule/update or something trying to impede our success and in cases like this it is out of our control. 

I've started listing elsewhere to transition out.

[Marino20]

@Lawrene0 The Airbnb rep told you wrong. I checked my percentage rate, and it is most definately the numer of reviews guests left me, not the other way around. Not only that, but my app account and web account are not showing the same trips reviewed rating. the app shows 100%, the website 64%... go figure.

[Fred13]

@Lawrene0 Thanks for researching this further. Speaking in general ...

    I could see that Airbnb would want guests to review the host, but detracting from the host for the 'in-action' by the guests borders on very weak other-directed thinking. Are hosts suppose to ham for reviews now? Count me out.

    In my particular case, I provide a Guest Book where my guests share their most emotional sentiments during their stay, at the moment, and are very hesitant to repeat what they felt in a public forum. The Bird Island Guest Book is a great read, every guest reads it religiously. Even those that do leave a review (50%) oftentimes start with - "What else is there to say that hasn't been said before"   

   My stats must surely confuse the hell out of Airbnb:

      The chart begs the question: Why would someone get 5 stars 87 times in a row and yet it is not  reviewed more than 50% of the time?

      Maybe because 50% of my guests simply do not feel like it.

[Lawrene0]

My sympathies are with that latter 50%, @Fred13. Although I do not have a guestbook, some guests leave nice notes for me. When I see a nice note, I know I will not see a review from that guest. They want to keep it private, and I don't blame them. 

Just thinking: In a world where reviews are all important - where we are rating everything from the podcast we just stumbled upon to our stay at a sticky-floored flophouse- and at the same time reviews mean nothing - where five stars is a pass and so the flophouse is rated the same as a hand-built island paradise - a company that decided to ditch reviews entirely would be visionary. 

[Fred13]

@Lawrene0 how interesting you have observed the same quandary; the more guests leave private comments, the less likely they are to leave a review at all.  

   While Airbnb's review system has a lot of merit, and was/is quite innovative, and originally was enthusiastically applauded, perhaps how it is being used so today (hysterically), it may have indeed taken a fork in the road that wasn't intended nor expected to follow.  Maybe the concept of reviews should be kept, but perhaps the star system, with its now built-in precipice between 4 and 5 stars should be dropped.