New Extensive Review Process

Lisa367
Level 10
Catania, Italy

New Extensive Review Process

I am a superhost on Airbnb and recently rented an apartment as a guest.  Has anyone else noticed the new very extensive review process that Airbnb has implimented?  As a host, it's really frustrating because this is where people get the most passive aggressive.  As a host, you're already scrutinized over everything, but to really allow the guests to dig deep into each individual aspect of their stay (ie:  "smells" and "sounds", REALLY??) is really problematic.  For example, our last guest left a private review that there was a "nauseating smell of burnt meat" on the "cleanliness/smells" star.  First of all, we didn't cook at all while this guest was in our house, she must have smelled one of the neighbors cooking, and second of all, we're in Sicily, so there are definitely going to be food smells coming in from all angles at certain times a day.  This feedback really bothered me because it was unnecessary and obviously had nothing to do with us since it wasn't even coming from our house.  I would've preferred these guests just keep these types of thoughts to themselves and enter it in the private feedback to me, rather than giving them the option of selecting specific things to complain about.  As a host who has new guests almost every 2 days, the last thing I need to hear is random complaining from guests about very little things.  Obviously as a superhost, I do my best to make sure their stay is 100% comfortable.  My feelings are also important and I don't need to hear every two days something really small and meaningless that I can't control (like food smells in Italy).  Reading passive aggressive feedback actually makes me really upset and I'm getting to the point where I really just don't want to bother hosting anymore.  I'd prefer going back to the basic rating system.  It's faster for the guest to leave reviews and much less harsh on the host.

307 Replies 307
Kate-And-Alan0
Level 1
Scotland, United Kingdom

Totally agree. It's a methos of enquiry that encourages people to thisk about things that were never an issue, just part of normal life.

Imagine if they do the same for our reviews of the guests? We could say the guest had long black hair tha clogged the pughole, they had horrible perfume that left a smell. Their choice of food made horrid smells in fridge when we went to clean it.

Ridicuous.

 

We have had recently the most detailed review from a last minute guest and I wondered why when actually nothing was really wrong as such. Seems this must be whey - I hadn't realised.

 

I do have a theory about this type of reviewer - People have so little free time these day that when they go away they expect prefection. We've owned a guest house for 11 years and have even had someone compain about an owl that hooted and kept them awake and a guest who called from the toilet seat in our let apartment to say they'd run out of paper.

 

We have 4 properties with great reviews listed on Airbnb and acheived Superhost sttus quickly. I had to cancel one person ( within an hour of them booking) due to our flight being delayed from holiday so I couldn't be there to check them in and lost our SUperhost status for a year! Despite having 4 and 5 star reviews across the board. Totally unfair.

 

To be honest, I've been with Airbnb since day one and they are becoming a big, faceless, greedy machine. 

I can't find at all how to contact them directly, even with an emergency now on the website.

 

I'm just about to add our property onto Booking.com, another faceless machine but much less about the touchy feely, and more about providing the correct and relevant information to the guest and host alike. I'll go back to 5 night stays too as too many people requesting early check in and late check out for free.

 

Rant over, and breathe!

 

yes, do Breathe, and do not host if you aren't into it, and see Airbnb as unsuccessfully fullfilling your needs.

End of story, right?  Why rant on about it,  I think I got into a discussion that does not actually pertain to us at all.

We are doing our job, and have set our boundaries that guests know way ahead of time.  As I said, rarely do we allow someone in early, as we are usually having staff clean and prep it for them when it's summer and we are booked back-to-back.

Thank heavens it's a small beach town, no bad smells or views here!  Sorry for everyone who is turning their own story into a politically oriented subject.  IF YOU DON'T LIKE THAT THEY ARE GROWING AS A COMPANY, YOU CAN STOP USING IT!  I HAVE NOT HAD paranoia over ratings, for lord's sake, bye 

@Debbie_Jim0 Why are you replying to folks at all to just be rude and condescending? You've repeatedly misunderstood others' posts and attacked them based off of your own misunderstanding. You're making hosts look petty and rude - please stop. 

@Jim0,

 

Discussions like these are read by management in many cases.  In a system that is oriented towards quality you "talk" to your vendors to improve their performance.  If the only way to give feedback, which ABB apparently does not agree with you on by their own rating system, then you end up with a blind vendor in a strange place casting around randomly.

BTW, in your own words, "...I think I got into a discussion that does not actually pertain to us at all. ..." then "...IF YOU DON'T LIKE ..." the discussion "...YOU CAN STOP USING IT!"  It is not "...politically oriented..." to tell a vendor that they have to improve or you will find a better place.  However, I am glad everything is going so well now, but when a guest finally downgrades you when all those jellyfish show up, and I have been in the Wrightsville area when you didn't go into the water because to them, you'll understand what people are talking about.

The Host is rated

 

The Guest is rated

 

Amusingly there is one party that is not.

David
Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@David126

Of all the mountains of words posted on this thread, @David126 that is the most pertinent and the most relevant!

You can be a 'bloody" star at times!!!

Cheers.....Rob

@David126

Good comment!! The platform doesn't really care, I guess. 

I have used other listing platforms and I find Airbnb to be very good. Obviously, they have a long way to improve but I think of them as a Corporate company who is always pressured by shareholders for higher returns. In the end, the consumer suffers in one way or the other.

@Kate-And-Alan0

Sorry to hear about you losing on 'superhost' status. That is really bad from Airbnb's staff to not allow you one cancellation. I feel that the Contact Centre uses "platform limitations" as a tactic to tell hosts that they can't do it. Airbnb is a big money making machine and I hope they start listening to the hosts sooner than later. 

Sandra40
Level 1
Charlotte, NC

I have to agree about these reviews. I had a guest not show up and she reviewed that my linens could have been fresher. How would she know. She never arrived?

She shouldn't have been able to leave a review if she didn't stay at your place!

Presumably she did not cancel.

David

Yes she didn't officially cancel Judy messaged me in middle of night.  They had some type of breakdown I think and had to stay in a hotel in another town. Thanks understandable but I though it odd that she reviewed my space 

Andrea9
Level 10
Amsterdam, Netherlands

@Sandra40

 

Contact Airbnb to have this review removed. Reviews are only allowed if a guest actually stayed.  Airbnb has no way of knowing if they haven't, so always contact Airbnb to let them know, so that the reviewing is not allowed). I would call them to have this untruthful review removed.

Charles118
Level 3
Durham, NC

@Lisa367, unfortunately this is what companies that are growing quickly pass through.  First, they don't gather enough data on the core information of their business, then as a new set of executives come in they gather WAY too much.   This is the way the second set of executives try to make their marks on a successful company.

The problem is AirBNB still doesn't understand their customers, HOSTS and GUESTS.  Both groups are customers and need to be handled correctly or another company seeing their failures will come and replace them.

When was the last time hosts were asked what AirBNB could do to make there lives easiser.  I don't mean at the yearly conference that most hosts will never attend, but the vast majority of hosts that make up 95% or more of their income.  The problem is the conference they host can be both a source of innovation and a source of noise.

Right now, AirBNB is doing the overcollecting phase.  Here they will start to collect information that will confuse them and make them focus on issues they think are new and have never been seen before!  They will consider themselves brilliant.  Then they will try to share this with the Hosts, which they will wrongly see us as subcontractors instead of customers. When they see our rolling of eyes as resistence to their "unique" insights, they will start to issue edicts, then scratch their heads when their CUSTOMERS called HOSTS suddenly flip them the finger/bird and use another site or just stop hosting.  They will lose money until the third set of executives come in and throw out most of the data collected, rescind most of the edicts-on-high, and actually put up an interface that is not confusing to the Hosts and the Guests.

As a software/web consultant I see this all the time.  I saw it in the Fortune 500 companies I managed software development.  Very few people realize that Facebook and Amazon entered markets that were already existing and looked at their competitors mistakes and then blew them out of the water treating their customers, vendors and buyers, correctly.  Both of the aforementioned companies AND AirBNB are just hyper efficient middlemen who transaction costs are extremely low but extremely high in volume.  So AirBNB may make it. or if they continue down their "why should we interact with customers" ways, not.   Note how easy it is to contact someone at Amazon, and then how easy it becomes over time not to need to.  Amazon invites contact with their customers then uses the information from the contact to save Amazon time AND, this is most important, customer time, for AirBNB this is both hosts and guests. We'll see if AirBNB wakes up to the route of success for a web-based middleman.  (Please note that I am not sexist, but I can find no reasonable alternative to the term "middleman".)

The problem is the hosts who have to have to have the money will hold on as long as they can.  Note that because of the obvious immaturity of the AirBNB executives to the need for MORE interaction with their customers, hosts and guests, instead of less, they will flail around and try all sorts of stupid things. Hopefully they will wake up, however, looking at other platforms and coordinating your schedule will be the best route for the foreseeable future.

Confusing guests with TOO much information on a place to stay vs. the differences in a culture or location is just the beginning.

Best regards!

@Charles118

Very good points!!!