Call for more attention to composing guest reviews!!!

[Huaai0]

Hi all,

Although I have seen posts providing tips about composing and evaluating guest reviews here and there on the forum, I still would like to start a thread to call for more attention to composing guest reviews!

The reason is because I have seen too many positive guest reviews, some of which may not truthfully reflect the guest's personlaity, lifestyle, manners and behaviours. General and vague reviews may mislead other hosts, let alone inaccurate reviews.

- Everyone has an issue in some sense. Instead of saying he or she is a joy to host, you should identify what strikes you most about this guest's personality, lifestyle, manners and behaviours. For example, if this guest is super friendly, clean and tidy, but tends to take over your kitchen by cooking too much, this can be a non- issue to some hosts, but can be an issue to some others. So, it would be great if you could state it in your review for the sake of other hosts. 

- If the guest is not terrible and not wonderful either, it is more important to be as descriptive as possible, because we want to know who is going to enter our open house! Many guests I guess would fall into this category and we gotta be more careful about what we put in the review. 

- Be specific in your review so we can determine if we can handle this guest's issue or not. For example, I see that one of my guests' revious review indicates this group is "diasppointing." How? In what areas? As a matter of fact, when I'm hosting him, he IS disappointing! I only regret 1) that I did not track his previous reviews further 2) did not ask the previous host to elaborate what about his guest disappointed him. 

Truly important.

[Kenneth12]

It would help a great deal, if AirBnB made it easy to message hosts of potential guests,  of course...

[Huaai0]

Airbnb should create a new function to allow the current host to contact 2-3 previous hosts for references regarding a potential guest with the content being totally confidential to the guest.  The same as what we do when we as landlords check the references of a potential tenant. The current review system doesn't help much.

[Huaai0]

Airbnb:

Would you post your employee reviews on a public domain, *not anonymously*, and help potential employers decide to hire or not to hire a job applicant? Of course not! Think about your current guest review system!

[Maria1040]

I like the idea of being able to message other hosts!

[Marit-Anne0]

@Maria1040

Making that too easy would leave us open to spammers.  Our profiles and listings are public.

[Kalin-And-Marquis0]

I can't lie. I absolutely hate leaving bad reviews. I usually save that for private feedback, but you are correct we should be more descriptive. Even when I have a terrible guest, I simply say something like (There were multiple problems with this guest and I wouldn't recommend he or she). I never really go into detail. 

[Peter445]

I believe  if you say there were many problems with a guest enough said I don't think you need to elaborate . 

[Marit-Anne0]

Writing anything remotely negative and personal about a guest in a public review and it will be taken down quicker than you can say amen.  Not recommended seems to be tolerated still - and then there is the "thumbs down" feature.  

Hosts need to learn to read between the lines.  

[Huaai0]

@Marit-Anne0

There are negative reviews that are not removed. Thumb down may not be applicable to many cases falling into grey areas--

For example, a guest may wash plates after cooking/eating but does not clean the stove. A guest flushes the toilet but leaves a little poop stain in it but does not clean it with the toilet brush. These small things are not that terrible to many hosts out there; but for some hosts, they are not tolerable at all. Would you thumb up or down this person? Therefore, we need to be a little more descriptive in the review. 

[Huaai0]

Note I have heard from fellow hosts that THERE ARE GUESTS who HABITUALLY use hosts' bathtowels/handtowels to wipe their shoes, bags and stuff or stand on bathtowels with their dirty shoes on. We should put this in the review. 

[Zed0]

I ask all my guests to remove their shoes as they enter the house. 

[Bronwyn18]

I had one group use white towels as serious rags- dirt rubbed into every one despite numerous towel rags available on open shelves in the laundry room.

[Ange2]

@Huaai0    Personal remarks or details about someone's habits are unacceptable and in my opinion rightly so.

However, I do think airbnb should add an "overall"  rating for guests to take care of the things that fall outside the three ratings a host is allowed to rate for. 

"Would you thumb up or down this person? "  I think that's up to you,  reviews and ratings are subjective, you could say the guest was not a fit for you, no daily maid service or whatever,  if you want to go further something discrete and circumspect instead of sharing precise details.

[Huaai0]

@Ange2

Not personal, but NOT vague or general either. Like I said, other hosts need to know if they can handle certain issues about this guest or not. If you just leave a "not recommended," then it would be unfair to the guest because what you cannot stand may be a non issue to other hosts.