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I’m so curious about how IB works for recommended guests only as there is no precise information about what recommended means in Airbnb.
When we review guests, we must give thumbs up or down to that particular guests to let other hosts know if we recommend him/her.
But how does the system decide if a guest is recommended using the mixture of reviews he has? To be more clear, what would happen if the guest has 4 reviews on which he is recommended in only 2 of them. Does anyone know the hidden calculations of this feature?
I once attempted to have a conversation with Airbnb customer service on roughly this topic. All I got back was confused responses. I didn’t get the impression they knew either. And what they said didn’t inspire confidence. But of course the only people who have the answer are Airbnb.
If you want I could post the messages in the thread - I think it was mostly (if not entirely) via Twitter private message.
The bottom line (in my opinion) is - I wouldn’t depend on Airbnb’s automated systems to do suitable or reliable filtering for you. Assume that if you have IB, that anyone can book. That’s one reason I don’t have IB.
No, but the pop up says “have no negative reviews.” I have to assume that is the thumbs down. If you have a single thumbs down you are disqualified. They probably don’t consider the star mixture.
Yes, of course. IB is a terrible thing and I can´t agree more on your affirmations, but one thing is what you WANT to do and another thing is what you CAN do. Airbnb is slowly forcing hosts to convert their listings to IB. They might do this strictly to new listings by not giving them other choice than IB, or they do this indirectly by lowering your exposure in the search rankings. From the universe of listings that have IB turned on, I’m sure there are less than 25% that have it set because they really like anyone to book their place without the need for an approval. Might be good to make a poll on this topic.
I agree that it’s very ambiguous what recommended guests mean to ABB. By the definition they’ve provided. it says ‘no negative reviews’ but I just got a two day booking confirmation (IB request) from a guest who has 7 reviews. 2.5 are negative and rest are positive so there’s quite a contradiction.
B has a pleasant, bubbly personality, but this, unfortunately doesn’t make up for lack of communication skills and respect for the house rules. I am generous with check in/check out time, but when I knocked to B’s apt doors 12.15 pm he told me he was eating breakfast and needed more time. Upon B’s group departure I found greasy dishes in the sink, greasy splatter all over the stove and unpleasant smell of fried food. Next guest requested early check in and I was not able to accommodate his request. I cannot recommend B’s group to other hosts.
Response from B:
I drove to Louisville nearly 6 hours in the night: * I checked into your place around 2:00 am and already communicated about the super late checkin * I wasn’t aware of any early checkin request beforehand until you knocked at 12:15. * Even then I managed to get up and checked out at 12:30. You are complaining and calling yourself generous at the same time even though my check-in and checkout times were 2:00 am and 12:30 pm respectively. Due to my dietary restrictions I can only eat home cooked meals and I always look for places with full kitchens: * In your description you didn’t put any restriction around cooking in the house rules. * There was no exhaust in the kitchen. * You charge cleaning fee as part of the total charges If there is a concern around cooking smell and bunch of greasy dishes for a light breakfast, then you should put proper equipment in the house and update the house rules section rather than blaming the guests and complaining for using the amenities you are already charging them for. Hope this proves to be helpful and make you introspect and understand other people’s perspectives and situation before complaining. As a helpful and honest feedback the bathroom at the place needs some serious repairs: * The bath tub is super slippery. Both myself and my girl friend barely missed a serious fall while taking shower. Its only about time someone gets seriously injured if they don’t get those fixed * Both washbasin and toilet don’t seem to fixed in the wall/floor. They are too wobbly and feel like will come out of their spots. With the bathroom’s current condition posing a serious risk on safety and contradictory house rules with host’s expectations I won’t be able to recommend this place to my friends.
B was a great guest. Super communicative, friendly, and positive overall. You’re welcome back any time B!
B arrived very late without warning me or apologize… No real communication, just questions without hello or thanks. At the end he left my place with garbage everywhere and never answer when I ask him to paye for the cleaning service who ask me more money for this mess! It was my worth expérience with Airbnb
B is a sweet person and easy to comminicate with.
It was a real pleasure to host B in our home. He was very neat, clean, respectable and enjoyable to be around. We highly recommend him to the Airbnb community, and hope that he has wonderful continued travels during his trip. Thanks for a great experience!
Great guest. They communicated well and were a pleasure to host. They took care of the apartment like it was their own and we would welcome them back anytime!
B is a very nice guy. He is polite and friendly and communication was easy and quickly. He even helped me letting in another guest. Nice guest!
After reading the reviews and response, I am leaning towards cancelling this booking. Anyone disagree? Thoughts welcome
Cancel him basis his response to the first review. If he had apologized and only defended the late check-out (maybe “I am sorry about all of this - I arrived very late due to bad weather and I overslept and did not have time to clean up”), I would not be as harsh.
Yikes. As a rule of thumb, one bad review might be an accident or the hosts fault, two are (relatively) unlikely to be. In general Airbnb reviews are highly biased towards the positive for reasons I don’t fully understand, but that presumably derive from a form of social pressure. So I’d consider two negative reviews (which is quite unusual) to be a significant red flag.
And his response to the host wasn’t very pleasant. Though of course you don’t know the facts. One thing you could check. What are the other reviews for that Louisville host like? The one he responded to at length. He makes it sound like there are significant problems with her place, but if so, it should show up in other reviews.
E.g.
Both washbasin and toilet don’t seem to fixed in the wall/floor. They are too wobbly and feel like will come out of their spots.
Well, I am one of those “less than 25%”. I like IB.
I’ve been spending time in flipping hotels for about 50 years, and every single one of them was “IB turned on”. Which means hotels basically accept (almost) any booking. So why should Airbnb be any different?
My ABB IS different than a hotel because it’s my personal home, with my personal belongings and personal being within, and I need to fit greeting, turnovers, in between my other two jobs. It allows people a great place to vacation who are budget conscious. My ABB is different than a hotel as it’s booked sporadically, there is not much wiggle room for absorbing costs of doing business. If I wanted to open a real hotel, I guess I would, but for now, my real job provides too many benefits. I was attracted to ABB due to the nature of being able to pick and choose when (during tourist season, I frequently like to take time off from every job and also have friends/family who visit) and who stays here. I see no reason why my little rental biz should resemble a hotel in any way, shape or form. And when I decide to stop listing on the ABB platform, it still won’t resemble a hotel.
@YYCgal This is fascinating! It’s not often you see such polarised reviews of guests.
Personally, I’m inclined towards the guest on review 1.
The host seems unclear on check-in/out times. The host saying s/he was not able “to accommodate next guest’s request for early check-in” is unprofessional at best - that has nothing to do with the outgoing guest! The guest’s response to other things seems reasonable to me, simply stating the facts and offering some advice on the bathroom. Of course, he’s retaliating but that’s understandable when you feel you’ve had an unfair bad review, right?
Review 2 is bad. I would decline a guest based on that.
But he seems to have cleaned up his act with the last 3 reviews. And at least he hasn’t just deleted his account and made a new one. Kudos to him for that.
I would give him a chance and make reference to the reviews, something like “I see from your reviews that there have been a few issues with a couple of your past stays. Please ensure that you have read and understood all my house rules! Happy to clarify if anything is in doubt.”
(Where do you the 2.5 negative reviews from, by the way? I only see 2.)
Actually, hang on… @YYCgal, how are you citing the reviews? If it’s in reverse chronological order ( ie. 1-3 are the most recent) then this guest has got WORSE, not better. That can happen when a guest is complacent with a few good reviews under their belt (one of the reasons I like newbies!). If so, obviously my point about him having ‘cleaned up his act’ is irrelevant.
Does it make any difference the reason for not accepting a request for a late check out? And simply telling your host you want a late check out does not mean you can have it. The guest only said they “communicated about the late check-in” nothing about the host agreeing to the late check out. Actually, the guest never mentioned that they asked for a late check out.
If I arrive at a hotel at 2 AM, I don’t get to stay past the check-out time without approval from the hotel. Why should guests presume they can take advantage of us because we are NOT hotels?
I think you’ve answered your own question! We don’t have the listing details so we don’t know. But from the correspondence it seems that the check-in/out rules are vague:
" I am generous with check in/check out time" from the host; and
" I wasn’t aware of any early checkin request beforehand until you knocked at 12:15" from the guest.
There is no mention, from either side, about request for late check-in. The host doesn’t mention it either. That’s on the host. You can’t complain about something that wasn’t clearly specified in your listing, it’s not fair. Just like it’s not fair for a guest to complain about something that was never offered in the first place.
Most of Louisville host’s reviews were great. So I got the impression this guy might be nit picky or exaggerate things maybe because he recived a thumbs down.
The most recent reviews are on top. I considered .5 for the neutral one where the host just wrote a one liner, 'sweet and easy to communicate with. I am tempted to read between the lines.
Update from ABB, they have agreed to help cancel with no penalties. Sometimes, we just have to follow our gut feeling and I didn’t feel too great about this one.
