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Does anyone have an answer of why Airbnb continuously attempts to change the order on which we have been evaluated?
I recently got an amazing review and it was assigned to one of the last pages in my listing (> page 20). Even for me as a guest, it is crucial to read reviews in the correct order. I would like to read what was the experience of the last people staying in the place I will be staying at.
This is completely annoying. Would like to know who is the tech team behind this dumb idea of mixing reviews like if 2 years ago review has the same weight of the one you got last week.
Was the review in a foreign language? They are always at the end. If not, it’s a conundrum. My reviews are in the order I received them except the ones that aren’t in English.
Mine were not in order when I was not logged in, but on my regular browser. One of the worst from months ago was at the top
Then I checked again in incognito browsing, and it was all in order. So I didn’t worry about that too much.
Now, even in incognito they are in a funny order again. But at least this time the most favourable ones show at the top (even if they might be from some time ago)
Just checked and mine are also showing randomly which means that the one stinker review is now on page 2 instead of 5 or 6. Not happy. But more importantly, as a guest I want to see the most recent reviews first - I want to know how people rate the place NOW, not from a couple of years ago. Yet again, Air sticks the finger up at long-standing hosts.
I wish they’d stop constantly fiddling with things. Most of all I wish they would do us the courtesy of informing us of all the fiddling. A quick email, you know, like “Hey, just a heads-up that our latest awesome interns have been let loose to play around with the review system! So expect some random stuff to happen over the next few weeks We love you !!”
@Magwitch This isn´t the first time they messed up the reviews. There are some thoughts on the Airbnb team that the best order for reviews isn’t the chronological one.
A few weeks ago, they were testing with the Lowest/Highest review, now they are trying a similar version but with the Top/Poor review. There is a subtle variation because I believe the new version is searching within a smaller time span (maybe a year) whereas the past version could bring up to you a bad review you got 3 years ago. Still, the system isn´t good at all. A complaint about a building construction made 8 months ago shouldn´t be highlighted within your most recent reviews. The construction might have stopped and it will make the guests doubt about it. I could imagine ten thousands cases like this one that will happen when you mix the review´s order.
Whatever besides these new ways (Top/Poor) to show up reviews, sometimes your reviews are listed in a completely random order. I have seen reviews of 5 years ago in my first page and then all the rest. I’m continuously improving my place for my guest’ss comfort so it doesn’t help to see the comments of someone that has stayed 5 years ago at the very top.
I think here are generally problems and glitches as they presumably make changes on the back end.
So review order keeps changing, I’m unable to add or change order of my profile pics and all sorts of random stuff!
I’m just hunkering down and waiting for things to settle down with the site.
Another consequence of this latest random change is that it’s harder to search for reviews that guests have left for previous hosts. I always do this, even though I do IB, because I want to know what kind of guest to expect (they consistently leave nit-picky reviews, don’t review at all, etc). For those who like to screen carefully, it’s going to be even more arduous now to check. On the other hand, I can see why Air would want to shield guests who get declined purely because they left a negative review for a previous host. But I’m 99.99% sure that is not the reason for testing this change.
It’s a bit like being a lab-rat, isn’t it? That’s what pisses me off the most. No consent, no control, no real opportunity to input into the research (the community centre host voice doesn’t count).
Possibly relevant, when I’m logged in, I see a bunch of older reviews at the top of the page. When I’m logged out, I see the usual order.
I contacted Airbnb (twice) and got the reply that when I’m logged in, Indian reviews all come first. This appears to be correct. First the Indian reviews, then all the others. So it’s not random after all. I really should have noticed this, but didn’t. Here’s the verbatim quote from the rep.
since you are located in India,you will see firstly the reviews on Indian Guests, if you are not logged in, the Default location is US
Does the order of your reviews appear to be totally random, or is there some method to the madness?
My first one is listed as “top review” and is from California,
then there are a bunch of random ones form years ago all from my location, Italy.
So, whatever, they’re all good reviews, I think airbnb people are just bored and have to think of something stupid to do everyday.
We love you !!”