That’s so true. It’s not fun that we can work so hard and be effected so easily by guests. Maybe there should be some more awareness given to guests about how the host is effected by there ratings. I don’t know.
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It would truly be wonderful if there was some sort of guest education along with a ‘superguest’ status - the equivalent of superhost. I tend to think that these titles are pretty infant-school (like a gold star or something) but at least they give hosts and guests something to aim for and try to maintain. I suppose the answer is that Airbnb is an advertising service - or let’s take that a bit further and call it a ‘dating service’, putting compatible people together - and therefore think that they have more of a responsibility towards making the hosts provide a good service than creating great guests.
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So crazy. Maybe they should have to make an explanation for taking off a star and that it should be moderated. I realize that this is too much work for Airbnb so I’m sure it won’t be done, but ya. I guess there really isn’t a solution. Im relatively new to this and I think my frustration is just catching up. Im sure I’ll just learn to not care.
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You will. After all, at the end of the day this is just a business like any other. When guests are critical, it’s not US they are criticising - it just means that even though we have tried so hard, the guests have simply chosen a place that hasn’t exactly met their particular needs. Not our fault at all.
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I am right there with you on this. My cleanliness rating has taken a couple unwarranted hits, I am sure because, as was noted, the house is 72 years old. It isn’t fancy, but it is very clean. I had one guest say the entire house could use a good vacuuming after their group had been there a week. Well of course it needed vacuuming, they tracked sand from their research in the nearby sand dunes ALL OVER THE HOUSE! I use a specialty water filter vacuum, and I move everything! I KNOW my house is well vacuumed. Another guest hit me with “I found A cobweb” Reallllly? Well if it bothers you, get a rag or the broom and knock it down. My house is in a neighborhood that butts up against a Redwood Marsh area. A spider may occasionally visit. I evict them as soon as I find them LOL. Since I added the age of the house to my description and made it clear that it is and older home, and if one is looking for sleek and modern, they might want to choose elsewhere, the cleaning dings have pretty much ceased. Other than 2 silly 20 something females with unrealistic expectations, I never got less than a 4 star on cleaning and now get, so far, only 5’s. I also have a brief synopsis in my on site Guidebook about the “Interesting” algorithms in regards to the Airbnb ratings system, thereby educating my guests. That, by the guests telling me, has been a huge help as well. I know it is difficult, but try not to sweat the “small” stuff.
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I like the idea of superguest status - like being a 5-star Rider on Uber. I score the driver, and s/he scores me (it’s called the Rider Rating and its posted prominently on your profile). Being aware of that score, and what can drive my score down (slamming a trunk or door, loud & extended use of cell phone, for example), makes me conscious of how I treat the person and the car.
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It’s an extra step, but when potential guests have reviews, i click on the hosts they are reviewing and search the hosts reviews until i find the review the guest left them. In essence, i’m reviewing the kind of reviews the potential guest has left. If i see a pattern of hyper criticism - it’s a simple “decline” as i do not feel comfortable with this guest stying in my home and unduly trashing my place!
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If you have Chrome for browser, you can get the air review extension that does this automatically for you.
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this is so true. i advise you to put your units on the competition website. I have a full house and I do much better on vrbo than abb. Honestly.
One thing I have noticed is that guests do not wash dishes properly. We always go through the dishes to make sure that they are spotless. We also check for any marks on the walls and clean them. I have a cleaner that goes in at least once when we have guests in the apartment who will change sheets and towels, and give the place a light clean and clean up the kitchen. I have never had anything less that 5 stars for cleanliness.
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Now that I’m airbnb hosting I look at a lot of things differently including hotels I stay in and my friend’s houses. Dirt, dog hair, spiderwebs, spotted surfaces…all things I didn’t notice until I started hosting. I now realize that most people don’t have a cleanliness standard that meets my expectations for a paid accomodation. Most people don’t have spotless dishes, glasses, countertops, or anything else.
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I installed this on my Chrome browser last week and cannot get it to work. I just read a bunch of reviews/problems regarding the extension, AirReview in the Chrome extension store. Apparently it no longer works as of July XX 2018 b/c ABB did some changes to profile page? Anyone else having this issue? I use a Mac…might see if there is a similar Safari browser extension.
Still works for me, you are looking at the guests profile? You will get little spinning airbnb symbols under the host reviews and it will eventually load the guest review.
Still works for me too.
EDIT: Could this be a Mac vs. PC thing? I doubt it. Haven’t experienced that for years with any apps or browsers.
@KKC and @Brandt I’m posting a screen shot of what I see when I look at a future guest profile page (tried past guest just for fun and that did not work either).
Also a screen shot of the message I get when I click the extension button on upper right menu bar of Chrome.
Full disclosure: I picked my best recent review to illustrate with. 
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Thanks all…
Ahhh nice choice. I see nothing but it says it’s working. I’ll log out, quit Chrome, relaunch and try again in a bit. If it doesn’t work I’ll try googling the problem again. If anyone here uses a Mac/Apple for this extension, I’d love to hear from you!
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