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I’m trying to make sense of this request. I use Instantbook and require no “thumbs down” from past hosts. Has this person had four stays and no hosts bothered to review them? Or has four upcoming stays?
Another host told me you can now use Instantbook as a new user without reviews. Is this true?
That’s true, no review guests can book your place instantly. I have hosted a few guests with 0 reviews turned out fine. There are 5-star overall guests but with 3 or 4 stars for the cleanliness or other sub-ratings should be worrying.
This can mean that others booked and they were added to the booking. So although they didn’t book the Airbnb themselves, they have stayed in one 4 times.
I believe it is, yes. Don’t be apprehensive about new users though. They are often just as keen to get reviews as new hosts are.
In my view this means they have had four trips and each time the host has not reviewed them. I have been a host for 10 years and I do not review guests when they are not perfect but not worth picking on what they didn’t do right. I always write a review then the guests are perfect OR they are truly IMperfect!
I do not accept guests who have done many trips with no reviews.
Do not assume that hosts do what you do or do not do. There is no ‘secret code’. Honest reviews are what are needed.
A host not reviewing might have a ‘special code’ they use (like “not review guests when they are not perfect but not worth picking on what they didn’t do right.”) but that is of course foolish - the next host does not know what is meant by the ‘non review’. And in your case, means a perfectly good guest experience is misinterpreted as a bad review.
Always
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and
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Review
Hey I am not assuming anything. Just, as I said, giving my own view. I do not think it’s appropriate to say “this guest left a small stain, left a dirty cup, failed to do recycling correctly and checked out 15 minutes late” - but I will not leave a review of 5 stars with words like perfect. Nor will I give 4 stars and say they weren’t quite right.
Why not leave that info? As a host, that is significant insight to be had for my decision to accept / decline a guest. For me, for example, stains and late checkout are red flags.
If a host does not leave a review, I assume far worse than the above. If a review stated those concerns, it would hardly register with me and I would happily book the guest. If there was no review I would think about worst case scenarios and consider not booking them.
Why assume anything? Why not leave an honest review, and let the next host decide what is ‘worse’ or not?
Why not?
Here you are, wary of accepting a guest who shows 4 trips and no reviews, when you are guilty of creating that sort of situation yourself. And don’t accept guests with no reviews. How does that make sense?
BTW, I have had several guests who showed past trips but had no reviews and they were great guests. Who knows why their previous hosts didn’t review, but I’m not going to reject a guest because their hosts may have been too lazy to review or declined to because the guest left a dirty coffee cup in the sink. I accept guests based on their communication and that they have no bad reviews.
I leave a review every single time. I was referring to times when a previous host has not left a review.
Still wondering why you assign value to the absence of a review.
Excellent post, @Rolf. I use IB so it would be easy for some to say that reviews don’t matter to me and it’s true - anyone can book with me.
But if I read a review and a previous host has written something that concerns me, then I can mention it to the guest during the meet and greet.
For example, a broken glass, a stained pillowcase, garbage not taken out - none of these concern me in the slightest.
If however a review mentions something that does bother me (noise in particular) then I can mention it straightaway. The guests can then explain what the problem was or on the other hand I can warn them off similar behaviour here.
This is probably one of the reasons why I have 99.9% untroublesome guests.
But these coded reviews (or non-reviews) tell me nothing. An honest review doesn’t stop me accepting people because that’s not an option with IB but it does mean that I can easily handle guests and therefore have had very few problems at all.
You’re much nicer than me, @muddy 
To me, hosts who don’t review are lazy AND selfish.
I’ve been surprised by the number of posts I’ve read over the years, many from non-newbie hosts, who have been under the mistaken impression that if they don’t submit a review, the guest’s review won’t be posted.
I guess it’s because here I see host’s struggles with leaving “mean” reviews. I assume hosts are happy to leave good reviews. And I guess I never considered that hosts might just be too lazy to leave any review at all.
Reviews should simply be honest. I suppose that a mean review is one that mentions things other than the stay itself - such as the grumpy personality of the guest or the fact that they seemed surly (probably just shy).
As long as a review is honest and refers only to the stay, then there’s no reason to consider the review mean.
It’s simply telling future hosts what to expect.
The thing that makes me chuckle about that is that the host who doesn’t review ‘so that the guest’s won’t be published’ seem to be doing so because they expect a bad review.
It’s a mystery to me why a host should expect a bad review.
If there has been a problem during the stay then presumably the host has dealt with the problem and ensured the guest’s satisfaction so why expect a bad review?
If anything, a guest who has had a problem dealt with efficiently and promptly by the host will give an even better review.
One of my most glowing reviews was from a guest who was staying in an apartment when the AC broke. In Florida. In August. Because the problem was dealt with his review was terrific.
There’s nothing mean about stating facts. If a guest considers a host saying the guest left a mess, if that is true, to be “mean”, they should have considered the review they will get before they walked off leaving a mess behind them.
As for hosts who think leaving non-positive reviews is mean, and "if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all, they need to realize that applies to personal relationships, not to a business which is review-based.
In fact, them failing to warn other hosts about bad or in some way problematic guests is what is mean, as future hosts end up having a bad experience with those guests themselves.
A review system is totally useless if every review is positive.
To be fair, not every guest issue can be dealt with in a way that leads to good reviews. There are really bad guests out there who trash a place, get kicked out for throwing a party, and are nothing but belligerent. Those are the type of guests who make up a bunch of lies about the place in retaliation.
For sure there are ways to run an str that lessen or eliminate getting bad guests like that, but I wouldn’t necessarily assume that every host who knows the guest is going to leave a bad review just didn’t handle a situation well.
