Guest reviews published without me reviewing the guest

I have noticed within the last week or two that guest reviews have been published even though I haven’t reviewed the guest. Is this something to do with new air T&Cs?

The published reviews have been 5* so it isn’t a problem, and the only reason I didn’t review the guests was because either a) I forgot; or b) I didn’t have any interaction with the guest so was not sure how they felt about us, and I didn’t have anything to say about them.

I do have a couple of unpublished reviews, and am wondering if this is because they are not 5*.

Has anyone else experienced this?

If it’s 14 days or later they publish it whether you wrote one for them or not. They have been inconsistent about sending notices. But it does sound like you need to review the basics in the Airbnb Help Center.

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Just questioning your comment that you had no interaction so had nothing to say about them…

These days, I’d say that I have no interaction (in person) with about 35% of our guests. They self check in, self check out and are self sufficient throughout.

But I still have plenty to say that I hope will help other future hosts. Was their communication good? Did they check in at the expected time? Did they abide by the house rules? Were they quiet? (Something I insist on). Was the rental in great shape when they left? Did they leave dishes in the sink? Was the bedding stained? Was the bathroom clean? Did they mark the towels? Did anything disappear? Did they leave at or before checkout time? More, more, more?

I really find it hard to understand that a host has nothing at all to write about a guest to warn or recommend to other hosts.

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@jaquo We own a small holiday park with 10 camping pods, 5 cottages as well as touring pitches for caravans. The airbnbers mostly stay in the pods, but the truth of the matter is that if we’ve had 70 people in on a weekend, I can’t always remember who was who - particularly if they came and went with no issues at all, and didn’t even come into the shop. However, if I had some negative feedback which I thought would help future hosts, I would certainly give it and conversely if they made a particularly good impression I would pass that on.

The camping pods are an empty space, so people bring all their own kit (including beds and bedding) and there isn’t very much they can mess up. If the communal facilities are left badly (which is very rare), it’s hard to say who is the culprit.

So, as you see, I’m not the typical host with just the one or two properties, and I hope that explains why I don’t always have anything to write about a guest.

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@konacoconutz Thanks. I thought these reviews were sooner than the 14 days, but I may be wrong. To be honest, airbnb make up only a small portion (less than 10%) of our revenue and we’ve never had any problems. But you’re right, I probably should read the T&Cs more closely - particularly as I’m thinking of releasing more units onto the platform.

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Sadly, this is against the spirit of Airbnb. Hosts genuinely rely on other hosts to evaluate their guests. It’s a trust system. From the guests’ point of view, if they are new-ish, they are as anxious as new hosts to ‘collect’ good reviews to make sure that they are accepted in the future.

I suspect that you are doing great guests a disservice as far as the Airbnb trust system is concerned.

Have to agree with an earlier poster. Communication is a deal breaker for us and we’ll show it in our review. We believe that guests who do a decent job of communicating are going to be taking care of our property. It hasn’t always been the case but it’s something we’ve noticed. No idea if there is a statistical correlation between communication and how they ultimately treat the place but we will say that if they are responding to messages in a timely manor it seems to suggest they are being responsible overall.

@jaquo @ahtodd I think that’s a bit harsh. If I said I didn’t review anyone, you might have a point. I review the majority of our airbnb customers - however some people just come and go with no interaction, and seemingly no desire for interaction (they are, after all, not staying in someone else’s home but on a campsite). When such visitors are one of 20 odd daily arrivals (as in the summer), I simply can’t remember them. I always remember the nice friendly ones though! I communicate with everyone plenty beforehand, so that they know exactly what to expect.

For what it’s worth, we are just a small business - its just me and my husband. We use airbnb for a small - but useful - amount of our business, but have lots of other customers to consider and look after.

I am a bit disappointed by the judgemental tone on here, but hey-ho, that’s t’internet for you :slightly_smiling_face:

@CampingPodKate - I’m sorry if I appear harsh. It’s truly not my intention to be judgemental either but nevertheless, I stand by my belief that hosts should review their Airbnb guests for the sake of other hosts.

Many hosts (not me thankfully) are welcoming guests into their own homes and therefore want to know how that guest has been when staying at other places. For some, depending on their circumstances, issues such a messiness, noise etc. are going to affect their own lives and those of the local community.

I realise that you don’t get to meet all your guests and neither do I but it’s simply part of my routine to write a review to benefit other hosts. Writing ‘no problems with these guests’ or ‘tidy guests though a little noisy’ or ‘cannot recommend these guests’ takes hardly any time at all and is so valuable to the hosting community in general.

I appreciate too that you can’t remember all your guests - neither can I - but I definitely remember people who are untidier than most, noisy or break house rules. And if I wouldn’t wish them on you, then I’m going to say so. Otherwise a quick ‘no issues, good guests’ will tell us what we need to know. :slight_smile:

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I disagree on the mandate to review. I’m not really in this business for other hosts. Yes it can be helpful to other hosts, but Sometimes it backfires on me to review guests. And I don’t want to keep track of the countdown period just to review someone who was neutral. I’m just not going to make that sacrifice for the sake of other hosts. I will review only if it benefits me or if the guest is really really really bad. Otherwise I don’t usually review unless they review me and I want to read it early.

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Probably against the original ‘spirit’ of AirBnB but I think that AirBnB themselves haved moved on from those days although probably not to the extent that the host of this platform has.

Having said that, we share bedrooms in our house so we do get to know the people and consequently we always post reviews and our guests always do as well but we are only talking about 2 or 3 reviews a week maybe.

I am sympathetic to the issue faced by @CampingPodKate and can’t see that they could reasonably be expected to do it any other way.

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True, but I haven’t :slight_smile:

Although the rentals I have a separate apartments and I use IB, I still want to read reviews from other hosts to see what I can expect. Because I value it, then I feel as though I want to return the favour and warn or recommend.

Even bad reviews are helpful. I had a guest recently whose review said something like ‘there were a few issues to begin with but they were resolved…’ So I could simply ask the guest about it. I had a guest once who had a previous review that said they were noisy - I read them the riot act when they arrived and demanded no noise. It works. It’s a good system.

The review system is terrible. It’s unfair and a huge disproportionate amount of weight is placed on reviews, some of which we know are vindictive, incorrect and mean spirited.

I hate the review system. It used tobe an afterthought on Air in the early day. But now it is life or death.

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Agree. They have gotten too WAY big for their britches and have lost much of the spirit they were founded on. The system is so skewed toward guests and against hosts.

It’s simple supply and demand. They don’t need us. We are,not in demand and so therefore we are devalued.

I’ve been with them since they were a brand new start up and the changes I have seen over the years have been disappointing, and rarely benefit hosts. I have lost thousands on cancellation policies and other things that they have implemented. They have gradually squeezed hosts out of the game.

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Not familiar with IB. What is this?

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I mean Instant Book.

Instant Booking

mustbe20…

Yes we use IB :slight_smile: and it has been great for us … we think? The restrictions on guests being able to book via IB (we require Govt ID) may cost us reservations and we know of at least two occasions where people wanted to stay but didn’t have Govt ID.

We think that it saves time for us in checking the guest reviews. They are staying with us in our house, sharing our bathroom, so No negative reviews is important to us.

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Johnny, do you have the chrome extension installed? It helps you by showing you all the reviews that guests have left for hosts.

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Agreed. The review system is terrible.

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