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I’ve had a flurry of airbnb stays as a guest in Q1 & reflecting that a number of my behaviors as a guest are not what I expected as a host… thought I would share with the group, ymmv. Turns out I’m fallible.
1 I, too, don’t fully read the written listing because I don’t trust - initial triage is through photos (although photos can lie) & reviews see #2.
2 I skim the most recent 10-12 reviews for theme - positive &/or trouble spots. Then I sort entirety of reviews by lowest score and a) check for recency , b) look for common threads of complaints then sort by that eg ‘clean’.
3 host reaction - replies to critical reviews, long replies, passive aggressive replies. Learned a lot about the host I was interacting with.
4 Only then (if not turned off) do I read the listing.
I’ve never booked as a guest, but your search method sounds quite logical to me and I’d do much the same.
The place has to look like somewhere you’d like to stay for starters, and reading the reviews is pretty crucial, as well as the responses the hosts have to any criticism, and the kind of reviews they leave for guests.
Seems like a waste of time to bother reading through the whole listing description if those other things didn’t pique your interest.
I recently booked a few airbnbs. The first thing I did was look for superhosts and self check in. Then I looked at the ratings for cleanliness and looked at the map to see if the location was near any sites of interest. As a host I think I’ve become more focused on cleanliness. If any of the listings I looked at had less than a 5 on cleanliness, I looked at the next listing.
Photos and reviews are the go-to place to make sure the basic requirements have been met.
The description follows to make sure that nothing noteworthy is being mentioned that would be a nono for us.
HOWEVER, on numerous occasions was the description ‘pimped’ to the point that it didn’t represent reality anymore which was annoying once we arrived. I mean what’s a microwave good for if it’s installed next to an outlet that has no power? Or a closet without hangers? Things, that a superhost (which we only (used to) book) would normally check during the turnover between bookings.
So we’ve made the experience that all three of those things (photos, reviews and description) are in no way a guarantee that you will get what you think it is.
As hosts, we put a lot of effort into writing precise and factual details about our places - because only then we can expect guests to be happy if they get what they see and read. But of course, there are the occasional guests who didn’t read the reviews or description or look at the photos and act surprised when they don’t find a kitchen in one of our studios, expect towel service or breakfast which we never offered or advertised - and therefore sometimes even leave a bad review, just because they didn’t read (or someone else booked it for them who didn’t read).
That’s the sad part about these ‘5-star means that nothing was bad’ reviews. I honestly wouldn’t mind staying at a 4 star cleanliness (if all other criterias are perfect) as long as 4 stars means a stray hair somewhere or a missed cobweb.
I see plenty of 4 star reviews on Airbnb from guests who were more than satisfied and one would ask: Why not 5 stars then? I guess some people do expect 5 (hotel) star amenities in their Airbnb to award it to them if they had it?! I, too have to find a better way to create awareness for our guests towards the rating system on ABB and to just be ‘ok’ with a 5 star rating from them.
- and therefore sometimes even leave a bad review, just because they didn’t read (or someone else booked it for them who didn’t read).
