We have been hosting for about a year in Nashville and wow what a quick way to learn about hosting down and dirty. Recently, I noticed that Airbnb now includes when a guest is also a host when they book. The pattern has been in our Guest / Hosts reviews, they give us an Overall total of five stars but then it is revealed in the categories section they knock down one to two stars vicariously. In a desire to utilize this opportunity to improve on our service and such, I ask if they would be so gracious to provide more specifics. So far, three guest / hosts have been courteous and given feedback. One responded with āthere was a particular doggy smell (we clearly note in our posting we have dogs and WE DO NOT let them in the Airbnb)ā, and then āthe bathroom tub wasnāt clean and then I got dizzy from the fumes of the cleaning products usedā. Also, āYour place was was very clean but I marked down because there was water at the bottom of the mini-fridgeā and lastly, āI didnāt find the location to be all that greatā yet he wrote in public review that āit was great and conveniently close to the airport.ā Iām starting to get the perspective that Hosts are tougher in their reviews of others Hosts and then passive aggressive about it. Recently I toured a friends Airbnb and I spent the time giving him praise about how adorable it was instead of finding things wrong with it. Of course if something is glaringly wrong I mention it and when I stay as a guest, I give hosts more room for error (like waiters who tip other waiters well no matter what because they get it). Has Airbnb Corp established such a standard that even Airbnb hosts lose perspective that there are still some dinosaurs out there with owner-operated places that are peoples homes? Anyone else notice this trend?
No, it is not a new trend.
Hosts have always been the worst guest since the beginning.
Nastiest, worst review was from another host. Why - I refused to discount and allow her children to stay for free.
That must be why Iāve had such a hard time. Thank god itās not all the suck @$$ hosts.
I have had some of the worst reviews from other hosts as well. The common denominator amongst them was that they were not full-time hosts. For example, one awful, vapid woman we hosted had only hosted three or four guests, all several years ago. She was one of our first reviews and screwed up our stars for quite a while as we started out. She also made several special requests (that I would now laugh at and decline, this far into the game). The other nit-picky hosts were similar. Only had a handful or sporadic reviews from guests.
We have hundreds of reviews and are more āin it,ā on a daily basis, so maybe these other hosts just have no idea what it takes to do a higher volume and think that their limited experience makes them armchair experts about our level of excellence as hosts? Or they could just be jealous and/or unhappy turds. Who knows??
We have hosted other hosts who also have loads of reviews and they left us glowing reviews, but maybe we just got lucky with them? Is this something on which others would concur? Are the more experienced hosts cool to have as guests and those with less experience more difficult? Iām curious.
I made a long list of my red flag guests somewhere on this forum, canāt remember the original post, but it definitely should have included fellow hosts! And newlyweds! ugh! Donāt even get me startedā¦
P.S. Had I found this forum soonerā¦and been using the AirReview app on Chrome, I could have avoided that first awful host as a guest because she left an equally awful review in the past as a guestā¦but it was so old and buried that I couldnāt find it.
The AirReview app is GOLD!!
They do this through imagining someone else doing it? How exactly?
oops my malapropismā¦I meant haphazardly.
ugh! I hate the concept of discriminating against other hosts and not accepting them. Iām a big believer that there is enough pie for everyone, why people be so shitty? BTW, love your sign on name.
Thanks for your great response! I believe you are onto something with more experienced hosts, more understanding glowing reviews; Armchair hosts, more unhappy nit-picky reviews ( I really loved the unhappy turds comment). We do our best but as was once said by a wise man, you can make some people happy some of the time but not all the people all the time. I gotta look up the red flag guest summary and Air Review app. Thanks again for your great feedback.
oops my malapropismā¦I meant haphazardly.
That chrome extension is so great! I try to make time to look up people inquiring, but I would especially look up reviews left by fellow hosts to make sure theyāre not nit picky jerks. I think itās human nature- a lot of people donāt want to see others be more successful than themselves. If youāre a realtor trying to sell middle income family homes, you donāt drive them around in your new Mercedes, because they would be jealous and fire you.
lol I bought a modest home, but my realtor had a pretty flash car! It did cross my mind thatā¦hey, maybe Iām just small beans to this guy, but then I went to his house once, and it was almost the exact same value as mineā¦ lol 
Humans. Weāre so basicā¦
It can work both ways, as a host myself (but not yet a guest) I would never give another host less than 5 stars - unless things were incredibly bad to a ridiculous level. Both out of courtesy but also as I know how anything less than 5 stars will harm their profile, weāre all in this together working against AirBNBās rating system at the end of the day.
I also would not be overly critical as itās not my place to tell another host how to run their business/home and probaly only mention anything if I felt it may be an issue for them going forward from picky customers.
Iām often the odd one out here (or maybe just odd in general 
) but Iāve never had a bad review from hosts.
There is however another way to look at it which most hosts wonāt like to think is the case but here goes. As hosts we know how important it is for guests to give accurate reviews. Only if guests do that do we have an honest system whereby potential guests can judge fairly. (The same is true of hosts writing reviews, of course. We all wish that previous hosts write honestly about guests, right?)
So could it be, and Iām just throwing it out there, that these reviewers are actually being more honest?
Isnāt that the sort of thing we want to guard against? That people are leaving good but fakey reviews āout of courtesyā? As @KKC says in this thread:
āIām an advopcate of honest reviewsā¦ā
That is not my experience.
The problem is that most (super)hosts try to project their style of hosting onto hosts.
āI do it this wayā, āI would have done it that wayā, āI supply thisā, āI supply thatā.
āI give so many free stuff, I do not understand why this host is getting such high ratingsā
Most often hosts do not look at the rate they are paying, but only compare stars and badges.
Hosts do not seem to understand the saying āYou get what you pay forā, strangely non hosting guestst have a more realistic expectation.
Based on what Iāve seen on this forum, ABNB Hosts are as diverse as the guests. In the OPās situation, the guest was abusing the system that she may have learned from her own guests and/or her knowledge of the system. Whether a host or not, she was not a nice guest or person.
With that said I will admit that Iāve been nervous prior to hosting other ABNB hosts*. Itās occurred twice in the last year and in each instance I was happy that they were very gracious and appreciative. Both sets of guests gave some suggestions and took some ideas from my listing.
*Prior to their arrival I did view their listings, reviews, and their reviews of there guests. It gave me a sense of what to expect and and what their expectations might be. ā¦ something I do (try to do) for any guest, host or not.
I am a host and with one exception - when things got horrible - I gave other hosts 5 * reviews even when they clearly didnāt deserve it. Thats because im a host and I know how tough it is.
No Iām another @jaquo, who has only had great experiences with my fellow hosts who have stayed with me (had about 15 sets of guests who were hosts).
All left five star reviews including two of whom left me private feedback around issues which I hadnāt picked up on in terms of cleanliness, which hadnāt impacted on their stay, but that they had noticed and fortunately were ones I could easily fix. I was very grateful.
I think there is too much of a tendency on this and other forums to stereotype people based on age, nationality, because they are fellow-hosts etc. Letās take people as we find them rather than generalise based on whatever pigeon hole the poster has stuck the guest into.
I recently stayed in a beautifully furnished home in a lovely location. However when we arrived it was very cold as they had an automated heating system that didnāt kick in until the evening, there was no guest book to tell me how appliances and the heating system or Aga worked. There was no wardrobe for my clothes just two small drawers (the furniture pictured in the room was full of their clothes so couldnāt be used and their description of the room had said it had āgenerous storage spaceā.
I was conflicted about what sort of review to leave, because the location and the place were lovely, but the lack of storage and guest book made it difficult for me to cook and get the place warm (I went online in the end and looked up how their heating system worked as the host didnāt respond to my message and text asking for help till four hours later).
In the end I didnāt leave a review as if I had I would have had to mark them down.
