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It’s come to my attention that you can sometimes learn a lot about a guest by reading their reviews for other hosts. I had an extremely rude, entitled etc guest recently. Long story won’t go into it. Point is she gave me a terrible review I’m not too worried as as others have said, can’t do much about some people … there’s always going to be some. Anyway, I think what she has written tells more about her than me. I think it’ll be very off putting to other hosts.
Is reading guest’s other host’s reviews something that everyone does and I’ve just been slow to Cotten on? I’m not sure I’d bother all the time, but maybe when there’s a red flag (as there was with this guest before she booked), I’ll try doing this before brushing that feeling aside and giving them the benefit of the doubt?
I don’t usually read their reviews if they have good reviews. But if someone is being a bit annoying in the initial chat then i might check out their reviews that they wrote. I might also read their reviews when i am writing mine, just to see what kind of reviewer they are.
there’s a chrome plug-in you can install that shows you the reviews left by the person on their review page. AirReview.
I do sometimes. At least more often than I read the reviews given to them by hosts. The reviews they give hosts are more telling. Unfortunately, we are in the review business. And I have even denied a guest based on the (batsh*t crazy) reviews they left for hosts.
I used to but even if I can learn a lot about that guest, it is hard to take action on that information. If you cancel them, then Airbnb will penalize you. If you don’t accept the booking request, Airbnb may shut you down.
So I have stopped reading the reviews they have left for other hosts.
I suppose if you have a large or expensive property where the quality of the guest matters a lot then it might be something you need to do.
I don’t really get guests who send up red flags, so I don’t think I’ve ever checked the reviews they’ve left. But on forums like the Airbnb CC when a guest has posted about some supposed horrible experience they had, that they are self-righteously saying they think they deserve a refund for, I have checked out the reviews they’ve left for previous hosts, and it seems like they have left complaining reviews for previous hosts more often than not.
I like to, but don’t always have time. I agree that a guest’s review of other hosts tells me more than most other hosts’ reviews…so often hosts reviews aren’t specific enough to be valuable.
I had one guest coming who left pretty positive reviews but they were SUPER nit picky. I kept the reservation but did not look forward to her review…it must have turned out ok because I don’t even remember which guest that was! Ha ha.
I try to remember to check them every time. I’ve never had a guest who had left bad reviews for a host but I’ve had plenty of guests who left no reviews for any hosts.
I always read them. There’s a Google Chrome browser extension called “AirReview” that, when you click on the guest’s profile, shows you the reviews the guest has left for hosts. If I had to dig around and find them myself, I probably would not read them.
This extension has saved me from some problematic guests.
I used to use Airreview, but it can be glitchy. I once asked a host on another forum why he didn’t review any of his guests, because AirReview said “Host didn’t leave a review” on all of his guest reviews.
He responded that he reviews all his guests, and when I cross-referenced, I saw that he indeed did.
I only read guests reviews of other places when I’m on the fence about accepting a request. It has been helpful. Most recently, I had a guest who was giving me not quite red flag vibes, but dark pinkish. Her profile on Airbnb — she described herself as “the ultimate clean freak” and her personal motto was something to the effect “I get what I want”. In her reviews of other places, she wrote veritable diary entries about what she was thinking and why she did every single thing, and how a comment from the host made her feel. Really extreme emotional oversharing. And lots of nit-picky little comments. I decided to host her and her DH anyway. But being a bit forewarned, I was able to keep interactions with her brisk and very to the point. I ended up with a good review, though she took off a star for the fact that I did not accommodate her request to replace the queen bed with a king (for her 3 days stay). Lol. That was the only review I’ve contacted airbnb about, and they did remove it since it was ridiculous (and my listing is clear about having a queen bed).
