Is My Idea 'Priming Guests for Better Reviews? Or Just Tacky?'

@rmorell Do you not understand that guests and hosts are not supposed to be able to read each other’s reviews before they are both published? Giving a guest a preview of a good review you have written them before they write their review so they’ll give you a good one in return isn’t just tacky, it is review extortion and definitely against the TOS.

Reviews are meant to be un-influenced honest. Not “I’ll give you a good review and you give me one”.

If I were a guest and a host did this, I would give them a lower rating than I would have otherwise.

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I think this approach is tacky and a waste of your time and energy. Some guests write short, some write a long review. Most guests write an honest review, which is what hosts deserve, and a host should always write an honest review.

Last year I didn’t write all my reviews, and I didn’t get as many either. I find that if I am the first of the 2 of us to write a review, most of the time the guest writes one right away, and vice versa. We all have natural curiosity, and need to read that which the other wrote!! I don’t think detailed notes are needed as a fairly generic review is fine.

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Stop talking about reviews with guests. Never Ever do it.

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Yes yes yes yes… I feel the same sense of empathy when others post about their high-stakes review dramas. Thanks for the encouraging words.

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@rmorell

I must say how impressed I am with your willingness to take well-intended criticism - :star::star: :star: :star: :star:

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Oh, I disagree. It depends what the conversation is about regarding reviews. There’s hosts out there who don’t know it, but have me to thank for the fact that those guests I had who were under the impression that hosts would be really happy with a 4 star review, now know the reality, and will never rate a place and host they liked and where they would happily book again, 4*s.

Education is quite different than shilling for a 5* review.

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The only time I sort of mention reviews is when I show incoming guests our guest book filled with personal hand written love notes. I say " we love “love notes!”

Because I often sit around chatting with my home share guests over coffee or a bottle of wine, we’ll sometimes start talking about Airbnb, past stays they’ve had, how they find the platform, sometimes they’ll ask me about hosting.

So then the conversation might include discussion about reviews, whether they like writing them or not, etc. I am honestly not obsessed with reviews, nor terrified of losing Superhost status, so it’s easy for me not to sound like I’m trying to get them to leave 5 stars, because I’m not. I talk about what does bother me about Airbnb- that they lead guests to think that 4*s is good, while turning around and treating hosts as if that means “needs improvement”.

It’s the hypocrisy of the review system that irks me. So when I tell guests that Airbnb definitely doesn’t consider 4 stars to be good when it comes to hosts, and that anything below 4.8 will lose Superhost, and that some hosts will even decline repeat bookings from a guest who left 4 stars, my guests are shocked. They just had no idea. Some do- one said his sister hosts, so he was aware of that and thought the review system really
unfair.

I always tell guests I have this conversation with that if a guest thinks it only deserves 4*s or less, that’s what they should feel free to give, of course.

But there are tons of guests who never realize what impact star ratings have on hosts. They have no intention to tank a host’s ratings for a place they were perfectly pleased with.

One of my guests said, “OMG, thank you for telling me. Why does Airbnb mislead guests like that? I’ve been rating 4s for places I really like- there was nothing wrong with them, I’d totally book there again, they just weren’t fancy or luxurious, which I thought would be when you would leave 5*s. I’ll never make that mistake again.”

So if a host talks to guests about reviews with the intention of getting the guest to leave you a 5* review, that can come across as tacky and could easily backfire. If it’s a discussion about what goes on below the surface of Airbnb, and how duplicitous they are, that’s quite different. Once a guest understands that hosts don’t want 5* reviews because they’re arrogant and think they are perfect hosts with perfect places, but because Airbnb tells them they need improvement, the majority of guests will be onboard.

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As we say often, “Guests don’t read”. Whatever the message, it needs to be simple.
.
@RiverRock has a nice short version that stages the guest up to become a DIRECT BOOKING next time. I forget exactly where he posted it. River - would you mind posting here?

What would help enormously is if Airbnb had explanations of what the star ratings should reflect. This would be my explanation:

5* Listing was accurate, clean, and comfortable. Host was easy to deal with, attended to any issues in a timely and appropriate manner. Would book here again.

4* Acceptable but could use some improvements. A few minor issues, not really attended to satisfactorily. Might book here again.

3* Several issues with the accommodation. Host difficult to reach or deal with. Would only book again if desperate.

2* Unacceptable. Not clean, not as advertised, broken furniture, non-working appliances, missing amenities, poorly maintained. Host unconcerned, unavailable or rude. Would never book here again.

1* Total dump. Place should be condemned. Horrible host. Should be booted off the platform.

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From a guest’s point of view this seems fair. From a host’s point of view they likely will not rent again to someone who gave them a 4 last time.

Air could really simplify the star rating, instead going for a binary thumbs up or thumbs down. The guest would either be willing to stay there again or not.

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It is not different, educating guests about 5* reviews only has one single purpose. That purpose is to teach guests to give 5* reviews. That is shilling for 5* reviews, whether it be for yourself or for others:

(also it’s there are :wink:, this is a fun game you started :wink: )

And if you tell guests that a 4* review is not good then they will be more critical of a rating that is less than 5*. I think it is compounding the issue to tell guests that anything less than a 5 is negative. Obviously, Airbnb started this whole stupid thing where the majority of Airbnbs are all rated nearly the same but for 1/10th of a star. It is not a useful rating system, but all stays are not 5* stays. Insisting that all stays should be 5* makes 5* meaningless.

As I posted a recent review process that I went through as a guest, the difference between 5* and 4* is now “excellent” vs “great” and that is self-explanatory, no education required.

Yes, it is different. The purpose isn’t to shill for 5* reviews, the purpose is for guests to understand that a 5* rating on Airbnb doesn’t mean the place was the Ritz.

As I said, I tell guests that of course they should rate a place as they feel it deserves. The problem is that most guests don’t understand what “deserves” means when it comes to Airbnb ratings.

If everything was fine, the place was described accurately, the host was attentive, they had a good stay, and would gladly book there again, don’t you agree that is 5* territory on Airbnb?
There are many guests who don’t know that. In my experience, they are grateful for the education.

Because it works the other way, too. If a guest has a 4* rating, many hosts would decline them. Don’t you think they’d be upset if they consistently got 4* ratings from hosts, even if they were hassle-free, respectful guests?

FFS, would you two like to get a room, so to speak…

:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

JF

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Thanks for being great guests:) I will review you this afternoon when I get the email from AirBnb. If you can take a moment and do the same that would be great. I like to send out special offers from time to time, 4th night free that sort of thing. If I could get your email that would be great, the one from AirBnb is fake/temporary. Save my contact information and book direct next time and save the 3rd party fees.
Thanks again

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You send a message in the airbnb platform that airbnb can read, proposing to bypass airbnb fees on the next booking? Or that is just a conversation you have with the guest face to face?

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Thank you! If you are being sarcastic, thanks as well… One can have a hard time making heads or tails!

True. I must say that I am beginning to agree with the ‘bad idea/tacky’ consensus. I thought the reaction would be more 50/50 for and against, perhaps with others saying they write the same or similar. It’s been a lot of “What the %*&# was I thinking?”

I like the brevity of your example and its non-confrontational, “Oh, by the way…” tone much more than mine. The last sentence seems risky as Airbnb is the 3rd party (?)

The language degraded fast from two-star to one-star… I can see spiteful guests rationalizing a one-star review, as it is described. I wonder how many listings could actually be as bad as that one-star definition and still be on the platform.