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I was pre-submitting a review as a guest from the app ( the one for my Antwerp trip), and noticed that they changed a few things.
First, thatâs a detail but they changed qualificatives that go along with the star-ratings.
Now 1-star is very bad instead of terrible, 2 star is bad instead of not great, 3 is ok instead of average, 4 is good instead of "great " and 5 is âperfectly wellâ instead of fantastic. At the moment, change is visible on the app but not the website.
Now, in each category, if you give less than 5 in a given category, a new field appears with keywords to click.
For accuracy: listing description, size of home, noise, wifi, amenities, photos.
For cleanliness: towels and linens, dust, bathroom, shower, odors, floors and carpet, kitchen, bugs
For arrival: directions, late host, entering the home
For communication: host unreachable, check-in arrangements
And there is a new category: âAmenities: Did your host provide everything they promised in their listing description ?â
Love these changes! Now there is no excuse for guests to ding us for things we donât have, which we didnât ever claim to provide in the first place
Ah! That explains why I got a message from airbnb attached to a review - that said my guest dinged me for cleanliness: floors - âbaseboards were not installedâ.
I didnât like reading that, but thatâs much better than being dinged and having no idea what their complaint was.
I recently got dinged on accuracy because I was bigger than they expected and they had kitchen access,when that is downplayed in my listing. I canât believe I was marked down for being better than advertised,but I know I was because that drop down would not have appeared had they given me five stars. Disappointing. Who actually marks someone down because they were better than expected? The people were so nice too. Canadians. I am about done renting to Canadians.
Interesting. This sounds like an improvement, at least in theory. Maybe they got a lot of complaints about star ratings. But itâs not really a defense against overly picky guests. It just means they can make their complaints more concrete. But at least hosts will now have something to work with. In the past Iâve got some pretty weird star ratings - some explanations would be welcome.
I donât like the new changes. At least it explains DCâs âbaseboardsâ and Konaâs âunder promise, over deliverâ complaint - I think it will lead to even more nitpickiness.
I donât think âbugsâ should be under cleanliness. Itâs likely only very few people have bugs because the place is filthy.
I can just see now with the new âfloors/carpetâ hintâŚguests thinking long and hard about it. I meanâŚwho would ever mention a baseboard unless it was because it was so dusty?
Yet guests donât hesitate to roll their black tar suitcase wheels in and out all over nice carpet and floors. SighâŚ
Yes, there was a question for each category, for instance âhow appealing is the neighborhood ? Rate safety, convenience, desirabilityâ for Location. These questions are still here.
I think itâs crazy that you were dinged for the place being bigger than expected. The only way I would be upset about that is if I were a housekeeper. I had the reverse. A guest gave us four stars for accuracy. Her accuracy feedback was, âPictures always seem to make the rooms look bigger; Iâm not sure they can do much about that.â I was so frustrated because in the captions on the photos of the guestroom we list the square footage both in feet and in meters. Argh!
If I were a guest, I would feel that the listing was inaccurate if I had access to a kitchen, but it wasnât listed. As you know, I cook a lot Youâve mentioned that the nearest grocery store is pretty far from your place. My shopping would be much different if I knew I could cook than if I thought I couldnât cook.
Well these guys actually came through FlopKey originally and I was able to find them off FlopKey and get their email. So they KNEW they had a kitchen to use before they even booked my place. I just had them use Air for booking because it was easier for me. Sigh. I should have just let them book through damn FlopKey.
@konacoconutz â I might have to join you on this one. Whereas, I loved having Canadians when I first started in STR in late 2010, because they were super nice, super neat/clean, super loyal in returning annually, consistently giving 5-star ratings, etcâŚI have since (sadly) done a 360-turn because they have proven to beâŚuh, shall we say âfrugalâ by unabashedly (and without exception) requesting a discounted rate for extended stays (as if it was of benefit to me)âŚAND expecting a lower rate for the next reservation! [Sorry for the long sentence!]
Anyway, the first year I had 7 Canadians, the next two years, 6, and ultimately dropping slowly to 2 in 2016. I got smarter. Nice people, very similar to Americans but noticeably afflicted with a stiff elbow when reaching for the wallet in my experience.
Their exchange rate is very bad now. Has been for some time, so this is why youâll hear many asking for a discount, or else they just donât return next season. I see this happening in Palm Desert where I rent our condo through Airbnb.
All you need to do is click.
