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So is this a new marketing strategy of Airbnb, as BDC do something similar?
A few days ago I received a less than stellar review that I didn’t see coming. As we know we normally know when someone is unhappy and can stall it for 14 days but in this case it was an instant book and she didn’t reply to my two messages and I didn’t hear from her at all.
She blasted everything she could think of and left me 3*. She gave me 2* for value and complained in the review about the price, she paid $155 and on the weekends it’s $360. I was so cross that I have been seriously thinking of not dropping it that low anymore as it attracts the wrong type of guest.
So I haven’t been able to work out why I can’t see her review. I checked her country and she is from the same state as me. After going through a few pages of reviews I clicked on the final page and there she was, the last review!!!
It looks like Airbnb is finally dealing with outlier reviews! BDC show the positive reviews first, to see the “actual” reviews you have to click the “see all reviews” button.
What a relief that we are not being held to ransom over one bad review when we have 100 good ones! Thanks Airbnb!!
As a guest if I look at a listing and see the most recent review is a year ago and the next one is two years ago, that’s odd and not particularly helpful. For hosts with hundreds of overall 5 star reviews I can put that outlier at the end (so to speak) myself. I prefer reviews in chronological order because I want to know what the listing is like now. I also want to be able to look for reviews in season I’m going to be there. For example I was looking at Seattle listings because I’m going to be there the 1st of Feb. I don’t care about the lush garden of July. Are there icy steps?
I hate to be Debbie Downer again. Yay for you and all hosts with an occasional unfair review but as a guest I don’t like it. I didn’t even like the “in order of home country” design.
So I just went and checked mine, and they are suddenly not in chronological order… but not in a good way. They are just completely random. My one-off bad review is not at the bottom, but at the very top of the second page. Some of my nicer (and more recent) reviews are far below it. ugh.
This is what I referred to in my response. I don’t like it at all. It makes no sense to have a Dec 2017 review at the top followed by a Dec 2016 review with multiple Dec 2018 reviews farther down.
I noticed (and posted about) my most recent review (a retaliatory 3*) that was moved to page 5, but when I look at my listing in the App it’s still at the top.
I agree with Karma. As a guest it concerns me that I may not get an accurate picture of what a listing is like now. What if they’ve passed hosting duties to someone else who doesn’t do it as well? What if the place was spectacular at the start, but they’ve let things slide recently? Airbnb needs to deal with outlier reviews, but the approach needs to be more transparent than this.
I completely agree. They need to have an option like Amazon’s website where you can choose to filter reviews by date, rather than looking at the “top” reviews that it wants you to see. I don’t care what someone rated this microwave in 2014. That review is completely useless at this point!
I completely agree. If this place is exactly the same as it was in Dec 2015 that’s not a good thing.
I’d love to filter by stars. What did all the 3 star reviews say? Oh, there are only two and they mentioned dogs? I’m good with that. The one star has a positively glowing written review with it. Weird. All the low star reviews mention the room is small. Hmm. Must actually be small. Well, since I’m only sleeping there two nights, I don’t care.
LOL. Airbnb? Or any other corp for that matter.
I’m seeing different orders of reviews on app vs desktop for some listings as well. Strange.
This is one reason why I filter by superhost. It’s so much work to find a listing that just helps a lot.
It’s at the end on the app too. We are talking about outlier reviews here so that’s very different to putting all the bad reviews at the end. There are still 5 reviews for December 2018 on the front page and then 2 pages of November 2018 reviews so it isn’t old or not appearing chronologically. It’s just that the obvious anomaly has been placed out of the running. Just like they deal with outliers mathematically.
They should just include the widget that TA does where it shows a list of how many reviews of each level and you can click on it to see just the 1* or 5* etc if you wish. I always ignore if less than 5% 1* and 2* reviews but love reading them as the people are often so deluded and just getting back at the manager for not sorting out their repeated requests for something the hotel doesn’t provide. Especially if the manager writes an honest reply about what really happened rather than the boilerplate “we’re sorry your experience was not up to your expectations…” crap
I wish you’d post the full review. i love reading bad reviews (except when they are for me and I don’t really have any). If nothing else sometimes you notice something you should tell some guests about before they arrive like: “be aware that there is an aardvark which yodels in the bathroom at 3am for 15 minutes and during this time you will be able to use the facilities”
That would work. It would solve the problem of ‘outlier’ reviews as well. It would be good to have a language filter as well. Just shoving all the “other” languages to the bottom of pile seems so antiquated and insular. Many people speak and/or understand several languages, y’know? Or at least feel more identity with someone from their part of the world even if they don’t share a common language. Trying to be diplomatic here… but honestly, I am far more likely to relate to a Spanish or French person’s review than I am to someone from, I don’t know, Tennessee. But that in itself is prejudicial, I know!! The only answer is to have a search function, by time, language, good-bad. But it won’t happen.
Thank you Mandi, it’s really appreciated! The last couple of weeks I have been on the verge of closing it all down, walking away and looking for something else to keep me occupied! I am over guests carrying on like my listings are trash when they are just beautiful. I’ve never stayed in an Airbnb as nice as my places and I have stayed in lot’s of below par ones. I think it comes with the age group I deal with, the under 32’s. I find a lot of them very argumentative and self-righteous. Talking about self-righteous…I sometimes feel like saying just grow up and see a bit more of how the world lives. Little first world problems.
Between the guests and another cleaner quitting - she didn’t like running errands. I would rather get paid $30 an hour to go shopping than scrub the toilet! The hardest part of the business is the cleaners. I’ve just put on two “older” people, fingers cross they last and continue doing a good job.
I decided that morally I couldn’t walk out on my owners coming up to our peak season. I will reassess it at the end of summer but I am keeping an eye open for something else to do.
I have grown up cleaners. They turn up, they get the presentation and the standards that need to be kept up. I always let them know about the 5 star feedback. They are mine and don’t work for anyone else. They love the extra money and also like being involved because it is better than being bored!
My theory is that the prices (relative to a hotel) attract inexperienced travellers.
Don’t hate me for this, but many of the criticism comes from other females. (4 star because you found my house smaller than you thought…? It’s a $35 a night room!)
All we can do is take pride in doing our very best.
I just let my flock of seagulls know that I may need to leave on short notice because my partner’s aunt is on final approach. They are very good about it . .and the roast turkey in the fridge! …
When i found my current cleaner I told her I get the occasional 4 star Cleanliness review but since she came they have all been 5 star and I let her know how much I appreciate it. Particularly given how difficult it is to get a good cleaner in the country.
