Very helpful. Thank you!
There’s an AirReview extension for Firefox, too.
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I usually get 5555555551555555552555555551555555555554
No constructive criticism. Just a^holes. There is a pattern however. Each is a first timer.
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Personally I’ve always thought that the Airbnb reviews were unrealistically optimistic. One of the most powerful vetting features for a guest is to read former guest reviews. Reviews like 5 star reviews - “Fantastic, we loved it, unbelievable, amazing…” for a property that would be rated 2-3 stars in the hotel system does little to help guests make realistic decisions. 4 star Reviews such as “Our host was easy to work with, we enjoyed our stay, however, the property is listed with a/c but technically the a/c is only in the first floor so the bedroom can get hot and stuffy if you are out all day during the summer heat” has a lot more value.
Hosts have enjoyed a very relaxed review system getting 5 stars just for not screwing up. It’s basically the everybody shows up and gets a trophy mentality. Unfortunately Airbnb has put so much empasis and benefit to hosts to achieve a 5 star rating it makes the tale wag the dog with hosts focusing too much on how do I get a 5 star review rather than the emphasis being on the actual guest experience.
I fogot now but there was a survey showing the average star rating for Airbnb versus traditional lodging and I believe Airbnb properties were a full star rating higher. The unrealistic painting of this was that Airbnb hosts were that much better than the rest of the industry when we all know that is not true and the rating system is not accurate.
The star ratings should be done away with entirely.
They are completely subjective and tell you nothing concrete. They’re like opinions on whether some guy is handsome or not. One woman thinks he’s super hot, another says Ugh, really? With that nose? No way, not my type at all.
I recall a thread here where a bunch of experienced hosts weighed in on how the OP should rate a certain group of guests. The responses ran from 2s to 5s.
Written reviews are the only thing of value as far as having useful information on which to judge a listing or a guest.
Ratings are one if the biggest hand-wringers and stressors about Airbnb, mostly for hosts, but also guests.
I wish they’d be done away with completely.
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yes! Even worse though and i have over 800 5 star reviews. i even called airbnb to see if everyones gotten overly bitchy and negative. yep! they agreed! covid, having no real vacation for over a year and everything Trump has made people nuts. I usually get a few weird ones in the winter but this is a record breaker!
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Actually the star ratings- reviews mimic the star reviews on amazon. I believe that ABNB might have borrowed amazon’s playbook or at least used the same legal council to develop certain aspects of their company. Jeff Bezos of amazon was one of the first ABNB investors. However, I do think prompted star review/rating requests can be an issue and in some cases might work in the reverse.
No they didn’t.
20202020
JF
Hmm, am not a strong fan or hater of the review system, but I’m curious when you think emphasis on getting a 5-star rating is not correlated with a positive “actual guest experience”.
As for everyone getting a trophy, it’s an arbitrary scale adopted by the sharing economy (including ride shares) wherein a 5 means fine as expected but also comes with the stress for hosts (and ride share drivers) to meet a high bar like 4.5 to avoid the risk of being effectively, or explicitly by site policy, booted from the system. They were never meant to be comparable to hotel star ratings, and that is well understood by Airbnb regulars, but yes, may not be obvious to newcomers or those who don’t take the time to read carefully.
For guests, really? I’ve never cared enough about my guest rating to feel stressed about it. Most of my guest experiences were before I started hosting but I don’t think I’d still be stressed as a guest. I just assume that if as a guest, you do some research and book carefully and stay a gentle bunny through your stay, everyone is going to be fine and reasonable.
But if the host does happen to be unreasonable, I still don’t see why to care about their guest rating of me. The only thing a guest rating matters for is Instant Book privileges with hosts that require “positive reviews” [sic plural] from other hosts, but even that requirement is so weak (needing just one “not bad” review) that a guest rating doesn’t feel valuable to preserve at all. If needed, a guest can easily create a new account or book a place with any number of other Airbnb hosts or hotels.
I agree that 10 is a party. Even 8! That’s why I got rid of two twins beds making the listing for six instead of 8. Also I don’t do 3 nights anymore. Now the min stay is for 5 nights. It seems to have helped with getting rid of the party crowd.
I did something similar - four queen beds in three bedrooms but I just set our limit to six guests.
Occasionally, I get a request for eight but it means I can vet them, get a deposit, charge more, or just say “no”
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Hahahaha thank you, this made my day (after an a-hole guest checked out recently)
yes. I think it’s a great idea.