Hi. I wonder if I’ve missed something but I can’t find the details of a host’s review. I had an enquiry about a 20-day stay from a potential guest with only one review of 4 stars that said he’d left the place “tidy”. He was trying to negotiate a big discount and so I really needed to know what caused him to lose a star. Host reviews include marks for communication, cleanliness and adherence to House Rules but I couldn’t see his scores for these. I asked Airbnb and they mumbled stuff about confidentiality and said they couldn’t tell me.
Is this right? If so, what are we scoring them for?
Thoughts please?
PS he agreed a huge reduction but never booked!
Thank you.
Personally I would never agreed a ‘huge reduction’ on my prices. I already discount my rates for weekly or monthly discounts to a price I am comfortable with, which cover my costs.
I agree it’s a shame if a host mark’s down a guest if they don’t state in their review why this was.
I have just gone into a guest who has an upcoming stay with me, I thought I had seen their ratings previously but now I can only see their reviews. Not sure if Airbnb are making changes?
Stars have never been visible on the website at all.
They are visible on the app but there have to be 3 or more before they are visible because they average them.
NEVER discount for anything. Why are you taking money out of your own pocket? You’re not an international hotel that can ‘loss leader’ things to make you look good to local governments.
I once had a “famous person” ask me for a serious discount on a party he wanted me to cater. I told him that perhaps HE made enough millions that a few hundred dollars here and there didn’t mean anything to him; but I certainly didn’t make that kind of money. If he wanted my services the price was $XXXX and no discounts for any reason. I still got the job, because I was 'way less than a conventional catering company for better food.
I am of the opinion that when they ask for a discount they will never be satisfied. I would rather have people who respect my price and are willing to pay for the extras.
RR
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Ah I thought if you used IB they are. But things keep changing and I can’t keep up. I don’t tend to manage my listing on my app.
I don’t think so but I agree that they change so often it’s hard to keep track. They’ve changed the layout on the reviews and so the AirReview extension isn’t functional. I don’t expect them to do anything to make it easy for hosts to find any excuse to turn away a guest. At least I know how to go back and look at reviews the old fashioned, time consuming way.
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The old fashioned way is fine for new guests with only recent reviews or who stayed at places with only a few reviews. Otherwise I had stopped because it was way too time consuming. That’s when I learned of The chrome extension. Hopefully it will work again soon.
I use IB and I can see the star-ratings, including the three individual categories, on the mobile app (Android). I can view the star-rating breakdown on inquiries and guests with only 2 reviews. I didn’t have anyone with just 1 review to take a look at for comparison sake.
I accept guests who have 4/5 stars but all positive narrative reviews. However, the request for a discount would be a red flag to me and I would decline.
I’ve left 4/5 stars overall and in the individual categories for a number of reasons. Perhaps the guest didn’t respond to any of the messages in the app but was responsive in person. Or they left makeup on the towels but I was able to get the makeup out. Or they didn’t sort their recycling and compost from the trash. Or they didn’t put the furniture back that they’d moved.
If a guest does all of the above, I’ll usually give the thumbs down and say why. However, one minor offense and I would still host them again, so I don’t usually mention these negatives in a review but might give private feedback. I don’t appreciate nitpicky reviews as a host, so I try not to give what I wouldn’t like to receive.
However, if my fellow hosts would like me to mention these details, I would be willing to change my practices.
I really do hope they get AirReview up and running again. It used to be easy to find old reviews when I first started hosting, but the platform has been established for a number of years now and it is difficult to search manually through hundreds of reviews. I’ve done it, but sometimes it isn’t worth the trouble!
There was a brief time maybe a year ago I could see (on the app) the actual stars a guest left their host. I wish they’d kept that!
Its working for me today, or is it?..
I looked at my upcoming guest who had 7 reviews and the chrome extension said she did not leave a review all 7 times, I will look at some others to see if they actually show some reviews.
RR
Edited to add, checked another guest and it is working for me.
Do you have the updated view of the reviews page?
I have no idea if its updated, looks the same to me what are the differences?
RR
No idea if I have an updated view of reviews or not but AirReview Chrone extension is working for me.
The view on the desktop looks like the snip I posted above.
Mine looks different, a little. Next to the review count it shows 3 verifications, on the left where yours says personal info mine says verified info.
RR
@Caroline_Bradbeer Caroline, why would you offer a “huge reduction” to a guest for a 20-day stay? Besides, this is a non-issue as the prospective guest never booked…
You dodged a bullet.