We were very surprised recently to discover that reviews from foreign guests are no longer listed in chronological order along with American guests, but are buried way down in the reviews. We recently had guests from Germany, England, France and Canada. To find their reviews you have to scroll through dozens of reviews from Americans. Airbnb says it is so that foreigners can find reviews in their own language easier, but almost all of the reviews are in English. If you agree with me that this is not right, please send feedback to Airbnb.
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Itās been like that for ages and itās perfectly okay as far as Iām concerned. If a guest from another country looks at the listing they see a review in their own language first. I have no problem with that.
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As far as I understand, people will see reviews from their country first.
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I have 6 reviews in a foreign language and approximately 80 from foreigners in English. ALL of them are buried, including many from countries where English is the primary language.
Not a problem for me, I doubt itās a problem for anyone. Why do you suddenly think itās a problem.
Indeed. So it isnāt a problem.
Why do you think American reviews are more important than reviews from foreigners? If I have 6 5 star reviews from foreigners and one 3 star review from an American who didnāt read my listing and expected a whole house instead of a room, why should their review show on top?
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They are - to Americans. And a French review is more important to a French person and so on. This is not stereotyping or anything, itās life.
For example, an English guest looking for a place in Florida might want to see English reviews first to see if the rental has a proper electric kettle and a proper duvet.
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It seems that xenophobia and nationalism has even infected Airbnb. I would never think that an Americanās review is more important than anyone elseās, just because Iām an American. Besides, when looking at reviews there is no indication of where the guests are from. I see no reason to bury foreigners reviews. Iāve had numerous guests from the UK. None of them have ever asked if I had a āproper duvetā or an electric kettle, nor have they ever mentioned that I do have them in their reviews.
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For example, "ŠŠ¾ŃŃŃŃŠ°ŃŃŠøŠµ Š°ŠæŠ°ŃŃŠ°Š¼ŠµŠ½ŃŃ! " itās pretty obvious that this person isnāt American, donāt you think? Or if by any chance they are living in the USA they are still pretty immersed in the culture and language of their own country.
Youāre saying that because Airbnb shows potential guests a listingās reviews in their own languages? Languages they understand? How does that translate to nationalism? If I was browsing a Chinese site, Iād appreciate seeing reviews in English that I can understand. I see this as customer service - not nationalism. The eye of the beholder I guess.
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They donāt show guests reviews in their languages but from guests from their country. And it is kinda stupid. Why would I judge a listing based on what my compatriots think? I want to see the most recent review!
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Iām certain they beta tested this (not relied on the opinions of a few hosts with their small samples) and determined that order them in this way worked best. Many hosts now have hundreds of reviews and so ordering them by nation of origin may make sense. But Iām sure they should just defer to whatever each individual host prefers regardless of any contrary data they might have.
Then is every listing different? On mine, foreign language reviews are right on the last page no matter how recent they were. When someone from Russia, for example, looks at the listing, they see the reviews in Russian first, then the most recent in English. As itās likely that they understand Russian better than they understand English, then I donāt see the problem. The most recent reviews are still there.
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Letās not leap to a conclusion. 95% of my guests are visitors from the continental USA. I have quite a few reviews in French, Spanish and other languages. In our profiles, Airbnb asks our primary language. It would make sense that we would want to see reviews that we can read & understand first.
As I understand it, my guests for whom French is their first language would see the reviews written in French first with the others following. They could then use google translate or translation engine of their choice for copying, pasting & translating of the others.
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As I said in my original post, the vast majority of my reviews from foreigners are in English, but they are buried nonetheless. Why anyone would think that Americans only want to see reviews from other Americans rather than the most recent reviews in English is beyond me. Are Americans that xenophobic and nationalistic?
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PLEASE note that I was talking primarily about reviews from foreigners (e.g. England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand), not reviews in foreign languages. Theyāre all buried!
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So itās not a problem, you just want to talk about American xenophobia? Or Airbnbās?
There are better forums for discussing American nationalism. Unless you could be more specific about the problem you need help with from forum members I donāt see the point of your post.
If you read my first post, youāll see.
Where is your listing? It has been said a couple times in this thread the belief is that potential guests see reviews from people from their part of the world first. Are you in the USA?
Airbnb has listings all over the world and is aware of inclusion and being politically correct.
There may be an oddity about the way reviews display but I highly doubt the Airbnb developers are Xenophobic and think guests from the USA are the most important.
Like an another person on this thread I would prefer to se the most recent first, but Iām not feeling the same concern you do.
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