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Reviews are not ‘tactics’, they are not to be used for anything other than letting other hosts know about the guest.
Sadly, there are many hosts like yourself who do not see the advantage of hosts being honest. They are the ones who say “I always give 5 star reviews to prevent retaliation / I am always trying to be ‘nice’ / I don’t have the time / I use reviews for my own advantage / I don’t care about other hosts / I don’t really care about the guests / I am against the whole idea of honesty”.
Also sadly, having to be looking out for you dishonest hosts and trying to ‘read between the lines’ or ‘look for code words’ is exhausting and dealing with passive/aggressive hosts like yourself makes our jobs harder.
Maybe try not to think of your hosting as ‘you against the world’ and more like ‘member of a community of hosts’. At least on this forum, we look down upon hosts who think that THEIR ‘gaming of the system’ is acceptable.
I discount all generic reviews. They tell me nothing. You are being dishonest, unethical, and misleading other hosts.
Better for you to leave no review at all, as you don’t understand the purpose of a review system.
And no, all guests who get critical reviews don’t just open another account. I’ve seen plenty of negative guest reviews.
That isn’t out-smarting the guest, it’s being cowardly, to give them low stars because they were objectionable, because they can’t see them, yet say nothing about the issues in the written review. And guests will know you low rated them when they start to get declined by other hosts, or a host comes right out and tells them the 3 star cleanliness rating they have is of concern, and if they promise to be more respectful than they apparently were last time, they will accept the booking.
Star ratings tell other hosts nothing of real value, because they are entirely subjective and offer no explanation. What I might consider a 5 star guest because I’m easy-going and don’t have a long list of rules might be a 3 star guest to another host. Hosts get bad guests who had 5 star ratings and wonder why the previous hosts weren’t honest, or take a chance on a guest who had a low rating only to find the guest is unproblematic.
And some guests are open to learning from their mistakes. They aren’t all uncaring, disrespectful jerks just because they left a pile of dirty dishes in the sink. If they read your review of them that says they didn’t tidy up after themselves, and it took much longer to clean than usual, some who thought that renting an Airbnb means you can just walk away leaving a mess for the host or cleaner, like they do in a hotel, will realize that isn’t okay and be a better guest next time.
You are using reviews and ratings like you are playing a sneaky game, instead of using them as the vetting tool they are intended to be.
I’ll make it clear; there are two different scenarios at play:
Guest isn’t perfect e.g. leaves dirty dishes etc (no one cares, ho hum).
Guest is totally disrespectful and no host would want them.
For situation 1 it’s best to leave a positive review and maybe remove 1 star in cleanliness. Boring as hell, not worth talking about.
I’m only talking about situation 2.
e.g. the sheets have been ruined by fake tan and they refuse to pay compensation
or the neighbors have called you as the cops are there
or they’ve broken/stolen something expensive and refuse to accept responsibility
or they’ve vomited and left it for the cleaner to deal with
Do I need to go on?
In these situations don’t leave a factual review as they will open a new account! They are expecting a bad review so by leaving a generic “I trust they enjoyed their stay” and 1* tell’s the next host that something dreadful went down but the guest thinks “ok, I got away with it” so they don’t open a new account. That’s how we protect ourselves.
I find it really disappointing that I’ve been called cowardly, dishonest, passive aggressive and sneaky just for starters! Thanks for the support when I finally decide to poke my head up. Whack a mole!
Nige is just sayin’, less name calling and personal attacks opens up more intelligent conversation.
“Don’t leave a factual review” is just wrong. And advising folks to ‘protect ourselves’ by creating some strange ‘code’ for reviews is puzzling - As an unseasoned host, being new to airbnb, it might seem ‘clever’ or ‘stealthy’ to do what you suggest, but I can assure you that we more experienced hosts prefer accurate and honest reviews and have no time to parse and ‘read between the lines’. As you get more experience as a host, you will come to realize that hosts that are not accurate or are ‘playing a game’ with reviews are your nemesis.
Well, finally you explain your approach. Your previous posts were cryptic to me, troll like. Thank you for your explanation.
Two problems I see:
Many guests have just a few reviews. So they’re bound to notice that their overall rating suddenly went way down. If they’re the type to just get a new account, as you say, they’re just as likely to do that.
The text of the review is a way to communicate not only to other Hosts, but also to the guest. An accurate review educates the guest, holds the guest accountable, implicitly warns the guest that the guest’s behavior will be exposed. It encourages the guest to up their game as a guest.
A Host following your approach loses this opportunity for the guest. Yes, a guest might keep creating new accounts but the Host can control only its conduct. Some guests will clean up their act; that’s a big opportunity. Your approach deprives the guest of that opportunity; by normalizing their current conduct your approach encourages it.
One more thing that I haven’t seen discussed here.
We had a recent guest that cheated on the number of guests and failed to respond to my message asking about missing items.
After my review, which the guest described as ‘a little harsh’ in a note on the platform I responded to him about the potential consequences of cheating on the number of guests – ejection and cancellation of stay without refund. That he was playing with fire.
I pointed out his not responding on the missing items, that we didn’t deserve that. I encouraged him to up his game as a guest. I ended wishing him and his family the best.
I suppose you might call it a ‘kill him with kindness’ approach. I don’t know whether it will have any positive effect, but there’s a chance. That’s all we can do.
Your approach doesn’t create any chance. It gives up on the guest. It doesn’t serve our community, Hosts or guests.
Not to mention that hotels wouldn’t put up with half the things Airbnb guests think they can get away with and often do. Damage items in a hotel room? Steal the pillows? They’ll dock your credit card. Cause a ruckus? Hotel security will tell you to shut it down or escort you out of the building.
New posters who speak in the imperative – “Do this.” “Don’t do that.” – are generally not received well on this forum. Perhaps a better way to approach is to say “Here is what I do and why.”
As a personal quibble, those who refer to themselves in the third person tend to “irk me.” Just sayin’.
I think I’ve cared the reviews too much and my life is becoming very stressful lately. Too many sleepless nights thinking about what should I do to improve my service and how to make my guests happy. But there are people can never be satisfied. It’s only been a month but I am so burned out. I’ve decided only take 5 star guests in for a while in hope of less negative experience as being a host. Thank you everyone for your input.
Try to keep in mind that almost all businesses that deal with the public at large get objectionable or complaining customers that will leave bad reviews.
I’m sure that even Michelin 5 star restaurants get customers who complain about some ridiculous thing. I doubt they lose sleep over it, or fault themselves and think they need to improve their offerings.
I haven’t seen your listing, but one thing that helps to get guests who are a good fit for what you offer is to not try to attract anyone and everyone. Market towards the type of guests who will be content with what you offer. Don’t be afraid to mention things that could be a deal-breaker for some guests (potential for noise, unreliable wifi, whatever might give guests cause for complaint), so that you ward off potential complainers before they book.
Thank you so much, Muddy, your words are warm and comforting. I have been so frustrated and caught up by that untrue review for days. I am not very upset that they left my apartment extremely messy. I can fix it I can clean them. But I cannot do anything to that stained review and it will stay there forever.
I would have probably opened my home to them too. Everyone deserves second chances, so don’t beat yourself up. Some guests just don’t consider the house a home. Even though we list leave the house as you found it, lock doors upon leaving, and turn down the heat in our house rules, I’ve had guests leave fires burning in the fireplace, heat cranked up, dirty dishes in the sink and the house wide open. People just sometimes are jerks!
Already with two bad reviews, now I know I definitely wouldn’t host them!
While all the things you ask guests to do before leaving are common sense respect, I have never understood the wording to “leave it as you found it”.
Leave it as you found it would mean that a guest was expected to do all the heavy duty cleaning a host or their cleaner does to prepare for the next guests.
I am sorry that you had to go through this. Like you, I took great pride in my 5 stars over +100 reviews, many of which were long term.
Then I got a run of a subhuman species. Police were involved, Air was involved, but they still got to review. Suffice it to say that flushing should not require instruction.
I was completely gutted. But pride comes before a fall.
What I learned:
.
The more 5 stars, the more I was exposed to idiots who wanted to push it.
I was jumping through hoops for approval.
I stopped enjoying it. They were no longer guests; just another review.
I started snooping around best practice accommodations. Like the Burj (go big or go home!). The Burj doesn’t get 5 star!
I started thinking about expectations from the guest. A cheap and cheerful price with a 5 star history? Wow! But people didn’t take it in context. They expected 5 star no matter what.
It came down to a simple matter of probability - the more reviews, the greater the chances you are going to Humpty Dumpty. There are hosts out there that score 5’s no matter what. But they won’t be homeshares like mine.
I learned that Airbnb metrics are not like the rest of the world. That I had to teach it. That it could sound insincere. That maybe that was Airbnb’s job. Or fix it.
What I learned was to do my best, but to be captain of my own business. A $100 voucher wasn’t worth it.
What I learned was to take reviews with a grain of salt. As a result, I took more risks when traveling, and was delighted.
