For those of you who have used Airbnb as a guest, how exactly are you asked to review the host?
Are you asked to review your experience or just the host himself?
It really irritates me when I receive a review that is brief and then in the part about - “What so and so loved about your listing” - it says “the cabin was sooo amazing! I loved this and this and blah and blah. The bed was incredible!”
Of course this is the kind of stuff I WANT to be in the public review. My last two public reviews were short and sweet but the private feedback was so much better. I am not going to ask the guest to move it to the public part. But just wondering if they are only asked to talk about how communicative/friendly the host was?
And on the review I received today, I see there are four parts to the private feedback now.
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What did the guest love
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What could I improve
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Location feedback
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Value feedback
Oh brother…please spare me feedback about the location and value. The person said he really didn’t know how to answer the location question. He said he liked the fact that the property was private and secluded, yet it wasn’t convenient to get to. Now that is crazy. My property is a mile and half from the ONLY large grocery store in the area. It has a Red box, gas station, pharmacy, etc. There are several restaurants within a few miles. The area is small town country. I have no idea where this person would think would be convenient. There is no public transportation. We don’t even have one stop light…lol. We were 6.5 miles from the event he was attending. The drive was 15 minutes due to the curvy roads - we’re in the mountains so all the roads are curvy!
Anyway, and the value feedback was that he didn’t like the extra fees like the cleaning fee - and taxes that should have been more prominently noted in the listing. Actually at the time he booked I did have the taxes in big bold letter with astericks. He just didn’t read it. So I had to explain that it is Airbnb’s decision to not include taxes like any other listing site does, and unlike a hotel that charges all fees upfront. Then I had to explain that an entire house has to be cleaned for each new reservation. And we are forced to enter in a single nightly rate. I explained that I could NEVER charge the same nightly rate for 5 one night stays, vs. one 5 day stay. It takes 7 man hours to clean my property with a cleaning fee of $105. Could you imagine just eating that kind of money every day? And why should a 5 night stay be charged that rate every single night? They would never book if I added $105 to their nightly rate.
Anyway, just venting away. I really don’t need feedback on my value or location. I can’t change the location and everyone knows the rates when they book. They don’t HAVE to book my property.