From my more than 4 years as an active Airbnb host I’ve discovered some curiosities. One of the things I’ve noticed is how reviews from US guests in general tend to differ from reviews written by people from other countries.
Whereas most reviews tend to be short, accurate and balanced, many guests from the US seem to have a strong urge to tell the world, loudly and in detail, how disappointed or happy they are about something – often in a very exaggerated way.
Like the elderly couple who didn’t like the bedding. After their stay they rewarded us with a one-star score on every parameter, including location, communication, accuracy and arrival. As a host taking pride in making my guests feel comfortable and wanting to improve I asked them what was wrong apart from the bedding. “Nothing” they wrote me, they just needed to make me and everyone else know how disappointed they were with the bedding issue, by scoring EVERYTHING to the lowest score possible.
That being said, US guests often leave super positive reviews too (actually most of the time), if they are happy. It’s like everything is black or white.
From my experience, US reviewers in particular tend to use very strong words and characteristics to express how they feel, which can make things look very different from what really happened. This can in turn easily be misunderstood by other readers. Is this a cultural thing?
I have no problems taking constructive feedback and criticism, but from my opinion descriptions and reviews, positive or negative, should be accurate, balanced and honest, not blown out of proportions. As a host it’s very frustrating when people, if they are unhappy with one thing, sometimes try to make an impression there were lots of other problems that didn’t exist or rates EVERYTHING negatively.
Is it only me, or has anyone else noticed the same?
I’m writing a little more about this topic on my blog: