TBH I haven't used AirBNB in a long time (too many small hassles + one big bad experience), so it's hard for me to say at this point.
I do know that similar systems (Uber, at least) have had issues with leaky reviews leading to retaliation. It's hard to implement a system like that, especially when your users have safety, money, and comfort on the line.
I've only used Airbnb once, so I'm unsure. But given the "retaliatory reviews" mentioned in the article, it seems not; How could I retaliate if I don't know what your review will be?
This seems pretty clear. He had a bad experience but didn't leave a review for the place, and then when the review period expired, he saw that the place had left a bad review for him. Airbnb keeps both users blind to each other's reviews until the review period has expired, because otherwise people will use the threat of leaving a bad review (as retribution) in order to ensure they get reviewed well. But he did an end-run around this and posted reviews on multiple other sites, which makes airbnb's system break down.
It sounds like Airbnb just needs a way for people to respond to reviews that are left for them. I'm surprised it doesn't have that already.
I also work at Airbnb and would like to follow up on what Nate just said. Our review system is actually stronger than all the aforementioned sites because it is transaction based, i.e., only people who complete the transaction through Airbnb can leave a review.
Non-transaction based review sites like Yelp, VRBO, etc., are plagued with fake reviews by owners, guests, and competitors. On sites like that, how do you know that those glowing reviews you just read weren't written by the owners, their staff, or their friends? You don't.
By tying our double-sided review system to actual transactions you can have almost complete confidence that the reviews you are reading are the result of someone staying with, or hosting, another member of our community.
We have reached out to the author of the article to articulate this, but rest assured, had he booked through Airbnb he would have been able to write the review he wanted.
In addition to that, he wouldn't have sent money blindly to someone. We would be holding it until after he checks in and reminding the owner via email of the booking to prevent exactly this kind of situation from happening. And in the rare occasions when it does, our 24/7 customer team would have stepped in and helped to find him a new place or issue a complete and fast refund.
from my POV one problem with these review systems, unlike hotels, if I leave a bad review the next place I try to rent will look at my review history, see I left a bad review, and refuse to rent to me.
Hotels don't seem to do that. Partly because they have 100s or 1000s of guests so one bad review means nothing whereas on AirBnB many units are individually owned so those owners have a much higher interest in things like this.
I don't know a solution though as there are issues with dishonest reviewers as well.
I do know AirBnB removed a bad review I left. The review is reposted on my blog so it's not gone but it is effectively gone.
I think your understanding of how the service works is spot on. There's reputation system of sorts since you can comment on people you've stayed with. If anyone ever got a single bad review, I imagine no one would ever stay there again. Airbnb themselves don't do any of the screening.
I've personally experienced problems with reviews before where negative reviews never showed up, and have stopped using AirBnB as a result. I also know this is an extremely well-known problem, and if you aren't aware of it it's because you haven't looked for it (a few minutes on Google is all it takes).
I recently had the occasion to stay with 4 different Airbnb hosts over the span of under a month, my takeaway was that if I owned any Airbnb stock, I would've sold it immediately.
The first two accommodations were huge let downs in terms of cleanliness, despite both advertising Enhanced Clean. The first trip was booked for a month, but we got sick of ants, mice and lack of action after about a week and left early. The second was so incredibly filthy that we left the morning after checking in. While Airbnb corrected the issues by letting us get out early, this was incredibly disruptive to our plans and not representative of what was promised.
The worst part came later, after our mutual reviews for that second place became public. My review and scores got removed with no notice, so that host continues to advertise as Superhost with Enhanced Clean and decent enough, if few, reviews. On the other hand, he posted a nasty review of me full of spin, which remains there to this day. My response to it contained a link to a gallery with evidence, and Airbnb removed that as well. My questions to support remain unanswered.
This turned into something of a rant, but the main takeaway is that I have entirely lost trust in the review system. Not only does is skew towards high marks, but critical reviews can be removed at a moment's notice with no recourse. That does not reflect well on the company, IMO and there are clearly hosts that have learned to play the system. Too bad.
I use Airbnb a lot. When the location is bad the reviews are often bullshit. People are afraid to leave a negative review. I would be willing to pay more to know the history of complaints that Airbnb receives directly through their support line. In the past I've discovered that Airbnb knew that there was a problem with a location but gave the owner another chance and did not follow up.
As a counterexample, I've had the only bad review I've ever left removed after a couple of days. I don't know how frequent it is, but it made me lose a lot of trust towards Airbnb.
The one time I posted a negative review it was promptly taken down after the host complained. They then proceeded to submit a negative review of me (a personal attack really) that had no basis in fact and I had already provided Airbnb with proof earlier in order to get my money back. It was a huge PITA to take that review down. Grew very disillusioned with Airbnb after that, they really don't provide any protections against malicious hosts.
It's been a while since I used AirBNB so I'll take your word for it. The recent article in Vice suggested that the fear of retributive reviews was something a lot of people were concerned about, so I'm not sure where the disconnect is here.
"After all, Airbnb uses a rating system in which both the host
and tenant can publicly provide feedback to one another, which
both parties then use to prove their credibility in the
future.
Because of that, there is a built-in incentive to avoid
confrontation, which helps explain why Airbnb hosts
consistently receive higher ratings than hotels reviewed on
TripAdvisor, according to research out of Boston University and
the University of Southern California. If a customer has a
negative experience on Airbnb, they might be better off just
moving on instead of leaving a negative review."
Perhaps it's not retributive reviews so much as complaining during the stay. shrug
That's exactly what is happening through the review system. I find AirBnB reviews to be much more reliable than say Amazon or other easily gamed places. You can and should shame bad hosts and bad guests. You can't see the review text until after both wrote a review so there is no fear of revenge.
It would be in AirBnb's long term interest to promote accurate reviews to increase trust. If a host is bad and they don't get rid of them it will lose customers.
There is also the fact that hosts can take down negative reviews for a variety of dubious reasons. The fault here is entirely with Airbnb. The reviews are the only real information that you can use before booking (and yes you can discuss over messages but the UX flow doesn't really accommodate this in a meaningful way where both parties agreeing to terms before the booking is made). I recall Lyft used to send people out to inspect cars and give training before letting someone drive. Airbnb is just being cheap and lazy on this front.
One question I haven't seen to be raised often is how the reviews are "regulated" by airbnb.
I rented an apartment in a metropolitan city via airbnb last year. Both the owner and the apartment got about ~15 excellent reviews. It turned out the owner was very indeed very nice and friendly, but the apartment was far from both the description and the reviews. Our friends living in the city was astound since the price we paid should get us a much better deal than that.
It made me wonder if 1) the reviews were "regulated" or "engineered" somehow, 2) due to the two-way review system, renters were reluctant to write a bad review since they were concerned they could get retaliated by the owners giving them bad reviews in response.
I do know that similar systems (Uber, at least) have had issues with leaky reviews leading to retaliation. It's hard to implement a system like that, especially when your users have safety, money, and comfort on the line.
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