AirBNB should I write a review?

[Anonymous]

Basic question: AirBNB keeps hounding me to write a review of my latest stay. Does it hurt my rating as a customer if I don't do a review? Will it impact my ability to rent in the future?

The long story is that the place was fine but there were a number of housekeeping issues that made it not great. Almost every single dish in the cupboards was dirty because housekeepers appear to have unloaded a full load of dirty dishes, a third of lights were blown out and we had to replace, a non smoking rental smelled like smoke, etc., etc. The host was off site but responded quickly through the AirBNB platform to tell me where to find light bulbs and apologized for the smell and messes. He said he was trying a new cleaning company, which obviously didn't work well and likely smoked on his property. I wasn't psyched to spend vacation time washing dishes, but didn't request a discount (mistake?).

I'm happy to give him the benefit of the doubt that he'll address these issues, so a review didn't seem necessary/helpful to him or future renters. Does it impact me any way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Basic question: AirBNB keeps hounding me to write a review of my latest stay. Does it hurt my rating as a customer if I don't do a review? Will it impact my ability to rent in the future?

The long story is that the place was fine but there were a number of housekeeping issues that made it not great. Almost every single dish in the cupboards was dirty because housekeepers appear to have unloaded a full load of dirty dishes, a third of lights were blown out and we had to replace, a non smoking rental smelled like smoke, etc., etc. The host was off site but responded quickly through the AirBNB platform to tell me where to find light bulbs and apologized for the smell and messes. He said he was trying a new cleaning company, which obviously didn't work well and likely smoked on his property. I wasn't psyched to spend vacation time washing dishes, but didn't request a discount (mistake?).

I'm happy to give him the benefit of the doubt that he'll address these issues, so a review didn't seem necessary/helpful to him or future renters. Does it impact me any way?

I had a semi-bad Airbnb experience (only time out of many stays), and was kind of fired up about it, including feeling a bit mistreated by the host. Was going to write a pretty long scathing review, when I co-worker I mentioned it to said "no, just be super factual, don't talk about how it made you feel, how it impacted you, etc. People who write long screeds like that come off as having a score to settle. If you just list facts it has much deeper impact."

Good advice, and I would encourage you to do the same. Write up what happened, how the host responded, and if you felt like the response was reasonable. The host can post a response to the review if they want to- and if you include info about how he made quick changes, that would be the sort of thing I think the host would be happy to confirm. Then future reviews can chime in on whether those changes were good.

[Anonymous]

I never right bad reviews or rate people low.

[Anonymous]

You should have asked him to waive the cleaning fee since you had to clean dishes and the place smelled like smoke. The place was not cleaned, you had to clean it to use it, so you should not be charged the cleaning fee. That's what I would have done. Then I would have left a review that the place was nice, but had not been properly cleaned. I make it short, but will note deficiencies that may affect other renters and let the owner reply about what changes are being made to address those.

I do not include small things (like the light bulbs), but I will send a list of things that I think need to be addressed in the private review for the owner only. I have gotten good responses from owners about the private messages about items that need to be addressed.

[Anonymous]

I had an experience like that. I gave an okay rating and noted that the house smelled like weed and the dishes were dirty but that the photos matched the listing and the location was great.

[Anonymous]

And this is exactly why the reviews cannot really be trusted. Because the guest has a self interest in not giving any negative ones. Unlike a hotel situation where if it is great you say so and if it sucked you say that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should have asked him to waive the cleaning fee since you had to clean dishes and the place smelled like smoke. The place was not cleaned, you had to clean it to use it, so you should not be charged the cleaning fee. That's what I would have done. Then I would have left a review that the place was nice, but had not been properly cleaned. I make it short, but will note deficiencies that may affect other renters and let the owner reply about what changes are being made to address those.

I do not include small things (like the light bulbs), but I will send a list of things that I think need to be addressed in the private review for the owner only. I have gotten good responses from owners about the private messages about items that need to be addressed.

Exactly right. The only way AirBnb works is if guests give accurate and thorough reviews. No need to villify someone, but, hosts need to be held accountable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And this is exactly why the reviews cannot really be trusted. Because the guest has a self interest in not giving any negative ones. Unlike a hotel situation where if it is great you say so and if it sucked you say that.

Airbnb guests have no self-interest in avoiding negative reviews of hosts. The hosts can't do anything to them. This is just about OP wanting to ne a nice person, and worrying about the host -- a human being with whom she had some email interaction -- but not giving a fig about other guests because they're just faceless, nameless unknowns. But, c'mon, OP, screw your courage to the sticking post -- if you relied on other people's reviews, then you need to write an accurate and complete, but diplomatic, review.

[Anonymous]

How can you view your feedback from the owner?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How can you view your feedback from the owner?

It is visible to you once you complete your review. It's done this way to prevent retaliatory reviews.

[Anonymous]

Guests don’t get dinged when they don’t write a review.

[Anonymous]

Why people keep using these platforms is mind boggling to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Guests don’t get dinged when they don’t write a review.

Can anyone confirm this is true? Anyone on the other side of the platform?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guests don’t get dinged when they don’t write a review.

Can anyone confirm this is true? Anyone on the other side of the platform?

I've written one bad review out of nearly 20 Airbnb stays. The host wrote a positive review of us and then responded to my negative review, which is the host's prerogative on the platform. Our interaction is part of the review record on the website, so anyone can see it. The host was civil, which was completely expected (basically, she said she tried to fix the problem). Since then, I've had no problems at all booking other Airbnb properties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guests don’t get dinged when they don’t write a review.

Can anyone confirm this is true? Anyone on the other side of the platform?

PP here and I can confirm this as an Airbnb Guest and Host. Unless something changed recently, only Hosts get rated on a numeric scale and are dinged by low numeric ratings, which can lead to lower standings during searches, inability to gain Superhost status, etc. Guests are not subjected to such a scale; Hosts are only able to evaluate potential Guests by the reviews previous Hosts have left. I've been a Guest and didn't leave a review and it had no impact on my status.