Air Suspended us for being 4 Stars!

Just before confirming reservations, just write to guests that you do not have an air conditioning and if they still want to make a reservation, you will confirm it. Some guests do not read carefully listings.
I have a separate entrance for my guests, but I still list my space as a private room.

1 Like

There is a reason, but certainly it is not just because Airbnb felt like targeting one random 4-star host out of a million and decided to victimize them.

I thought it was even automatic. Weird …

@sandy2 Would you be willing to share the listing? Now that airbnb is well established I would be very hesitant to stay at a place with no or few reviews or less than 5 stars (sorry anyone here with less than 5, I don’t mean your place.) I know we all had to start somewhere but it seems everywhere I look there are lots of 5 star places with over 10 reviews. I also like recent reviews so I wish ABB wasn’t removing the dates.

2 Likes

I also think, there is a reason. Maybe one guest wrote privately to Airbnb. There is an option in review to write something to Airbnb and a host will not know.

I’m being vague on purpose because of that story of the Airbnb five-star host that got booted without a reason from Airbnb, but he thinks it was because of his blog (he thinks it was because he disclosed how much $ he was making off his listing). Airbnb does not want you to trash their brand and I don’t want to get booted. I am close to 100 reviews. Yes, their were five reviews prior to mine. However, on the App, which is all I had in Europe, you can only see the review in its original language – not translated. The two that were in English were short but good. The three others were in another language. However, when I got back home, I was able to use Google translate and, more importantly, I could see the host’s responses to those reviews – which I could not see on the App! She was so mean in her responses! Also, I could not see the host’s reviews of the guests on the App – another huge flaw. She was mean, there, too. And, the guest’s responses to her mean reviews were also important but, again, I could not see those on the App. I read a great article about Airbnb’s rating system and its flaws. I’ll try to find it. I have written to Airbnb so many, many times about this experience and I was glad to see that her listing was finally deleted but appalled to see it listed again. I can’t figure out why Airbnb would spend so much money creating their “brand” and then letting bad hosts to continue, which will tarnish all of our reputations. Airbnb has an opportunity to be the elite of home-based short-term rentals. If they create certain standards they expect from their hosts and ensure that these standards are met, more people would trust that they would have a good experience. I even suggested that if a host slips down past 4 stars, they could send a “mystery guest”, like a mystery shopper, and then give the sub-standard host a list of things to improve – and if the host does not comply, boot them! Standards such as – is the property well maintained (in the one I stayed in, there was an interior door with a glass panel that was broken so the host stuck a stuffed animal in the door; there was also a lot of broken floor tiles that could cut bare feet), is it clean, are the beds comfortable, are the linens good quality (nothing like trying to sleep in an uncomfortable bed with thin, scratchy sheets!), does everything work, is the listing accurate (this one showed a beautiful view of the harbor but it was about a mile from the bay and had a view of a chained-off parking lot on one side and a derelict apartment on the other) – things like that.

2 Likes
  • five reviews prior to my reservation.

I think the biggest flaw with their review system is that potential guests are completely unaware that other guests have fled the dwelling after arrival. Once you cancel, you can’t leave a review. Maybe they need to put back in – guest cancelled the reservation early – so that it would be a clue that the place is a dump and/or the host is mean or crazy.

2 Likes

I understand your reticence. Another flaw, imo, is the waiting 14 days thing. I know what their intention was with revamping the review system but now, if I have an awful guest they just go on their merry way and probably finish their trip without any bad reviews. I have no way to warn fellow hosts or give them low marks to prevent them from instant booking. As for the message the the guest cancelled…there are a number of posts on this forum where hosts claim they were cancelled on by flaky guests who didn’t read the whole listing. I’m not sure the system could distinguish between reasons for the guest cancelling.

1 Like

I see your point. How about Airbnb being transparent – “Guest found the dwelling/host unacceptable and asked Airbnb to move them to another place.” – That might scare potential guests from using Airbnb at all but it might also reassure potential guest that if they need to flee a dwelling, Airbnb will help them (in my case, it took four hours and actual sobbing but, in the end, a CS rep in Denver finally did her job and put us in a great place).

Thanks for this article which I’ll have to read later. I learned from reading this forum that reviews have limited value. Lots of excuses for not reviewing at all or not accurately downgrading the guest. I’m sure it’s the same on the guest side. That’s why I told a host in Prague in another thread that I won’t stay in a place that’s less than 5 star if I have other options.

2 Likes

I love the author’s ratings – excellent, good, crap.

1 Like

Yes, I flagged the listing and reiterated, for the umpteenth time, how awful this host and her apartment are, and that she relisted sans reviews. The last review started with “WARNING! DECEPTIVE!”

*That review was written after our experience.

I totally agree! I don’t care if it’s a couch where you bring your own bedding or a high-end luxury whole house rental and everything in-between. I just wish there was some vetting that it is individuals hosting and not corporate entities and sub-standard listings.

There are ways but it’s not happening fast enough or consistently enough and there are too many ways around it for bad hosts – such as the one I had, who simply relisted. It really frustrates me. I have a friend who had a horrible experience in Hawaii with a five-star super host. Again, when I looked at the listing, huge gaps between reviews. I’m sure she wasn’t the only guest who fled. In that case, the house was full (and I mean FULL) of bugs and lizards. She is a single mom with 3 kids. Her son chose to sleep in the car because of all the bugs. They lost two days of their vacation, too, and moved to a hotel. That was her first Airbnb experience and she expected it to be a good experience because she has a number of friends, like me, who host. Now, she’ll never book through Airbnb again.

1 Like

Which to me is crazy. What’s identity verification for? Even if the bad host had a friend’s info, Air should have a way of flagging by address cancelled listings. It’s common sense, which Air just doesn’t have and hurts all good hosts.

I am surprised! Why would Air suspend you? That’s crazy.

I really hope she wont be able to list again. Airbnb should be on top of these things. They are all as they say “about transperancy and honesty”

1 Like