Post by High Priestess on Sept 20, 2015 23:59:33 GMT
Peter shared this:
The Risk Of Reviewing The Reviewer
"Boston University researchers, interested in the impact bilateral reviews had on overall ratings, studied the same properties on TripAdvisor, which does not have bilateral reviews, and Airbnb, which does. The research found that on Airbnb, ratings for the same property were 14 percent higher than on TripAdvisor.
This is a big difference when you consider that sales across industries nosedive by slight differences in star ratings. Customers are 3x less likely to book hotel rooms with a three-star rating than those with five stars, and for e-commerce stores, products with a four-star rating get 11.6x more orders than those with three."
"There are three main things that must be established so bilateral reviews can work. First of all, there must be clear-cut standards, understood by the people on both sides, of the rating criteria. Secondly, businesses must follow in Airbnb’s steps to ensure reviews are not retaliatory and offer anonymity if reviewers would prefer to backlash. Last, but definitely not least, we must reduce the stigma of negative reviews."
Click tcrn.ch/1z8Ciko for Tech Crunch article.
My two cents: There is no doubt that reviews matter a lot in the digital world. It's good to read that Airbnb seems to be ahead of the game in designing a
system that, though imperfect, addresses the major flaws. I stopped
taking Yelp reviews seriously a long time ago simply because it's not
bilateral and there's scant consequences for Yelp reviewers to post
off-the-wall comments.
What's your experience with Airbnb's review system? How would you improve it?
Reply 1:
I tend to accept people a lot less from other sites, or ask them to book on Airbnb, because of the lack of accountability and reviews. So true! Same with using share ride services, seeing the driver's rating vs. a random cab.
Reply 2:
Here's what I posted about reviews on the SF Home Sharers group:
Something I believe would help the review system, is if Airbnb could give examples, for both host and guest, of what types of situations might merit ratings as 1 to 5 star in each of the categories. This would help prevent situations where the guest (or host) gives too low a rating, simply because there was a small problem, or gives a 4 rating where a 5 is merited, simply because they are under the false impression that even though everything was fine, there is always room for improvement. For instance, what does a 2-star rating for accuracy mean? A 4 -star rating? A 5-star rating?
Also, I think there is a need for a category for reviews of hosts that doesn't currently exist: namely, how helpful and/or accessible the host was during guest's stay. Call it perhaps, "Host Accessibility/Helpfulness" . A lot of my guests mention this issue in their reviews of my listing, saying that I was helpful and quite available, and I think this category deserves attention, because some hosts are not very available or helpful, or accessible, and hosts who can provide this (either themselves or through a third party) should be rewarded for that. IT's also something I think guests would like to know about when they look at a listing, and the star rating can tell them.
Also, I think location should not be a category used to determine superhost status, since hosts can't help where they are located and may be super hosts wherever they are.
Reply 3:
I think there's a challenge with both guests and hosts who don't write a review instead of leaving one that isn't stellar. I don't usually accept guests without references for this reason. I also think a star rating that actually appeared on guest profiles would be helpful.
Reply 4:
I totally agree that star ratings on guest profiles would be helpful! There are several hosts who are indignant that the star ratings we do of guests, seem pointless, since they dont' show up anywhere ! At one point, when a host asked Airbnb about this, they were told that our ratings of guests are "subjective" whereas their ratings of us are not thought to be subjective. So that doesn't make any sense to me. Are guests naturally more objective people than hosts? I think not. Rating whether a guest was clean or not, isn't any more subjective than their rating of us in the cleanliness department, for instance.
So hopefully some day Airbnb will bring those star ratings of guests out of the closet where they are mothballed, and let them see the light of day.
Reply 5:
Yeah, there's also the "punishment" factor with blocking out your schedule if you cancel on a guest. I started getting worried about a guest who had booked for over 30 days and I felt might not leave. It's the only time I ever cancelled, and my space was blocked for the entire month. Guests are not punished like that for cancelling, merely fined a little.
The Risk Of Reviewing The Reviewer
"Boston University researchers, interested in the impact bilateral reviews had on overall ratings, studied the same properties on TripAdvisor, which does not have bilateral reviews, and Airbnb, which does. The research found that on Airbnb, ratings for the same property were 14 percent higher than on TripAdvisor.
This is a big difference when you consider that sales across industries nosedive by slight differences in star ratings. Customers are 3x less likely to book hotel rooms with a three-star rating than those with five stars, and for e-commerce stores, products with a four-star rating get 11.6x more orders than those with three."
"There are three main things that must be established so bilateral reviews can work. First of all, there must be clear-cut standards, understood by the people on both sides, of the rating criteria. Secondly, businesses must follow in Airbnb’s steps to ensure reviews are not retaliatory and offer anonymity if reviewers would prefer to backlash. Last, but definitely not least, we must reduce the stigma of negative reviews."
Click tcrn.ch/1z8Ciko for Tech Crunch article.
My two cents: There is no doubt that reviews matter a lot in the digital world. It's good to read that Airbnb seems to be ahead of the game in designing a
system that, though imperfect, addresses the major flaws. I stopped
taking Yelp reviews seriously a long time ago simply because it's not
bilateral and there's scant consequences for Yelp reviewers to post
off-the-wall comments.
What's your experience with Airbnb's review system? How would you improve it?
Reply 1:
I tend to accept people a lot less from other sites, or ask them to book on Airbnb, because of the lack of accountability and reviews. So true! Same with using share ride services, seeing the driver's rating vs. a random cab.
Reply 2:
Here's what I posted about reviews on the SF Home Sharers group:
Something I believe would help the review system, is if Airbnb could give examples, for both host and guest, of what types of situations might merit ratings as 1 to 5 star in each of the categories. This would help prevent situations where the guest (or host) gives too low a rating, simply because there was a small problem, or gives a 4 rating where a 5 is merited, simply because they are under the false impression that even though everything was fine, there is always room for improvement. For instance, what does a 2-star rating for accuracy mean? A 4 -star rating? A 5-star rating?
Also, I think there is a need for a category for reviews of hosts that doesn't currently exist: namely, how helpful and/or accessible the host was during guest's stay. Call it perhaps, "Host Accessibility/Helpfulness" . A lot of my guests mention this issue in their reviews of my listing, saying that I was helpful and quite available, and I think this category deserves attention, because some hosts are not very available or helpful, or accessible, and hosts who can provide this (either themselves or through a third party) should be rewarded for that. IT's also something I think guests would like to know about when they look at a listing, and the star rating can tell them.
Also, I think location should not be a category used to determine superhost status, since hosts can't help where they are located and may be super hosts wherever they are.
Reply 3:
I think there's a challenge with both guests and hosts who don't write a review instead of leaving one that isn't stellar. I don't usually accept guests without references for this reason. I also think a star rating that actually appeared on guest profiles would be helpful.
Reply 4:
I totally agree that star ratings on guest profiles would be helpful! There are several hosts who are indignant that the star ratings we do of guests, seem pointless, since they dont' show up anywhere ! At one point, when a host asked Airbnb about this, they were told that our ratings of guests are "subjective" whereas their ratings of us are not thought to be subjective. So that doesn't make any sense to me. Are guests naturally more objective people than hosts? I think not. Rating whether a guest was clean or not, isn't any more subjective than their rating of us in the cleanliness department, for instance.
So hopefully some day Airbnb will bring those star ratings of guests out of the closet where they are mothballed, and let them see the light of day.
Reply 5:
Yeah, there's also the "punishment" factor with blocking out your schedule if you cancel on a guest. I started getting worried about a guest who had booked for over 30 days and I felt might not leave. It's the only time I ever cancelled, and my space was blocked for the entire month. Guests are not punished like that for cancelling, merely fined a little.