Post by High Priestess on Oct 13, 2015 21:07:50 GMT
Florencia shared on Oct 13 2015:
Got 4 stars on everything because "perfection is not possible " said my guest
So I recently got my review from my last french guest and I was shocked. At first the public review is great but then I found that he gave me 4 stars on every item.
I remember he had a big smile (ear to ear) when he checked out saying to me that his experience was so so wonderful. I also remember he was top demmanding, asking me everything you can imagine which I assist him in all of his requests. He returned me the apartment in poor conditions and the worst was the he gave my second set of keys to one of his friends (a local citizen) which I haven`t get from him on the check-out so I have to meet this second person later to get the keys back. Pretty bad, don`t you think.
I have asked him why he has put me 4 stars on everything and the answer I got was that French people believe that perfection don`t exist in the human world. I was surprised that he backed his individual behaviour with a colective behaviour of the French people. I'm sorry but I have other french guests (lovely indeed) and gave 5 stars without any issue.
A bad experience I think
Raymond & Elaine (elaine)
Sorry this happened The rating system is often mentioned here and as you said one should not generalise. Some people just don't give five stars for the reason your guest stated. I posted a similar story yesterday. In fact the maximum number of stars you can give a french hotel is four! After which you have the palaces.It's the airbnb system which is culturally flawed.
Andrew (andrew)
Inaccurate reviews are a problem in both directions.
The only French guest that I see among your recent reviews is R____d. Your review of him is completely positive and mentions nothing about leaving the flat in poor condition or forcing you to collect keys from a local you didn't know. Both of these are issues that your fellow hosts would really appreciate being informed about - they're a much bigger deal than someone being too snooty to leave 5-star ratings.
Florencia
I like to give second chances. The apartment was on bad shape but nothing was missing or broke after his 2 week stay so I guess he is not a danger for other hosts. The keys issue, he felt regret about it, so I thought that I could skip it as by mentioning nobody will ever want to host him again. I have given negative reviews to the guests that I consider dangerous for other hosts but I don´t want to flag every guest that left my place untidy as there might be half of them. You know, I believe that the reason why Airbnb hides the start reviews for guests is because most the them have 2 or 3 stars in cleaning and their system will collapse.
Andrew
There are many ways to communicate that a guest is not a good fit for all circumstances without leaving a totally scathing review. But your review of the guest is not for the guests' benefit - it's for the benefit of the community at large. We trust you to give us the information we need to make a good decision about whether to host a guest. But now a high-maintenance guest who gives your keys to strangers, makes a mess, and lowers your ratings unfairly is unleashed back into the system with your stamp of approval. That kind of negates the right to complain, if you ask me...
Dhaval and Namrata:
I posted a similar story today in the Anecdotes group. The guest actually gave me a 3 star for location and value - which I think is very subjective. Also, I would definitely not recommend him to other hosts now that I know what his true standards are (as opposed to what he told me when we talked). Sadly, I cannot change my review based on him turning behind my back.
Bekah and Brian (beeandbee)
If someone gave keys to my house to someone else (and it's happened) I would give them the worst review humanly imaginable. It's unacceptable.
Mig (mig)
I would be minded to make a claim on the security deposit for the cost of a lock change.
Deborah (High Priestess)
Again we see an example of the serious problems with the star ratings system. It is just not possible, unfortunately, to force guests to use the ratings system in the way it is intended to be used. Guests will have their own fantasies of meanings of each of the ratings levels, and Airbnb be darned, host be darned, they will impose their philsophy on the system, and cause "damage" to others -- and so we have these guests (llustrated with fun smilies):
(1)
case of "your place is so perfect that I will give you 4 stars in all categories"
(2)
case of "you wouldn't let me violate your house rules, so I'm taking revenge in the star categories."
(3)
case of "I really don't know how to use the system, I thought I gave you 5 stars, not sure why it showed up as 1 star in each category."
(4)
case of "I am a guest who is also a host and the way I host is better than the way YOU host, so if you don't host like I host I'm going to rate you down severely in all categories."
(5)
Case of "your location really isn't very convenient -- you should be located in a city about 10 miles away, or you should be up on a hill where there's a breeze, so I will give you 3 stars until you get your house moved across town."
Anyone else have any other good cases to share?
My suggestion???
FLUSH THE STAR RATING SYSTEM....
.reviews are much better, more nuanced, more truthful, more helpful, more meaningfull....stick to reviews!
Got 4 stars on everything because "perfection is not possible " said my guest
So I recently got my review from my last french guest and I was shocked. At first the public review is great but then I found that he gave me 4 stars on every item.
I remember he had a big smile (ear to ear) when he checked out saying to me that his experience was so so wonderful. I also remember he was top demmanding, asking me everything you can imagine which I assist him in all of his requests. He returned me the apartment in poor conditions and the worst was the he gave my second set of keys to one of his friends (a local citizen) which I haven`t get from him on the check-out so I have to meet this second person later to get the keys back. Pretty bad, don`t you think.
I have asked him why he has put me 4 stars on everything and the answer I got was that French people believe that perfection don`t exist in the human world. I was surprised that he backed his individual behaviour with a colective behaviour of the French people. I'm sorry but I have other french guests (lovely indeed) and gave 5 stars without any issue.
A bad experience I think
Raymond & Elaine (elaine)
Sorry this happened The rating system is often mentioned here and as you said one should not generalise. Some people just don't give five stars for the reason your guest stated. I posted a similar story yesterday. In fact the maximum number of stars you can give a french hotel is four! After which you have the palaces.It's the airbnb system which is culturally flawed.
Andrew (andrew)
Inaccurate reviews are a problem in both directions.
The only French guest that I see among your recent reviews is R____d. Your review of him is completely positive and mentions nothing about leaving the flat in poor condition or forcing you to collect keys from a local you didn't know. Both of these are issues that your fellow hosts would really appreciate being informed about - they're a much bigger deal than someone being too snooty to leave 5-star ratings.
Florencia
I like to give second chances. The apartment was on bad shape but nothing was missing or broke after his 2 week stay so I guess he is not a danger for other hosts. The keys issue, he felt regret about it, so I thought that I could skip it as by mentioning nobody will ever want to host him again. I have given negative reviews to the guests that I consider dangerous for other hosts but I don´t want to flag every guest that left my place untidy as there might be half of them. You know, I believe that the reason why Airbnb hides the start reviews for guests is because most the them have 2 or 3 stars in cleaning and their system will collapse.
Andrew
There are many ways to communicate that a guest is not a good fit for all circumstances without leaving a totally scathing review. But your review of the guest is not for the guests' benefit - it's for the benefit of the community at large. We trust you to give us the information we need to make a good decision about whether to host a guest. But now a high-maintenance guest who gives your keys to strangers, makes a mess, and lowers your ratings unfairly is unleashed back into the system with your stamp of approval. That kind of negates the right to complain, if you ask me...
Dhaval and Namrata:
I posted a similar story today in the Anecdotes group. The guest actually gave me a 3 star for location and value - which I think is very subjective. Also, I would definitely not recommend him to other hosts now that I know what his true standards are (as opposed to what he told me when we talked). Sadly, I cannot change my review based on him turning behind my back.
Bekah and Brian (beeandbee)
If someone gave keys to my house to someone else (and it's happened) I would give them the worst review humanly imaginable. It's unacceptable.
Mig (mig)
I would be minded to make a claim on the security deposit for the cost of a lock change.
Deborah (High Priestess)
Again we see an example of the serious problems with the star ratings system. It is just not possible, unfortunately, to force guests to use the ratings system in the way it is intended to be used. Guests will have their own fantasies of meanings of each of the ratings levels, and Airbnb be darned, host be darned, they will impose their philsophy on the system, and cause "damage" to others -- and so we have these guests (llustrated with fun smilies):
(1)
case of "your place is so perfect that I will give you 4 stars in all categories" (2)
case of "you wouldn't let me violate your house rules, so I'm taking revenge in the star categories."(3)
case of "I really don't know how to use the system, I thought I gave you 5 stars, not sure why it showed up as 1 star in each category."(4)
case of "I am a guest who is also a host and the way I host is better than the way YOU host, so if you don't host like I host I'm going to rate you down severely in all categories." (5)
Case of "your location really isn't very convenient -- you should be located in a city about 10 miles away, or you should be up on a hill where there's a breeze, so I will give you 3 stars until you get your house moved across town." Anyone else have any other good cases to share?
My suggestion???
FLUSH THE STAR RATING SYSTEM....
.reviews are much better, more nuanced, more truthful, more helpful, more meaningfull....stick to reviews!