Stars don’t come out and shine
We’ve gone ratings crazy but uber-honesty is not always appreciated when offering feedback
IF you’ve stayed in an Airbnb lately you might have felt let down in a few areas in terms of the accommodation you paid for through the nose. It might not have been well cleaned or the airconditioning might have been out of whack or it might have been a bit on the dirty side.
There might have been milk but no tea or no soap in the bathroom. For the want of a simple plumber’s washer, you have to put up with a dripping bathroom tap. The windows might be cracked or don’t open or close properly and the umbrella over the outside table is broken and hangs down on one side at an awkward angle. And then there are the notices stuck on top of walls and inside cupboards, giving reminders about rubbish removal and turning off aircons when leaving and so on. So how come these places have all those five star reviews?
There’s been a bit written about this lately. I’ve had my fair share of disappointing Airbnb experiences over the last three or so years, mainly in Sydney and specifically at Bondi. Bed bugs in one place, dodgy aircon and a general appearance of not having been properly cleaned in another and with just about every one of them you could complain about the absence of a necessary item like tea and milk or salt and pepper or something that doesn’t work. A couple were very good. No complaints. You are being charged good money, but in some of them you feel like you’re been gypped.
And these places on the Airbnb site come with glowing reviews. We were away on a trip not long ago. The first Airbnb was outstanding and deserved its five star rating by previous guests. The second was okay, but the potentially attractive outdoor dining area was littered with leaves and there were dead plants in the garden. The timber dining table was partly rotted and the furniture shabby and grimy. It had five stars. After we checked out the owner put up a message thanking us for staying … wonderful guests etc, etc.
We then put up a review saying how nice the unit was, listing the good points, but added politely that the outdoor area was a bit messy and could do with a tidy up.
We gave it a generous four stars out of five. After all, people looking for a place to stay will read the review and want information they can rely on when making a booking.
This opened a can of worms.
Four stars doesn’t cut it anymore in this age
Welcome to the new world where the unwritten dictum is that if you don’t give five stars you are a bad person.
where nothing can be mediocre, not people, not children’s school or sporting prowess, not jobs and careers, not even Airbnb. Everything has to be excellent. Five star.
What this means is that we can no longer confidently rely on the reviews on Airbnb sites. We had cleaned the fridge, washed up and put away, swept the floor, taken out the rubbish and done the 101 chores that Airbnb owners now demand.
Then things got bizarre. The next thing you know the original nice message the owner posted about us was taken down and we were sent a message saying when we had left the unit, it hadn’t been properly cleaned and she was considering charging an extra cleaning fee. The owner obviously wanted revenge over our mild criticism of the outdoor area.
Welcome to the new world where the unwritten dictum is that if you don’t give five stars you are a bad person. From what I’ve read on the matter, operators who don’t get a five star ratings can be removed from the Airbnb site. So, the pressure is on.
Please, no unpleasant reviews, no honest appraisals if they are going to be slightly negative. Just make sure you give it five stars and that everything was super-duper. Too bad for people looking for honest reviews.
This is not unlike Uber where a driver who does not receive a consistently score high star ratings from customers can be de-uberised.
One Airbnb critic recently wrote that guests were now being gaslighted into thinking they have to give every place a five star review. I think she was right. It has got to the stage where the reviews are not reliable.
For example, the owner’s overview might gush about the “airy, spotless, inner city gem with a contemporary kitchen, close to shops”, but what you walk into resembles something that might have been a bikie’s clubhouse in a past life.
The kitchen might have been contemporary in the 1960s and as for “close to shops and restaurants”, well they forgot to say it was a knock-shop and a fried chicken joint in need of a visit from the State Health Department.
Once upon a time Airbnb was a cheaper option to hotels, but this is now often not the case.
Are we starting to see a swing back to hotels where guests know they can buy a clean room with things like a jug, tea, coffee and milk, everyday toiletries and appliances that work.
And the bonus? You don’t have to give the room a deep clean when you check out in the morning.
You just pack your bags, turn off the aircon, turn off the lights, walk out and close the door.
There is still the lure of Airbnb and that good feeling you get when you walk into a place that is everything you expected and more, but to the detriment of those really good providers, this is happening less and less.
A good start to restoring confidence would be to reappraise the review system so that we know when a place is average, very good or excellent.
Right now everything is excellent and that doesn’t work out there in the real world.