Airbnb - why are all the reviews positive, and another question?

Hosts cannot remove reviews, and they cannot see them before the reviews are posted (hosts have no role in the reviews that are seen by renters). Why are they all positive? Well, for the most part, places aren't bad, but they might lack in some areas for some people, therefore it helps to read many reviews, bc you might find one or several that repeat a certain complaint (noise, cleanliness, something else). I have stayed at many airbnbs and written many reviews, and when the time comes to write the review, I try to be honest about the pros and cons, but if I liked it and dont want the host to suffer, I might include my complaint to the host directly (there is an option for this) as an area to improve, but not share it with the public. For example, I stayed at a house in a village in Greece and we really enjoyed the experience but there were ants in the kitchen. It wasn't a big deal, so I told the hosts but not the public. I want them to continue to get renters. But I did explain to the public that it is rustic and might not be for everyone
As for contacting the host, I believe there is a contact host button where you can email them before renting. I have done this, most recently last month, where I inquired about the place before renting. Im not sure why you are having the experience you are

I don't know where you are looking but I have seen negative reviews in AirBnB, usually though they are positive. It's one of the reasons why I do not put a lot of faith in online reviews. On AirBnb, if you get a lot of negative reviews, potential renters will shy away from your space so those places with negative reviews may be removed by the owner and then re-listed later. Also, there have been a series of articles suggesting that AirBnB deletes negative reviews. I don't know if it that is true but I would not be surprised if it is. https://qz.com/1333242/airbnb-reviews/

If you scroll down past the reviews, availability calendar, etc. there is a button to "contact host". Use that and a screen will pop up where you can send a message to the host tonask your question. You do not have to enter a date to reach this option. If the host declines to answer, then you can scratch that apartment off your list.

Thank you! I appreciate this info on how to use the website better than what I am currently doing!

These days, I prefer using Trip Advisor rentals or Booking.com, as the initial information provided such as detailed location is much better plus prices are often 25% cheaper than Airbnb for the same apartment.

I tend to use the TripAdvisor rental site instead of Air BnB for European rentals, specifically in London and Switzerland.

As a host and a traveler, the reviews on AirBnB are complicated....not in how to post them, but in how it's easy to get good reviews if you want to do that, and how travelers have few ways to figure out if a review is really real, or not. Note: I no longer host as I've migrated by rental properties to long term lease properties instead of short-term stays.

One tip off to potential 'false positives', especially in foreign countries, is the first 5-10 reviews are in the hosts language - they've likely paid for those reviews or asked friends to review their place to give them good reviews out of the gate. When those reviews are then followed by reviews in a mix of languages and English, those are the ones to pay more attention to. With properties in the US, it's harder to tease out those first reviews because most of the reviews are in English.

That said, most places are good enough to please most travelers, so most reviews are likely more honest than not; part of that is also because travelers can provide feedback to the host privately (in addition to the public review seen by those considering a property) to let them know of issues they may want to take care of....many travelers are kind, so they'll use that option over publicly pointing out flaws in their stay, especially if they feel it's something the host can easily take care of, or something that was beyond the host's control.

Some properties are truly hideous though and what can happen is it'll get so many bad reviews, the host will remove it, wait a while, then relist it under a different company or host name. That happens way more than travelers realize, so they'll find a property that has no reviews and not realize that it is not going to be a good stay....AirBnB tries to prevent this, but it does happen and I know this because I actually wound up in one of the habitually relisted dogs in Avignon last year - three glowing reviews, in French, yet an absolute dump when I got there....it's a long story, but AirBnB did get us to a new property within 24 hours although we wound up having to stay in a hotel the first night of what we'd hoped would be an amazing stay in what we thought was an amazing looking property. To date, the property has not been relisted, it was removed and the address flagged to no longer be allowed listing on the site.

So far as contacting a host to ask questions - after the listing details, that first into description paragraph(s) on the left side of the page, there is a link (just text) to "contact host"....use that and you won't need to select dates, you'll go to the next page where you'll see their policies and basics and it'll have space for writing a quick note to the host to ask questions that may not have been answered in the listing; fill that out and click send. It is sent to the host with a different 'subject' line than when you send a 'request to book' or 'instant book' option that is to the right side of the page under the calendar on the listing.

One more thing - always check the reviews the host has in their profile - it's sometimes enlightening to see how they are as a guest or if they have more properties (and if they do, read those reviews too as it'll help put together a picture of their overall attention to their portfolio of properties or if they are simply a property manager in disguise as host/owner).....I've looked at properties and taken a pass on inquiry after reading the reviews in the host profile and found them to be difficult to deal with as a guest (one good thing on AirBnB is hosts get to review guests too) or if their other properties (or properties they manage) had reviews that were bad or consistently pointing out things the host could have and should have resolved.

I ran out of room - LOL

Lastly, note the tone of voice used by a host when a review is less than stellar - if they're defensive, you may want to look elsewhere - a good host writes their reply to a negative review to their next potential guests (not the one who left the review), so a reply should address what was wrong and what they've done to resolve it so it's not an issue for the next guests.

Regina, thank you so much for explaining how AirBnB works and how best to decide whether or not to stay at any given place. Your advice and tips are very helpful. Cheers!

Any who puts a lot of uncritical faith in reviews of anything posted online probably doesn't spend much time online.

ALL reviews posted online need to be taken with a v-e-r-y large grain of salt, and viewed with eyes wide open and your BS-detector turned on. Not just on AirBnB.

I can't find a link to the source right now, but recently heard a story about online reviews and reviews of services like Uber driver reviews. The basic gist of the study is that people are reluctant to give a bad review, even if they had a terrible experience, the tendency was stronger if they interacted with a responsible person (driver, owner, etc.). Difficult to rate a person as opposed to a faceless entity, an empathy for the individual. Of course there are many fake/bought reviews, and many bad reviews fail to go into what was bad (maybe they did not like the soap in the bathroom?) Bottom line is user reviews are unreliable.

Setting aside the bad effects Airbnb has on many housing markets and unwilling neighbors, I'll suggest two replies to the OP:

1) "All five-star raves are alike, each one-star flame is unhappy in it's own way." That's an internet commentator's quote, but I don't know the name. I don't mean Leo Tolstoy.

2) When sellers can review the customer, and affect their future access to the product, ratings will be artificially higher. The silicon valley "Bro" call that a feature. I call it a bug!

Many people won’t give a bad review for an “okay” place. So if it’s fine but not perfect then they will review it well. I do this occasionally because I don’t want to be one of those annoying people with ridiculous, entitled complaints, and I liked the host/found him helpful and trying.

I only stay at ones with a bunch of reviews (no new listings unless it’s with a host with great reviews on other properties). Reading the reviews you can kind of get a sense if some are fake.

I’ve never had a bad experience. I don’t budget hunt for the cheapest place (often those have issues, but not always!) but I don’t go luxury either.

I think you have to be a little flexible. Slight quirks with the place occur just like in people’s house you visit. It’s not standardized like a hotel, but it can give you more charm and space!

"When sellers can review the customer, and affect their future access to the product, ratings will be artificially higher. The silicon valley "Bro" call that a feature. I call it a bug!"

Neither can see the other's review until both are posted. Seller doesnt read the renter's review first and then write theirs--

As others have said, I wouldn't rent a place that doesnt have a fairly deep history of reviews. I tend to read pages of them looking for patterns. Also, the reviews that are written by friends of the seller seem obvious. It takes some experience reading reviews.

AirBnB nudges people to give perfect 5-star reviews.

If you try to give an AirBnB anything less than 5 stars on something like cleanliness, communication, comfort, etc., AirBnB will ask you for specific details, even if you're giving 4 stars. Most people don't want to explain every little detail that goes into their decision to drop a single star (or at least, I don't).

Basically, it subtly guides people to give 5 stars for anything other than a complete disaster, in which case the person will give 1 star and rant about how bad the rental is.

Thanks for the posts. It is helpful to get a better understanding of what exactly is going on and how to chose places as best I can.

What did the poster mean about the host being able to "restrict access to the product"? Do you mean they will not let you stay at their place, or do you mean that future hosts will read a less-than-positive review and decide to decline your request for staying there?

Wrt "restricting access" - I believe they meant:
Renters are also reviewed by the seller/owner. When you request staying somewhere, the owner can look up past owner's reviews of YOU. So people may feel pressured (Im guessing this is what that poster meant) to write a 5 star review so that they too get a good review and will not potentially be turned down in the future. However, as I said, the seller/owner does not know what the renter said about them, so would not write a review based on that. I can see what all the owner's Ive rented from have said about me, but only after I have posted my review of them, and vice-versa, and those reviews cannot then be changed

Can the host look up your past reviews of other people? I have not written a review yet, but I am just wondering.

yes they can, and that is where the pressure comes from as well

Can the host look up your past reviews of other people? I have not written a review yet, but I am just wondering.

Yes....a host can see all of your past reviews, both hosts reviewing you and you reviewing hosts - so that too adds pressure to be nice in your reviews of others since you want to be reviewed favorably, so you review favorably. You can also go look at host reviews, not only on the property you're looking at, but any other property they host AND their reviews from being a guest.

I am still not able to contact the host without putting in a date. I scroll down to the "contact Host" button, and then I typed the message, and it will ask me to add dates that I want. It would not send a message without dates. Any one know a way to ask a question without adding dates?

"Are all reviews posted, or can they be removed by the hosts?" - no, they are not all posted, at least not permanently, and some negative opinions do not even make it that far. A friend of mine wrote a negative review about a rental in Vermont ( nice place but the owner did not respect my friend's privacy), the review was withdrawn after a refund of a certain amount. Another renter I know (in Greece, recently) complained to Airbnb about false statements of amenities, he received a discount upon condition of not posting a review. A contributor to this forum had something bad to say about a rental last year and he agreed to not submit a review after a compromise with Airbnb. I would probaby have done the same thing.

"Any one know a way to ask a question without adding dates?' - I rented twice with Airbnb but stopped using them once they started requesting a copy of my passport. I seem to remember being able to ask questions before booking. What's wrong with inserting a date just to ask a question?

Per Gunderson (Im not pro-Airbnb, but like clarity), it sounds like the people who did not post agreed to not post by being compensated in some way that satisfied them. Perhaps their complaint was something they could have written to the owner in a private message for the owner to improve upon, or the owner agreed to improve on it in exchange for not posting. It would be interesting to hear of someone not having their negative review posted at all

As for the passport, many lodgings are now asking for this; it is required by the government of that country

The reason I don't like to insert a date just to ask a question, is that a couple of times I have received a "request denied" email response. One time it was with no explanation at all. The question I had asked had to do with whether her dog barked, and how quiet the place was in general. It would feel a lot better to me to just ask the question, without it seeming like I have decided I want to stay there. That way, I can find out if the place seems like it will be pretty quiet, like we would like it to be, without someone "denying" some request we have not even wanted to make.

I generally send an inquiry first - but I always say at the start that I'm trying to decide between a couple different airbnb's and just had a few questions first - I always like to get a feel for how fast they respond.

As someone who almost exclusively uses airbnb now (generally we stay in a home that's occupied, not a whole apartment, tho we have done that a few times)...I make sure I look at a good number of reviews - I do try and look for complaints about the same thing - sometimes people will write good reviews but may mention noise or dirt, so I make sure to look for that. I've seen some bad reviews out there, and there is generally a reason those listings are at the end of the options. I'll give new ones a chance as well (have done that a couple times) but I wait to see how the owner responds back.

I'm not sure how you are accessing AirBnB, but I did a test from my desktop PC and when I click the 'contact' button, there is a place you can type in your message and then hit 'send message'. yes, on the right is a bot to add dates but I don't think you have to complete that part to get your message sent.
I certainly have been able to send messages without dates.
It seems that noise is your concern. I only chose lodgings with a good number of reviews - and I read all of them from the past year or more - so if there was extensive noise, it should be there. However, light sleepers may benefit with earplugs (I don't travel without mine).

I no longer trust the Airbnb review process...
We have travelled for quite a few years using ab&b exclusively. We were selective about where we stayed, had mostly pretty good luck, always had very good reviews and always left honest but generally good reviews for our hosts. We have actually remained in contact with several of them and will stay with them in the future.
When we had any criticism to share I would always send my comments to the host as a personal note...I once repaired a washer/drier in an apartment in Paris...the host did not think it could be made to work, I figured out how to use it and left him instructions for how to get the correct parts for a permanent fix. That approach always worked for us until last year in Florence. Our apartment was up to expectation except for one thing...coffee. The coffee maker was some unique high zoot local Italian single cup press that used a very specific capsule available from only one store in all of Florence (we found this out after buying three types of coffee for it)...the rental came with two capsules...we stayed for three nights. Absurd...why there wasn't a simple Bialetti for ground coffee and convenience was beyond logic and after we left I let the host (absentee host from Milano) know how upsetting it had been that we could not make a simple cup of coffee. I suggested that he consider an alternative for future guests and that his high zoot machine might be better off in the middle of the Arno. Yes, that was harsh...but I sent that as a private note and left positive feedback about the apartment on the ab&b site. He also posted decent feedback on the ab&b site but through a backchannel host feedback he reported us as bad guests. I have never seen what he posted, I was not given an opportunity to challenge or offer comment but I did receive a warning from ab&b about our suitability as guests that apparently is visible to future hosts.
My issue....ab&b never gave me any opportunity to review, respond, rebut, defend. Walk on egg shells or suffer the consequences!

What I find very frustrating with Air bnb reviews is that the star level of each individual review is NOT posted. Only the average at the top. So it is impossible to find the 3 star or lower reviews.

I recently gave a 3 star to a property because it lacked the stated amenities: no coffee maker, no wifi, no washing machine. I notified the owner and Air bnb, and got no response. Because the owner chose not to review me, my review was supressed for 2 weeks, but eventually showed up, without the star level showing. Now it's four months later and the amenities are still WRONG. So the lesson is, if stuff like wifi and a washing machine are important to you, better privately ask the owner first.

To date I've only used Airbnb in France and Germany had really good results. The places have been fairly represented, clean and livable. Standards seem to be fairly high. The most consistent issue for me is location. Airbnb shows only a general location. Places may be described as "close to the center" but might not be (at least not for someone on foot). One place in Lyon had a sewer smell that was pretty awful; I got rid of it by stopping the sink drain when I wasn't using it and opening a window.

I've had similar luck using Pensions in Germany.

I booked primarily hostals in Spain using online reviews. The only bad experience was in Granada, it turned out to be more of a backpackers place. The unseasonably cold temperatures made the unheated rooms and bathrooms unusable.

I also use hostels regularly, so consider me someone who doesn't need luxury to be happy (clean and quiet are my needs).

The few bad experiences I've had with lodging other than hotels is probably about the same percentage as bad experiences I've had with hotels.