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Most common reasons guests leave bad reviews
Hi everyone,
I want to share with you the latest in my on-going project exploring Airbnb data. For this piece I took a deep dive on reviews using sentiment analysis and natural language processing (NLP) to identify the reasons hosts get bad reviews. These were the top reasons I found:
1. Broken items
2. Unsafe neighborhood
3. Inaccurate amenities (amenities listed were missing or not as described)
4. Dirty
5. Bathroom (including missing or inadequate towels and/or toilet paper)
6. Uncomfortable furniture
7. Loud noises (from parties or neighbors)
8. Front door (including issues with key/lock or gaining access)
9. Check in (including issues or miscommunications at check in)
10. Host interaction (guest contacted host during stay)
11. Bed (including mattress, pillows, or blanket)
12. Smell (for example mold or garbage)
13. Late to respond (host was late to respond to guest)
14. Room temperature (too hot or too cold)
15. Shower (water pressure, temperature or drain)
16. Kitchen (inadequate kitchen e.g. not enough dishes, cooking essentials, etc.)
17. Parking (parking is far or difficult)
After quantifying these reasons further, I generated these data-driven tips for hosts to avoid getting negative review.
1. Avoid emotional confrontations with guests at all costs. These can spill over into the reviews on your listing and drag down the overall rating. Instead remain professional, keep all communications on the platform, and do your best within reason to accommodate the guest.
2. Keep the list of amenities up to date and accurate. Nothing is worse for a guest than booking a listing for a specific amenity only to arrive and find it is missing or broken.
3. Ensure you have a seamless check in process. Any difficulties at check in can really bring down the overall rating.
4. Use an ozone machine or other method to minimize odors in your listing. Bad smells can lead to negative reviews and lower the overall rating.
5. Clean listings thoroughly between guests!. Areas requiring special attention include the kitchen and bathroom.
6. Ensure the thermostat works or consider giving guests access to it to minimize complaints about temperature.
7. Make sure basic essentials are stocked up including toilet paper, cooking essentials, etc.
8. Communicate anything the guest needs to be aware of often before their arrival. For example, if there are special instructions about parking, do everything you can to bring it to a guest’s attention. Beyond including it in the written description of the listing, consider confirming with them by message that they are aware of these issues. How frequently these issues appear in reviews will tell you how hard you’ll need to work to make guests aware of them.
Some (or alot?) of this may be obvious, but I hope that by showing the data behind it it's at least interesting.
As always let me know what you think.
I want to share with you the latest in my on-going project exploring Airbnb data. For this piece I took a deep dive on reviews using sentiment analysis and natural language processing (NLP) to identify the reasons hosts get bad reviews. These were the top reasons I found:
1. Broken items
2. Unsafe neighborhood
3. Inaccurate amenities (amenities listed were missing or not as described)
4. Dirty
5. Bathroom (including missing or inadequate towels and/or toilet paper)
6. Uncomfortable furniture
7. Loud noises (from parties or neighbors)
8. Front door (including issues with key/lock or gaining access)
9. Check in (including issues or miscommunications at check in)
10. Host interaction (guest contacted host during stay)
11. Bed (including mattress, pillows, or blanket)
12. Smell (for example mold or garbage)
13. Late to respond (host was late to respond to guest)
14. Room temperature (too hot or too cold)
15. Shower (water pressure, temperature or drain)
16. Kitchen (inadequate kitchen e.g. not enough dishes, cooking essentials, etc.)
17. Parking (parking is far or difficult)
After quantifying these reasons further, I generated these data-driven tips for hosts to avoid getting negative review.
1. Avoid emotional confrontations with guests at all costs. These can spill over into the reviews on your listing and drag down the overall rating. Instead remain professional, keep all communications on the platform, and do your best within reason to accommodate the guest.
2. Keep the list of amenities up to date and accurate. Nothing is worse for a guest than booking a listing for a specific amenity only to arrive and find it is missing or broken.
3. Ensure you have a seamless check in process. Any difficulties at check in can really bring down the overall rating.
4. Use an ozone machine or other method to minimize odors in your listing. Bad smells can lead to negative reviews and lower the overall rating.
5. Clean listings thoroughly between guests!. Areas requiring special attention include the kitchen and bathroom.
6. Ensure the thermostat works or consider giving guests access to it to minimize complaints about temperature.
7. Make sure basic essentials are stocked up including toilet paper, cooking essentials, etc.
8. Communicate anything the guest needs to be aware of often before their arrival. For example, if there are special instructions about parking, do everything you can to bring it to a guest’s attention. Beyond including it in the written description of the listing, consider confirming with them by message that they are aware of these issues. How frequently these issues appear in reviews will tell you how hard you’ll need to work to make guests aware of them.
Some (or alot?) of this may be obvious, but I hope that by showing the data behind it it's at least interesting.
As always let me know what you think.
Posts: 184
Re: Most common reasons guests leave bad reviews
#2 is definitely true, but also frustrating AF, because of the number of times that people of color = "unsafe neighborhood".
When I first started AirBnBing, I was living in Harlem, NY. You know, the Harlem that is famous for being a black neighborhood? Where the Apollo theater is? That one.
All of my negative reviews (except for 1) were from CLEARLY racist people. I had a few people attempt to cancel because they "felt unsafe" and their messages were so clearly racist while trying not to sound racist that AirBnB sided with me about not refunding them and mentioned wanting to look into them as guests.
I was really grateful for every guest who specifically mentioned in their reviews that it IS a safe area and that they felt comfortable there. And it very much is/was, where I lived. I had less problems with harassment in that area than I did in some of the much whiter areas downtown, where the drunk Wall Street bros hang out.
When I first started AirBnBing, I was living in Harlem, NY. You know, the Harlem that is famous for being a black neighborhood? Where the Apollo theater is? That one.
All of my negative reviews (except for 1) were from CLEARLY racist people. I had a few people attempt to cancel because they "felt unsafe" and their messages were so clearly racist while trying not to sound racist that AirBnB sided with me about not refunding them and mentioned wanting to look into them as guests.
I was really grateful for every guest who specifically mentioned in their reviews that it IS a safe area and that they felt comfortable there. And it very much is/was, where I lived. I had less problems with harassment in that area than I did in some of the much whiter areas downtown, where the drunk Wall Street bros hang out.
Posts: 78
Re: Most common reasons guests leave bad reviews
Recently I was finally able to become a super host on AirBnB and all this way the big problem for me was the bad reviews. Not only were they hurting my reputation, but they were demoralizing, which even caused me to have thoughts of stopping doing it a few times. Fortunately, after a while I found this article on bad airbnb reviews in which I was able to learn about how I could reduce the number of bad reviews or even use them to my advantage.
I hope my answer helps other hosts on AirBnB!
I hope my answer helps other hosts on AirBnB!
Posts: 228
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