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0 pointsbambax10mo ago0 comments

Yes, I had a similar experience. Reviews on Airbnb can't be trusted because most hosts are experts at having bad reviews removed. But if reviews can't be trusted then the whole thing is worthless.

0 comments

Pikamander210mo ago

I've become a lot more jaded about online reviews over the years.

I had an Amazon review removed because apparently mentioning that a competing product is more effective goes against their TOS.

I had a WordPress plugin review removed because apparently a critical vulnerability that got our site hacked isn't a valid reason to give it one star.

I had a local BBQ chain offer to give me a free bottle of sauce if I let them watch me give them a 5-star rating on Google.

I've seen tons of video game and app websites apply "anti review-bombing" measures to factor out thousands of low ratings for being supposedly off-topic, often for major games that they're financially affiliated with through sales or advertising.

And that's just for third-party websites. If a company's website has customer ratings/reviews for their own products, then the conflict of interest is too great to even pretend that they might be legitimate.

sureIy10mo ago

Oh absolutely. This makes leaving bad reviews even more important.

- leave unemotional matter-of-fact reviews so they can't complain for slander

- leave them days later so they can't link them to you

- leave them for businesses that provide incentives for 5-star reviews

- leave them when multiple reviews already complain about unethical actions taken by the owner

A 4-star HIG hotel in Bangkok once proposed I leave a good review to fix one of their mistakes. I firmly said I wouldn't and then mentioned the request in my 2-star review. The mistake was assigning "free breakfast" to the wrong room in a 2-room booking. Had to fight 3 days to get it fixed.

bambaxOP10mo ago

The problems you mention are real; but on average it seems Google Maps review are fair; in my experience they tend to reflect the reality better.

I think it would be interesting to be able to see an Airbnb place directly on Google maps (via a direct link), to compare reviews there; I'm working on a simple Tampermonkey script to do just that, will post it when ready.

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