Review updates, sustainability, and more from Catherine

Hi everyone,

I hope you’re well and enjoying these first days of April. It’s spring here in southern California and so lovely—just about everything seems to be in bloom!

I’m pleased to be in touch again with some important updates on a topic I know is top of mind for many of you—reviews—along with news from our Host Advisory Board, about sustainability and introducing a new board member.

Review policy
Reviews are the backbone of Airbnb. They’re a crucial currency of trust between Hosts and guests, and most of the time, they advertise the amazing qualities that you bring to your hosting, with a personal point of view that adds a valuable layer of authenticity. However, when the review system is abused, the honesty and good fellowship that are key to Airbnb’s mission are eroded. I understand the challenges and frustrations you have with our review system and have been working to address your top concerns

We know that untruthful, misleading, or irrelevant reviews are distressing, and potentially economically damaging for you. Addressing such reviews is complicated, just like the situations from which they arise. There is not one simple fix, but we’re actively working to improve the system.

Party ban and reviews
Using feedback from our Community Center, Host Leaders groups, and the Host Advisory Board, we’re introducing a new review policy, specifically addressing party-ban violators. For reviews written from today on, Hosts can dispute a review left by a guest found to have committed a significant violation of our Party and Events policy during their stay. A Community Support ambassador may remove the content and star rating of that review from your profile, unless the review contains safety information, like a guest warning about discrimination or an unsafe feature in your listing that could cause an injury.

We hear your feedback on reviews and our review policies. In addition to this policy, we’re exploring ways to collect more actionable insights for you throughout the review flow. We’ll update you with more details on that soon. Our goal is to create trust between Hosts and guests and evolve our review system so that it works well for our full community.

HAB update
Finally, I want to highlight some of the great work the Host Advisory Board has been doing. In particular, this month, board member Anna has been leading efforts around sustainability education and travel best practices for our community, just in time for Earth Day. You can read more about Anna in this month’s Host newsletter. We also recently introduced a new member, Pam, to our board. Expect to hear more from her later this year, and from the HAB every month.

We know there is more work to do and you can expect to hear more from us on this again in the future.

Warmest wishes,

Catherine