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Ms. Robin
Manager/owner of "Telemark Camping & Inn", comprised of a little motel, apartment, seasonal campgrounds, cabins on our properties and neighboring properties, and gastropub "Roan Kroa".
I got a reply on one of my admin-channel messages and they just didn't get it. I'm sorry if anyone on here feels this is too long, but I wanted to share their whole message and also my reply (there might be such a simple solution, they can keep their smiley and show a "satisfaction rating" out of 5, also showing smileys - so like a "satisfaction rating of 4.5" would show 4 smileys filled and the 5th half-full).
Booking.com's reply:
"Dear Robin, Thanks for getting in touch with us. We are sorry to hear that you are not happy with the review form we give to the guests. We are constantly experimenting with the form, We have tried words, Colours, faces and a combination of some or all of them. We try and make it as easy as possible for the guests to give you a score and write comments. We do not like to make the form too long as they will give up half way and give you no score at all. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do to change the form or how it is calculated. We can see that you have several properties with us. All the reviews seem very positive and all of your properties have very high review scores. They are as follows: Telemark Inn - Hytte 1399296 - 8.4/10 Telemark Inn- Hytte at Brokke 3667836 - 0 reviews yet Telemark Inn- Vacation Home 3654440 - 0 reviews yet Telemark Motel and Apartment 1459067 - 8.8/10 Telemark Camping 1199770 - 8.2/10 The form does not seem to be having a negative impact on your property review score or bookings."
My reply:
"This answer is unacceptable and obviously my complaint isn't understood. There are 5 choices available to guests, so it's not a rating of 10 options, yet the score is given as if "out if 10"? The form is FINE, its the POINTS that are screwed-up. The points need to match the options available to guests. A guest can't give me a "9", the closest they can get to "almost perfect" is a "7.5", it's like a student who doesn't get quite an A+ will get a C, no chance the teacher will give a B, so the student's average doesn't reflect their true ability. If Booking.com doesn't change the rating shown to match the choices given to the guests - and let the guests know how much their opinion influences our standings - we will take this as high in the company as necessary then go public with how Booking.com system doesn't allow accurate ratings. If a guest doesn't feel like giving a top-rating for whatever reason, the next-best option they have is equal to a 7.5, not a 9, and this is unfair and costs us bookings and ranking! Change the points to stars, like other sites (Google, Facebook, etc) or even keep the smileys and show them filled-in with like 4.5 out of 5 satisfaction - THAT WORKS!"
This one email is not going to make an impact, this rep who doesn't care, so if we can really get anyone with influence (like if we can really get Gillian Tans) and let them know this is serious and there are many (probably thousands if the other owners knew how this works and what is happening) that are unhappy with the current system, there might be a change :-) If we can get the email of a contact I will message that person as representative of each of my accounts and post the information on the other threads on here that are unhappy with this system so they can also directly complain. If we came up with a standard form to use, it would be easier for the others to send the email and also show we are united in the effort - its the same message, we just need to show the number of complainants - maybe a sign-on sheet could be generated with one message and everyone sign allowing 1 signature per property account (not just one per person). What do you all think?
I sent this message to Booking.com through each of our property accounts today and hope you can each send something similar (although mine is pissed-off, and you might feel this is a bit strong). Feel free to copy this and alter it to fit, so maybe they will see that we are in communication with each other and take this seriously. Maybe Booking.com will pay attention :-D
"Subject: Opportunities being MISSED because Booking.com's rating system is inaccurate! I am writing this on each of our properties and pray that someone takes this seriously! I have a serious complaint as a motel, cabins & campgrounds multiple-properties owner and member of booking.com. Your guest rating system sucks and I'm going to write directly here, giving Booking.com a chance to address it, before going to the public with the facts of how your "smiley" points translate into lower ratings for the owners than the guests might intend. I have been participating-in and reading the chats - which obviously Booking.com doesn't - and I'm not alone. When a guest rates a place as highest its a "10", but if a guest steps down just to the next emoticon its a "7.5"!?!? There is no possibility of a 9 or 8, so how can it be a 10-point system? We (many, many "owners") are really pissed-off as a community and demand something be done to completely overhaul your system and make it either a true 10-point system or make it a 5-point system to match the actual options available to the guests! Read your own owner chats and you will see, we are extremely upset and want a change! Potential new guests don't see that previous guests really loved a place but felt some of the items being rated weren't "perfect", so instead of giving the highest score they gave the only option available to them, but they may have rated a 9 on a 10-point scale! Other people I have met just have issues giving a top-rating and have a "rule" against giving top-ratings ever, so they consistently give the next possible option, which should be a "9" on your scale, but its a "7.5"! This needs to change immediately! I'm really sick & tired of getting 7.5 when where guests feel we deserved a 9!"
I am absolutely disgusted with the ratings system at Bookng.com and am glad to find this thread showing I'm not alone. Many people won't give top-rating to anything less than absolute perfection, so that immediately drops some categories down to the second-best number - which SHOULD be a 4 out of 5 in a 6-point system (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), but instead its a 7.5 out if 10 with no option of 8 or 9, setting us all up for lower averages than guests probably intend and an unfair system that they don't see. Guests seeing an average score of 8 blindly assume that's on an 11-point system (0-10) when its not, and assume a level of service is less than it is because some guests giving the ratings found a space "almost" perfect, but couldn't give a 9. We need to do something about this than write on this thread and should all write to Booking.com immediately asking to either correct the current guest-rating system to 0-10 or adjust to the actual 0-5 system in place.
I got a reply on one of my admin-channel messages and they just didn't get it. I'm sorry if anyone on here feels this is too long, but I wanted to share their whole message and also my reply (there might be such a simple solution, they can keep their smiley and show a "satisfaction rating" out of 5, also showing smileys - so like a "satisfaction rating of 4.5" would show 4 smileys filled and the 5th half-full).
Booking.com's reply:
"Dear Robin,
Thanks for getting in touch with us.
We are sorry to hear that you are not happy with the review form we give to the guests. We are constantly experimenting with the form, We have tried words, Colours, faces and a combination of some or all of them. We try and make it as easy as possible for the guests to give you a score and write comments. We do not like to make the form too long as they will give up half way and give you no score at all. Unfortunately there is nothing we can do to change the form or how it is calculated.
We can see that you have several properties with us. All the reviews seem very positive and all of your properties have very high review scores. They are as follows:
Telemark Inn - Hytte 1399296 - 8.4/10
Telemark Inn- Hytte at Brokke 3667836 - 0 reviews yet
Telemark Inn- Vacation Home 3654440 - 0 reviews yet
Telemark Motel and Apartment 1459067 - 8.8/10
Telemark Camping 1199770 - 8.2/10
The form does not seem to be having a negative impact on your property review score or bookings."
My reply:
"This answer is unacceptable and obviously my complaint isn't understood. There are 5 choices available to guests, so it's not a rating of 10 options, yet the score is given as if "out if 10"? The form is FINE, its the POINTS that are screwed-up. The points need to match the options available to guests. A guest can't give me a "9", the closest they can get to "almost perfect" is a "7.5", it's like a student who doesn't get quite an A+ will get a C, no chance the teacher will give a B, so the student's average doesn't reflect their true ability. If Booking.com doesn't change the rating shown to match the choices given to the guests - and let the guests know how much their opinion influences our standings - we will take this as high in the company as necessary then go public with how Booking.com system doesn't allow accurate ratings. If a guest doesn't feel like giving a top-rating for whatever reason, the next-best option they have is equal to a 7.5, not a 9, and this is unfair and costs us bookings and ranking! Change the points to stars, like other sites (Google, Facebook, etc) or even keep the smileys and show them filled-in with like 4.5 out of 5 satisfaction - THAT WORKS!"
This one email is not going to make an impact, this rep who doesn't care, so if we can really get anyone with influence (like if we can really get Gillian Tans) and let them know this is serious and there are many (probably thousands if the other owners knew how this works and what is happening) that are unhappy with the current system, there might be a change :-) If we can get the email of a contact I will message that person as representative of each of my accounts and post the information on the other threads on here that are unhappy with this system so they can also directly complain. If we came up with a standard form to use, it would be easier for the others to send the email and also show we are united in the effort - its the same message, we just need to show the number of complainants - maybe a sign-on sheet could be generated with one message and everyone sign allowing 1 signature per property account (not just one per person). What do you all think?
All my best (and all my support), Robin
I wrote through my admin pages but I like your idea better :) Best regards, Robin Seljevold, Telemark Camping & Inn, Fyresdal, Norway
Hi All!
I sent this message to Booking.com through each of our property accounts today and hope you can each send something similar (although mine is pissed-off, and you might feel this is a bit strong). Feel free to copy this and alter it to fit, so maybe they will see that we are in communication with each other and take this seriously. Maybe Booking.com will pay attention :-D
"Subject: Opportunities being MISSED because Booking.com's rating system is inaccurate!
I am writing this on each of our properties and pray that someone takes this seriously!
I have a serious complaint as a motel, cabins & campgrounds multiple-properties owner and member of booking.com. Your guest rating system sucks and I'm going to write directly here, giving Booking.com a chance to address it, before going to the public with the facts of how your "smiley" points translate into lower ratings for the owners than the guests might intend. I have been participating-in and reading the chats - which obviously Booking.com doesn't - and I'm not alone. When a guest rates a place as highest its a "10", but if a guest steps down just to the next emoticon its a "7.5"!?!? There is no possibility of a 9 or 8, so how can it be a 10-point system? We (many, many "owners") are really pissed-off as a community and demand something be done to completely overhaul your system and make it either a true 10-point system or make it a 5-point system to match the actual options available to the guests! Read your own owner chats and you will see, we are extremely upset and want a change! Potential new guests don't see that previous guests really loved a place but felt some of the items being rated weren't "perfect", so instead of giving the highest score they gave the only option available to them, but they may have rated a 9 on a 10-point scale! Other people I have met just have issues giving a top-rating and have a "rule" against giving top-ratings ever, so they consistently give the next possible option, which should be a "9" on your scale, but its a "7.5"! This needs to change immediately! I'm really sick & tired of getting 7.5 when where guests feel we deserved a 9!"
I am absolutely disgusted with the ratings system at Bookng.com and am glad to find this thread showing I'm not alone. Many people won't give top-rating to anything less than absolute perfection, so that immediately drops some categories down to the second-best number - which SHOULD be a 4 out of 5 in a 6-point system (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), but instead its a 7.5 out if 10 with no option of 8 or 9, setting us all up for lower averages than guests probably intend and an unfair system that they don't see. Guests seeing an average score of 8 blindly assume that's on an 11-point system (0-10) when its not, and assume a level of service is less than it is because some guests giving the ratings found a space "almost" perfect, but couldn't give a 9. We need to do something about this than write on this thread and should all write to Booking.com immediately asking to either correct the current guest-rating system to 0-10 or adjust to the actual 0-5 system in place.