Booking.com treats its hosts poorly.

As a host who uses booking.com, I want to highlight the imbalance and unfairness of their current scoring system where the guest can score the host, yet the host is not afforded the same courtesy, respect, or regard of being able to score the guest. This encourages zero accountability for the guest and leads to unfair risk for the host.

Our property has consistently maintained a 9.5/10 score with booking.com, and I would therefore expect that an abnormally low guest score of 3/10, should be red-flagged and cancelled out by discarding the highest and lowest scores each month. That way, you cut the most malicious scores and the most benevolent ones. Sensible and fair, right?

In addition, guests should not be allowed to score a property without leaving a comment, as this leaves the host with no right to reply or opportunity to set the record straight in terms of potential guests looking at these reviews.

This particular (3/10) guest stayed for eight nights, yet, not once, did he mention any of the concerns reflected in this low score. He smiled daily, socialised with us happily, and, in fact, on check-out, expressed that he 'totally enjoyed' his stay with us. To quote him verbatim: 'Dankie, ek het heel lekker gebly'.

We are 100% confident that we provided everything as mentioned in our room description. Nevertheless, this guest gave us an abnormally low score that does not even closely align with our regular customer score.

Surely, a guest's responsibility is to voice any displeasure ASAP, so that the host can correct any imperfection in service or offer soonest? If this guest mentioned after his first night, or even the second (of eight) that he was this displeased, we would've happily refunded him the remainder of the stay's payment, and he could have booked accommodation that suited him better elsewhere in town.

We find this guest's action in terms of this review to be disingenuous, extremely malicious, and highly defamatory. We would have preferred to forgo the bulk of his payment as a refund to him, rather than suffer this kind of damage to our hard-earned high score.

What response did I get from Booking.com? An automated, generic, stock-standard reply that in essence said, 'Sorry for you, just suck it up, we don't care'.

Booking.com continues to view and treat the guest as more valuable and worthy than the host. Disrespect is rampant and woven into their company culture, for want of a better word, as I believe mutual respect, accountability and fairness are the cultured ways to operate.