Increasing Honesty in Airbnb Reviews

Reviews and reputation scores are increasingly important for decision-making, especially in the case of online marketplaces. However, online reviews may not provide an accurate depiction of the characteristics of a product, either because many people do not leave reviews or because some reviewers omit salient information. At Airbnb, we study the causes and magnitude of bias in online reviews by using large-scale field experiments that change the incentives of buyers and sellers to honestly review each other. Natural language processing has allowed us to extend our analyses and study bias in reviews by using the written feedback guests and hosts write after a trip.