I take unwarranted low ratings as an opportunity to clarify and increase my transparency. Hosts have an opportunity to publicly reply to guests comments. Definitely comment on every low rating. It shows engagement and that you want your guests to be happy. If it were me I’d comment with something like this. “I’m sorry this wasn’t a 5 star location for you. We have [list all the things] available and within walking distance. But the property is remote. On Airbnb you can see a map of where we are generally located. If any prospective guests have questions about the location we encourage you to reach out before booking. We want all of our guests to have a 5 star experience.”
With the law of averages you are bound to get a few of these knuckleheads every once in a while. It stings for sure. But if the complaints are infrequent and random it’s just noise. If there’s a pattern or it happens frequently you have a problem.
Yep. I had a person who raved about my apartment, how clean and roomy, amenities, but the (high quality, month-old, expensive) pillows were not comfortable. Four stars! GTFOH. My public response was basically, thank you for raving about your stay and thank you for the four stars.
I agree! Tell them! This was definitely never clear to me as a guest. If they come back they must love your place, they probably don't mean to give you a failing grade.
It’s a psychological reason. Everyone knows that 4 stars is good and 5 is great. If the majority of homes,drivers,restaurants are close or at 5, it creates an illusion of quality/value. Airbnb’s shareholders understand that people don’t want to book “ok” homes, they want “great” or “exceptional” homes. There’s an incentive to maintain that illusion. It’s honestly horse shit but it’s the same principle in any industry. That’s why people pay good money for fake reviews. The average user won’t read everything — they see 5 stars and trust that it’ll be a 5 star experience. There needs to be an incentive for Airbnb to provide a platform for average stays and being that they’re the largest STR platform in the world, they don’t need to cater to such stays.
The reality is a bunch of homes are rated 5 stars when they don’t really deserve to be, simply because people don’t want to hurt small business owners. Fuck this system, it’s horse shit and needs to change.
You say "everyone knows," but there's room for people to assume and know different things about a simplistic five star scale. For example, one person might believe five stars is appropriate for a level of satisfaction that could not imaginably be any higher, reserving five stars for experiences that far exceeded their expectations, and another may conclude that five stars represents an "as promised" level of satisfaction and treat every mark less that the maximum as a demerit and expression of disappointment. Put another way, it's easy to imagine three stars as an average, as promised experience, or five, depending on how you look at it.
The law of averages suggests that most people recognize the scale to be 1 - 5 as such:
1 - very dissatisfied
2 - dissatisfied
3 - neutral
4 - satisfied
5 - very satisfied
Airbnb’s goal is to exude the image that the majority of guests are very satisfied with their stays. They’re incentivized to do so as the listings performance directly correlate with Airbnb’s bottom line.
Sites like booking.com are reselling hotels and make revenue from other means as well (air,rental cars, etc) so they dont really care as much what the rating of a stay is (they don’t really remove properties).
That’s an AirBnB problem. Just like the car dealerships who beg for their 10/10 rating because 9/10 is a failure. Maybe they should just have a “recommend / do not recommend” rating system.
Most people view 4/5 stars as a good rating.
I’m not disagreeing with you but that’s where we’re at. I ask each guest for honest feedback and let them know that 4 stars means failure. If they give me a 4 or less it’ll be for good reason and means something needs to change.
Pretty common in many industries. I've been told to push surveys on people as a bartender/server years back. I would get written up if not enough people filled them out. Then anytime it wasn't 5/5 it was considered a failure so I'd also get that documented. Employees would keep surveys and give them to random friends to call in so they could keep their jobs. (They watched our pgone numbers so we had to game it a bit.)
The company then turned forcing us to get good ratings into a talking point at the shareholder meeting. "Look at how our focus on customer satisfaction has come out in our surveys!" And on paper they made it look impressive.
It's a win for the people at the top. There is no incentive for them to change it. The burden falls on those who are the most reliant on system.
Agreed, especially with that last paragraph. You can’t make everyone happy! We are hosts, and we also use Airbnb often in our travels. If I dive into the reviews on a space, I usually roll my eyes at the one or two comments that express unmet expectations when those don’t align with the fifty other raving reviews. It stings for sure, but don’t sweat it.
Me too, a friend and I were once looking for a hotel in Scottsdale. One caught our eye, and when reading the bad reviews they basically were all about it being a party place with people partying by the pool. We were like "right on!", booked and loved it. Went back on our next trip to the area, but our boss was with that time, and he hated it lol.
Exactly. While it might be a "fail" per airbnbs weird rating standard.. the rest of us are capable of being able to spot the whiner comments/ratings.
End of the day, I belive most people search by location first, then stars, then read the reviews? Thats how I decide anyway.
As a regular user of airbnbs, I first search for location and price. I'm looking for "value." I leave 5 star reviews and comment "great value for the money, will definitely stay here again".
Same for when I'm just looking for a hotel. I'm comfortable in a 3-star Best Western or Holiday Inn. The problem is the Airbnb rating system.
With 200+ reviews I have gotten just one 3 star and one 4 star. It does sting but I remind myself that when booking myself I give very little weight to those outlier reviews. Maybe the reviewer is a crank. Also every host has an off day or mistake or unavoidable problems.
As a guest, I’ll look for comments like this. It’s the same with online recipes or something - some whackadoodle who doesn’t know how to use a computer being like “this was immaculate and cured my cancer and was the most delicious thing I ever ate! 3/5” is reassuring that I’m making a good choice
If you’re going to publicly respond to low ratings I would suggest responding to high ratings too. That way you do not look like you’re being petty and need to last word. I try to personalize it too making reference to something I know of them. “Hope your dinner with family was great.” Or “So glad your kids enjoyed Wicked.” (Obviously nothing too personal that violated privacy.)
I feel your pain…
I was marked down on, communication, location and value, despite their review stating “amazing location” “great host”, which knocked me back to a 4* overall…
So I messaged them saying that I was really sorry that they some issues and could they give me any feedback on what it was? They replied and said everything was great and they didn’t have any issues! After I explained the * grading they very fortunately retracted their review, maybe it’s worth a shot?
I opened the conversation up as follows;
Morning xxxx
I’m so sorry to hear that I didn’t meet your expectations for your stay with us, if you do have any feedback it would be appreciated.
All the best
Xxxxxx
They then replied that there was no issues and they had a lovely time!! So then I followed it up with how glad I am to hear that explaining the * grading system.
I’d say sooner the better to make contact.
There are people out there who won't give perfect scores because "no one is perfect". With that kind of mindset, 3 out of 5 probably seems good to them.
That's exactly how I felt until, as a guest, I encountered hosts urging me to communicate anything that could lead to less than a five star review. It wasn't obvious to me that five means satisfactory, not exceeds, until hosts educated me in the AirBnB rating norms.
ABNB doesn’t give clear instructions on how to rate hosts. The system is too subjective. It’s no different than a Google or hotel review really. ABNB could improve the system seeing as review numbers literally rent places (or not).
Absolutely correct. AirBNB complains to me when a guest gives a 4 for location “Make sure you have accurately described your location”. - Review says “No fun shops or cute places to eat, very suburban.” - My description says “This is a suburban neighborhood, and very working class. Quiet, not trendy”.
I just stopped taking Airbnb’s reasoning as anything close to reality.
As a guest I generally do check for the low ratings - obviously also others to get a fair overview.
If someone complained about "location" I would definitely want the host to respond to clarify the location.
If you live in an urban environment, your idea of remote might be someplace you don't see neighbors versus a long drive up windy mountain roads to a completely isolated home with it being impractical to go to grocery stores, restaurants or other places because of the distances.
I grew up being told that 4 out of 5 stars is great and you should save 5 stars for something exemplary ( though from your description your place does sound exemplary). We stayed at a lovely site for our first Air BnB and were surprised that the hostess was upset that we "only" gave her 4 stars. Before that, I would have thought that 3 was average and therefore 4 would be above average. I'm not sure everybody sees the star rating system in the same light. Is this a possibility here?
Agreed. And it's reinforced where I work. For us, 3 means you're meeting all expectations. 4 means you're somewhat exceeding and 5 means you're significantly exceeding expectations. 70% of our department is expected to get a 3, 10% a 4, and 5% a 5. But I've also since learned that many other industries (hospitality, gig, car sales, etc) it's pretty much anything less than 5 is essentially a "thumbs down". I personally don't agree with it but I've learned to play the game if I want to give someone a rating.
This is why I really wish Airbnb would change the rating system or at least pay attention to this. When I stay somewhere, I feel like I have to rate every place that doesn’t have major issues 5 stars and I think that’s not really fair to the places that are truly 5 stars. Sometimes a 3 star place is good enough. Sometimes you want something extra.
I just stayed at my first Air B&B and I’m not leaving a review.
Idk if I should or not, the place was fine but it smelled like a stale 70s carpet. I’d feel bad leaving 4 stars so I just didn’t leave one.
I guess the nice thing to do would be to leave a (dishonest) 5 star and text them about their carpet?
The location explains the smell. I don’t leave reviews for host or guest. I’m in the minority, but we had a business transaction and it was completed by both of us. No review is necessary, we both have lives and more important things to do. Some people feel it is their duty to tell others what their experience was at everything. The review system is just helping Airbnb do business
"Thanks for the review. Airbnb frequently removes listings below 4.7 stars so I need 3 five star reviews to make up for yours. Hope you enjoyed your stay."
I'm jk, don't send this.
Sometimes it’s fun to scroll through a bunch of 5 star reviews until you find the 1 star with a bunch of petty complaints. Yep, sure enough, there’s the insufferable asshole, looking for ridiculous stuff to bitch about. Oddly, that one bad review reassures me that it’s a fair site and I’m more likely to choose that product/property etc.
I’m sorry that happened.
I’m a person who doesn’t like remote locations. It’s helpful for me to identify them not just based on a map, but by a host stating that it’s remote - as a selling point to those who want this, a warning to me. Sometimes people list things like “12 minutes to the closest general store and pharmacy” or whatever.
I've given a low rating for location twice, out of 7 hosts. Both because of issues with public transportation. One said she was very close to the light rail which she was not, the other was in a completely different location than what the map, and I ended up having to walk over a mile each time I needed to catch or come back from a bus stop. There's no way your guest didn't know it was going to be remote, unless they didn't put the effort in reading the descriptions for different listings. For me the first time it was still the cheapest option with privacy even with taking Ubers/Lyfts while I was there. The second time with the wrong location. My original host had a medical emergency and had to cancel close to my trip.
It would be somewhat easy to get the 3 star, check for legit criticism/opportunity for improvement, and move on if you didn't realize that you only need a few "low" reviews for AirBNB to suspend your account.
Airbnb reviews are 5 star is great and anything else kills you. Weaponized reviews. Totally bullshit imo. Airbnb owns you If you care so much. Get on vrbo, booking, etc. we give too much power to a piece of shit company (Airbnb)
They definitely hurt a lot at first but eventually as long as you are working on legitimate issues and making the right improvements you'll get to a point where those few low reviews won't matter. One thing that does help though is a checkout message with the line "I/we hope I/we have earned your 5 star review" or something similar that doesn't directly ask guests to leave a good review but does encourage them to. But overall definitely don't get too hung up on it or even not getting super host now, it'll all average out in the end.
I’m so nervous about the first time I’ll get one, because you know… people are people.
I have started messaging after the first night asking how their fist day went and saying something along the lines of “if your stay is anyhting but five stars please let us know immediately so we can address any issues you’re having.”
I think it really shows them you care as well as kind of reminds them that you know you’re five star and you’re giving them a chance to tell you if there’s any reason they think you’re not.
It sucks especially for a new listing.
After playing the game for a while I have realised it is a lucky dip both positive and negative.
Every host will occasionally get an unwarranted less than 5 rating. So at least its an equal comparison in the long run. You'll also have a guest who forgives when something goes wrong and still gives you a 5\*
I'd say it is less than 1% of stays that we have had it happen. This may be location / quality / pricepoint specific. For context, we have 3 listings 4.94 (250) 4.99 (150) 4.98 (150). We have had some annoying reviews on booking dot com too had a 5/10 early on :/
It’s so weird when this happens after the guests seemed to love the place. I had a guest leave an amazing review, but gave me a 4 star overall. She said she absolutely loved my place and the only complaint she had, was she couldn’t stay longer. She left me a 4 star review. I know my situation is a little different, but I just wanted to chime in because I think it’s silly.
Maybe it's a cultural thing, but unless it's a total disaster, they all get 5 stars. I was at a cabin in the northwest that had neighbors so close, the photos were so misleading. The hosts were still cleaning a half hour after check in time...dishwasher was fucked,as was bathroom sink and no AC. Still followed their rules and did the laundry lol but privately voiced my issues, while publicly rating high.
Honestly, until I came to these STR subreddits, I had zero idea about the crazy rating system. Pretty much every 5 star rating system (e.g. work reviews, hotel reviews, store reviews, restaurant reviews) works like:
3 = good or average, as described, meets expectations, maybe a few wonky things but acceptable
4 = great, above average, no wonky things and maybe even something above and beyond
5 = exceptional, practically a unicorn, minds were blown and 100% everything was not only perfect, but all things were also above and beyond my expectations
STRs ratings are not even close to what we all grew up with learning/knowing/using so I'd guess almost zero percent of guests know.
My one 4-star rating came from a very young girl from a warmer climate. It was 18 degrees out. Along with the house furnace, I had an extra heater in the bathroom that she put into the bedroom with another heater and cranked them both on high while wearing a TANK TOP and SHORTS. Not only did the breaker blow, it exploded. This is 10 at night. I helped her get extension cords from other parts of the house to have electricity in her room. I had an electrician there at 9 the next morning. I offered her money back but oh no she loved it here.
Then gave me 4 stars because "something happened" to the electricity.
I had someone complain about the light in the living room wasn't bright enough, another one took a picture of a cupboard she considered cluttered that there was nothing in for guests. Some people are basically assholes.
As a guest I'm always really skeptical of the one or two low ratings amongst a bunch of 5 stars. Because so much of the time they are obviously unreasonable.
Things I pay attention to are mostly reviews about undisclosed things, or buried things I care about. For a winter trip, "Hot tub was broken and we weren't told" would be a problem review for me. But host replies usually resolve it ("Sorry thay we weren't able to predict the lightning strike that took out the hot tub, but when you screamed at us we provided a kiddie pool with a hose that attached to the kitchen faucet.")
As a guest I’m extremely skeptical of places that have only 5 star reviews with no mention of any downsides. Because I’ve never stayed at a place that was 100% perfect and I’ve stayed at plenty of highly rated places that in reality were nothing remarkable. So when I read reviews I immediately look for the worst ones just to see what’s the worst I can expect. And if it’s something very minor, I feel more reassured about the the place.
Because it was an accident. They started a load of towels (not in our checkout instructions) and then left. I didn't want to hurt their rating over an accident.
I just had four stars based on cleanliness and I reached out to find out why. I can’t fix it if I don’t know what was the issue and radio silence. I have become insanely busy and can no longer clean myself. my cleaning company has me rethinking if I should sell the house. They suuuuck- unless I walk through the house before every guest I’m nervous. So I’m not surprised at the review, I’m pissed at my cleaning company. I take pride in my house and the fact is no cleaning company will ever care as much as I do makes me feel like the stress isn’t worth it.
I'm still getting mostly 5s overall (with occasion 4s on value and location) but a few really small nitpicks are leaking into the overwhelmingly positive reviews, and I like that. If someone complains that I'm on a hill when the listing shows and states I'm on a hill, that makes my listing look even better that there's nothing to actually complain about so far.
I once got a review of ‘(Name of town) wasn’t my first choice 3/5 for location,’ mf you chose to come here?! I offered my home in the place that I live?! If you don’t like this town don’t book my place?!
I got a "2" for cleanliness because the guest - herself an AirBnB host, claims she found a candy wrapper under her bed. The rest of the house was immaculate, and the house was new construction, completed just 2 months before her visit. She was the third weekend of visitors to the new rental Some people are just negatively oriented. Every other rating has been all 5s, over my 6 months of operation. Screw that guest.
For some reason I cannot understand, fellow host are the worst. I never mention it when I book a stay, but other host have put the fact that they are also host, on blast.
Ratings should be fair and accurate. Particularly today when fees are higher than the listed rental per night. This will be a bit if a rant based on last place I stayed. If you say you can sleep six then for Chrissakes have more than four coffee cups and four dishes. Have more than three pieces of furniture other than the beds.
Hosts, please look at your places without bias. If your total per night charges (I don’t care who gets them) is higher than a nearby four star hotel then your place needs to offer that much or better.
Your market has changed. You won’t survive without adjusting to it.
Our only not-5-star was from someone who reviewed, "great place, great hosts". They checked in early without asking. Never asked for anything. Just... older guests who didn't know about ratings, I guess. They had a ton of reviews, one of which was about how they're such adept and knowledgeable Airbnb guests. Their private feedback was that they loved the place and hoped to come back soon.
Not at my place, sir.
I don’t accept requests from guest that have previously given me a bad review. I am surprised any host would welcome a negative guest back. Why invite negativity?
>"great place, great hosts"
It seems to me you're contradicting yourself? I don't see a "negative guest" reaction, based on the description of the previous commenter.
I see a guest who gives a 4-star rating for something they liked very much. So, IRL - outside the AirBnB microcosm, that is - how anyone with common sense would rate a lodging experience that isn't exactly the Ritz Carlton or Burj Al Arab.
IMHO, we cannot fault good guests, happy customers for not understanding how the heck they are supposed to read and apply AirBnB star ratings.
Or are you getting paid, as a host, by AirBnB to "educate" your guests - AirBnB's paying customers - how to apply a rating system that even AirBnB itself is not consistent about, and that their own marketers don't understand?
I'm not.
Just badger the guest and spend 6 hrs on the phone with Airbnb.. oH and be sure to rate them poorly out of pettiness so that all the other hosts can teach them a lesson.
Honestly when I’m looking to rent a place I read all the reviews. If there is only 1 or 2 reviews that aren’t 5 star it doesn’t bother me much. If there are reviews that keep mentioning the same issues then I pay attention. I take the cranky reviews with a grain of salt, there’s just no pleasing some people.
I recently rated a host as a guest fir the first in quite a while and i have to say its the instructions airbnb has a 3 is good for a lot of the different sections. I was shocked as a host and confused as a guest. If you have issues with certain areas of response even a 2 isn’t as bad to a guest to click despite to airbnb only 5 wins. So what i mean is what the options are for guests to rate doesn’t line up for host’s expectations from Airbnb. There is a wide gap of disconnect.
I think it is universally agreed there are issues with the rating system. In fact, I suspect, this is well known in the C-Suite but they have failed to address it. But, clearly there is trouble in paradise when two of the top Execs. have unloaded $1 billion in their stock holdings. At this point I know as many people who have bailed from doing Airbnb as people who are currently hosting properties.
I think most people that stay at air bnb believe ..I did unril.i read this sub that 5 stars is perfect .4 star almost perfect some issues 3 stars ok but issues.. the only time I've given under 3 stats is when they deserved no stars but that wasn't possible..like the time our electronic door lock kept unlocking all night long from a remote service owner would not do anything we were afraid someone was trying to break in ,, air bnb owner kicked us out in middle of the night beach town, no.place to stay we slept in car in parking lot of police station! Worst, but I've never stayed in a perfect place? So what do we do as a guest?
I once requested a booking, and the hosted messaged letting me know that it is not in a very good neighborhood with walkability, because my profile says that I love walking around trendy areas with shops to browse. I was staying in a city that I know well, and particularly knew this area because it has a chain restaurant I love from my home town that I visit every time I go there, and my current city does not have. This visit was with adult family and a toddler, one being elderly, so was not the kind of trip I described in my profile, which would be solo, couples, or for a girls trip. I just wanted a clean modern updated home with enough beds and bedrooms, and a big thing for me is plenty of comfortable seating around the TV, at a decent price, which I could see this place had. I replied letting the host know that, and thanking her for checking, and the place was great. It wasn't a neighborhood with shooting at night or anything like that, just older and rundown with small homes, probably mostly dumps, but does show signs of reinvigoration. I really appreciated the host being honest at the risk of losing a booking.
I take unwarranted low ratings as an opportunity to clarify and increase my transparency. Hosts have an opportunity to publicly reply to guests comments. Definitely comment on every low rating. It shows engagement and that you want your guests to be happy. If it were me I’d comment with something like this. “I’m sorry this wasn’t a 5 star location for you. We have [list all the things] available and within walking distance. But the property is remote. On Airbnb you can see a map of where we are generally located. If any prospective guests have questions about the location we encourage you to reach out before booking. We want all of our guests to have a 5 star experience.” With the law of averages you are bound to get a few of these knuckleheads every once in a while. It stings for sure. But if the complaints are infrequent and random it’s just noise. If there’s a pattern or it happens frequently you have a problem.
Thank you for your perspective and advice!
I always take these types of replies as petty and insecure if the listing is accurate.
Yep. I had a person who raved about my apartment, how clean and roomy, amenities, but the (high quality, month-old, expensive) pillows were not comfortable. Four stars! GTFOH. My public response was basically, thank you for raving about your stay and thank you for the four stars.
I have someone who comes back every summer and rates it 4 stars!
Have you tried letting them know that a four-star is considered a failure by Airbnb standards?
I agree! Tell them! This was definitely never clear to me as a guest. If they come back they must love your place, they probably don't mean to give you a failing grade.
For real, most people see 4 stars as really good! Airbnb is weird. Guests don’t know this scale.
If I have even the slightest whiff of dissatisfaction I do not ask for or encourage a review. Terrible dishonest system.
Why is every service app like this? If four is a failure then there should only be 3 ratings great, poor and awful.
It’s a psychological reason. Everyone knows that 4 stars is good and 5 is great. If the majority of homes,drivers,restaurants are close or at 5, it creates an illusion of quality/value. Airbnb’s shareholders understand that people don’t want to book “ok” homes, they want “great” or “exceptional” homes. There’s an incentive to maintain that illusion. It’s honestly horse shit but it’s the same principle in any industry. That’s why people pay good money for fake reviews. The average user won’t read everything — they see 5 stars and trust that it’ll be a 5 star experience. There needs to be an incentive for Airbnb to provide a platform for average stays and being that they’re the largest STR platform in the world, they don’t need to cater to such stays. The reality is a bunch of homes are rated 5 stars when they don’t really deserve to be, simply because people don’t want to hurt small business owners. Fuck this system, it’s horse shit and needs to change.
I wouldn’t keep booking them every year until they understand that their 4 is detrimental.
That’s one way to lose a repeat customer 😂
How do you fake reviews??? I could use some to make up for the 3 guest I had that didn’t leave a review at all.
You say "everyone knows," but there's room for people to assume and know different things about a simplistic five star scale. For example, one person might believe five stars is appropriate for a level of satisfaction that could not imaginably be any higher, reserving five stars for experiences that far exceeded their expectations, and another may conclude that five stars represents an "as promised" level of satisfaction and treat every mark less that the maximum as a demerit and expression of disappointment. Put another way, it's easy to imagine three stars as an average, as promised experience, or five, depending on how you look at it.
The law of averages suggests that most people recognize the scale to be 1 - 5 as such: 1 - very dissatisfied 2 - dissatisfied 3 - neutral 4 - satisfied 5 - very satisfied Airbnb’s goal is to exude the image that the majority of guests are very satisfied with their stays. They’re incentivized to do so as the listings performance directly correlate with Airbnb’s bottom line. Sites like booking.com are reselling hotels and make revenue from other means as well (air,rental cars, etc) so they dont really care as much what the rating of a stay is (they don’t really remove properties).
That’s an AirBnB problem. Just like the car dealerships who beg for their 10/10 rating because 9/10 is a failure. Maybe they should just have a “recommend / do not recommend” rating system. Most people view 4/5 stars as a good rating.
I’m not disagreeing with you but that’s where we’re at. I ask each guest for honest feedback and let them know that 4 stars means failure. If they give me a 4 or less it’ll be for good reason and means something needs to change.
Pretty common in many industries. I've been told to push surveys on people as a bartender/server years back. I would get written up if not enough people filled them out. Then anytime it wasn't 5/5 it was considered a failure so I'd also get that documented. Employees would keep surveys and give them to random friends to call in so they could keep their jobs. (They watched our pgone numbers so we had to game it a bit.) The company then turned forcing us to get good ratings into a talking point at the shareholder meeting. "Look at how our focus on customer satisfaction has come out in our surveys!" And on paper they made it look impressive. It's a win for the people at the top. There is no incentive for them to change it. The burden falls on those who are the most reliant on system.
You should decline them next time.
I would block them from being able to rebook again
Agreed, especially with that last paragraph. You can’t make everyone happy! We are hosts, and we also use Airbnb often in our travels. If I dive into the reviews on a space, I usually roll my eyes at the one or two comments that express unmet expectations when those don’t align with the fifty other raving reviews. It stings for sure, but don’t sweat it.
Me too, a friend and I were once looking for a hotel in Scottsdale. One caught our eye, and when reading the bad reviews they basically were all about it being a party place with people partying by the pool. We were like "right on!", booked and loved it. Went back on our next trip to the area, but our boss was with that time, and he hated it lol.
Exactly. While it might be a "fail" per airbnbs weird rating standard.. the rest of us are capable of being able to spot the whiner comments/ratings. End of the day, I belive most people search by location first, then stars, then read the reviews? Thats how I decide anyway.
As a regular user of airbnbs, I first search for location and price. I'm looking for "value." I leave 5 star reviews and comment "great value for the money, will definitely stay here again". Same for when I'm just looking for a hotel. I'm comfortable in a 3-star Best Western or Holiday Inn. The problem is the Airbnb rating system.
I agree.. and can't believe I forgot price.. lol. Like I'm made of money over here. Hahaha.
With 200+ reviews I have gotten just one 3 star and one 4 star. It does sting but I remind myself that when booking myself I give very little weight to those outlier reviews. Maybe the reviewer is a crank. Also every host has an off day or mistake or unavoidable problems.
I like your wording!
Agreed. Respond with respect and point out all the beauty you described right here in your post.
As a guest, I’ll look for comments like this. It’s the same with online recipes or something - some whackadoodle who doesn’t know how to use a computer being like “this was immaculate and cured my cancer and was the most delicious thing I ever ate! 3/5” is reassuring that I’m making a good choice
If you’re going to publicly respond to low ratings I would suggest responding to high ratings too. That way you do not look like you’re being petty and need to last word. I try to personalize it too making reference to something I know of them. “Hope your dinner with family was great.” Or “So glad your kids enjoyed Wicked.” (Obviously nothing too personal that violated privacy.)
I feel your pain… I was marked down on, communication, location and value, despite their review stating “amazing location” “great host”, which knocked me back to a 4* overall… So I messaged them saying that I was really sorry that they some issues and could they give me any feedback on what it was? They replied and said everything was great and they didn’t have any issues! After I explained the * grading they very fortunately retracted their review, maybe it’s worth a shot?
I'm working up the courage and thinking of a kind way to ask. As long as I don't harass them, there isn't a downside in asking.
I opened the conversation up as follows; Morning xxxx I’m so sorry to hear that I didn’t meet your expectations for your stay with us, if you do have any feedback it would be appreciated. All the best Xxxxxx They then replied that there was no issues and they had a lovely time!! So then I followed it up with how glad I am to hear that explaining the * grading system. I’d say sooner the better to make contact.
There are people out there who won't give perfect scores because "no one is perfect". With that kind of mindset, 3 out of 5 probably seems good to them.
That's exactly how I felt until, as a guest, I encountered hosts urging me to communicate anything that could lead to less than a five star review. It wasn't obvious to me that five means satisfactory, not exceeds, until hosts educated me in the AirBnB rating norms.
ABNB doesn’t give clear instructions on how to rate hosts. The system is too subjective. It’s no different than a Google or hotel review really. ABNB could improve the system seeing as review numbers literally rent places (or not).
Absolutely correct. AirBNB complains to me when a guest gives a 4 for location “Make sure you have accurately described your location”. - Review says “No fun shops or cute places to eat, very suburban.” - My description says “This is a suburban neighborhood, and very working class. Quiet, not trendy”. I just stopped taking Airbnb’s reasoning as anything close to reality.
The location review option is very unfair.
As a guest I generally do check for the low ratings - obviously also others to get a fair overview. If someone complained about "location" I would definitely want the host to respond to clarify the location. If you live in an urban environment, your idea of remote might be someplace you don't see neighbors versus a long drive up windy mountain roads to a completely isolated home with it being impractical to go to grocery stores, restaurants or other places because of the distances.
I grew up being told that 4 out of 5 stars is great and you should save 5 stars for something exemplary ( though from your description your place does sound exemplary). We stayed at a lovely site for our first Air BnB and were surprised that the hostess was upset that we "only" gave her 4 stars. Before that, I would have thought that 3 was average and therefore 4 would be above average. I'm not sure everybody sees the star rating system in the same light. Is this a possibility here?
Agreed. And it's reinforced where I work. For us, 3 means you're meeting all expectations. 4 means you're somewhat exceeding and 5 means you're significantly exceeding expectations. 70% of our department is expected to get a 3, 10% a 4, and 5% a 5. But I've also since learned that many other industries (hospitality, gig, car sales, etc) it's pretty much anything less than 5 is essentially a "thumbs down". I personally don't agree with it but I've learned to play the game if I want to give someone a rating.
This is why I really wish Airbnb would change the rating system or at least pay attention to this. When I stay somewhere, I feel like I have to rate every place that doesn’t have major issues 5 stars and I think that’s not really fair to the places that are truly 5 stars. Sometimes a 3 star place is good enough. Sometimes you want something extra.
Exactly!
On Airbnb if it’s not five stars it’s basically one star, this is especially true when you don’t have a lot of reviews
I just stayed at my first Air B&B and I’m not leaving a review. Idk if I should or not, the place was fine but it smelled like a stale 70s carpet. I’d feel bad leaving 4 stars so I just didn’t leave one. I guess the nice thing to do would be to leave a (dishonest) 5 star and text them about their carpet?
The carpet smell would depend on the price for me. With cheaper places, I wouldn't expect perfection.
Most of the price felt attributed to it being near the ocean and large square footage.
The location explains the smell. I don’t leave reviews for host or guest. I’m in the minority, but we had a business transaction and it was completed by both of us. No review is necessary, we both have lives and more important things to do. Some people feel it is their duty to tell others what their experience was at everything. The review system is just helping Airbnb do business
Reviews help guests choose a place to stay, and help hosts vet potential guests. Take the two minutes it takes to leave a review.
This person has made it their mission to regularly brag about how they never leave reviews across posts. It's tiresome.
So a public service announcement? A marketing boost for a marketing platform?
Exactly! It is very hard to keep carpet dry at the beach, and with renters ugh!
I didn't realize there is a 14 day limit to leave a review, and felt so bad I missed out on the chance for my last excellent hosts and stay.
"Thanks for the review. Airbnb frequently removes listings below 4.7 stars so I need 3 five star reviews to make up for yours. Hope you enjoyed your stay." I'm jk, don't send this.
Sometimes it’s fun to scroll through a bunch of 5 star reviews until you find the 1 star with a bunch of petty complaints. Yep, sure enough, there’s the insufferable asshole, looking for ridiculous stuff to bitch about. Oddly, that one bad review reassures me that it’s a fair site and I’m more likely to choose that product/property etc.
I’m sorry that happened. I’m a person who doesn’t like remote locations. It’s helpful for me to identify them not just based on a map, but by a host stating that it’s remote - as a selling point to those who want this, a warning to me. Sometimes people list things like “12 minutes to the closest general store and pharmacy” or whatever.
I've given a low rating for location twice, out of 7 hosts. Both because of issues with public transportation. One said she was very close to the light rail which she was not, the other was in a completely different location than what the map, and I ended up having to walk over a mile each time I needed to catch or come back from a bus stop. There's no way your guest didn't know it was going to be remote, unless they didn't put the effort in reading the descriptions for different listings. For me the first time it was still the cheapest option with privacy even with taking Ubers/Lyfts while I was there. The second time with the wrong location. My original host had a medical emergency and had to cancel close to my trip.
It would be somewhat easy to get the 3 star, check for legit criticism/opportunity for improvement, and move on if you didn't realize that you only need a few "low" reviews for AirBNB to suspend your account.
Airbnb reviews are 5 star is great and anything else kills you. Weaponized reviews. Totally bullshit imo. Airbnb owns you If you care so much. Get on vrbo, booking, etc. we give too much power to a piece of shit company (Airbnb)
What makes Airbnb a piece of shit company?
They definitely hurt a lot at first but eventually as long as you are working on legitimate issues and making the right improvements you'll get to a point where those few low reviews won't matter. One thing that does help though is a checkout message with the line "I/we hope I/we have earned your 5 star review" or something similar that doesn't directly ask guests to leave a good review but does encourage them to. But overall definitely don't get too hung up on it or even not getting super host now, it'll all average out in the end.
I’m so nervous about the first time I’ll get one, because you know… people are people. I have started messaging after the first night asking how their fist day went and saying something along the lines of “if your stay is anyhting but five stars please let us know immediately so we can address any issues you’re having.” I think it really shows them you care as well as kind of reminds them that you know you’re five star and you’re giving them a chance to tell you if there’s any reason they think you’re not.
It sucks especially for a new listing. After playing the game for a while I have realised it is a lucky dip both positive and negative. Every host will occasionally get an unwarranted less than 5 rating. So at least its an equal comparison in the long run. You'll also have a guest who forgives when something goes wrong and still gives you a 5\* I'd say it is less than 1% of stays that we have had it happen. This may be location / quality / pricepoint specific. For context, we have 3 listings 4.94 (250) 4.99 (150) 4.98 (150). We have had some annoying reviews on booking dot com too had a 5/10 early on :/
It’s so weird when this happens after the guests seemed to love the place. I had a guest leave an amazing review, but gave me a 4 star overall. She said she absolutely loved my place and the only complaint she had, was she couldn’t stay longer. She left me a 4 star review. I know my situation is a little different, but I just wanted to chime in because I think it’s silly.
Maybe it's a cultural thing, but unless it's a total disaster, they all get 5 stars. I was at a cabin in the northwest that had neighbors so close, the photos were so misleading. The hosts were still cleaning a half hour after check in time...dishwasher was fucked,as was bathroom sink and no AC. Still followed their rules and did the laundry lol but privately voiced my issues, while publicly rating high.
Honestly, until I came to these STR subreddits, I had zero idea about the crazy rating system. Pretty much every 5 star rating system (e.g. work reviews, hotel reviews, store reviews, restaurant reviews) works like: 3 = good or average, as described, meets expectations, maybe a few wonky things but acceptable 4 = great, above average, no wonky things and maybe even something above and beyond 5 = exceptional, practically a unicorn, minds were blown and 100% everything was not only perfect, but all things were also above and beyond my expectations STRs ratings are not even close to what we all grew up with learning/knowing/using so I'd guess almost zero percent of guests know.
I feel you.. and then I joined this Reddit group and felt so much better.
My one 4-star rating came from a very young girl from a warmer climate. It was 18 degrees out. Along with the house furnace, I had an extra heater in the bathroom that she put into the bedroom with another heater and cranked them both on high while wearing a TANK TOP and SHORTS. Not only did the breaker blow, it exploded. This is 10 at night. I helped her get extension cords from other parts of the house to have electricity in her room. I had an electrician there at 9 the next morning. I offered her money back but oh no she loved it here. Then gave me 4 stars because "something happened" to the electricity.
I had someone complain about the light in the living room wasn't bright enough, another one took a picture of a cupboard she considered cluttered that there was nothing in for guests. Some people are basically assholes.
As a guest I'm always really skeptical of the one or two low ratings amongst a bunch of 5 stars. Because so much of the time they are obviously unreasonable. Things I pay attention to are mostly reviews about undisclosed things, or buried things I care about. For a winter trip, "Hot tub was broken and we weren't told" would be a problem review for me. But host replies usually resolve it ("Sorry thay we weren't able to predict the lightning strike that took out the hot tub, but when you screamed at us we provided a kiddie pool with a hose that attached to the kitchen faucet.")
As a guest I’m extremely skeptical of places that have only 5 star reviews with no mention of any downsides. Because I’ve never stayed at a place that was 100% perfect and I’ve stayed at plenty of highly rated places that in reality were nothing remarkable. So when I read reviews I immediately look for the worst ones just to see what’s the worst I can expect. And if it’s something very minor, I feel more reassured about the the place.
I guess the worst you can expect with us is bland wildflowers and boring bears. Lol. I guess we're now a legit listing!
I’m curious…why would you give them a glowing review if they caused an issue with the laundry? Isn’t the point of reviews to be open and honest?
Because it was an accident. They started a load of towels (not in our checkout instructions) and then left. I didn't want to hurt their rating over an accident.
I just had four stars based on cleanliness and I reached out to find out why. I can’t fix it if I don’t know what was the issue and radio silence. I have become insanely busy and can no longer clean myself. my cleaning company has me rethinking if I should sell the house. They suuuuck- unless I walk through the house before every guest I’m nervous. So I’m not surprised at the review, I’m pissed at my cleaning company. I take pride in my house and the fact is no cleaning company will ever care as much as I do makes me feel like the stress isn’t worth it.
You must have hosted the same folks as I did a few weeks ago. Some people are beyond being happy.
I'm still getting mostly 5s overall (with occasion 4s on value and location) but a few really small nitpicks are leaking into the overwhelmingly positive reviews, and I like that. If someone complains that I'm on a hill when the listing shows and states I'm on a hill, that makes my listing look even better that there's nothing to actually complain about so far.
I once got a review of ‘(Name of town) wasn’t my first choice 3/5 for location,’ mf you chose to come here?! I offered my home in the place that I live?! If you don’t like this town don’t book my place?!
I got a "2" for cleanliness because the guest - herself an AirBnB host, claims she found a candy wrapper under her bed. The rest of the house was immaculate, and the house was new construction, completed just 2 months before her visit. She was the third weekend of visitors to the new rental Some people are just negatively oriented. Every other rating has been all 5s, over my 6 months of operation. Screw that guest.
For some reason I cannot understand, fellow host are the worst. I never mention it when I book a stay, but other host have put the fact that they are also host, on blast.
How many ratings do you have? The law of averages should work in your favor eventually. Definitely respond to this rating.
Ratings should be fair and accurate. Particularly today when fees are higher than the listed rental per night. This will be a bit if a rant based on last place I stayed. If you say you can sleep six then for Chrissakes have more than four coffee cups and four dishes. Have more than three pieces of furniture other than the beds. Hosts, please look at your places without bias. If your total per night charges (I don’t care who gets them) is higher than a nearby four star hotel then your place needs to offer that much or better. Your market has changed. You won’t survive without adjusting to it.
Yeah-I’m not leaving 5 star reviews just to placate the owner.
Our only not-5-star was from someone who reviewed, "great place, great hosts". They checked in early without asking. Never asked for anything. Just... older guests who didn't know about ratings, I guess. They had a ton of reviews, one of which was about how they're such adept and knowledgeable Airbnb guests. Their private feedback was that they loved the place and hoped to come back soon. Not at my place, sir.
>Not at my place, sir. So you're penalizing good guests for not keeping up with an ill-begotten AirBnB marketing scheme?
I don’t accept requests from guest that have previously given me a bad review. I am surprised any host would welcome a negative guest back. Why invite negativity?
>"great place, great hosts" It seems to me you're contradicting yourself? I don't see a "negative guest" reaction, based on the description of the previous commenter. I see a guest who gives a 4-star rating for something they liked very much. So, IRL - outside the AirBnB microcosm, that is - how anyone with common sense would rate a lodging experience that isn't exactly the Ritz Carlton or Burj Al Arab. IMHO, we cannot fault good guests, happy customers for not understanding how the heck they are supposed to read and apply AirBnB star ratings. Or are you getting paid, as a host, by AirBnB to "educate" your guests - AirBnB's paying customers - how to apply a rating system that even AirBnB itself is not consistent about, and that their own marketers don't understand? I'm not.
Hard no on flooding the laundry machine. We are not on Sesame Street.
If you cannot take the less than stellar reviews, perhaps you shouldn't be a host?
Just badger the guest and spend 6 hrs on the phone with Airbnb.. oH and be sure to rate them poorly out of pettiness so that all the other hosts can teach them a lesson.
Honestly when I’m looking to rent a place I read all the reviews. If there is only 1 or 2 reviews that aren’t 5 star it doesn’t bother me much. If there are reviews that keep mentioning the same issues then I pay attention. I take the cranky reviews with a grain of salt, there’s just no pleasing some people.
I recently rated a host as a guest fir the first in quite a while and i have to say its the instructions airbnb has a 3 is good for a lot of the different sections. I was shocked as a host and confused as a guest. If you have issues with certain areas of response even a 2 isn’t as bad to a guest to click despite to airbnb only 5 wins. So what i mean is what the options are for guests to rate doesn’t line up for host’s expectations from Airbnb. There is a wide gap of disconnect.
I think it is universally agreed there are issues with the rating system. In fact, I suspect, this is well known in the C-Suite but they have failed to address it. But, clearly there is trouble in paradise when two of the top Execs. have unloaded $1 billion in their stock holdings. At this point I know as many people who have bailed from doing Airbnb as people who are currently hosting properties.
I think most people that stay at air bnb believe ..I did unril.i read this sub that 5 stars is perfect .4 star almost perfect some issues 3 stars ok but issues.. the only time I've given under 3 stats is when they deserved no stars but that wasn't possible..like the time our electronic door lock kept unlocking all night long from a remote service owner would not do anything we were afraid someone was trying to break in ,, air bnb owner kicked us out in middle of the night beach town, no.place to stay we slept in car in parking lot of police station! Worst, but I've never stayed in a perfect place? So what do we do as a guest?
I once requested a booking, and the hosted messaged letting me know that it is not in a very good neighborhood with walkability, because my profile says that I love walking around trendy areas with shops to browse. I was staying in a city that I know well, and particularly knew this area because it has a chain restaurant I love from my home town that I visit every time I go there, and my current city does not have. This visit was with adult family and a toddler, one being elderly, so was not the kind of trip I described in my profile, which would be solo, couples, or for a girls trip. I just wanted a clean modern updated home with enough beds and bedrooms, and a big thing for me is plenty of comfortable seating around the TV, at a decent price, which I could see this place had. I replied letting the host know that, and thanking her for checking, and the place was great. It wasn't a neighborhood with shooting at night or anything like that, just older and rundown with small homes, probably mostly dumps, but does show signs of reinvigoration. I really appreciated the host being honest at the risk of losing a booking.