Building and Improving the Superhost Program

Airbnb
Official Account

Building and Improving the Superhost Program

Superhost Criteria.jpg

 

As our global host community grows and becomes increasingly diverse, Airbnb’s programmes and policies need to grow and adapt as well – both to ensure the success of people from all over the world, and to show our appreciation for hosts’ hard work and amazing hospitality. That’s why we’re updating the Superhost programme to make it more fair, inclusive, and valuable to hosts everywhere.

 

 

Review rates

Great reviews are essential to earning Superhost status. They also help create a community where trust and transparency is shared between guests and hosts. But, hosts can’t control whether or not their guests choose to leave a review. After examining global data and speaking with Superhosts in a number of countries, we discovered that review rates aren’t consistent worldwide – some travellers always leave reviews, while others rarely do. This discrepancy can put some hosts at a disadvantage when it comes to consideration for Superhost status. In order to make the evaluation process more fair for everyone in our global community, we’ll no longer require that hosts have at least a 50% review rate in order to become Superhosts (or retain their existing status).

 

 

Cancellation policy

As part of our effort to make sure Airbnb programmes are built to meet the needs of all hosts, we’re also updating our cancellation requirement. Previously, we required that Superhosts have zero cancellations, but for hosts with an extremely high volume of bookings across multiple listings, that standard is impractical. To make the programme more fair for high-volume hosts, we’re now allowing one cancellation per 100 trips booked over the past year, which means a cancellation rate of less than 1% across all of your listings. It’s important to note that we still take cancellation as seriously as ever. Over the past five years, the Superhost community has worked hard to earn the trust of their guests and we will continue to reward that trust by recognising the most reliable hosts with Superhost status.

 

Both the changes to our cancellation and review requirements will take effect on the 1 July quarterly Superhost assessment. We’ll also be updating hosting dashboards at this time to reflect this new criteria.

 

 

Stay tuned 

We’re committed to continually improving the Superhost programme so that it works for the entire host community. That includes using clear, fair qualification criteria and making it valuable for every Superhost. From the overall design of the programme to how it rewards the community, we’re looking at different ways to not only make your hosting experience more positive, but also help you be more successful. So, please stay tuned, there’s a lot of exciting news to come.

674 Replies 674

@Robin4I completely agree.  Step 3 is very confusing for guests. I provide my guests with information on how Airbnb reviews work and many are very surprised that a 4* is not acceptable.   

 

@Airbnb If a guest rates a category (cleanliness, accuracy, value, etc) less than 5*, they should be required to give an explanation. For example, if they give 3* or 4* for accuracy, what did they think was inaccurate about the listing?  Giving specific and actionable feedback to hosts is a learning opportunity and ultimately helps them to improve the guest experience.

@Airbnb I completely agree with @Margy6 ‘s suggestion. It is a fair a reasonable solution. 

Its clear now. the * star seems to be a negative 

Wow, you have done a lot of work on this. I too have always felt that the "needs improvement" piece was always detrimental to the host, and have always asked my guests to please tell me first if there is an issue, an I will always resolve it . Not fair to post following your stay (unless there were huge issues and lack of communication). 

An easy and understandable solution to the snarky sociopathic ratings questions posed to our guests would be ~~~adopt the internationally applied hotel rating system, some what tailored for the Airbnb host

property but not essentially more demanding of the guest user.  This rating system is understood internationally so seasoned travelers understand its meaning. I wonder is the Airbnb Listings for Boutique Hotels uses that one ? 

  Airbnb should read the writing, or not writing, hints.  Guests do not like this thing and avoid doing it unless the Host submits one on them, which forces them to respond.

  I Never ever submit a review of my guests.  If they review me  I review them. And since my business is exclusively devoted to the monthly stay market my guests feel more like renters than vacationers.  In fact

they are not vacationing at all these days.!

 At the very least dump the Over-All  thing.  After all, there is no such word as over-all. It is a colloquial non-grammatical expression which I am confident does not translate very well out of English.

Susan

@Robin4 

 

So now as we do not have to follow this 50% - we can ask our guests: Please, write a review ONLY if it will be a 5-stars, do not bather to write a review if it is not. Or... as someone has put it: Let's every home becomes an airbnb - and now it will be - Every airbnb host will be a Super host!    

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Lilly28 

Yes Lilly, this is probably what will happen, hosts will start asking for only outstanding reviews. This is why I want Admin to look at this and find a way so that everyone can just speak their minds fairly without being penalised for it.

 

One host in my area who I know personally and is a good host, lost her Superhost status. She did not have the safety of 100s of reviews to cushion against a review or two with a low star rating! She only had, I think, 27 reviews. Her rating fell below 4.7 because of two careless reviews. They were not malicious reviews, the guests thought they were doing nothing wrong, the stays were fine.

One review gave 4 stars in all categories except accuracy which was a 3, and they gave an overall 3 because a 3 meant the stay met their expectations.....nothing wrong, but nothing stand-out!!

 

The other review was even more unfortunate. Here in the Adelaide Hills during the summer months there can be a few mosquitoes around. The guest opened a window to pass some glasses out onto a deck and did not shut the insect screen. They did shut it before going to bed but got bitten by mosquitoes during the night that had entered the property via that window that was left open.

They gave the host a 2 star overall review because the mosquitoes 'ruined their night' and for the money they paid they should not have had to suffer that!

 

Neither of these star rating related to anything the host did wrong......but she lost her Superhost status.

 

Lilly, it should be no big deal, many hosts here say "what is all the fuss about being a Superhost".

It is a big deal, Superhost means our guests think what we do should be rewarded and it makes us strive a bit harder. If we loose it through something we did wrong, fair enough, take it on the chin and learn. But when we lose it or risk loosing it because the guest doesn't understand what happens....

That is not fair!

 

Cheers........Rob

Alon1
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Lilly28 @Robin4 

 

re 'we can ask our guests: Please, write a review ONLY if it will be a 5-stars, do not bather to write a review if it is not.'

 

  'Yes Lilly, this is probably what will happen, hosts will start asking for only outstanding reviews.'

 

 

It seems like you consider and treat Guests  as automatons to be dictated to and manipulated by us.

 

In my experience Guests actually have their own brains, and don't need endless prodding and prompting. Without this kind of education program propagated by Robin, Guests evidently have a pretty good grasp of the rating system.

 

Moreover, the vast majority of my guests don't have a clue about the significance of SH. it's rather the attraction of the listing, the Reviews, and most of all the communication and engagement with their concerns, ensuring they have enjoyable stay, that determine their comments and valuations.

 

 

 

 

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Alon1 

We Alon are obviously at opposite ends of the hosting spectrum! There is nothing I can learn from you, and there is nothing you can learn from me.

I will not in future respond to any of your posts and I would ask you to extend the same courtesy to me and not respond to any of mine.

I have always felt here on the CC if I didn't agree with something that I would just let it slip through to the keeper, but obviously you do not share the same philosophy and feel the need to  tell me where I am going wrong all the time with each and every post I make.

Alon, you have your runs on the board......I have mine, lets leave it at that OK!

 

Cheers.....Rob

Alon1
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Robin4 

 

The notion that I'm telling you where you are going wrong "all the time" is nonsense.

I comment very occasionally on your posts.

 

I will continue to comment as I see fit, and so long as it within bounds of what is permitted by the Moderators. 

 

You are welcome to ignore my comments as you like. 

@Alon1 , you say,  "In my experience Guests actually have their own brains, and don't need endless prodding and prompting. Without this kind of education program propagated by Robin, Guests evidently have a pretty good grasp of the rating system."

Wait until you host people from Asia. They simply do NOT rate people above a 3*. They will write glowing reviews and give you 3* across the board.  My very first guests were from Hong Kong and this is exactly what they did. I immediately received threats from ABB about my poor reviews, etc. My solution was to start over and make a completely new account because I would never overcome a 3* rating from my first guest.

Second, you are in a central location. You have not had to deal with people who cannot read a map and don't realize that "off the beaten path" means NOT in downtown. While not every guest has commented publicly about my location, nearly every guest I've chatted with has said, "I didn't realize you were so far out from town". My latest guest marked me down for "Location" because I'm not IN Fredericksburg, VA and felt it was deceptive. My legal mailing address is Fredericksburg, VA so that is what AirBNB uses. I can't change it.  I put in my listing things like "Located in Hartwood", "Off the beaten path", "15 minutes to Fredericksburg" "Rural area" "Surrounded by farms" and people still don't read.

Heck, I had one AirBNB Host as my guest and she didn't read my house rules about No Smoking on the premises.  You would think a fellow ABB host would be conscious of another host's House Rules.  It is stated 3 times in my listing, I have it posted in my suite, on my patio, and in my house manual and her response was, "I should have made it clearer".  Of course this is the same woman who brought a fake service dog to my "No Pets" listing.

I've worked retail, too. And I can tell you there are a lot of people out there who don't have brains.


Alon1
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

 
Stephanie,
 
You will note that I already replied to this post yesterday afternoon. As mentioned it appeared in my email but it was not loaded on CC, and as noted I assumed it was deleted by the Moderators due to what I took to be a prejudicial comment versus Asians.
 
This morning I received a repeat email and this time I note your comment is posted. So I rather have to consider that yesterday's post didn't register due to a glitch.
 
I can hardly apologise for my suggestion that it was deleted due to a prejudicial comment versus Asians.But now that's it's explicitly stated, I am obliged to return to your statement to me
 
"Wait until you host people from Asia.  "
 
As mentioned yesterday, you simply couldn't be bothered to scroll through my 338 Reviews to note that I have hosted numerous guests from Asia, constituting somewhere between a 1/4 and 1/3rd of all my Reviews.
 
I would only add now the list of 18 countries from Asia that appear among my Reviews: 
The list is in alphabetical order:
 
Azerbaijan
Georgia
Hong Kong
India
Indonesia
Israel
Japan
Kazakhstan
Malaysia
Philippines
Russia
Singapore
South Korea 
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
 
This list does not include Asians currently resident in the UK whose Airbnb verification are under UK registration.
 
I'm left to convey that application of one's brain can often save someone articulating, speaking and / or writing nonsense.--I rather think you projected your virtual lack of hosting  anyone outside of the USA onto me!
  [55 USA reviews out of 56 is quite a record!]
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Wait until you host people from Asia. They simply do NOT rate people above a 3*. They will write glowing reviews and give you 3* across the board.  



Dear Stephenie,

I would like to respond you your comment about "Asians" that is copied and shown above...

 

I am Thai and host in Pattaya, Thailand, which is in South East Asia. More than 83% of my guests are from Asia, which includes Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Macau, Philippines, India, China, Bhutan, Malaysia, Lao, Mongolia, Brunei, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc.

 

I have 1,798 reviews and I am a Super Host. So I am sorry but your comment about "Asians" not leaving above 3* reviews simply doesn't relate to the experience that I have with "Asian" guests! On the contrary the fact that I am a Super Host clearly illustrates that what you are stating is totally incorrect!

 

In fact I find your comment very offensive because you are generalising about Asia & Asian people. The current population of Asia is around 4.5 Billion people. Different Asian people have different cultures and expectations. I am Thai (Asian), if I think something deserves 5* it gets 5*.

 

If you got 3* then maybe the guests from Hong Kong were used to a much higher standard of accommodation. If you've been to Hong Kong then you might be able to relate to what I am talking about. More Michelin star restaurants than New York, and some of the most expensive real estate on the planet! 

 

It's the revenge reviews that should be dealt with by Airbnb, that's a real issue that I encounter. Such reviews however are not left exclusively by Asians. I had an American guest that wrote a very negative 3* review simply because I was unable to provide a late check-out, after he'd been out late drinking and woke up late with a hangover. That however did not cause me to generalise about people from America all being self entitled, so maybe you should do the same regarding Asians, and quit generalising!

Sincerely,

Tuenchai 

.....but that is exactly what it has come down to - begging. Because irrespective of the Airbnb stars are different rhetoric, the minimum of 4.8 is absurd. Most flagship chsin hotels aren't even close. 

yes it feels akin to begging when asking guests to please make sure to leave a review as it determines my income and explain the dire need for a 5* on every question all across the board with all 5's and nothing less because anything less will cost my super host status and bump my listing down in search results. its so degrading and embarrassing to have to convey such specifics and pressure guests to be very conscious about not forgetting to leave a review and even WORSE if i have to remind them 2-3 times before the 14 day period expires!  this is the WORST rating system!