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
D-B0
Level 1
Prague, Czech Republic

The rating process also needs one important overhaul. I've had 3 reviews in the past where I had gotten 5 stars in every category and very good written review...but was given 4 stars overall with no indications as to why. The overall rating should default to 5 if you're given 5 stars in all rating criteria. That is the only rating that counts towards your Superhost status.

Cherie63
Level 6
Texas, United States

I think it has something to do with the "stay was as expected" question...weird injection and vague way for airbnb to garner a slight on the star rating of the host because so many guests just leave 5*'s across the board..I feel its something very sneaky and it needs to be omitted completely from the review process  

Simona280
Level 2
London, United Kingdom

This is a slow progress. We really need Airbnb to do more to protect the super hosts who make a huge effort to keep their properties and their standard high. Airbnb need to deal with the one off revenging reviews. Guests not following house rules, disturbing neighbours at night, leaving shared spaces messy and dirty cannot be  confronted for fear of a bad review. Super demanding guests who want five extra towels for free, keep calling you any time of the day and the night to ask everything you have already included in the house book and take you for their personal holiday organiser cannot be disappointed for the fear of a bad review. Unreasonable guests who are unhappy because it is raining in the rain season, your city is boring for their children, the car park at 50m from the property is too far, they feel unsafe in the isolated countryside, they feel observed by the security cameras are always right. Guests are  are untouchable. If they get a bad review at the end of their stay they can still change profile, book under a family member name. If a host get a bad review may be completely ruined; years of effort gone. Can Airbnb do something about this?

What do you do when your listing profile and your Welcome Pack clearly states that the space is strictly no smoking and you discover when a guest has left that they smoked in the property and left cigarette ash over the mattress?

We decided not to give them a review, not wanting to get into a long, drawn-out argument, and to verbally state to each guest that it is strictly non smoking

You need to state in your house rules that there will be a fee of $$ for smoking in the space and make sure you have a deposit set for airbnb to deduct it from when you report the guest.  and by all means leave the guest a fitting review to warn other hosts.  the guest can't see your review until they have also left one for you so no worries of any long drawn out situation except maybe with airbnb and their lack of support if you don't have it in your description house rules or have a deposit.

Yes!  @Terry357  I agree with Cherie63.  If you have a bad guest, PLEASE leave them an honest review, to help future hosts.  And @Cherie63 , you request a deposit?  I've never (I've only been doing this 5 months) ... is it due to your location/type of guests, did you have a bad experience in the past requiring you to start requesting a deposit ... and anyone else reading this, do you require a deposit? And if so, why?  PS - I'm new to commenting here, so hope I get notified that someone has tagged me and replied to me. 🙂  

Thanks for that Karen.  I will give them a poor review.  They were the dirtiest couple  have met yet

Nancy103
Level 3
London, United Kingdom

I would be happy with AirBnB throwing out the lowest AND highest review when performing the calculation. As for the mean reviews?  They suck, but maybe adjusting the calculation is the baby step AirBnB makes. 

Jacinta-and-David0
Level 1
Dublin, Ireland

Can we get rid of the Location rating now, please??? 

Georgina73
Level 4
Athens, Greece

The next step should be to completely change the way star ratings work.

 

How is it possible to allow someone to rate with 4 stars in the overall rating when they rate with 5 stars all of the subcategories.

 

It would be more fair and transparent if the ratings and the reviews were similar to 'Amazon'  or 'TripAdvisor'.

Thanks for updating, especially about percentage of guest reviews. As a Superhost, with a house in a remote part of Calabria, italy, i will NEVER be able to compete, volume-wise with numbers of bookings in popular tourist places. Although the house is almost fully booked in July and August, these are basically the only months people visit our area. It is very difficult to ensure I have the criteria of 10 bookings consistently, though all other Airbnb criteria for Superhost I easily exceed.

 When will Airbnb give some thought to people like me in low-volume tourist areas?

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hello @Rosemary81, great to see you like the update. 

 

You mention about thinking about hosts in 'low-volume tourists areas',  can you provide more information on what you are thinking? 

 

Thanks,

 

Lizzie


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Thank you for the last 7 years, find out more in my Personal Update.


Looking to contact our Support Team, for details...take a look at the Community Help Guides.

Sorry Lizzie... just saw your reply. Low-volume tourist areas mean not many tourists visit!.... unlike major cities like Florence where people visit all year round. My house is in the mountains of Calabria in Italy, and is ONLY visited in the European summer holidays. ....June, July, August. The rest of the year there are no tourists


@Lizzie wrote:

Hello @Rosemary81, great to see you like the update. 

 

You mention about thinking about hosts in 'low-volume tourists areas',  can you provide more information on what you are thinking? 

 

Thanks,

 

Lizzie


 

Meghan48
Level 2
Tonawanda, NY

I'd really like a way to indicate to other hosts when a guest fails to read the check-in instructions.  I'm tired of people not reading them and then parking where they shouldn't and destroying my yard or blocking me in.  

 

I also want Airbnb to update property descriptions to differentiate between allowing pets and owning a pet.  I own a pet, but I don't allow pets with my guests.  It would be nice if I didn't come up in searches of pet-friendly residences.  

Let’s go get it everyone