Guest Favorites: Most-loved homes according to guests

[Airbnb]

Airbnb has more than 7 million homes all over the world. Each home is one-of-a-kind, and this uniqueness is what sets Airbnb apart. But guests have told us that with so much variety, it can be hard to know what they’re going to get. This is why many people prefer hotels, and it’s the #1 obstacle preventing them from booking on Airbnb.

One of the best ways to find a great place to stay is by knowing which homes guests love the most. That’s why we created Guest Favorites—2 million of the most-loved homes on Airbnb, according to guests. Guest Favorites are based on ratings, reviews, and reliability data from over half a billion trips. Guest Favorites are updated every day, so if your listing isn’t included now, it could be soon. 

Guest Favorites, the new Listings tab, and even more upgrades for Hosts are part of the Airbnb 2023 Winter Release. Find out more on the Resource Center.

[Adriano78]

On my Airbnb page in the French language, 

The hosts that had the super host badge before, did not have it anymore!

For hosts who were super hosts, Airbnb replaced the badge with "guests favorite" badge!

I had read that Airbnb gave the badge "guest favorite" for accommodation from 4.90. This is not the case because there are accommodations at 4.70 that have the "favorite guest" badge

For the guests:

In the section search "filters",  the box with the Mention Super Host disappeared!. Customers can no longer check the box if they want to rent an apartment from a super host.

The mixture of the " guest favorites" badge   and super host badge is not clear and is a little confusing for guests

[Breanna]

Hi @Adriano78 @Lorina14 

Most Guest Favorites are rated above 4.9 stars on average today. Guest Favorites are identified based on things like subcategory ratings, guest feedback in reviews, and the cancellation rate by the Host and previous quality-related customer service issues.

In order to help guests easily identify the most highly rated and reliable listings, the Guest Favorite badges are prioritized on listings before any other badge in search results. Guests will still be able to find additional information, such as if it’s a Rare Find or if it’s hosted by a Superhost on the listing page. 

I can confirm the Superhost filter has been removed. This is to simplify some of the search filters and Airbnb added a new Guest Favorites filter to help guests find some of the most-loved homes on the platform.

[Lorina14]

Hi! I am concerned why the Superhost badge filter was removed as a search because so many people searched for their stays with Superhost filter in the past.

Why would one establish a standard that hosts aspire to and take the filter for that away?  I do understand sometimes there were pushy emails from super hosts to guests asking them for a 5 star experience so they don’t lose their status and this was unethical as it should be an honest review. I’ve also known sometimes people threaten to leave a bad review of you if you leave a bad review of them (this happened to us recently - we had several cleanliness issues - mold, dog hair, hair, and dried out poop behind a bed! And the host emailed us a veiled threat about not leaving a review if we didn’t and agree to disagree (umm it was the truth, I have pics to document the issues)).

I understand the need to release a new level of distinction Guest favorite but it is hard if guests do not know what the differentiation is between a superhost and a guest favorite. 

Why not allow a transition time for both to be present, get feedback and if it is necessary to change the criteria as some superhosts were playing the system, then at a later time, take it away explaining the reasoning for the “new standard”. 

[Adriano78]

hi @Breanna 

thank you for your explanation, but in the example on my screen shot we see a "guest favorites" apartment with a rating of 4.74!

This is not an isolated case.
There are many listings that have ratings much lower than 4.90 that are guest favorites.

In the example of the screenshot, there is an apartment with 4.75 which has the superhost badge, and an apartment with 4.74 which has the guest favorites! badge.

For customers it's confusing.

We must not forget that the superhost status was from 4.80 and there we end up with 3 ads that had less than 4.80!,

For the "guest favorites" status 4.90 and we end up with ads with low ratings.

[Breanna]

Hi @Adriano78 

I hear what you're saying and we're checking this out. I'll come back and post here when I have some more information about this. 

[Breanna]

Hi @Adriano78 

Just coming back to try and shed more light on your previous question. 

The average rating for all Guest Favorite listings is 4.9. While these listings generally have very high overall ratings, please note some may be above 4.9 and some may be below.

A mix of factors are considered in determining whether a listing qualifies as a Guest Favorite, including: overall and subcategory ratings, feedback left in guest reviews, Host cancellations, and the number of quality-related customer service issues. All of those combined create a score that will determine whether the listing qualifies as a Guest Favorite.

[Susan1188]

So am I correct in assuming that "guest favorite" is determined by Artificial Intelligence and nobody really knows what's going into the algorithm?

[Ruthie12]

"Guest favorites" means nothing.  I searched listings in my area and just about all of them are "guest favorites" even one that has only been live since July and has only seven reviews.  Bring back Superhost!

[Adriano78]

I also did a search in my area and almost all the listings are guest favorite! Even accommodations with bad ratiings So the badge "guests favorite" means nothing

[Gin--Staycasa-Accommodation0]

Is there any way I can push my listing under recently introduced "Guest Favorites" list? I see it needs the criteria of less than 1% Cancelation rate and 1% incident rate but I'm not sure about the ratings since I can see 4.77 listed as guest favorite as well. I'm exceptionally good with first two, nothing major. Never had a cancelation, neither any major incident. 

[Kirk28]

I'm a superhost as well as a frequent guest (digital nomad).  I don't like this change as either a guest or as a host.  

Would be much better to keep it simple and allow the GUEST to filter by the rating of their choice.  4.5, 4.6, 4.7, etc (Similar to other booking platforms). When used in conjunction with the price filter, it's by far the most effective way to allow the CUSTOMER to decide between cost & quality to suit THEIR needs.    

Search filters are important.  Each customer will have their own criteria. It makes no sense for there to only be one option that's geared towards the upper echelon.

As customer, I want to see how much I can save by, for example, booking a 4.7 instead of a 4.8.  

[Jennifer892]

The rules are:

1. At least five reviews from guests
2. Excellent reviews and ratings above 4.9 stars on average
3. High marks from guest reviews for check-in, cleanliness, accuracy, Host communication, location, and value
4. Superb record of reliability, with Host cancellations and quality-related customer service issues of 1% on average

The listing that I manage, Casa Tranquila in Sayulita MX,  has super host status, a 4.9 and 5.0 in all categories, and an overall score of 4.96 with 57 reviews. Yet, it is not categorized as "Guest Favorite"
overall rating: 4.96
cleanliness: 5.0
accuracy: 4.9
check-in: 4.9
communication: 5.0
location: 4.9
value: 4.9

Based on the above rules and the listing scores,  another listing in the neighborhood: "3BD VIEW Luxe Moderne Pool Villa Cinco Tranquility" also in Sayulita, MX, does not meet the requirements.
Yet, it is categorized as "Guest Favorite"
overall rating: 4.74
cleanliness: 4.8
accuracy: 4.8
check-in: 4.8
communication: 4.7
location: 4.7
value: 4.8

1. It is very difficult to square the above "Guest Favorite" rule set with the actual assignment of the category.
2. Perhaps there are more granular rules that are applied that result in such unintuitive assignments.
If you anyone is able to discover anything more, please do respond!

[Adriano78]

@Jennifer892  hi

No Comment 😁

Guest Favorites   badge 4.77

Superhost badge 4.62

[Jennifer892]

Analysis of our past reviews seems to say that perfect scores for the most recent 5 reviews are not by themselves enough to qualify for Guest Favorites.

Listing Review Analysis:

The analysis  of the first listing shows a poor score 5 reviews ago; it is excluded from Guest Favorite Status. 

The analysis of a second listing shows 5-star scores in all 6 categories for the most recent 11 reviews, and then a poor review 12 reviews and almost two years ago. This listing was also excluded from Guest Favorite Status. 

First listing:

One prominent factor that I can see that may have contributed to the exclusion of the first listing from the "Guest Favorite" category,  is a single guest's triple negative 4-4-4 score. This occurred 5 reviews ago in May, 2023. The overall score is 4.96 for the listing.

BTW, the text for this particular review was positive, and solicited feedback for this poor rating also had only positive things to say. This guest was also a host . Not cool. 

Second listing: 
The second listing, which I also managed, has a similar problem in that a single guest gave a negative score of 4-4-4-3-3. But this was almost two years and 12 reviews ago (Dec, 2021).  Regardless of all perfect 5-star scores since then, and a 4.97 overall listing score, this listing is also not categorized as a "guest favorite". Again, this guest was also a host.

Two years (?):

One of the Airbnb representatives that I spoke with mentioned a time-frame of two years. I didn't understand quite what she meant by that , so I will check to see if the second listing gains Guest Favorite status in December of this year. If so, I'll report back. 

[Jennifer892]

Here are my further discoveries, thoughts, and guesses about the Guest Favorite category upon more reading:

1. Selection criteria generation:

The selection criteria for Guest Favorite was generated based on the ratings, reviews, and reliability data from over half a billion trips. The source material for this generation ended September 30th, 2023. This comment is apparently intended to indicate that selections are made based on a robust and extensive evaluation process, and that the data that informs this evaluation process is current. 

1. Purpose is to solve choice overwhelm:

Apparently, the purpose for this new category is to help guests choose among overwhelmingly large numbers of highly-rated options. Airbnb's release highlights the frequency of positive feedback on their platform, with over 100 five-star reviews submitted every minute globally. This deluge of 5-star reviews is said to indicate a need for differentiation, resulting in a curated collection of Guest Favorites to help guests choose among the numerous highly-rated options.

1. Evaluation frequency:

The evaluation of a listing for Guest favorite status apparently occurs daily (?). 

1. Two million cap:

Guest Favorite is a collection of the top 2 million homes on Airbnb. It appears to be capped at 2 million listings (?).

1. AI Determined?:

My guess is that "guest favorite" status may be determined by AI. If so, there may not be an exact rule set to follow. The reason I think this is that there does not seem to be a clear limit to the recency of reviews taken into account neither in time nor in the number of reviews (last two years or last 5 reviews, for instance). Also, given that there is may be a cap of two million listings, and all listings are evaluated daily points to AI. This evaluation may take into account complex and subtle factors  such as review language, review length, level of enthusiasm, and review frequency, and possibly things like occupancy rates. ?? If this is true, it may be impossible to create a straightforward rule set to follow. To me, AI determined selection seems likely. Either that or whatever they are using is simply getting it wrong. Who knows. I really wish they were more transparent about this category. Let's see. 

[Ryan3422]

I read on Reddit that it only applies to properties that have 5 stars overall and 5 stars in cleanliness over their last 5 reviews.  You would think if this is the case, Airbnb would put it in their "articles" or that support would be able to explain this.  I do not see a filter on the guest search anymore to filter by superhost, just a giant filter button right at the top of the filter page for Guest Favorites and Luxe Properties.  Essentially filters out any Superhost that has gotten a 4 (in overall or cleanliness) over their last five reviews, even if you have a 5 star overall rating.  

@Breanna - Can you explain where in your response or your "article" this is spoken to?  

@Adriano78 @Jennifer892 @Lorina14 

[Ryan3422]

 **[Private conversation removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

can someone explain what I'm supposed to do with this information from support?

[Salma17]

I think this Guest Favorite Category is completely redundant, unnecessary and even confusing.  With a well-established Superhost program in place, I don't see the need for an additional badge which as far as I can tell, does not do any better job at identifying top-quality listings (which is what I want highlighted as a host, and as a prospective guest searching for properties)