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?

[Connie474]

I find your comment interesting.  All of 3 my listings are averaged 4.9 or higher but only 2 have a guest favorite badge.  I was told by tech support that it was not just based on average and since one of my listings has a 5.0 average and it shows superhost but not guest favorite, I am confused.  

It makes it confusing.  If you are going to use average, then use the average.  If there is another criteria, let us know.  I just dont understand how you can have a 5.0 rating average and superhost and don't have guest favorite.

[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

[Edward737]

so what you’re saying is this just adds more confusion to the platform for potential future guest?

[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!