Airbnb Ratings can only go down.

[Jillian115]

 I just realized that with every 4-star overall rating, I need 100, 5-star ratings to overcome it. Honestly, it's becoming harder to make an effort.

We have had 109 reviews to date, 106 overall 5-star reviews, and three 4-star reviews.

The three 4-star guests were all extremely inconsiderate. The first two both arrived early and made special requests. The third was super messy, had horrible communication, and threw rocks at our dog. Two of them gave me 5 stars on everything but 4 overall.  I am now at 4.97 

I question if it's worth it. I'm marked down for location the most, maybe ten times out of 109. Our listing states this is a rural community with no streetlights and is set to exact location. Then I get marked down for it being dark, away from it all, or in a rural community.

I'm set to only allow guests who have been recommended by hosts. So now I know if they can't autobook, they lack recommendations. I have a request pending at the moment, and I can't decide. She has a 4.0 average rating with 3 reviews.

I'm worried. If I accept her, she may be the one to drop me to a 4.96, and with every 4-star review, I need another 100 five star reviews to overcome it. It just makes me tired.

[Jillian115]

@Ann72 I should also have mentioned I'm going to try out your tip and ask them about the poor rating. 🙂

[Emilia42]

@Jillian115 Try not actually looking at the individual guest reviews. It's easier said than done but you will get used it to.

After a guest leaves you a review, search for your listing and pull it up just as a guest would. Read the recent reviews and scan the star ratings. If you (as a guest) would still book your place then you've succeeded. Because that is what really matters ... more bookings from appreciative guests.  

[Sarah977]

The only 4* location rating I ever got was from a woman who had messaged me when she booked, asking how far a walk it was from my place to where she was signed up for a course, which I told her accurately (along with bullet-pointed 20 other questions). The distance to town was also mentioned in my listing as she could have looked at a map to find the place she was going to be taking the course and seen it for herself.

I also went out of my way for her- offering to pick her up at the Airbnb in town where she was staying before moving to my place, saving her a taxi fare with all her luggage (a lot for a week long trip).

She was otherwise nice, but I had a feeling when she first booked, due to her corporate-looking photo- business suit and pearls, (and the last question on her list "For business and entrepreneur hubs, where would you suggest?" I didn't even know what that meant- this is a little fishing village turned tourist beach trap), not the sort who is usually attracted to my listing, which is rural and a 20 minute walk from town and the beach.

@Jillian115

[Mikki0]

@Jillian115 

I stopped worrying about reviews and stars and what not a while ago. Out of 700 or so guests I've had, there are bound to be some disappointments. I try to respond to the worst of them with what I hope is clarity, and leave it up to the guests to decide.

One guy complained because I wasn't close enough to Downtown Los Angeles, when my place is in Long Beach! I kindly pointed out in my reply to his review that if he wanted to be close to DTLA, he should have stayed in LA.

I get private notes from people telling me it's the best night's sleep they ever had, and the next guest telling me the bed is too hard. or too soft, or too hot.

I think 5 stars is both impossible to get and impossible to maintain, and also an unrealistic goal set by Airbnb. 

When I buy things off of Amazon, I look at how many reviews there are, then look at the ratio of 4 & 5 stars to 1-3 stars. Then I read the 1 star reviews just to see what people are really complaining about.

I would assume guests do the same and make a decision. 

[Ute42]

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@Jillian115 

Here's a post that perfectly explains the airbnb star rating:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Guest-leaves-4-star-review/m-p/1369032/highlight/true#M3...

Read it, it's entertaining. I wrote it and I got 13 kudos for my hard work.  😊

[Danielle1086]

The rating system is complete trash. Your rating should be a calculation equally weighting score for each of the 5 categories to determine the overall rating for each guest. Making guest choose 1 overall rating and that being the only factor that influences your rating as a host is absurd. What happens over and over is 5 stars for everything but one area which is given a 4 and 4 stars overall rather than  what should be a 4.8.  @Airbnb you really need a better system here. It's a pretty simple formula. 

[Jillian115]

@Danielle1086  I agree. One of the other community members informed me it takes 300 reviews to recover from a 4 star and 3000 to recover from a 3 star. I have had 3 reviews that were 4 stars. I now have a 4.97 which I know is good but it still feels devastating when it happens. All three of them gave me 5’s in all the categories and 4 overall. All were very happy and all were NEW to Airbnb and didn’t understand that it’s not the same as  a hotel rating. I do have information on the rating system in my welcome book but I’m guessing they didn’t look at it. Anyway it’s frustrating. 

[Mark-and-Gabriela0]

The worse about the rating star is when a guest tells you how wonderful is your place, what a great stay they had, but they only rated you 4 stars... when you ask them what is was wrong..  they answer is “we never rate 5 stars, 4 is our highest”.

Or a guest complaining about not getting taxis on the street in Tulum (a Mexican beach town in a jungle), or getting frustrated for having insects if they keep the screen doors in the jungle or power comes and go in the city and ... of course, we get killed with location ... 

Guests forget that traveling to another countries, standards are different, even though around the world is getting “Americanize” about standards it is a long way to go.

We need to educate Customer Support and Guests to understand that standards outside of US are different.