Bye Bye Superhost

[Robin4]

Ever since the start of 2017 I have been able to retrain my Superhost status with each assessment but, I think I am going to loose it come this next assessment due 30th June because I will fall slightly short of the 4.8 overall requirement.

Over the past 12 months I have had......

76 x 5 star reviews!

13 x 4 star reviews!

 3 x 3 star reviews ! 

It's not a big deal because Airbnb don't routinely display a hosts status on search pages any more but where it becomes just a touch unfair is, I will be penalised for doing nothing wrong.

Of those 13 x 4 star reviews some where just like this one......

What could I have done better there?

And what about this one......

If Airbnb are going to insist in their rating system of hosts that a less than 5 star incurs a penalty, then they must insist in that review system that the guest justify that penalty.

I know we have worn this topic out over the years and maybe guests have got a bit more critical since the onset of Covid 19 but I am not that chuffed about losing my Superhost status over nothing a guest has mentioned that I have done wrong!

Cheers.........Rob

[Gillian19]

@Robin4 If you can't keep Superhost status there isn't much hope for the rest of us!

[Kate867]

@Robin4   I agree that it is totally aggravating when you get five stars for all categories and then a four star overall.  It is for several reasons I think.

 1)  There are some out there for whom ‘perfection’ simply does not exist and they feel that there is always room for ‘improvement’, therefore it is totally against their principles to leave five stars for anything … whilst at the same time expecting a 5 star review for being the perfect guest.

2)  The categories are not fully comprehensive, so a guest who prefers a soft mattress may find yours too firm, or perhaps they don’t like the colour of your curtains .. it can be anything like that which will give them pause before hitting that five star overall.

I really think it would be helpful for hosts if guests were asked at the time of reviewing the reason for giving a less than 5 star review overall when all categories are rated as five.  How can we improve if we are not made aware of ‘perceived’ shortcomings?

So sorry that you will not make the Superhost this quarter 

[Robin4]

@Kate867 

Sure Kate, some guests just do not give 5 stars, full stop....but, that's not yours or my fault, and that of course is their prerogative. 

But why does the blame fall on us for their ideology? If I made some of these guests feel they were in 7th heaven they would still give a 4 because 7th heaven falls short of the perfection they imagine theoretically exists in their minds.......see, it doesn't exist.....except in Airbnb's algorithm! 

Trip Advisor proved a few years ago how totally useless the review system is when journalist Oobah Butler, had them promote his 'Shed in Dulwich' as the finest restaurant in London! It didn't exist, never had any customers, he was always 'full' and could not take any more bookings, but he was able to manipulate those enquirers and the Trip Advisor review system into promoting him as the finest eatery in the city!

Kate, reviews are fine, don't attach numerical ratings to them because you can rest assured someone will abuse it!

Cheers.........Rob

[Anonymous]

@Robin4  You know I think the Superhost thing should be scrapped altogether anyway. But devil's advocate here: one could argue that it pushes new, amateur hosts into a sort of self-training to uphold certain standards. Sadly, there's no point at which having consistently successful stays over the years and having a deep-seated reputation counts for anything - even less so now, since the search results no longer show how many reviews you have. Nobody graduates from this training program; they just stay locked into the cycle of reward and punishment.

Well, at least those who care about getting a badge from an algorithm. 

[Pat271]

@Anonymous   @Robin4 

We had a Quality Program initiated at my company in which the goal was “0 defects”. Being young and somewhat exacting, I took this mandate seriously, so I balked and expressed my frustration at the futility of it. My older colleagues who had been around the block a few times just sighed and rolled their eyes, because they knew the whole thing was BS, and that “0 defects” was more of a brainwashing concept than an actual requirement. 

This reminds me of that, and perhaps some of these guests are similarly young, exacting and idealistic. However the 1 time I got all 5’s and a 4 overall, I asked the guest for improvement ideas, and it turned out he had hit the wrong choice by accident and he called Airbnb to get it changed. I don’t know if you have tried this, Rob, or if you actually care that much, but it might be worth a shot.

[Nam1053]

The guest and host can not change review that it publiced, they can only remove it when they contact to airbnb. Can you tell me how can they change your review like this, thanks ?

[Pat271]

@Nam1053  You’d have to ask the guest this question. 🙂

I know that’s true when trying to get the review text removed, but maybe they are (or were at the time) less strict with the actual rating numbers.

As an afterthought, it just occurred to me that these days I believe Airbnb do prompt the guest with “Are you sure you meant that?” type of messages, which make these kind of “slip of the mouse” mistakes less likely.

[Nam1053]

I know the guest can remove their review mistake when they contact Airbnb support, but i have never seen a review can be changed before ? I ask airbnb rather much about this.

I sure it.

[Helen744]

@Nam1053 You are correct . They can be removed by the guest contacting Airbnb, and by the host if they contravene the guidlines but not modified. so it is important if you wish to have a guests review removed that you can point to the broken guidlines for reviews Not the guidlines for your own house rules as some people seem to think.H

[Pat271]

@Helen744  I had a review removed by simply pointing the CS agent to my own House Rules, so it isn’t just what we “seem to think”, but what actually happened.

The most accurate thing that can be said about CS is that they are inconsistent.😏

[Helen744]

@Pat271 my only point there was that there is an, Airbnb review policiy with guidlines and none of them say 'breaking house rules means you can have a review removed". Its about the guests review or your review being removed for any number of reasons . A review can be removed just for being irrelevant or for mentioning identifying addresses or names. H

[Huma0]

@Nam1053 @Pat271 

I believe that it used to be possible to have a star rating changed at the request of the guest when CS was more flexible about these things, but now I think it would be very difficult to make this happen. My examples are:

- A few years ago, a guest who seemed very happy, left a nice review and 5* in the categories, left 4* overall. I asked her why and she said it must have been a mistake and was sure she had left 5*. I contacted Airbnb, who messaged the guest to verify this and, once she did, changed the rating to 5*. It was really straightforward.

- A few months ago, another seemingly happy guest who left a nice review gave me 3* overall. It took a while to get hold of her and, when I did, she told me she didn't realise 3* was bad. Airbnb told me the guest could request the review be removed, which she did. However, she was repeatedly told it was too late as the two week review period had ended. Of course, this doesn't make sense as that is the deadline to leave a review, not to have it removed. Anyway, we eventually got there and her review and ratings were removed. It really was a drama though and at no point was there an option to change the ratings. 

[Pat271]

@Huma0  The addition of the “Are you sure” prompt in the last couple of years on seemingly contradictory ratings has probably made it less likely to be able to get “slip of the finger”-type rankings changed.

[Huma0]

@Pat271 

From what I read when Airbnb posted about brining in this change, it only applies to very rare circumstances. I think the example they gave was, if a guest leaves 5* in all the categories, but then tries to leave 2* or less overall, they will receive the 'are you sure?' prompt. I am really not sure that's terribly useful to many of us.

Unless something has changed?