Excellent review, but 4 stars

[Joris41]

Dear hosts,

To many of you this may be a boring topic. I had a good guest who gave me a great review. She even finished by saying ‘exceeded expectations’. But she gave me a 4 star rating.

Searching for conversation on this topic, I see this happens all the time. I didn’t see, however, a way to push back on this by alarming future hosts the guest may give a great review but not a 5 star rating.

I was thinking of leaving a reply to her review. I will direct it to future guests, reflecting on the excellent review, but receiving 4 stars. I will explain that meeting or exceeding expectations would warrant a 5 star review.

This will help me stave of people that think by giving 4 stars I will be happy. But it will also alert future hosts to the review behavior of the guest in question. I know I would have benefited, possibly denied the booking request, or made sure the guest understands the Airbnb star system.

Thoughts? Bad idea, not worth the effort, risky as may result in revenge reply, risky as may come off as petty, good idea?

Many thanks for the feedback, Joris

[Anonymous]

@Joris41   I don't know whether  a comment like that like that would stave off guests who believe 4 stars is a perfectly acceptable rating (which most normal people do). But it might have the unintended effect of making you look petty and ungrateful for what is a very positive review. As a guest, that would be enough to make me choose to book elsewhere.

It is sick and twisted that Airbnb presents a 4 star rating to hosts as though it's a total failure while conveying to guests that it's positive. But it's not a good look for hosts to reinforce this madness. You had guests who were in your own words "great," "nice," and "clean," you got paid, the guests left happy. That is a successful stay! Certainly nothing that I'd personally feel the need to be "warned" about.