Getting Superhost is Tricky

[Leslie714]

I am new to this, so if some kind person could explain if I am mistaken, but it seems that if my status is partly determined by how many people view my listing and then book, if my place is full, then people are not going to see my listing--it is already booked. We opened our place a few months ago and have been full except for a week. We are very pleased with how things have gone and are opening up another unit soon, but we cannot get 10 stays if someone is our guest for several months. We are happy that they enjoy our place, and we are grateful, don't get me wrong, but the algorithm is mixed up. We aspire to SuperHost status, of course, but how can we best achieve it if we are always full? Yet Isn't that the point?

Also, if a guest asks a question and I respond right away, I get some sort of star on my forehead (I am not sure how this factors into my status, so feel free to explain, please). If the guest ends with another message like, "Have a nice day," do I have to respond to that, because if I do this exchange could go on forever! 

Another problem is people who do not leave reviews. Clearly our first guest liked our place because he wanted to rebook after a week, but someone got in ahead of him. He was sad to leave, but he did not leave a review. How can we encourage people to leave a review, and how is it fair for the algorithm to judge us on something we have no power over? Particularly picky people are also unfair and likely have no idea how their pickiness affects us, even when we strive to make their stay a 5-star experience. Our only overly choosy guest so far was miffed because our town doesn't have enough restaurants for his liking. It is a small town known for its good food. He stayed for a month and apparently ran out of places to eat. This is clearly out of our control. Such is the life . . . .

Anyhow, any light shed on these issues and the nuances of SuperHost status would be most appreciated.

Thanks, from A. Newbie

[Sarah977]

@Leslie714  The Superhost criteria is based on the previous 365 days activity on each assessment date. They changed the requirements a few years ago to account for hosts who take longer term bookings. The number of stays criteria is 10 bookings or  100 nights over at least 3 bookings. It doesn't sound like that would put you out of the running. 

Your status is not in any way determined by the number of bookings you get compared to the number of views or the number of views you get.

You can't force guests to leave reviews, you can only mention to them that you would appreciate it, and that as a newer host, it's important to you to build up some reviews. Guests get several reminders to review, just as hosts do. They either will or they won't.

When a guest sends an Inquiry message, you only need to respond once. Responding within 24 hrs to their initial message keeps up your Response rate, which is one of the stats for Superhost. 

But if you are fully booked and your guests are pleased, that is what you should consider to be successful hosting. The Superhost badge is not anything to get yourself all fussed about. It's a manufactured issue that Airbnb uses to try to keep hosts stressed out trying to please even the most entitled, demanding guests, in terror of a bad review. 

It sounds like you are doing fine, don't worry.

[Helen3]

Why don't you limit the length of your stays so you get more booking @Leslie714 

You can also explain to guests you are a new hosts and ask if they would kindly leave a review (do explain how the review system works).