Hi all, would you host this guest?

[Alexandra199]

Hello fellow hosts, just though i would share this and maybe someone can help me with this rating situation. I have a booking request from this guest who had an overall rating of 2.5 stars. They had one review which you can see below. I have never seen a guest review score that was so low but i was also confused that the host reviewer gave the below review. Am I missing something here? If a host reviews 5 stars does this get somehow reduced when the guest has only had one stay on Airbnb?( I have removed the guest name and host photo so they cant be identified)

Reservation details

O******’s reviews

Overall rating

2.5

Cleanliness

3

Communication

3

Observance of house rules

2

1-1 of 1 reviews

Siobhán

July 2021

Odhran & friends were a nice young group, celebrating finishing their leaving cert.

Back

[Emiel1]

@Alexandra199 

The stars reflect what was giving in the only review.

i would not accept such a guest or at least ask questions about the low rating.

[Huma0]

@Alexandra199 

This annoys me. I sometimes leave a nice review but knock a star off for cleanliness if the guest was messy or a star off for communication if they were slow to respond etc. but to leave a positive review and then very low ratings is pretty useless to other hosts, other than to suggest something was very wrong.

Those ratings would make me very wary of the guest, and I would mention it. The problem is how? The guest probably doesn't even know they have these ratings. Did they leave a review for the host? If so, perhaps there are some clues there as to what might have gone wrong.

[Kathleen710]

This had happened to me once before and I reached out to the guest about why she received a low rating and she had told me how bad the host was and she gave the host a 5.  Then all of a sudden she cancelled the booking.  
I would ask the guest why they received such a low rating.  From reading the review it seems that they had a party at the hosts house.  Sometimes if you write certain things about the guests, Airbnb will remove the review. 
I had a guest that had left 2 glass pipes at my house and I could not mention that in the review.  When I reviewed the guest I just stated In the review there was a lot of late night activity going on.

I did not want Airbnb to the remove the review so I had to word it without mentioning drugs that was being used at my house, but I did want to make sure other hosts knew there would be late night activity going on.

[Alexandra199]

I decided to refuse the booking. I dont need the risk but thanks for your comments. Really helpful x

[Helen3]

The leaving cert in Ireland is the equivilant of our A levels. Sounds like the guests partied to celebrate their results and left the place a mess. I think you were right to refuse. @Alexandra199 

[Colleen253]

@Alexandra199 This is a classic example of a bad stay but a host who is afraid to leave an honest forward facing review for other hosts to be warned. They somehow fear retaliation from the guest, and think that low stars (which guest is unaware of) will suffice as warning. The problem is that only hosts who have IB enabled are privvy to the star ratings, and they also don't tell the story of what happened. I would message that host and ask them for details. Might be a learning opportunity in it for them. I would not host the guest, with ratings that low. Not worth the risk!

[Alexandra199]

Hi Colleen

Thanks for your response which was really helpful.

So you are saying that when you leave star ratings for a guest they don't get to see that rating? Are you sure about this? 

Alex

[Emilia42]

@Alexandra199 

@Colleen253 is correct. Only hosts that use instant book can see guests' star ratings. And guests are not made aware of what star rating hosts give them.

[Huma0]

@Emilia42 @Alexandra199 @Colleen253 

I am not sure the first part of that statement is actually true anymore, although it certainly used to be.

I started to notice, not sure when but fairly recently, that I CAN see star ratings for non IB guests. I am not sure when this changes as, when I check my inbox now, I can see star ratings for all guests, whether they are past, present or future and whether they stayed or not, IBed, requested or just sent an enquiry. Even guests that stayed years ago. The only ones I can't see are obviously the ones that have no reviews.

I would think most hosts would see this as a very welcome change, so I'm surprised there was no announcement about it on the CC. Maybe there was and I missed it as I was not using the CC that much the past year or so...

[Huma0]

It makes me wonder as well if the guests can now also see their star ratings, but I doubt it as they don't appear on the profile itself and no guest has ever mentioned anything to me about it. They still seem unaware...

[Emilia42]

@Huma0 You can see the star ratings for guests because you have instant book enabled on 2 of your 3 listings. It doesn't matter how the guest contacts you (instant book, inquire, request...) Because you use instant book you have the ability to see the star ratings. 

[Huma0]

@Emilia42 

Okay, that makes sense, but previously I could not see them at all unless it was an instant booking (and I had this turned on for all listings for years). I could never see star ratings for enquiries or request bookings. So, something has changed at some point.

Also, I can see the star ratings for the guests for my non IB room. So, does that mean having it switched on for some, but not all, listings still enables you to see it for all guests regardless?

[Emilia42]

@Huma0 I am not sure about your last question. But in your case, it does appear so. In my experience, over the last few years, there have been times when the star ratings have disappeared completely for some time. When I would click the links to "see the star ratings," I would get prompts to turn on instant book. But I have always used IB so it was clearly a glitch.

[Huma0]

@Emilia42 

Mmm, it seems that Airbnb keeps experimenting with this setting...