How one guest destroyed five years of Superhost status

[Huma0]

Hello everyone. Firstly, sorry for being away from the community for so long (due to a number of reasons). I wanted to share my recent experience and ask for your opinions. Apologies if it's a bit long...

I have been a Superhost for the majority of the time I have hosted in my current home. I have three guest rooms which were pretty much fully booked pre-pandemic and, since then, I've managed to keep things going with bookings on and off. Things were finally starting to pick up again in the latter months of this year. I've maintained my Superhost status every quarter for the past five years and have been at a 5.0 rating for about two (prior to that, mostly fluctuating between 4.9 and 5.0 as you know how long it can take to recover from the occasional 4 stars).

My dilemma is this. I recently had a guest who unexpectedly left me a 3 star overall rating (and 3 or 4 stars in every category bar location). She never complained while she was here and seemed to enjoy her stay. Although her English was limited so something may have been lost in translation, she left me a positive review and a nice private note and there is absolutely no negative feedback explaining the low ratings. I also feel that I went above and beyond for this guest in many ways, so it's pretty confusing.

Anyway, as a result of this, my rating has gone from 5.0 to 4.3 and I will definitely lose my Superhost status at the next assessment. Even if all remaining guests leave 5 stars, that only brings me up to 4.66, not the 4.8 required. I have even already received a warning email from Airbnb that my listing may be suspended. It will be a long time before I can significantly bring it back up.

I already called Airbnb about this but, as expected, the CS rep said there was nothing he could do about it, especially as the guest had not mentioned anything negative in the review that I could contest. His only advice was to keep up the good work.

I know that a lot of hosts feels that being a Superhost makes no difference. However, I would say in my experience that it does. When I first started hosting, most of my guests had no idea what a Superhost even was. In recent years (since Airbnb started promoting the scheme a bit more), I have found that many guests mention they booked with me because of it. Once guests are aware of it, they often specifically search for Superhosts. Even if you forget about that, my rating for that listing has dropped to 4.0. and I know I wouldn't book an Airbnb with that rating!

My questions are these:

1. I would like to message the guest asking for feedback. Perhaps she did not understand that her ratings were actually very low, rather than 'good' or 'very good'/'as expected' or 'better than expected' as it is sometimes represented by Airbnb. Or, perhaps she was too shy to tell me that there was a problem and it would be helpful to know what that was, regardless of whether Superhost status matters or not. How best to phrase this message without seeming like I am harassing her?

2. This guest instant booked. I only turned on IB because I felt I must (once Airbnb really started to push it, my fully booked listings dropped to the bottom of the search results, which is disastrous in London where there are so many Airbnbs, and only recovered when I turned it on). If this had been a booking request, I would not have accepted it without the guest answering all of the pre-booking questions, which she hadn't. So, should I turn it off and risk my listings disappearing again? I'm tempted, but not sure that's the best idea given that her rating may already have an impact on bookings? A very low percentage of long-term guests IB, but the rest might not even see my listing if I turn it off, so I am not sure that would be to my advantage.

[Huma0]

@Sarah977 

Oh yes, I know exactly what you are talking about. I have had a few of these experiences. 

One that comes to mind is when I had the woodwork (window frames etc) repainted on the front of my house, which is a lot of large panelled windows and far from an inexpensive job.

My next door neighbours were inspired to have theirs done too, which they did within a couple of weeks of me, but using a different contractor.

Only a few months, or actually maybe even weeks, later, the paint on mine started peeling off, whereas my neighbours' ones have stayed pristine for years. I did of course call the builder pretty quickly but he said it must have been the paint I bought. I told him the paint I bought was high quality with a 15 year guarantee. He never came back to put it right.

It turns out that (having had other tradespeople look at it and confirm what I suspected anyway) that he had ignored my instructions and, rather than using wood filler when prepping the woodwork, had used Polyfiller.

I had actually discussed this with him at the time and specifically told him, no, don't use that You need to use wood filler. BECAUSE IT IS WOOD. He decided to ignore me.

Meh.

[Elaine701]

@Sarah977 

Yes, it's everywhere. I'm fed up with so-called "professionals" who exhibit little knowledge or competence of much of anything, do little more than show up, assess that it's "broken" and "unfixable", advising to buy a new one (even if the "broken" one is in full warranty), then proceed to charge a small fortune for that wisdom. 

We have literally spent thousands on such types with zero net results. I don't know how the service business ever became this irresponsible, but I suppose if it's that easy and they get away with it, then eventually it becomes the standard way of doing business. 

[Mark116]

@Elaine701 @Huma0 @Sarah977  Funny, I always assume terrible contractors/repair people are more unique to the U.S. but I guess its universal these days.

[Sarah977]

@Mark116  I guess it's cross-cultural. "A world where every incompetent tradesperson belongs".

[Huma0]

@Mark116 

Oh no, it's always been an issue here in London, certainly as long as I've been a homeowner, which is a while, and I also remember my parents having issues with contractors way before that.

I have been told by friends from small towns/villages, that it is not the same there as everything is very word of mouth. The contractors/trades cannot afford to mess people around as they would never work in that location again.

From what I understand, it's in the big towns or cities where this is a constant problem. Like I said, it always has been in London for as long as I personally remember. However, things seem to have gotten more desperate here due to A. Covid (people went renovation crazy due to lock downs and there were obviously periods of time when it wasn't possible anyway to have contractors in) and due to shortages in materials (a result of both Covid and Brexit and the Suez Canal and who knows what else). 

A good contractor is like gold dust these days so we kind of have to be prepared to pay their weight in gold to get them.

[Huma0]

@Elaine701 

Yes, it's weird. In how many other industries could people get away with such shoddy work? I know I couldn't... 

[Sarah977]

@Huma0  And even if we could get away with shoddy work, we wouldn't, because we'd be embarrassed to present a client with something inferior, right?

Whether people can get away with it depends on your location, demographics, and supply and demand. You live in a huge city- if there aren't enough electricians around, people are desperate to find one who'll actually show up when you need them. If they do a shoddy job, well, there are thousands more desperate people who have no idea they do shoddy work. 

If you live in a small village with a small local population, word gets around quick about who not to hire, so the ones with poor skills and poor work ethics end up unemployed or doing something else for a living.

Or you have a situation like where I live, where it's a small town with a small permanent local population, but lots of part-time foreigners buying and building vacation homes, who don't speak the language fluently or at all, and don't really know who to hire and who not, so the shoddy tradespeople can always find another sucker to fleece.

[Huma0]

@Elaine701 

Yes, that's exactly the problem. Shodiness has become the standard in that industry, so the the good tradespeople are like gold dust and, even when they muck you around a bit, you are so scared of losing them that you just put up with it...

If I behaved that way in my line of work, I would not have lasted even the first year.

[Emilia42]

@Huma0 that really stinks and it’s another good example of how Airbnb is not the best place for long term stays. Only one 3 or 4 star review is detrimental to a host like you who deals with a very small amount of individual reservations over a 3 month span.

Regarding instant book: I would not turn it off. If you use instant book you can set a maximum number of nights (under trip length) and then tick the box to “manually review and approve reservation requests” for longer stays. I have this set up, so whenever a guest tries to book for over 25 nights it comes to me as a request to book instead of an instant book. It keeps me in high standing with instant book but allows me to have some discretion over long term bookings. Another benefit of Instant book, in my opinion. 🙂 

[Huma0]

@Emilia42 

Yes, I've realised the risk of this now. It had never been an issue before because A. in the past the vast majority of long-term guests left reviews (this year has been unusual in that respect) and B. I've had far fewer bookings than normal this year. It actually never occurred to me that a long-term guest would leave 3 stars as it's never happened before. In fact, I don't think that any long-term guest left less than 5. 

I guess I got complacent about that. I just tried to keep doing what I was doing as it seemed to work and was no longer that worried about ratings. 

Interesting suggestion and thanks for bringing that up. I had not understood this at all. I had that box ticked and assumed that by "longer stays" it mean long-term stays, i.e. classified by Airbnb as 28 days +.

So, what you're saying is that it it means longer than what I have specified as my maximum trip length and that if I lower that, e.g. to 25 days, guests that are looking for longer trips will still see the listing, they just won't be able to IB it? 

I assumed, again wrongly it seems, that if I lowered my maximum stay, guests would simply not see the listing at all if the dates in their search exceed that.

[Susan990]

@Huma0  Your story is heartbreaking and it highlights the flaws in the ABB platform which allow it to happen in the first place.  May I offer a suggestion of how to restart your business as a re-launch ?

  I observed this practice when a new ABB listing of a house in my area was offered and presented in a completely unorthodox and not legal  way by this newby couple and I wondered how long it would take for them to run into trouble.  Not long. It was taken down and reposted as a new listing with the husband presented as host and the whole listing recomposed appropriately as entire place etc. It seems to be doing well now. 

  Why not do the same thing with your property.  New owner or manager ID, bank accounts, etc. change out the photos entirely, text, etc. and start over.  As a new listing it will receive the new listing boost in placement. And away you go!

[Sarah977]

@Susan990  That might be a good idea for a newish host with only a few reviews whose rating got tanked, but it would be a terrible idea for Huma. 

She would lose all her 277 reviews, most of which are great, and appear to be an inexperienced host. Losing Superhost status is nothing compared to the damage that would do her.

And whose name would she open a new account under? 

@Huma0 I don't see any ill result of this 3* rating. Your lowest overall rating showing is 4.85.

[Huma0]

@Susan990 

Thank you for the suggestion. I totally see how that could work in some hosts' favour but, as @Sarah977 mentioned, I would lose several years of mostly (and I really mean mostly - I had maintained a 5.0 average for quite some time before this rating) 5 star reviews by doing that. 

So, it's a massive bummer that I lose my Superhost status after years just because of one guest and that my overall rating and search position results will go down, but I am not going to let her undo all the hard work of several years.

It will take a while to recover my ratings and it's a pain in the backside, but I guess that's just what I will have to do. My personal pride will recover. If this affects bookings, hopefully they will eventually recover, even though this is not exactly the best time for this set back, but I'll keep everyone here updated about what the actual effect is. I am still not sure if this will make a big difference, a small to moderate one, or none at all! 

It's quite hard anyway in these times to assess that as there are so many factors affecting our bookings.

[Inna22]

@Huma0 Nice to see you back!

-Yes, you should ask but I would make it really brief. I think you have higher chances of hearing back. No need to rub in anything you have done for her. If she has not figured it out herself, she still would not even if you point it out. I would say: Thank you for choosing to stay with me and taking the time to leave the review. Would you mind pointing out how I could improve? I noticed you left only three stars. I would love to know what I can do better for future guests.

-I know many are against the IB. It depends I think on whether your goal is to make the most or have the most peace

-I lost my status during the pandemic and only finally just now got it back. I see no difference

[Huma0]

@Inna22 

Nice to hear from you! I hope you are well.

Yes, the initial message I drafted did point out stuff I had done for her and I knew that was probably not a good tactic which is why I didn't send it. Writing it was more of a way of venting as I was still pretty angry at the time!

Interesting to know that Superhost hasn't affected your bookings. I think it's going to be a bit tricky for me though to judge if it does nor not as the pandemic is still affecting my bookings. Although things have picked up recently (I've had a total of six Airbnb guests stay this year and three of those are here at the moment) it's very stop/start. My next guest cancelled because of UK Covid restrictions and I had a guest earlier this year who shortened her stay from one month to six days because she was worried about catching Covid in London.

So, I've gotten used to bookings being really erratic.

How have your bookings been going? I remember you had a lot of cancellations at the start of the pandemic. Have things picked up yet?