I saw Stars!!

[Kelly149]

FYI: IB is not enabled on my listing & I have a 5 day minimum set. Just received a Request to Book for 2 nights over a holiday weekend...  gratefully the gal’s 2.5* review showed on her profile. Now how one review can show up as 2.5 I have no idea. But nonetheless I did see her score on a non-IB request. 
glitch or positive change, I don’t know?

[Sarah977]

@Kelly149  Interesting. Maybe if a guest has below a 3* rating they are letting you know? Or if hosts have marked "Would not host again" ? That would be great if it was a change not a glitch. Or maybe it's always been like that but you've just never gotten a request from such a low star guest before.

[Colleen253]

@Sarah977 @Kelly149 I noticed this awhile ago, and the star ratings I see are anywhere from all 5's on down so I don't think it's just for low rated guests. I have IB on for one listing but not the other, and thought maybe I was seeing them for the non IB listing because of that.

[Debra300]

@Kelly149,

Interesting.  Did the host's review provide any details regarding the low rating for the guest? 

[Kelly149]

@Debra300 it was a private room listing. & it seemed like the guest hadn’t understood that. All the stars had .5 endings so I wonder what averaged with what. (Only 1 review on profile)

the guest also wasn’t doing a good job communicating with me so...

request was withdrawn so I didn’t have to hit the decline button at least

@Sarah977 i was thinking of you and Andrew when I saw the stars. Here’s to hoping for better info going forward. 

[Nina75]

I dont use Instant Book Either... Im not that desperate and I want to ask a few questions before accepting guests.

[Kelly149]

@Nina75 Right, but this is actually about: do you see stars for guests on those requests???

[Nina75]

@Kelly149 I was just making a general statement...  Yes I do see the guests stars.

[Laura2592]

@Kelly149interesting!  I hope they do allow everyone to see stars. Not that it will make a big difference,  mind you, as the star ratings seem to make about as much sense as some of the reviews. But its only fair that if they are in place, everyone gets to see them. I do appreciate that there is a way for hosts to essentially leave private feedback to other hosts and would hope it could be opened to everyone.

[Katrina79]

Just an FYI to any host that doesn’t have IB on. I do use IB and I notice many times all the reviews sound positive but the star ratings are not. I think many hosts don’t want to say anything negative in a review but then feel completely okay to give lower stars. @Kelly149 @it’s a glitch, sometimes I can’t see a guest’s star ratings and I have IB on. Also, if a guest has one review with a 2.5* they would have scored 8* out of 15*. Hosts review in three categories, so a 2/5+3/5+3/5=8/15 or any combination of fractions that would be equivalent to 8/15 gives a guest a 2.5* rating. 

[Sarah977]

@Katrina79 And as a non-IB host, it really irritates me when hosts do this- rate low and then don't mention anything that would warrant the low rating in the written review. I think many hosts don't realize that non-IB hosts can't usually see star ratings. But I see it as dishonest and quite cowardly.

If hosts can't bring themselves to compose an honest written review, and their reticence to do that trumps consideration for other hosts, they just shouldn't leave any review at all.

[Kelly149]

Actually @Katrina79 sounds like maybe stars are being shown regularly as per @Colleen253 ‘s experience. Actually for this guest, is shows 2-communication 2-cleanliness 3-house rules and Overall-2.5. So that math is pretty wacky. I’m not sure what kind of weighting scale could say 7/3=2.5???

and then the text as per @Sarah977 suggests wasn’t great, but wasn’t really clear. Roughly it said “follow up communication was difficult and when the guest decided to leave the rooms were clean”

to me that sounds like an overstay but from the guest’s telling they didn’t know it was a private room when they booked and decided not to stay after arrival. Probably more to it than that, but underscores the point, reviews aren’t super helpful. 

[Kelly149]

I just went back thru a bunch of old guests & requests and here’s what I found:

this was in the app, not desktop

inbox

Don’t click reviews, rather click red “details” button. 
this leads to star breakdown for all reviews

y’all go try it and let us know if you see the same

[Sarah977]

@Kelly149  Good sleuthing. I'd check mine, but I don't use the app.

And you know what? I don't put any value on star ratings. Because what is a 5*guest to one host is a 2* guest to another. Hosts aren't some homogenous group who all experience things the same way or have the same expectations. 

Go take a look at Kia's current thread asking how others would review her recent guest. It runs from "2*s, I'd never want to host this guest", to "5*s, I don't see what the guest did wrong."

Aside from revenge reviews, I almost trust the ratings guests leave for hosts more than I'd trust the ratings hosts leave for guests.