Ratings after Covid

[Jutta139]

Hi Community,

Since I opened again for Spring 22, I have had two 4-star ratings, even a 3-star rating.  Has anyone else experienced that people are more pessimistic in their ratings after Covid?  Or could it just be a Finnish thing?

I contacted the guest who gave me 3 stars (with 5 stars on three sub-categories and 4 stars on the other three), as I did nothing different in my preparation for her as I did all along with my usual 5 Star guests. She said "I didn't mean to give you a 3 Stars, but the questions were confusing".  She is a brand new member of AirBnB, so I decided to call AirBnB to try to have them remove this confusing review. They said they would contact the guest to see if she wishes to review the place again. She didn't want to, so now I have my first 3 Star ever for this location.

In another case, I had another host (I could not believe this) ask me for a 30% discount on their stay. I said that I have carefully calculated the cost of breakfast and the dry cleaning of the sheets into the price and hence cannot give a discount. I suggested two additional places for their stay within their price range. He said him and his wife decided that they especially want to come to our place to experience it.  I should have declined them...

I prepared the place very carefully for them to the last detail.  I allowed them to check in earlier and check out later. He gave me 4 Stars.  I can't help but wonder if he was "out there to get me" for his own shortcomings as his own apartment had a 4.54 rating and he could not bare that someone else does it better.

These instances make me wonder if people are suffering a post-Covid effect in some ways. 

These reviews also show me that the initial question "Overall experience" does reflect the person's psychological state of mind and should be equally valued in the weight with the other 6 categories of the overall rating.  Currently the system is flawed, while putting too much weight on the overall rating.

[Inna22]

I had the same experience immediately after reservations resumed and even lost my superhost status but things have been better lately. Since Europe has been slower to open, I’m hoping you are on the same trajectory

[Jutta139]

Thanks @Inna22 . I will remain hopeful. We will just try to remain focused on doing the best we can and hope people will regain their travel-confidence.

My sister's name is also Inna so I take this also as a goodluck token 🙂

[Huma0]

@Jutta139 

Yes, your post hit a chord with me.

I just got a 3* and a 4* and, because I host long term guests and every rating counts a lot, I will lose my Supherhost status after 5.5 years of maintaining it. I had a 5.0* rating for some years before those last couple of reviews. Honestly, nothing had changed in my listings, so it must be down to guest expectations.

There has definitely been some sort of change but I don't know if it's just post COVID or a combination of factors. I have decided it's better to try to not stress too much about it (I used to stress a lot about ratings). 

I had a very similar experience to you. The guest contacted me asking for a big discount because it was over her budget. I explained sorry, no, there is already a long term discount and the price is reasonable before that. Her aunt (a Superhost) then contacted me telling me she really thought my listing was the best but that her niece was a poor student (I found out later that was not the case and she had a full time job). Again, I declined to give an additional discount.

The guest went ahead and instant booked anyway at the advertised rate. She seemed happy but needed a lot of extra assistance, which I provided. She left me 3*. When I asked her why, she said it was because the price was "above my original budget". 

I learnt a lesson the hard way. Do not accept those bargain hunters. They will never appreciate the good deal you are offering.

I have also turned off instant book.

[Kate867]

@Jutta139   I must admit that some of our more recent guests seem keen to ‘strike a bargain’ and this is not something that happened prior to the pandemic.  Like @Huma0 , I have refused discounts because I feel that we are already competitive enough and provided excellent value.  However, those guests that have still booked anyway are the ones that have given us a lower star rating on ‘value’.  We had guests staying earlier in the month for a local wedding.  We can sleep five but the booking was for four.  However, clearly six stayed (all beds used and extra linens, duvets etc raided from the owners cupboard and left downstairs).  They also had two large dogs with them and clearly indicated in their nice written review that it was great that they did not have to put them in kennels.  Taking into account the number of people and the saving of Kennel Boarding fees it worked out at £16 per night per person including their Airbnb fees, yet we were given a three for value.  We were also given a four star for accuracy by these same people because one of the guests at 6’7” tall, bumped his head on one of the beams of our 450 year old cottage (low ceiling clearly shown in photos) … Moving forward we have now decided that if anyone asks for a discount then we will not be accepting them as a guest.  Hopefully things will improve for you soon!

[Huma0]

@Kate867 

Oh, good lord. Low value for £16 per person????!! And rating you down for bumping his head on beams in centuries old cottage?

This is ridiculous and I wish it was easier to weed out these kinds of guests but sometimes they slip through the net. 

Avoiding discount hunters is definitely one way to do the though,