Star rankings

[Tiffany539]

What constitutes a five star review on short term holiday rental advertising platforms?

One of the most frustrating effects of our current obsession with reviews and the power we as consumers hold with our ability to subjectively rate any business we choose, is the very real consequence to small business of a review that unfairly reflects their business.

In short term holiday rental world, the major advertising platforms push for reviews from guests. They provide a star system whereby five stars is supposed to mean that the accommodations met expectations based on the description of the property and the photographs and the amenities listed.

The ranking system though is not adequately explained to guests and thus, a house that is advertised, described and photographed as a " budget, comfortable family home with ceiling fans in all rooms, TV, BBQ, 30 minutes from the city centre" will be rated after a stay where the guests indicated they were very happy with the cleanliness and the communication and the value...as two or three stars overall because "it didn't have air-conditioning and it was hot weather, there was no Foxtel and it took us 20 minutes to get into the city!"

What guests do not realise, but owners and managers are unfortunately all too familiar with...is that this three star review negatively impacts not only that house listing, but also ALL houses on that owner/managers profile as an average five star rating across all properties is required for owner/managers to be awarded Superhost Status...which in turn leads to better ranking for all houses, increased exposure, more bookings and a growth in business.

By all means, if the property you stay at looks nothing like its photographs because they were obviously taken 15 years ago and nothing has changed since, or it's been advertised as being fully air-conditioned and it has none at all, or the "10 minutes to the beach" is more like 50 minutes.....it is not "as advertised, as described, and as photographed" so it should be rated accordingly.

But please don't compare your accommodation with a five star hotel or make assumptions about a property and in your disappointment that it is not as you assumed (as opposed to what you can clearly see for yourself) decide to rate it subjectively in proportion to your disappointment.

Travelling and staying in other people's homes can be a fun and educational experience. Everybody lives differently and we all have our own taste and sense of what is stylish/comfortable/tidy. If you have chosen a property based on the advertising, description and photographs, have asked the owner/manager for further information on any features you deem desirable and upon arrival the property is exactly as advertised, described, photographed....then it deserves a five star review.

Your five stars does not say that this is akin to the Hilton. It says that this property is exactly as it said it was.

It is quite detrimental to small business to receive anything lower than five stars when they are doing everything right, and there is nothing more frustrating than reading glowing feedback about how wonderful the stay was, how excellent the communication, how comfy the beds, how glorious the views and how immaculately clean...how guests can't wait to return!....only to see a three or four star review.

So please, if we are doing everything right, please reward us with five stars as it helps us stay in business.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Tiffany539 Two consecutive reviews both marking low on cleaning suggests the cleaning needs improving. The review system is far from perfect but it does seem to be serving a purpose warning potential guests about one of your properties. 

[Tiffany539]

My post has been totally misunderstood. It is not about me personally, or my guests. It is a general plea to  the powers that be at Airbnb to perhaps reconsider the way they allow subjective opinions of guests to affect the rankings of a listing.

I recently had a guest who gave 5 stars for every single category and stated she had a great stay and would return...but gave an overall rating of 3 stars. I knew this lady as had met her on check in so I called her out of curiosity and all she said was that they loved the house and their stay but they never give more than 3 stars for anything. She was horrified to hear that I was issued a warning from Airbnb stating that a 3 star review left me at risk of that particular listing being suspended. That was so far from her intention and she wanted to change it....but Airbnb would not allow her to as it had already been published.

This was my point.

It was not a rant by any means.

I manage multiple properties and have done so for 12 years and have come across so many guests all with their own opinions and you can never please all of the people all of the time....but hopefully we please most of the people most of the time.

I wasn't actually asking a question 🙂

I was posting a well thought out article wondering if other hosts and management companies had experienced the same frustration with people not understanding the overall star rankings they give to properties and the domino effect it can have on small businesses.

[Sarah977]

@Tiffany539  Your novella length responses to anything critical in a review does you more harm than some low ratings. They come across as defensive, attacking rants by a host who can't handle any critcism whatsoever. You have several reviews which speak to the uncleanliness encountered by guests and instead of taking this seriously, apologizing and dealing with cleaners who aren't doing their job, you attack the guest for not letting you know during their stay. 

Yes, guests should give hosts the opportunity to correct things during the stay, but guest after guest having to contact you to ask for the cleaners to come back and do a proper job isn't normal. When a guest checks in to find the place dirty, that sets a bad initial impression that colors their whole stay.

Berating the guests in your responses for the star ratings they left is also highly unprofessional.

Personally, I would never book with a host who left review responses like yours.

[Tiffany539]

My post has been totally misunderstood. It is not about me personally, or my guests. It is a general plea to  the powers that be at Airbnb to perhaps reconsider the way they allow subjective opinions of guests to affect the rankings of a listing.

I recently had a guest who gave 5 stars for every single category and stated she had a great stay and would return...but gave an overall rating of 3 stars. I knew this lady as had met her on check in so I called her out of curiosity and all she said was that they loved the house and their stay but they never give more than 3 stars for anything. She was horrified to hear that I was issued a warning from Airbnb stating that a 3 star review left me at risk of that particular listing being suspended. That was so far from her intention and she wanted to change it....but Airbnb would not allow her to as it had already been published.

This was my point.

It was not a rant by any means.

I manage multiple properties and have done so for 12 years and have come across so many guests all with their own opinions and you can never please all of the people all of the time....but hopefully we please most of the people most of the time.

I wasn't actually asking a question 

I was posting a well thought out article wondering if other hosts and management companies had experienced the same frustration with people not understanding the overall star rankings they give to properties and the domino effect it can have on small businesses.

[Sarah977]

@Tiffany539  If you had done a search on this forum, you would find thousands of posts about the faulty rating system. Hosts have been railing about it for years but Airbnb obviously doesn't care. As you found out from your guest, Airbnb leads guests to think that they are leaving a good rating if they rate 4*s and "as expected" if they leave 3. 

In the real world, there is nothing wrong with "Good" or even "as expected". 

It is Airbnb's intention to keep hosts stressed out about their ratings and reviews, so they will let guests get away with all sorts of bad behavior.

I wish they would do away with the ratings entirely, as they are totally subjective, and only have written reviews, which at least give information. No one has any idea why a host would rate a guest 3*s, or a guest rate a host 3*s, because there is no explanation attached to it. One guest might rate a place that's a 20 minute walk to the beach 5*s, because they like to walk and consider it good daily exercise. Another might rate it 2*s because they aren't used to walking anywhere and consider it inconvenient. So ratings have very little, if any, value, IMO.

As a home-share host, I have interaction with my guests during their stay and often educate them a bit about Airbnb's rating system. They are shocked to hear that Airbnb considers 4*s to be a fail for hosts. Most guests have no intention of tanking a host's business.

Some hosts put a short explanation for guests in the unit if they host entire places. It's just important not to word it as if you are asking the guest to rate you 5*s, which can totally backfire.

[Tiffany539]

Yes...this is exactly what I meant 🙂  I agree...you can't ask for a good review as that can be seen as bribery...or gives guests a reason to demand extras in return for a good review, and I've also experienced the guests who are loving the property and their stay who then do the wrong thing and have a loud party disturbing neighbours and breaking our rules they'd agreed to...who when I politely ask them to please stop the noise...turn nasty and give 1 star out of spite.

I agree the ratings have little value and I agree that guests often have no idea that their well intentioned 3 or 4 stars is actually a really bad rating....this is why I wish Airbnb would change their system....but probably won't happen!! Wishful thinking 🙂

[Sarah977]

@Tiffany539  You might be interested in perusing this thread, which is from 2019, with 84 pages of host responses. 

As you can see, nothing has changed despite Airbnb's PR.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Making-reviews-more-fair-for-hosts/td-p/958608

[Quincy]

Post removed as requested by OP