What is the Point of Rating if we Learn Nothing from it?

[BenkaandKeith0]

Please help us understand Airbnb Rating System and purpose.

1. The guest leaves happy (we meed them all in person, so after thousands of guests we have a pretty good feel for happy vs. unhappy ones).
2. The guest reviews us: "The perfect relaxing getaway! The tipi is very cool and they have everything you could possibly want for your stay. The tipi has electricity, heated blankets and a fireplace to make s’mores on. We will be back for sure!"


HOW CAN I IMPROVE AFTER THIS?
WHY THE OVERALL RATING HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE RATINGS OF OUR WORK?
Why we don't have in place better evaluation system? If there is any rating less then 5 stars the system/program should stop the reviewer and ask about the explanation. A hint. Idea. Anything. Or is useless if give us zero chance to learn, improve and serve the community better in the future.

[Anonymous]

@BenkaandKeith0  Here is a recent discussion with a similar theme: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Value/m-p/1425773

Fun fact:  when Airbnb started out, for several years they collected the star rating data without actually showing hosts the individual ratings for each review. It was only possible to see the averages. Eventually, after they fine-tuned the Superhost program as a behavior modification tool, they made these things visible in hosts' dashboards. But just to be clear on one thing:  it has never been the purpose of star ratings that hosts learn something useful. The text of reviews is supposed to serve that purpose, but the main objective of star ratings is to feed a data stream into an algorithm that often serves different goals than the ones on the label.

[Fred13]

Most of my guests are professionals or business people,  few have the time to screw around with a cumbersome review system; so 2/3 do not leave a review even those that left in tears because they had to leave the place sooner or later. I no longer even worry about reviews.

[BenkaandKeith0]

This is all wrong as it's leading toward the platform where only disappointed guests leave their comments and reviews. That is precisely why Booking, VRBO, GlampingHub, Experia, Flypkey, FindFido, etc... used to fall way behind Airbnb. Now Airbnb is catching up with a scary speed....

[Sarah977]

@BenkaandKeith0 "This is all wrong as it's leading toward the platform where only disappointed guests leave their comments and reviews." 

How do you draw that conclusion? Plenty of guests leave nice, appreciative reviews.

[BenkaandKeith0]

@Sarah977 Drawing this conclusion from the statistic. We've been hosting for over 7 years, in first years the review rate was 100%, then Airbnb started slowly but surely playing down the importance of reviews. Nowadays less then 70% of guests leave their reviews. Even for those we have to remind them, send automated messages and overall WORK for them even after the check outs. If we did not, we would be at 50%. Also, we've been superhost 25 consecutive times. Just recently Airbnb removed the DEMAND that we have to COLLECT at least 50% reviews from all the bookings or our status can be withdrawn. We complained about this idiotic idea for years, as how the hosts can be punished for what the hosts (do-not)-do! So yes, you may feel that plenty of guests still leave nice reviews.  We can confirm that the drop in the number of guests who bother leaving reviews is dropping significantly, signaling to every careful observer the path down the hill. We've been seeing the change of demographic and Airbnb politics bringing more and more less desired guests to our homes, replacing Bookings attitude. This world has plenty of average stuff available, too bad Airbnb decided to took that route after shining so brightly in hospitality and showing new directions to the entire industry. For us is painful watching this decline and no one at the company cares. Money talks. Obviously being brilliant was not profitable enough 😞