Hi, I am Martin Fuller. I have set up Magpie Cottage as a ho...
Hi, I am Martin Fuller. I have set up Magpie Cottage as a homestay BnB in Taumarunui in the centre of the North Island of New...
Hello fellow hosts. I have three private rooms listed in my own home. The rooms are similarly priced and I give all guests the same level of service. I do find it interesting though how guests rate these different rooms. While it is easy to get stressed out about overall star ratings, I've noticed a few things across my listings that have made me ponder. Perhaps these things might apply to you too?
Here you can see my three listings:
I don't know if you spotted this, but the more reviews the listing has, the lower the overall rating. So, the room with only 27 reviews has a score of 4.96 stars, whereas the room with 136 reviews (my most popular room) has only 4.85.
There are a few things I have concluded after nearly six years of hosting in my home, which encourages me not to sweat the small stuff.
1. No matter what you do and no matter how consistent the service you offer or the quality of the accommodation, the more guests you host, the more likely you are to occasionally encounter a few that you cannot please, who will rate you down. Because of how the Airbnb rating system works, one highly critical guest, or a small handful who give you less than 5* can bring your rating down substantially, despite the numerous 5* reviews from other guests. It takes a while to bump the rating back up after a 4* review. A 3* or lower can be disastrous for quite a while. By the way, the room that has a 4.85 rating has never received less than 4* and even that is rare.
2. Guests are highly subjective and come with EXPECTATIONS. My best room consistently receives lower ratings than the other two partially because it attracts fussier guests. There is really not much of a price difference, so I don't think it's that. The other two rooms face a fairly busy, noisy road. This room faces pretty gardens. Still, it gets the lowest scores on location, despite all three rooms being in the SAME house in the SAME location. Go figure.
3. People are like sheep. On the whole, guests are less likely to rate a listing 4* if all the other reviews are 5*. There is absolutely no reason that my popular and best room (both in terms of the situation and furnishings) should get lower ratings than the other two, but that's how it is. BTW It also looks much nicer than when the photos were taken, so there's no reason for guests to be disappointed and they aren't when they see the room. They rate me down in other ways, that guests staying in the other rooms do not, even though they are getting the same facilities.
4. The room with the highest ratings has been primarily dedicated to long term guests (hence the lower volume of reviews, but this is also because I had long term flat mates in there for a lot of the time the other rooms were on Airbnb). It's rare for those to leave less than 5*. More food for thought.
All this has lead me to believe that many guest ratings are completely erratic and there is no point tearing your hair about it. Also, the lower the expectations, the higher the ratings. Maybe I should take some terrible photos of the 'best' room and post them on the listing instead and just see what happens...
