Feedback on Superhost criteria

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

As you know I share a lot of your feedback with Airbnb teams.

The Superhost team is currently evaluating the Superhost criteria. They’ve been hearing a lot of feedback from hosts both here in the Community Center and during research sessions. Here are some of the things they’re considering:

1. Number of trips: 10 trips OR 150 nights in the past 365 days, instead of 10 trips currently
2. Number of cancellations: 0 cancellations in the past 25 reservations (with a max of 1 cancellation per year), instead of 0 cancellations in the past 365 days currently
3. Average overall rating: Exclude one outlier low-review in the past 365 days from the evaluation

They would like to hear directly from you on these potential changes:

• What do you think about these changes?
• Are these changes easy to understand?
• Do these changes seem more fair to you as a host?
• Do they motivate you to continue to work to become or remain a Superhost?

I will share the feedback you submit on THIS topic specifically with the Superhost team. These are not the only things the team is currently looking into, but they wanted to run these ideas by you first.

Thank you so much and I look forward to hearing from you.

Lizzie

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[Cathie19]

Okay, I’m so VERY late to this open discussion, and I really appreciated the input from the many previous hosts such as @Helga0, @Christine1, @Andrew, @Fred, @Sarah, @Robin, @Branka & Silva, @Letti, @Inna, @Jessica & Henry to name some, but here is a different scenario/viewpoint for some of you to consider... ( sorry unable to tag.., & this is my third attempt to post this tonight..  😩) 

Thanks @Lizzie for this opportunity to have a personal say on this VERY important situation. But it is not the only area that Airbnb needs to correct to improve my smile! 😁

For many of you, this is your full time business, so please tolerate my little story in this response. 

The discussions I can see have been measured with the booking calendar. They have been around STR or LTR - assuming a STR Airbnb calendar works across a year.  Other issues: 

Cancellations and ensuring guests feel secure. The fact that hosts feel insecure: and that **bleep**ty review system we currently are all being killed or consumed by > via a slow death.......

Let the true super hosts shine. (I’m going to give myself a pat on the back here... so be kind please.) We work for it, so let it matter! Let’s also have a guest rating that matters!

Balance out the system... keep it global and easily understood but mostly simple.

 ——————————————-

A good host = life balanced.

Me: I still work in a stressful position outside the Airbnb rental -  and this is a transition to retirement business for me. Yes it still matters....

I also have family in other states that I take time to visit, therefore I block days on my calendar.

I also like to travel internationally therefore, I block my calendar.

I’m so concerned as a host, about the need to cancel, my calendar is blocked by default, and opens only a few months ahead, at a time. I know this costs me guests..... 😞

 ——————————————-

SUPER HOST

I am a super host with a five star rating of 98%.

If I check my dashboard/progress today, it has in RED font, “Recent Low Ratings”...

Seriously???????         (See image)

I have 5 star rating on everything except location. I’m in the suburbs and this is accurate to the descriptor. Location is not part of the ratings system.... yet I have RED font on my dashboard directing me to “location”.

My STATS looking at the last two financial years: (that’s enough to bore you)

- My minimum stay is 2 nights. Most stays are 2-3 days. Roughly receive two stays of 7 days or more, across a season. 

- Approximately 22-25 checked in guests stays per calendar year

- Approximately 100-110 nights booked per calendar year across my potential season.

Now those figures may appear low, and to many of you they are; I accept that.

But what is a booking season?

Well it varies for everyone: here is my strategic dilemma.  A host’s GEOGRAPHY and location do matter!  I could say I have a season of tourists for 6 months of the year, and that’s probably exaggerating! 

I have a “spattering” of bookings between October through to May. THIS is a very high humidity and very high temperature and very WET time of the year - known as The  Wet Season. Only the compulsory, the brave, or “the very enlightened” actually visit.

My “real” booking period falls during the tourist season > end of May through till end of August. Business-ready clients tend to stay in the inner city, but I’ve lost that suitcase icon, because I don’t allow self checkin. Tourists have generally left the city by September. So my super host status and figures are really around a three to four month solid block. Retaining and retaining that super host status, still matters across the sprinkling of other months. It’s a competitive market here!

👉🏼 I worked bloody hard to get that SH status; and continue to, every day. I maintain my property... just in case one of those “rare” to “suburban” bookings arrives, out of season.

So these figures matter for a reason: 

1. Number of trips: 10 trips OR 150 nights in the past 365 days, instead of 10 trips currently.       📌  I can’t make the 150 days category..... and never will! Ten (10)  trips is half my booking season.

     2. Number of cancellations: 0 cancellations in the past 25 reservations (with a max of 1 cancellation per year), instead of 0 cancellations in the past 365 days currently              

          📌 I’ve never cancelled even when I had an emergency. I like to think I should never cancel, but my family is 3000+ kms away, and they will always come first in an emergency. So yes, one (1) cancellation without penalty to SH might be helpful. (An aside: May I say though, that there is a Airbnb property nearby that I can see in their reviews, has cancelled a few times, and I’m not confident to use it next year for accommodation for family for a big event in town. Peak season cancellations are a worry! )

          ☑️ BUT recognising a host’s right to decline an enquiry or request when a guest doesn’t have a full profile, or a facial image, or have verification other than an email address! 

OR doesn’t meet house rules or other set criteria > “without being penalised”, gives the host a level playing field, instead of being held to ransom by both Airbnb and undesirable guests. That’s NOT FAIR...

       3.  Average overall rating: Exclude one outlier low-review in the past 365 days from the evaluation. 

          ☑️ Thank goodness some sanity at last! But considering a four month of the year business, makes it very hard to catch up....... and even a second negative or revenge review would make things incredibly tough if coming at the end of a short but full tourist season. I just made it tough for an enquiry that as you can see in the photo... covered many host “red flags” and they only had an email verification and no reviews since being a member for over a year. 

So as a host trying to retain SH= the old saying rings loudly in my ears: “Better an empty house than a bad tenant”

@Lizzie questions 🙂

• What do you think about these changes?                             -    All good, but could go further...
• Are these changes easy to understand?                                -    Yes.
• Do these changes seem more fair to you as a host?        -    Only partially. Until the review system is simple, short, balanced to match other global review percentages... the process is not fair and in fact damaging.  My last booking was definitely going to review and loved the place. Nope, it was a too big a deal to complete the lengthy questionnaire/review and they didn’t have the time.  This is not the first time this has happened...AND MATTERS when our booking season is short!
• Do they motivate you to continue to work to become or remain a SH? -  Nope, not at all as I already aim for perfection, so this doesn’t encourage, just might reinforce.   -  Should I lose SH status, due to bureaucratic hurdles and system incompetence, then I could give up... as I can’t do more than I’m already doing.

***** PLEASE Raise the bar on SH status so we have the chance to really stand out in filtered searches. Currently it’s a dime a dozen award that neither recognises the true effort to get it, or the effort to retain it. Nor does the Airbnb currently offer a fair review system to maintain it!

Thanks  if you made it through this post, to the end!

🙂

Cathie

[Kathryn254]

Ok there needs to be the ability to cancel reservations occasionally without losing superheat eg. We are renovating our garden, due to the popularity of our space (guest house located in back garden) it was really difficult to find 8 weeks without a booking. So we did the best we could and found 8 weeks with only one booking in it. As I couldn’t cancel the booking without losing my SH I contacted the guest and explained the situation offering them either a significantly reduced rate or the opportunity to cancel their booking and find something else (they had 6 weeks notice) they decided to proceed with the booking. So now I have guests, who  are staying in a building site and I am basically  not earning anything for the stay. I now have to hope that the review they write reflects the fact that they were fully informed of the building work and were compensated for it. It would have been much better all round if I could have cancelled the reservation. SH is a great system, but in some ways it is too heavily based on opinions and wether a guest reviews based on the information they had about the accommodation at the time of booking or wether they review based on other accommodation. 

[Alice434]

I have thoroughly enjoyed being an Airbnb  host for almost two years. And now a super host for 7 times. However, I received a 4 on location  ( from one guest almost two years ago) and of the approximate 100 or more guests I've had since then have always mentioned that my location is excellent  and close to downtown, attractions, hiking, etc.  But the rating remains the same. So I agree with several hosts that the rating system needs to be  changed.  I do appreciate  that the company is growing and is discovering new ways to help hosts and guests through communication/blogs, etc.  and I appreciate the personal support from customer service. Thank you for being open to suggestions and changes.  

[Erin363]

I am one of those people who lost super host status because of 1 bad review. All other reviews are consistent. So I like this idea. And to regain superhost even though everything since have been great reviews is difficult. Not because of the space or my hosting - reviews since then have been the same as before - superhost level. 

[Patrice31]

I think it would be fair if a host were able to see a star rating for each guest before we accept the reservation. It becomes tedious to read over multiple reviews but I'm finding it prudent to do so because sometimes there is a negative review that is important information. I've had guests leave my property with doors unlocked, which is huge security breach. I automatically indicate in my review of the guests that I would not accept another reservation from them. Does this really affect the guest in terms of instant booking?

[Kathy-Lee0]

Yes, taking off 1 outlier bad review would be nice. We had 1 gentleman guest who did NOT have your app and he could only see the 1st 2-3 lines of our messages. Even though our communication was thorough he could not see the full messages for his check in information. 

That review kept us below the mark for 1 full year! You as a company could see our communications but you still allowed the bad review to stand.

The other guest did not read the welcome book to see that the extra paper towels and toilet paper was in the hall closet and gave a bad Mark for not having Toilet paper. We had the item, we gave feedback to his bad review and your company could see our communication but you still allowed the bad review. 

[James566]

@Lizzie whilst dropping one low rating would be an improvement I think the underlying problem is a   mathematical one. Given the high requirement to meet Superhost status the rating system then gives increased importance to low ratings. A simple way to see this is by example , 5 five star ratings and one 3 star rating results in you failing to meet the average requirement. So the one 3 star rating has had more weight than the 5 five star ratings. Obviously a one star rating has an even more bias , eleven 5 star ratings and one 1 star rating results in you missing the target.

The reason is of course that each five five star rating is so close to the target (sorry I forget is it 4.7 or 4.8) that they each perfect score has little impact on making up for that lower rating. So lower ratings have too much significance.

Excluding one low rating is a start statistically, (though it should probably be a percentage of reviews recieved, not an absolute 1 review.  Eg perhaps your lowest 5% of reviews should be excluded. The reason for a percentage is probably obvious, if only 1 is excluded then this is of more benefit to hosts who have a small number of bookings/reviews and less significant for someone who has a lot of booking/reviews.

However the underlying problem is still not resolved, which is the weighting factor that your high performance criteria gives to low reviews or in fact anything that isn't a 5 star review.. As such I believe AirBnB should engage the services of a mathematician to determine the appropriate discount factor that should be applied to each and every rating to ensure they carry a correct weighting given your high target.

Thankyou

James

[Katie193]

@James556 I completely agree! In 164 reviews in 4 years I have 1 2* ,3 3*, 14 4* and 146 5*. In the past 3 months I had 1 2*  1 3* 5 4* and 29 5* and because of the retaliatory 2* being weighted much more heavily, I did not make super host after making it 15 times in a row. Even though removing one or several outlier reviews will help - I agree the underlying problem is the weighting and the review system. Hosts who have proven their positive hosting for years should not have the one or few bad reviews determine the hosts success. The system needs an overhaul as everyone has already thoughtfully and articulately posted here.

[Sarah977]

@Lizzie  This wasn't one of the criteria mentioned that is being looked at, and no one here ( I might have missed it, though) has spoken to it- Stop rating us on the % of guests who leave us reviews. Why are we rated on someone else's behavior that we have no control over? It makes no sense at all. Whether a guest bothers themselves to leave a review has NOTHING to do with our hosting abilities.

[Jackie112]

Hi 

not sure if I’m posting in the correct place here as no comments since October.

This is about assessment criteria regarding the number  of trips hosted/number of long term trips.

I am cross about the change to the Superhost   assessment not going far enough and recognising  hosts who host both  short term and long term stays.

It is great that you now recognise Superhosts  who do long term trips in the assessment, but unfair for me , as I have completed 9 trips with the necessary ratings and everything else fine, however my current guests (my 10th of the year ) are on a long term trip ending mid January .

I have hosted 8 trips of up to 7 nights, and 2 trips of 49 and 119 nights. This last one is my current trip, which I was pleased would fill my house over winter. However by doing this I have just realised I will  lose my Superhost status at the next assessment in 31st December.

This will have a negative impact on my bookings next Spring .

Here is Air BnB ‘s response to my enquiry asking what they could do about this.

Id like to see some middle ground here...What do other hosts think?

Jackie

« Thank you for contacting us. I am Simona and I will assist you today.

I had a look at your SuperHost status, and I have compared it with the criteria required to keep the status.

Airbnb requires now to have at least 10 trips or successfully completed 3 long term reservations that total at least 100 nights.

In your case is missing one reservation both to the 9, and to the 3 long term.

Unfortunately, the evaluation is made in automatic from the system, so we won't be able to change your status to Superhost if one completed reservation is missing.

The assessment for the Superhost status is made quarterly, so even if you do not meet the requirements on January, you can apply again on April.

Please let me know if I can assist you with anything else.

Kind regards, »

[Sally221]

I wonder about the 1 yearly cancellation allowance.  I have never cancelled on a guest myself but got  a notice from Airbnb that my instant book function would be disabled for a (never specified) period of time after I had airbnb cancel a booking for me -the guest was insisting- via the chat function- that she be allowed to bring an extra person beyond the 4 adults that  is the maximum my listing accomodates.  Airbnb cancelling  a booking on my behalf for documented cause, should not have the same outcome as my cancelling a booking for what ever personal reasons, right?  I was never given anything approaching a straight answer about this. I understand that guests need to be able to trust that they will have a place to stay but why are cancellations justly made on a hosts behalf triggering the same outcome as a host cancelling for personal reasons? Sally

[Pat-And-Mike0]

This is much fairer to hosts and I like what is proposed.  I am pleased that air is at last listening to what hosts have to say and are addressing the issues.

[Brian686]

Hi Lizzie

i think having the 10 trips or 150 nights is a good option but if the 10 trips were to change I would lose access to Superhost status as we are only able to get a certain number of bookings a year because of seasonal bookings. At the moment I am the only Superhost in my area.  I think having one outlier review able to be removed would be a good option as there are some guests who will go out of their way to give a bad review as revenge when they don’t get their unreasonable demands met. This has happened to me on two occasions and only one of these reviews was removed due to the guest breaching Airbnb policy. 

Brian

[Maria379]

Hola soy Maria fui SH por más de un año y debido a que tuve que cancelar una reserva de una persona que de acuerdo a la información que envío a airbnb tenía una apariencia y cuando le solicité me enviara su ID para poder dar la orden de entrada al edificio donde tengo mi apto me envió un documento con una foto que no era parecido al que tenía registrado en airbnb . Llame a irbnb consulte el caso y solicité me dieran el visto bueno para cancelar pues no confiaba en la información suministrada por el posible inquilino. La persona me dijo que encontraba razonable la duda y me dio el visto bueno para la cancelación.  Al día siguiente me quitaron la calificación de SH y no dieron ninguna razón. Así que esto es muy desmotivante y pienso cancelar mis servicios con airbnb. A pesar que siempre he tenido una calificación de 5.0 . No es justo ni lógico.  No entendí nada y no dan razón

[Mari166]

I absolutely love the idea of excluding one negative review. Ive had two guests leave me a four star for location which is puzzling to me because my listing clearly states where our home is located relative to the main attractions in the city. So to turn around and give a four star when you knew what you signed up for can only lead us to believe that there was some prejudice involved. Also, one guest gave us a 3 for cleanliness and stated that it was simply bc the carpets weren't vacuumed, which wasnt true  bc I checked them myself after the cleaning crew left. So not sure why they said that. However, overall those two scores hurt my overall score a bit and I agree with one of the previous comments that guests think that a four star is good. Thank you!