Define "5 stars"

[Dottie2]

It is totally amazing to me that we, as hosts, are required to have a 4.8 overall rating but NO WHERE on the Airbnb site are the ratings explained! Often older guests give 5-star for each category, but a 4-star overall score. Why? When I have asked, they have said "Well, it is a great place, but not a five star hotel!" Um, no. So the star rating is subjective, by Airbnb choice. Are hosts then responsible to define what the stars mean? If a guest calls Airbnb and asks, what would they be told? I have heard that they say 5 star is "better than expected" but that honestly makes no sense to me, as I have many repeat guests, and of course the first visit can be better than expected, but hopefully the second visit is "just what I expected" (in other words, great the first time, still great the next time.) But not, I think, "better than expected." In any case, not providing ANY definition to the star rating is really terribly annoying. Should we ban all guests that have previously stayed so they don't think it still being the same as they expected is a 4-star rating? It leaves hosts to figure out "nice" ways to educate guests, such as having a sheet on the fridge saying "We value your 5-star rating of our home!" with an explanation of the rating system. How trite, making it so we have to carefully strike the right note to request good reviews.

[Alice595]

@Ale113  I agree with you. The stress created by Airbnb is much more than the rating itself. For those hosts who really care about the rating, their stress level is even higher.

[Linda1736]

The delisting threat appears on my AirBNB app when I check my progress as a host.

its my first year hosting our family cottage.  Not all guests submitted a review.  Of the 21 that did, most gave 5 stars.  Unfortunately 1 guest gave a very negative low rated review and stated they couldn’t even stay overnight due to uncleanliness issues.  He did not elaborate nor respond to my message asking for details.  He had not sent me any message at the time either beyond “We have arrived” at the time of arrival.

i tried to reach out to AirBNB about the unfairness of 1 extreme review (from a guest who must have had unreasonable expections) that could jeopardize my listing.

From the response inreceived from AirBNB, it was evident that they thought I was requesting the removal of his public review.  I hadn’t requested that - I was satisfied with being able to post  a response.  My request was that a one of negative review not be factored into the algorithm used to calculate the overall review.

But I guess it is what it is.  I haven’t had any notification from AirBNB that they are delisting me - just the wording of the potential threat as my 4.6 rating is below the target of 4.7.

[Suzanne302]

@Alice595  I mean no disrespect, but I think you might be confused?

Yes, you are absolutely right that you get that first question regarding how did your experience compare to your expectations. But it is in NO WAY related to the next question, which is where you give the star rating.

Perhaps you are simply assuming the two must be related because one comes after the other, but I assure you they are not. They are two separate questions. The first one, is never shown to the host, and I can only guess it's used for internal stats with Airbnb. The second question, the star rating, is what is made public.

And as @Emilia42  pointed out, if the first question equated to the star rating, host scores would be plummeting! I've rated stays as "just as expected" and also given a 5 star rating. My 5 star rating is what shows up on the host's review page.

[Alice595]

@Suzanne302  I think what you stated is correct. But my point is that the first screen shows five options which a guest has to choose. The purpose is definitely to mislead guest to make their star choices based on those five options. Otherwise, it could put on the last one in the review process. 

When I wrote my review, I had to be very carefully in case I gave a 4 or 3 to the host by mistake. Therefore, I made all of the choices to be sure that it was 5 stars.

Just think about most guests, they don’t have much experience or frequently used Airbnb, they have no guidance how to choose the stars in the rating. If you find online reviews in amazon or yelp, 4 stars are considered pretty good. When there are a lot of reviews, it is hard for you to see 5 stars or near 5 stars. The only exception is Airbnb. Here you will not find any listings with a rating below 4. 

[Sarah977]

@Alice595  I agree with you and I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out they have some behavioral psychologists helping them come up with this stuff.

[Emilia42]

@Alice595 This is true: "Just think about most guests, they don’t have much experience or frequently used Airbnb, they have no guidance how to choose the stars in the rating."

But then why are the majority of reviews on Airbnb 5 star? Sure, you hear a lot of hosts on here complaining but a 4 or 3 star reviews but when their average is 4.92 with almost 100 reviews then a 4 star review is very rare, all the rest have been 5 star. Every host around me has a star rating of 4.6 or better. Even the poorly maintained places where guests write about the cleanliness issues in their reviews. So according to the guests who don't know about the review system those places are still leaning toward the rating of "better than expected." 

I think that if the expectation question transcribed into a star rating than everyone here would be getting a majority of 3 star reviews with an occasional 4 or 5 star.

[Alice595]

@Emilia42  That is a good question. Here is my thinking. The review process has been evolving. After reading the posts in this forum, you can easily see that there are various ways that hosts try to “educate” or provide hints to guests in order to get 5 stars rating. 

At least that is how I did when I received new guests.  Once a host has star ratings established, the future guests read the reviews, they tend to give high ratings as well. That is why Airbnb ratings are highly inflated in many cases.

The first screenshot in the review most likely was introduced later. Back two years ago before I was a host, when I used Airbnb a couple of time, I did not see the first screen with those options. At that time, I remember that I could see star ratings given by hosts as well after both reviews were published. 

The other thing to note is that majority of hosts care the ratings a lot. They do make lots of effort and do their best to accommodate guests. And personal interactions between hosts and guests also help the high ratings. Airbnb started with hosts letting out their spare rooms. That created opportunities to have personal interactions between a host and a guest.

i am not trained in psychology. These could be explored as a topic in psychology and behavioral research. You have more hosting experience than I do. You may have much more findings and batter understanding than I do. Thanks for the questions.

[Jim472]

This topic pops up every once in awhile and what I did was shamelessly rip off someone else. I think @Alice595 sums it up perfectly. I use to have this poster in a frame on the door to let guests know how airbnb judged hosts. I've since then moved it to a binder where I keep all my reviews of guests and their reviews of me. 

[Kathrin35]

Wow, Jim thanks for sharing! this is a great idea. And thanks to  @Alice595 !

[Ange2]

@Jim472   Great idea, but I would warn hosts to be careful, some guests find it offensive.  I recently tried  it in on a guest in an effort to get some detail on what I could improve upon.  The blanket categories are no help whatsoever.  Anyway,  a finicky guest (who is also a host) accused me trying to muscle him for 5-star rating and gave me an 'Overall' 2-stars because of it. Of course Airbnb penalized me and said it was the guest's interpretation, they didn't care about the yawning discrepancy between the other categories and overall.  I am now receiving warnings to improve because of it.

[Sarah977]

@Jim472  That's a really good example of how to educate guests about the way hosts are affected by the ratings and it's not crassly asking for a 5* rating, just educating and trusting them to do the right thing by you. I do almost the same, except that I host a private room in my home and have quite a bit of interaction with most of my guests, so I convey that info verbally over a cup of coffee at some point. I have a 3 night minimum, and most stay at least a week, so they're around long enough to have that conversation. My guests have been shocked to find out how harshly the ratings affect hosts and actually pissed that Airbnb would lead them to think a 4* rating was a really good one.

You could get rid of the part about the 50% review rate, though, as Airbnb eliminated that requirement at the beginning of the recent assessment period. (wow, they actually listened to us for once- rating us on someone else's choice to leave a review or not was pure insanity).

[Gillian19]

@Alice595  So I'm even more confused now as to what drives the 5* rating. I recently also stayed as a guest. I rated  it as 'A bit better than expected', and then responded "Great". I have no idea whether this ended up as a 4 or a 5* overall rating as I can't seem to see this anywhere.

The whole thing is a mess. If somewhere is 'A lot better than expected' it should be given a 1* for accuracy!!

[Ann72]

@Gillian19  LOL yes!  There was a host who posted on Facebook about getting 3 or 4 stars for accuracy because she had bought a new and nicer sofa than the one pictured.

[Suzanne302]

I'm so confused as to why hosts continue to equate the first question (how did your stay compare with your expectations) with the second (rate your stay 1-5 stars)!

I have stayed as a guest more than a dozen times and NEVER encountered this in the review. I've stayed at 4 different Airbnb's just this past year and those questions are completely separate.

I'm getting a different review page than other guests, or these hosts don't actually understand the process for guest's to review the host.

[Dottie2]

Suzanne302,

As a host I am not shown what the guests are seeing when they rate. My understanding was that the overall "star" score was shown as actual stars and the guest is expected to somehow know what they mean. However, what IS this other rating used for (better than expected, as expected, ...) and how do I see this as the host? Does it replace the stars? It certainly is not on my dashboard. My Super Host status is based entirely on getting 4.8 star average, but nowhere in Airbnb help screens is the system explained at all to hosts or guests. And if the first screen they see says that 5* means better than expected, then what about return guests? If you have kept your property perfect and it hasn't degraded then "as expected" is the APPROPRIATE score on the ratings (4 star.) Is Airbnb expecting us to make it much better each month so that we can keep a 4.8 rating? So confusing to me, and I expect to the guests, too.