Location rating is an Achilles heel for many otherwise great reviews

[Andrea9]

Guests so often give a lower than 5-star rating for location because it's not midtown or in a more posh area while they consciously chose it because of lower price or availability.

It's awful and STRESSFUL for hosts to repeatedly get dinged for this.

And that juvenile Airbnb alarm sign apearing after several -5 stars is just insulting.

Let's just drop 'Location".

[D-G0]

I agree totally. 

[Brittany12]

I could not agree more! The location is very clear when the guest pick the listing, if it's not convenient to where they want to go that's something they need to assess on their end.

My place is very appropriate for some visitors location wise and others not, but this is something out of my control!

It's so heartbreaking to get a perfect review and then dinged on location, I've actually started disclaimering my booking inquiries for those guests whose trip purpose is for things I'm not close to, or who do not have a vehicle, that I am in fact in the suburbs and some things will take some travel.

[Stephan2]

also lost my superhost because of location 😞 The rest is all 4.5 to 5 stars only location is not. Only because my apartment is just outside of the city centre (most people like the quitness). 

[Sarah271]

Agree! Our place is on an acreage, 10 minutes from civilization, and while this is thoroughly described repeatedly, we sometimes get dinged on location because it's "more rural than they thought". If the location rating has to stay, more guidance on what they are supposed to be rating is necessary... they should be rating how nice the listing location is individually, not the neighbourhood or distance from things, which are out of our control.

[JanaandVíťa0]

I fully agree!!

Have the same problem as many of you. I have a beautifull accommodation with big garden, orchard, forest etc... BUT in solitude property (weird when I have big garden and forest?) I have SOLITUDE in the name of my offer, I accurately describes the way, the address and GPS. And I lost my "Superhost" because of Location.

[Shawna-And-Paul0]

We struggle with this as well. We live in Anchorage on the opposite side of the city from the airport. Anchorage isn't a big city and can be driven from side to side in 10 or 15 minutes. Even though we state this in our profile, even going so far as to tell every guest approximately what a cab costs, how long the drive is and how to access our place by bus, we still get dinged on this. 

This should definitely be dropped.

[Ken19]

I agree guest reviews are a pain in the ass. There are really no 5 star rooms on Airbnb and there's only one 5 star Hotel in Las Vegas and that's The Wynn.  

[Ange2]

Agree. When I travel I research the place, the area. Most all Airbnb hosts offer a lot more in terms of description, what to expect and personal attention and help than any hotel I have stayed at.  

I do not downgrade a place because it is further from the beach, the city centre, than I was willing to pay for.  Location is a nuts star rating!

[Erin65]

I agree completely.  I have pu tin that I'm a half hour from the city and 20 minutes from the nearest small town.  I got dinge on location.  She is even a SUperHost with Airbnb, but didn't bother to read my description, as she told me that I should have that in my decription.  Either she has poor memory or she didn't bothr to read anything but the intro, as everything she suggested was already in my listing.

[House-On-Blaine0]

Instead of "Location" rating, they should change it to "Convenience for public transportation".

Location is a subjective thing. One may want to be closer to where ever he needs to be, and it could be remote. So it is subjective.

But access to public transport is easier to undersrtand for most people.

[Tilman0]

Alena. I don't agree. You should accurately describe the public transport or whatever in you listing. But if it is bad and you say so and the guest books anyway he shouldn't give you a bad rating for that.
I would agree with you, if the rating was there, but just doesn't count towards your total score and/or superhost status.

[Jeanne29]

I agree. Location is very subjective and should not be part of the rating score. 

[Rachella0]

 I live in a diverse area that is under rejuvenation, in a historic conservation area. We have two new gastropubs in the area and the Green Rooms art hotel has just opened. We are walking distance (or a short bus ride) from Alexandra Palace and Bruce Castle as well as walking distance from four parks. We are as surrounded by parks as possible in inner London. We are a 15 minute walk or a 5-minute bus ride from the Piccadilly line. The bus stop is less than a block from my house. 

My listing goes into great detail about the location, including travel time from various sites of interest, a history of the Victorian philanthropic estate we live on and a description of who lives in the neighbourhood.

However we are constantly dinged on location for purely subjective and weird reasons.

Let me give you a few examples:

My neighborhood is beginning to attract young people who have been priced out of Dalston and Brixton. They generally live in house shares and may not have room to host family visitors.  A recent guest stayed with me while she visited her son who lives 6 houses away from me. It was easy for her to get here from the tube station and she was close to her son. If would seem that I am the perfect location for her, however, she gave me a lower than 5-star rating on location. When I reached out to her and ask why, she said: "You're nearly there, but I couldn't give you 5 stars because I saw rubbish on the street".

Here's another example: I'm a live-in host in a Victorian with many original features, including the original front door. As part of check-in, I show guests how to use the Victorian lock. It's a traditional English lock with latch plus deadbolt. I tell guests: "If you are the last to leave the house in the morning, or you come home after we are asleep at night please lock the deadbolt with this key." Guests often ask me: "Is this a dangerous neighbourhood?"  Those who ask me that question always give me a less than 5-star rating on location. When people ask the question I've started responding with: "Don't you lock your front door at home?" but it doesn't seem to have any effect on the ratings I get.

I could go on with many other scenarios, but I think this illustrates how subjective and unfair the "location" category is.

[Nicole133]

I couldn't agree more!  It is funny to see someone choose a location based on price then be post-upset.

I really like the idea of removing location as part of the 5-star rating.  Let the guests comment all they want on location, but stop the unjust rating.

Then the obstacle we would have to overcome would be negative location comments.  Which would be FAR easier to abate by OVER communicate in the description all of the Achilles heels of our locations.