Remember that we are human - Rating System Needs to Change

[Irene70]

I think AirBnB has lost sight of the type of people hosts are.  We are giving. We are generous. We are inviting. We are probably on the more sensitive side of the spectrum (not cry babies, but sensing that people need something, and generally being happy to provide it). We are warm. We are nice.  We are only human, and we try to be good ones.

So why does AirBnB sending punishing, threatening messages to us when we lose a star for something (and don't let us see what the star was knocked off for), or because maybe we need to deny a person who seems sketchy, or because our lives get busy and it takes us 24.2 hours to respond to someone?  Why do you encourage guests to tell us what went wrong instead of informing guests that if something is not to their liking, they should tell us to give us an opportunity to fix it?

And it's painful for me to review guests, because they too make mistakes, and sometimes rub us the wrong way, and it pains us to feel like we need to publicly share this -- ON THE INTERNET -- when maybe they were just having a bad day, or travel was rough, or anything. It's weird -- we are essentially rating them as people as then putting it online, and they do the same to us.  And often, we only have a few minutes of meeting these people and assessing them.  I think in our internet world of ratings and likes and numbers, numbers, numbers, AirBnB has forgotten that it is a COMMUNITY. Please bring some humanity back into the emails you write us, treat us like good people, and make the rating system more positive.  We definitely don't need more negativity in this world

[Brittany1]

I like the idea that someone else shared in Host Voice to increase the amount of stars from 5 to 10. Or somehow acknowledging the fact that hosts are being unfairly affected by Airbnb's high standards of 5* and guests refusal to hand out 5*.

[David641]

Perhaps on the reservation confirmation AirBnB could put info related to how the star rating system works. That way guests would know (assuming they read) what the star ratings mean and how they are used. I have a binder with house info on the kitchen table, and in the front I have a page with important info for guests. At the bottom I have the following:

"Please leave a review!
When leaving a review, we want you to be truthful so we can improve our service to future guests. That said, anything less than a 5 star review impacts our position on the AirBnB search page.

While we know we may not be in an ideal location, I believe I fairly described the location in the listing. Even if this is not your ideal location, you selected us based on facilities, location and price. So long as our description matches what you found, please award 5 stars for location.

IF you have any issue with the apartment, please contact us to allow us to remedy it before posting a bad review. It is our goal to make our guests as comfortable as possible.

If you had a pleasant experience here, consider that lower placement in the search may deprive other potential guest from finding us!"

I really hate to beg for 5 stars, but AirBnB has forced it.

[Gina32]

Yes get rid of location stars - excellent idea. it serves no purpose what so ever.

I get low ratings for this sometimes because those who cannot afford a hire car and need to walk everywhere, but choose to stay with me because they can afford the cheaper rate, complain they have to walk up a hill....well duh I told you our place is "high up on the hill with views over the city and mountains!

I also tell you it is close to one of the most visited places in Tasmania, Australia, the Cataract Gorge. You can't stay any closer to the walking track than my place. But still they complain about the location!

[Mike127]

Remove location ratings...I agree with all the above....

[Joel-and-Dawn0]

yes, the 5 star rating system is not helpful to either guests or hosts. please change it to "good" vs "bad". Or at the very least, airbnb could have the stars turn red if guests award anything less than 5 stars. netflix does something similar when you hover the mouse over the stars, where 5=loved it and 1=hated it. also, i agree with removing the location star... this makes zero sense. 

[Ann10]

@Irene70-You are so right! And now this- The new ratings criteria. BC says it's to "help" us. 

ABB has turned into something I don't like at all, treating us like a commodity.

A Host with the following scores:

61 5-Star Reviews  11-4 Star Reviews, 2 3-Star Reviews.  They have 82.43% 5 Star Reviews.  However, they have a 4.797 Score.  

Reason being that in order to achieve superhost status the following is true:

A host can also have the following:

1. 18 5-star Reviews, and 1 1-Star, therefore a 94.74% 5-Star Rating. However, they will have a 4.78 Average.
2. 13 5-Star Reviews, and 1 2-Star, therefore have a 92.85% 5-Star Rating.  However, they will have a 4.78 Average.
3. 8 5-Star Reviews, and 1 3-Star, therefore have an 88.88% 5-Star Rating. However, they will have a 4.77 Average.

And so on.  Basically, if you have one bad guest experience, where it is below 4 stars, you pay for it, big time.  

[Ann10]

@Mike0- I agree about removing the location. I explain in detail the location in my listing. I also say if you don't like the location pls don't book my place. Then I still get people giving me a 4. I get plenty of 5's but why can't people read? We can't do anything about the location.