"Location" As A Guest Review Point

[Nancy67]

I was always lead to believe that a review or review point, was a gague or meter to let me know how I, as host am doing.(??) Whereas all the other review points such as "Accuracy, Value, Cleanliness, etc" are points of review that tell me how I'm doing, (on-point, or possible improvements) I have never understood why the guest is given the opportunity to review my "Location."  "Location" to what?

"Location" is subjective to the agenda of the guests visit. If, for example,  they are visiting thier sister down the street, then, my home is a great "Location." If she is visiting her sister in hospital 30 miles away, maybe not so much. 

As I cannot in anyway (especially with "instant book") immediatly  know the reasons or agenda of the guest,without a lot of prying,  and I certainly cannot  move my house to better suit anyone who decides to rent, I am completely confused why this would even be a point of review to a guest? 

It seems to me that we as hosts should be utilizing "Accuracy" as a way to inform guests as to the proximity of key landmarks and goings-on, in our respective areas. If I am, indeed "Accurate" in my descriptions, and not exagerating the truth about the other points of review, such "Cleanliness, Value, Communication, etc)  rather than leaving to chance, that a guest decided: 1. Not to do thier homework when searching for a stay, and knocks me down a star or two becaise of their negligence in researching, 2.  Because they were too budget conscinece to pay more to stay closer to what they wanted to do or see. 3. Or because what they wanted to do or see was already booked in a location that is closer on thier respective dates.

I have personally put in my opening short description, as well as (again) in the long description,  the exact distance to the 2 main attractions that the vast majority of my guests want to see, yet have received less than 5 stars 10 times  because they didnt want to pay more to stay a few miles closer. 

---

---

Response from Airbnb

As a helpful criteria for many guests, we are not intending to remove this at this time; however, we always appreciate this feedback as we regularly refine our platform to best meet hosts and guests needs. Location is intended to help future guests get a sense of the area and tends to reflect proximity to nearby destinations. It was created to help establish potential guests’ expectations, setting both you and your guests up for fewer surprises. While this isn’t something we are planning on changing, we are investigating including transit score and walkability score on the listing page in order to clarify location as a criteria. Since it’s not something you can change or control, it doesn’t impact the overall Star Rating for the listing or Superhost status.

[Catherine137]

Agreed.  Make the location accurate on the map or remove the option to rate it.

[Simone362]

Yes I agree with this also.  My lowest rating is 4.7  for location.  My location is of course accurate.  It cannot refer to location in the house as my Guests have the best rooms in the house.   I am perplexed on how to achieve a higher rating here.   

[Mike--Leonora-and-Samant0]

I totally agree, if a guest is dumb enough to book a location that isn't where he/she wants to be it isn't my fault, if they need to be next door to a bar and a supermarket then don't book my place as it obviously isn't what you want. If the listing happens to be in the middle of a building site and the listing says rural location then perhaps a mark down on the accuracy rating would be more appropriate but I'm fairly sure the vast majority of hosts don't try and pass off an apartment in London as a mountain retreat in the Swiss Alps.

[KandT0]

We still get dinged on "location".

We are where we say we are. The map on our listing shows where we are within a couple of hundred metres. We describe it the way it is and give proximity references to nearby attractions.

We can't stop guests booking a spot that's where they don't want to be, but we should not be put in a position where we get rated for a guest's failure to do research before they travel -- or in many cases our failure to match the picture in a guest's imagination.

I don't refer back to this thread often, but I do recall that the last comments I saw on the subject from Airbnb were dismissive and smacked of immaturity.

Other hosts' suggestions for what should be done to replace the "location" rating made sense and seemingly were ignored.

[Zak0]

Thank G-D am not the only one sufering from this upsurt rating on locations, as many have said we can not move the building closer to the city center the best we can do is to have acurate information on the listing but then again if guest even botther to read the whole listing.

[Jessica151]

But the guests don't read properly, nor do they use the internet search function that has existed for a long old time!

It would be nice if Air BnB actually thought about this. But they don't. It's getting boring.

[KandT0]

@Jessica151 LOL. I almost replied to @Zak0 with a similar theme myself.

Briefly, we recently hosted a guest who booked for one and turned up at 9pm with six of his family members. Only a one-night stay, but we rushed around to prepare more beds anyway.

He paid the extra, including zero for disrupting our evening.

Then he left a four-star review with other low ratings, and complained he didn't know we lived in the place and that we had dogs in our space.

He's been an Airbnb member since 2016. All the info is clearly stated on our listing for anyone to read. Plus he had to acknowledge the presence of the dogs before his reservation was confirmed.

You can publish clear details, but you can't force folks to read them.

We've gotten dinged on location because people bought the wrong rail pass, because five minutes away from something is not "near", and because there is no "view" that we never claimed. I sincerely believe the location would still not rank well if the view was herds of wildebeest stampeding across the Serengeti plain.

[Jessica151]

Ha! Yes, you really can't force anyone to read anything although I do sometimes ask guests to check the info that they are asking 'because otherwise I will need to report to Air BnB that they have not sent you the correct information'

This normally forces them to read their itinerary properly because I've essentially asked them for a favour. They then get back to me saying 'oh yes! It is all here'

Marvellous. So you've wasted both of our time by not looking properly but now you realise and might be a little embarrassed. Free training? I don't know what to call it.

But I don't think Air BnB are remotely interested in helping Hosts with this kind of thing.....

[KandT0]

@Jessica151 Those in the driving seat at Airbnb oft do need more of a push than they should to act on the signals of mere pedestrians such as you and I.

I expect this is at least partially due to Airbnb being a relatively young company.

Despite the "we-are-a-team!" cheerleading emails, I perceive a certain disconnect with the rank-and-file hosts that often feels like downright disrespect. This is exacerbated to a large extent by the obvious dearth of experience and maturity among the support staff.

I have to admit I recently lost it on the phone and raised my voice with one such fellow. And then it is made difficult, by design, to escalate issues directly with someone senior.  

There is hope, though. I recall that PayPal was the worst-ever outfit when it came to dealing with both sellers and buyers. Now -- after scores of lawsuits -- they're great.

Any online company that wants to learn how to get it right without being incessantly hauled through the courts should look to Amazon. I go back there again and again because they have support staff who are trained to bend rules and bend over backwards to keep the customer satisfied. Seems to have done Amazon no harm at all.

[Jessica151]

I couldn't agree more! 

I felt like losing it to one such support staff member over email who clearly hadn't been trained in the subtle (dark) art of customer service. It is not always a good idea to be overly optimistic and cheerful when someone is making a complaint. I guess they have not received training in learning signals from other humans yet!

[KandT0]

A public response from us to a guest's review/rating left today:

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Response from K&T:

You rated us at five out of five stars in all of the six categories except "Location", [Guest's name], and yet you gave us only four out of five for our overall rating. It's disappointing to be rated down in this way only because your rail pass didn't get you through the barriers at our station. That could have been easily researched before making a reservation for accommodation. Oh well, at least you were fully satisfied with our flat and the amenities.

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

I rest my case.