I have been a host on AirBnB since 2015. I believe I was one of the first 20 or so listings on Marco Island, Florida when I set it up. For the majority of that time, I have maintained SuperHost status. My listing currently has an average rating of 4.88 with 121 reviews.
Obviously, things change a lot over 5 years. Everyone becomes a better host over time and with practice! We have also fully gutted and remodeled our unit since then, earning rave reviews with the new design compared to the old-dated look. I also believe AirBnB has tweaked its rating system somewhat over the past 5 years (in the past, if I remember right, guests just left one overall rating?). The point being, having a few old 4-star reviews will always continue to haunt me.
I have noticed that my listing has slowly dropped position in the search to other SuperHosts who have fewer ratings, but slightly higher overall averages. For the dates I am looking at right now, the following listings all appear before me: 4.95 / 85 reviews, 5.0 / 19 reviews, 4.95 / 22 reviews (as a note nightly rate doesn't seem to play a factor in the ordering either: $250, $130, $119 respectively to my $143).
I wish AirBnB would show some more appreciation to tenured hosts that got them to where they are today. My older reviews are brining down my average, and I will never surpass a newer host with a handful of recent 5-star reviews. Maybe show an average rating for the past 12 months for even comparison? Or round ratings to one decimal place on the search page and show the detailed 2 decimal rounding on the listing page?
