What is the value of value, especially to a first time guest?

[Laura2592]

We have been back and forth on pricing. Consistent advice here is that we need to raise our nightly price, and have been pushing it up over time. We had a first time user of Airbnb guest give us a 4 on a recent stay---they were not even booked when our price was what its at now. One of only 2 ever "4s" in the Value category (the other was also a first time Airbnb user) I do wonder what these guests are comparing us to.

Value is, to me, up there with location as the categories that need to be removed. Location is something guests CHOOSE and barring any undisclosed freeways or trains running through the property, I really don't see how it can't just fold under "Accuracy."  I know we have discussed this before...ad nauseum. But I really do wonder what "Value" means to a new user. Compared to a hotel with room service and valet parking? Or an actual inn with breakfast served? We don't call our cottage "luxury" anything though it is nice and well kept. So how are people making this judgment?

Maybe the HAB can get rid of "Value" and "Location"!

[James2566]

I agree with removing or defining location and value and making them debatable when guests misinterpret the meaning. We lost a star once since our island has manchineel trees (none anywhere near our property). We lost another star for location once when the island was doing road work on the main highway, a block from our home, which didn’t affect or divert pedestrian traffic (and they didn’t have a vehicle). It just didn’t look nice to walk past a tractor in paradise. AirBnb told me that the guests can interpret “Location” however they wish. Now I anticipate and feel inclined to compensate for things out of my control to avoid lost stars for value or location. Now I understand that even bad weather is my fault so if it rains two days straight I start sending surprises and apologizing for the weather. Which is stupid, but when they tick that value section and feel resentful of the rain on their holiday, and they have no other forum to express that disappointment but to assign a number of stars for overall value, they’re gonna take it out on us! They should at least be required to offer a minimum 200 word explanation for removing stars which AirBnb can then assess whether it’s fair or not. Someone couldn’t find the address at 2am after the bar closed but one hundred plus others found it with no problem whatsoever, that should not make me lose a star for “Location”! 

[Dale711]

Salut @Laura2592 ,

I agree. You're absolutely right!

[Emilia42]

@Laura2592 I don't think value has anything to do with the price that is charged. A $1 toothbrush can be a horrible value if it snaps in half on the first use. The cheapest listings in my area all consistently score low in value. 

The vast majority of your guests are giving you positive value remarks. I think that means you are priced correctly or could even increase your prices a little more. 

[Sarah977]

@Laura2592  I think most users who do this aren't comparing it to anything. They just would have liked to pay less 🙂

Who wouldn't?

[Laura2592]

@Sarah977 next time I buy anything online I will leave a 4 star review. "Loved it. Perfect and just what I wanted. But I would like to pay less because you gave me the option to say that."

Such a silly rating category.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Laura2592  First few months of hosting we were really worried about our reviews and ratings. Then we worried less and less as time goes by... and after 3 years we didn't even read our reviews or ratings anymore. We barely c/p a few words to review our guests. It becomes so booooring to do it, again and again, every day after every guest who stayed 2 nights in one of our apartments and we met him for 5 min during check-in. 

In the end, we lost our super host status..... not because of our low ratings but because we couldn't host last year due to covid and earthquake damage on the building chimneys. So, my advice would be - RELAX 🙂 Do your best but keep in mind it's just business, don't take it personally 🙂

[Anonymous]

@Laura2592  Airbnb tends to defend its dumb star ratings by saying they provide useful information. But there's no rational way to draw a meaningful conclusion about how someone else felt about a property's "value" when you don't know how much they were charged. This is obviously BS.

You've traveled as a guest with Airbnb a few times yourself - when you're deciding where to book, do you ever look at the Value rating for guidance? Does anybody? I certainly don't - the actual price is the only money-related detail I need to know, and I can decide for myself whether it's worth it.

So, why does this rating category exist despite the total lack of demand for it? Well, remember - behavior modification is the core strategy of web-based companies like Airbnb. It's in their interest to undercut their competitors on price, and apparently it's easier to manipulate hosts into undervaluing their listings when they know they're getting an arbitrary star rating for Value. 

In practice, though, why should it be a luxury service provider's job to make a customer feel like they've gotten a great deal? If the experience they've voluntarily spent money on has increased their happiness, and they don't think it was good value, all that really tells you is that they don't value their happiness very highly.

[John5097]

@Laura2592 I don't think value is irreverent. Ratings are the only thing separating ABB from Craigslist. Pricing is kind of tricky. I just switched to smart pricing and may need to limit that as I don't want an extra $5 a night be the reason I get dinged. But too low rates attract the budget conscience guest who use ratings as a strategy to lower rates. Each listing is unique, but a lot of host are just unrealistic and too cheap to repair shower, or replace old mattress and ratings are a bit of a reality check.   

[Laura2592]

@John5097 for Value to have meaning it has to have some kind of objectivity.  That's where I think it fails as a measure. Cleanliness? Sure that's in the hosts control. You can see dust and grease.  Accuracy? Again in the hosts control.  Pictures and descriptions should be updated as needed  I agree.  Check In? Not as much importance for me as a remote host who has a keypad during the time of Covid-19 but for home sharing hosts perhaps that's a different story.  Certainly a host can control check in to a certain extent (with the huge call out that late guests are often frustrating. )  And responsiveness  and communication is very much within a hosts purview. 

Location has nothing to do with the host except that they presumably chose a property in that spot and offered it for  rent. It's basically a rating of how much you agree with your hosts taste in real estate  And a guests perception of value is likewise nothing a host can influence.  I think the overall satisfaction score and the accuracy rating more than covers the bases. Surely if a guest is led to expect luxury and instead has worn towels and ancient mattresses they could ding either or both those categories to give the appropriate wakeup call. And there are some people who think anything more than free is too much.  I have a friend who used to schedule his week around which restaurants had happy hour or early bird dinner specials.  He would brag that he never paid more than $5 for a meal.  When we remodeled a kitchen he almost fell out of his chair at how much we were spending though our budget was on the lower end of average.  Some people are just not wired to be happy to part with their money. 

[John5097]

@Laura2592 
My response just got deleted. You articulated good points but there are ways host can add value to their own listing. Location has even less control for host. Each listing is different. My city Charleston, some guest might rather stay in the historic district, but don't realize the STR are in commercial areas. I'm actually in the city but just over the bridge and communicate that its a very quiet and safe place so my guest love it, and get it. The guest we both described, as cheapskates, I'd much prefer they ding me on the sub categories of location and value than lower the overall review. Its really not easy though. Of course being in a great location and offering a good value maybe helps? 🙂  In the end its up to the guest what kind of review they leave, so probably impossible to maintain perfect 5 star review. My goal was my first 100 reviews would be 5 star and I"m at 95. However I'm used to having customers and clients filling out reviews for my jobs, so has nothing to do with ABB or what anyone else thinks. 

[Elaine701]

Without a specific reference if quantification, "value" is rather ambiguous. Or perhaps it's all just "relative".

If it's of any interest, our experience has been that those paying the least are more likely to give a sub 5* rating. There's a certain perceived value in paying more. 

We try to price we'll above what the bottom feeders are willing to pay, while not too expensive for the better quality guests. 

Notwithstanding the pandemic effects, the season is big factor here. Summer bookings are all but guaranteed if you have a decent offering, even when priced at the maximum market price. We rarely receive less than glowing 5* reviews from those who pay the top high season rates. 

Winters, however are a different animal  and it's necessary to drop prices to attract bookings, because there's so many other offerings to choose from in this market. Our market is pretty saturated with holiday lets. 

Our experience is that low prices bring the bottom feeders out of the woodwork. And they're the ones most likely to give less-than-exemplary ratings, no matter how perfect the accommodation, or how much hospitality you shower them with.

So, in the winter, we consciously try to accept those inquiries who we sense are more likely to be satisfied with the villa, and decline those that we suspect will be unhappy. Rather lose the money than risk an unfair ratings hit. It stays with you for a long long time. 

[Anonymous]

@Elaine701   There are plenty fantastic quality guests at the low end of the budget spectrum too, and for hosts offering something more modest than a 4-bedroom villa or a private island, it does no good to characterize the cost-conscious as "bottom feeders." It just scans as classist and condescending.

I think your tactic of screening winter guests and declining those who don't seem to be a good fit is one that works well for many hosts year-round. I tend to prefer the low-season guests - when I know they had a lot of alternatives at the time of booking, I'm more confident that they truly appreciate the specific qualities of the listing. In high seasons past when the whole city seemed to be booked up, the premium rates came with the downside of guests who would have preferred a hotel but settled for an Airbnb.

[Elaine701]

@Anonymous 

Well, please pardon the "classist" Terminology, but we're more or less at the bottom of our pricing from November through February. And I can assure you, we field some of the most unbelievable booking requests in that time. They're only interested in the cheapest price. And they'll deliberately misrepresent their intentions to get it. 

We're a somewhat large villa. Sleeps 8 comfortably, can sleep 12, but we're only licenced for 8. 

In the winter, we charge on a per person basis, be sure it's rare that we can fill the villa with 8 pax in that season, typically only 2-4. If we priced for 8npax capacity, we miss the main market in that season. And I can say with absolute certainty, that hosting 8 is far more expensive than 2. More rooms to heat, more cleaning and laundry, and couples tend to go to bed at 10 or 11, while groups of 4 or more tend to stay up till the wee hours. 

So, we get many inquiries, booking for 2, and after some dialogue, we sense or outwardly discover, they're intending to book for 2, and bring 6 or 7, figuring they can just use the other bedrooms for free. 

But we learned our lesson the hard way, and now the bedrooms have locks. 

Anyway, we spend a lot of time vetting guests in the off season. Because that's when the price pirates come out (is that a better term?) 

[Anonymous]

@Elaine701  "Price pirates," that's funny - sounds like an apt description of that particular behavior of lying, scheming, and grubbing  for discounts and refunds. Luxury homes with a down season seem to attract a disproportionate amount of this. One tactic I've seen in similarly seasonal locations is to offer all the premium amenities in the high season, when the property can command its highest rate by default, but make them a la carte add-ons in the low season when the host needs some trade from bargain-seekers who can do without them. This might not work if there's a lot of high-end competition with rock-bottom rates, but it seems pretty fair to me.

My experience has been quite different from yours, as a result of marketing directly to the no-frills market. Seasoned budget travelers are accustomed to scaling their expectations to their budgets, and they tend to be very appreciative of getting more comfort and personal attention than they're used to in that price range. I love having this type of person as a guest, whereas most of the customers I've encountered in the luxury market are not people I'd ever care to meet again.