@David1873 This sentence gave me a harsh flashback:
"quite frankly we don't know what we could have done better."
When I used to give my team their yearly reviews in a hospitality-focused job, this is the single worst thing they could have possibly said in their self-assessments. And what was at stake wasn't just some silly orange badge from a website; it was the difference between getting a promotion and getting passed over for a colleague who was striving to find opportunities to improve and accepting feedback gracefully.
The second-worst thing they could have said was that I couldn't have done my job better as their manager. Of course it would have been much easier on the ego to be told I was perfect all the time, but we don't stay at the top of our game by fluffing each other's egos. You rest on your laurels too long, the rot is bound to start showing.
Airbnb's fixation on 5 stars is all kinds of toxic, and we're not at our best when we let ourselves get manipulated by it. The truly great hosts are too busy creating the best experiences for their guests to get sidetracked with obsessions over their ratings. But Airbnb sure makes it hard not to go down that rabbit hole.