Guest Cleanliness Ratings

[Traci1]

How do other hosts rate guests for cleanliness? I hate to insult anyone but I've been giving a 5-star rating for guests that we can't even tell they were there, 4-star for great, 3-star for average... but again, I don't want to insult potential return guests but do want to be honest. Any thoughts?

[Linda108]

@Traci1  It is interesting that in your sharing your rating criteria you reveal a reasonable thought process. If I understand your post, 5 stars for exceptional or above expectations, 4 stars for pretty nice and 3 stars for meets expectations.  I wonder if guests applied the same criteria and some do, few hosts would qualify as Super Hosts.  

In my experience, if the guest follows my rules and no exceptional cleaning is required, I give 5 stars.  Since my space is shared, the guests don't really have much opportunity to cause damage so my criteria is different from an entire house listing.

[Paul154]

Very good question.

Intellectually, your method is superior. It would be a beautiful world where guests were super responsible and your system would reward them.

However pragmatically, I just say all guests are great. They give me money. They are not a bother, so what if I have to remove their garbage or hair? I'm paid to do that.

Only in cases of neglect/broken house rules do I downgrade them.  

I reward the responsible, clean ones in the written review "Guests were VERY clean and tidy. It was a pleasure to have such considerate guests.`"

[Traci1]

Thanks Paul, this makes complete sense to me and we did that at the beginning (though we've only been doing this for a year) but I started to think... what's the point of the star rating if basically everyone gets 5 stars? And I wanted to give other hosts an indication of the great guests versus the so-so. (Though apparently, hosts don't see the star rating?)

[Andrea9]

@Traci1

In the past when I used to type in less than 5 star ratings for guests it was with a shaky finger till I realized they never get to see them.

[Zoya-and-Julija0]

They don't?

[Matthew285]

@Traci1, hosts with Instant Booking turned on now see the guests' star ratings.

I agree with Paul on this, but you make a good point: The rating system doesn't communicate much information if everyone who isn't horrible gets 5 stars.

As a host, though, you know that on AirBnB, anything less than 5 stars on our host ratings is a disaster. So while the system *should* work where 3 is a good rating, and 5 indicates something special, that isn't the AirBnB world we live in.

If I look at a guests ratings and anything is less than 5 stars, I am immediately suspicious. This is not great, but it is the ways things are. Now I find out, they may be fine, but perhaps they just had a stay with you.

You are, of course, free to give ratings any way you choose. But in a way you are punishing your guests for having stayed with you.

As a final note: think about those host stories where the host gets a 3 or 4 star rating, and the host asks the guest "what was wrong?"

The guest says "nothing was wrong. It was a very nice place and we enjoyed it tremendously. But I rarely give 5 stars to anyone."

You are that guest.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

I agree with @Paul154

[Melissa309]

Getting my head around a 5 - 1 star system is always a bit of a challenge.  I mean, do you mark them as 4 stars if they left food in the fridge or washing up to do? or is your guests expectation that you will take care of that as part of the cleaning fee?  I think at this stage I'd only consider giving less than a 5 star rating if it meant I couldn't accept the following booking because it took me more than my usual expected cleaning time, or they damaged something in my apartment.  

I think 5 stars for me is simply - met all of my expectations, didn't create any additional cleaning hassle.    

So my cleanliness scale is: 

1 star - the place was trashed, with cleaning and repairs requiring multiple days missed potential bookings. 

2 star - multiple things were trashed or damaged, but apartment was back to usual state within 24 hours of checkout.  

3 star - the place was in need of a serious deep clean - carpet shampooing, much longer time cleaning than expected. 

4 star - they seriously dirtied something accidentally that required specialist cleaning, such as a spill of wine on the carpet or sofa and made no attempt to clean it or contact me about it. 

[Zoya-and-Julija0]

Just recently I had this: lots of food left on the fridge, and the trash was not taken out. My house rules and instructions which I sent twice clearly say trash should be taken out. (It is a whole house and if we cannot make it there immediately I do not want trash stinking up the place.)

So, I gave a 4 ...

Anther recent guest left blood stains on the toilet. Kind of gross... but what should I rate?

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Traci1 Because for hosts only 5-stars is considered acceptable, I'd rate anyone who I thought had problems 4 stars or less, depending on how serious a problem they created. I'm with @Paul154 on that. Also like @Linda my listing is a guest room in my home so Henry or I are usually able to find or prevent problems before they become serious. 

[Jackie119]

@Traci1.  I was using the same thought process for a short time with a few customer's.  

My husband and I have only been at this for 4 months, and soon into this endeavor, felt the 5 stars we were giving everyone (really me since I'm the one who does the cleaning and manages our property) was not accurate when we had a few bookings that were exceptional.  In the beginnning, I actually gave a customer a 5 when they should have been a 3 in the cleanliness department (stains on kitchen rug and sheets with no heads up).  All of my guest have been wonderful, but housekeeping definately has had a range from one customer to another, and most I would consider a general 4.

Now, I have recognized that most customer's feel, if they do a general pick up and have the common courtesy to leave it descent, not trashed, they deserve/expect a 5.  I clean houses for a living, so I notice a lot, and I had to let my expectations down a little.  I have learned that not everyone shares the same level of hygeine either.  What I think is dirty is really clean to others.  My husband and I have gone back to giving customer's 5's unles they leave damage to items or property.  Similiar method to @Mellisa0 and Paul .

We have received 5's from all of our customer's and we have been gratefull for every visitor that has chosen our property.  We continue to improve our property and have implemented a lot since our first booking.  We have appreciated, that even though, we have had deficencies, our customer's have been understanding and have left us private messages with their suggestion (instead of downgrading our reveiws because of an oversight on our end).  We take input seriously.  We will take the perfect score from our guest's and will continue to give guest a 5,  if they meet all expectations, even if they leave work for me to do. Unless, it's to the standard that Paul and Melissa touch on, which is damage or stains to items or property.

Sindenote: It's a lot of work and how an entire property can cost less than a hotel is mind boggleing but another topic all together.  I love the concept and I wish everyone the best whether you are a customer or a host.

[Joanne45]

.Jackie119

This is a lovely way you have. It echoes and reinforced my way, just as I needed the reminder. 🙂

[Cathy-And-George0]

To be honest about this, I feel like we need 5s and 1s, as our experience has been with about 100 guests, we've had 98 guests who left the place as though they hadn't slept there, and two guests that cost us thousands in cleaning and repairs.  Nothing in between.

I say this because we knew we were risking damage when we got into this, but we are encouraged by the consideration that the vast majority of Airbnb guests show to our space.  This in contrast to the average person on the street, who is far from considerate to strangers they come into contact with.  I have been so impressed by the quality of people who have stayed here, that I feel enriched by  meeting them. 

[Judith71]

I had a guesst who left a big mess behind. My dog came into the room and had a quick lunch of instant spaguetti from the floor. We had to wash absolutely everything: floors, pots and pans, plates and glasses. How many starts does someone like that deserve, realistically?