Guest not understanding how to rate

[Karen1027]

This is the most frustrating situation ever. I hosted a guest - he arrived into a spotless unit, no complaints, happy. He spent 2 nights with his friend. I was beyond shocked to see his rating on cleanliness when our average is fantastic. He rated us 2 stars for cleanliness!!!! The worst ever. It turns out he says the spoons were not clean and the beds were not made. Not understanding this we finally assumed that what he meant is that he used the spoons and expected them to be serviced and cleaned, and he slept in the beds and expected them to be made up in the morning. Nowhere on our listing does it state that our units are serviced. We expect our guests to keep them tidy and neat. We dont charge a cleaning fee. I think it is absolutely ridiculous that this expectancy from the guest has been lumbered onto a cleanliness rating and of course has now brought us right down in the overall average which has been 4.8 for a long time. I have contacted Airbnb about this and the consultant has advised that it has been forwarded to a team who can attend to it. I am most unimpressed. Gave him a scathing public response advising him that he left the unit in a dirty condition stinking of KFC chicken and chicken skin and bones on the floor and that we are not happy to host him again. When a guest is asked to rate CLEANLINESS does it not relate to "cleanliness of the unit" when they check in? It surely does not include cleaning up after them? 

[Lisa723]

@Karen1027 just saw your question. No-- if the public part of the review contains anything negative (this one doesn't) I respond to that. But I target the response ONLY with other guests in mind, keeping it short, professional, and dispassionate, so other guests are reassured. For example, if the public part of this review had said the spoons were dirty and the bed wasn't made I would respond with something like this: "On check in this guest found our space in its standard very clean condition. Due to a misunderstanding of Airbnb and/or our listing, the guest expected daily housekeeping service, which we do not provide. We regret the misunderstanding and encourage all prospective guests to carefully read all listing descriptions before booking."

[Karen1027]

THANKYOU for the valuable tips Lisa. Much appreciated.. 

[Karen1027]

Thankyou Lisa. Much appreciated. Really did not know what you have just informed me. 😞

[Sarah977]

@Karen1027  Yes, it's perfectly okay to respond to an inaccurate public review. 

A response should only be to the written review- not to private feedback or star ratings, because, in fact, no can see the individual star ratings guests leave, and private feedback no one can see either. For instance, I have a cat hanging around my place- she was feral but decided she lives here- she sleeps on the outside terrace cushions at night. One of my guests, who was very nice, left a nice review, but mentioned to me in private feedback that there is cat hair on the cushions, which I really hadn't noticed. If I had responded to that with a public response, now everyone knows there was cat hair on the cushions. Instead, I private messaged her back, thanking her for pointing that out, that I'll make sure to start putting those cushions in at night.

@Lisa723  When I look at a guest's profile, and then go to the hosts' profiles who they stayed with, to see how they review their hosts, I can see the responses that hosts left to their reviews. 

[Lisa723]

@Sarah977 yes, the responses are public so of course anyone who goes looking for them can find them. The point is they're not shown on the guest's profile, but are shown on the host's profile. 

[Susan17]

“Reputation Inflation” erodes the comparability of feedback scores over time and reduces the informativeness of a reputation system—potentially making it completely uninformative"

5 Star Design - How Ratings Influence Human Behaviour

https://medium.com/s/story/5-star-design-how-ratings-influence-human-behaviour-d625c16993b3

[Susan17]

And another perspective... 

"Simple gestures and acts of goodwill are tied to a five-star rating system and have become fraught with mathematical appraisals"

How Rating Everything From Your Uber Driver To Your Airbnb Host Has Become A Nightmare

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-rating-everything-from-your-uber-driver-to-your-airbnb-host-ha...

[Vijay39]

Hi Karen

dont bother about reviews some guests are like that i had a wonderfull experience with a guest who wanted me to pick up his bags when he arrived

He wanted heater as he was asthamatic

although heater was not allowed as per the price

Another guest who was on A 20$ per day rate asked for new towels as he did not wanted a washed one.

some guests come and finish your inyernet plan in 2 days.

Even after giving people new towels every time clean accesories and more over some have even listed in their reviews that no ac and heater was provided even though not listed in the listing

guest can go to any limit in giving you stars whatever they want

my listing has all worst reviews from Indians

whereas i am given 4-5 stars with people from other nationalities

now i dont even bother about reviews they will take it if that suits their price not reviews

[Karen1027]

Hi Vijay

Its crazy what one has to put up with and still just keep smiling. Your support and tips are very valuable - I thank you for this. It is very true about the price and the reviews, but Airbnb makes such a big thing out of this review scenario that it becomes quite stressful. The other sites are not like this and all the guests we host from the other sites I always feel so grateful because they are not full of nonsense with reviews and yet we are still busy because as the end of the day "by word of mouth" is the best form of advertising.  I think maybe it is a better idea now not to worry as you say, and if my ratings are undeservedly low, then so be it. Thanks Vijay best regards Karen

[Thomas1033]

@Karen1027 hi, Yvonna (cohost) here.  We have specifics in our listing telling people we expect them to clean up after themselves.  I also read down in your reviews which were all nice by the way.  I myself only responded to a public review once when a guest publically said there was no washing machine available.  However there certainly is one.  It was much later that I thought maybe he he meant dishwasher and due to language barriers it came out wrong.  Now I feel bad for privately admonishing him for saying that.  We don’t list a dishwasher as an amenity though.  I noticed you publically were upset about getting a 4 for location and value.  Been there and got that too.  I was upset too.  I privately asked why and never did get a response.  Frankly we do our best and we are for sure better than the nicest hotel in the area.  Eh if we drop off of super host I won’t care.  The rating requirements are stupid at best.  Try not to get so upset.  Just say NEXT!!!  Loudly to yourself in your own head.

[Karen1027]

Hi Thomas thankyou so much for the support and encouragement. Yeah the location reviews really annoy me because surely when a guest books they know where they want to be. I find this category rather broad anyway. If the guest wants to be in town they should book in town. We clearly indicate where we are and market our place for tranquility and nature. Guests then book us for this although they need to be further away on a daily basis for events, and then they rate us lower. (sigh). Personally whenever I book a place I make sure its close to where I want to be. So yeah this is rather frustrating. I LOVE your attitude of NEXT!!! And I will surely and most definately be using your tip. Thankyou Thomas much appreciated. Kindest regards karen