Is the last evaluation (period ended 31December2021) of the superhost status really fair ?

Rajmanee0
Level 2
Brussels, Belgium

Is the last evaluation (period ended 31December2021) of the superhost status really fair ?

I have lost my superhost status after the last evaluation. I think this evaluation was slightly unfair because in our case the border (Mauritius) was re-open for travellers only the 1st of October 2021. Therefore the second criteria on number of stay/number of nights was impossible to fulfill. In addition the rounding down of a mark of 4.5 to 4  just put me under the 4.8 average (first criteria) which also questionnable due to the low number of stay.

 

I think that AirBNB evaluation must take into account the situation in each country to keep a fair evaluation and to not do  it blindly by whatever algorithm.

Also missing is a appeal procedure when you are "degraded".

 

---RS---

6 Replies 6
Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Rajmanee0 

 

The number of stays/nights criteria was temporarily removed from the Superhost assessment due to COVID. It will be reintroduced only from the Aprill 2022 assessment onwards. Therefore, the number of stays you had in the past year makes absolutely no impact on the January assessment that's just taken place.

 

The reason you lost your Superhost status is due to the second point, i.e. you have not reached the 4.8 target. I understand that having fewer guests this past year due to COVID means that every 4 star review can really hurt your rating.

 

However, guests cannot leave 4.5 stars, so I am not sure why you thought the guest did. They can give an overall rating of 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5. That's it. The individual category star ratings (cleanliness, communication etc.) are not counted towards the Superhost assessment, nor is the overall rating an average of them, so there's no point trying to calculate that.

 

As well as the individual categories, guests are asked to give ONE overall star rating (1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 stars) and that is what the assessment is based on. Therefore, the guest gave you 4 stars overall, not 4.5. 

 

If you had an overall star rating of 4.5 or above from the total of last year's guests, it should not be rounded down to 4. Still, it is not enough to reach the 4.8 for Superhost.

 

Hope that makes sense!

Helen744
Level 10
Victoria, Australia

Helen744 Hi same thing here except one of my good reviews in the period was not counted and I was told that 98 nights was not enough . and before u ask this was way over the ten or 100 nights requested currently .

 

Rajmanee0
Level 2
Brussels, Belgium

Hi All,

 

First, I know that guest could not leave half marks. My point for this criteria is that as AirBNB know the detailed marks, a I  think better formula could be used to give a mere representative evaluation of the effort done. I don't think that the cost in  term of computation would be so high. I understand the defining a new formula could lead to "discussion' (even passionate ones). Let me propose :

(average of the 6 mark / global average)/2.

 

Regarding all criteria, I think that the actual counting of the period to be taken into account is not fair/correct. Taking  the previous year as reference lead automatically in the loss of the status. The reference period should be 12 months  counting only the months when activity was possible, taking the reality of each country rather than applying blindly the same thing to all over the world. Closure in each country was not the same everywhere.

 

For instance in Mauritius, this was from April 2020 to October 2021. In this particular case, this would lead as reference period  from July 2019 to March 2020 then suspension until the re-opening of the Mauritius border eg 1st of October 2021 . Restart of counting  the months for a complete period until end of December 2021.  Counting the full year of 2021 is not correct because the activity was not possible in the first 9 months.

 

My point here is to have AirBNB launching a deeper analysis on the algorithm used for establishing the

superhost status and possibly to propose a transparent update.

 

Also having an appeal procedure would also go in a better direction. Using Community forum to try to have a discussion is a first step, but how to make sure that this discussion is -reaching someone in AIrBNB staff at a appropriate level ?

 

Regards.

---RS---

 

@Rajmanee0   I think what you are asking for is practically-speaking impossible.

 

Firstly, it would be unworkable from a programming standpoint to try and build in something that recognizes every single  country's shutdown calendar, and updates those as they occur - sometimes with little advance notice.

 

Secondly, if there were an appeal process, it would consume hundreds of hours to address every single host that found issues with the calculations. Since we can't even get support with urgent issues due to a lack of qualified staff, I can't see this happening. 

 

The only fair way to apply an algorithm is to set the standard well in advance, so everyone knows how they are being measured, and then measure everyone against the same standard. Which is exactly how it works. 

 

I've been in and out of Superhost status The best way to deal with this is to just to go and be the best host you can be to  your guests, and stop worrying about the measurements. 

 

If you really think about it, Airbnb is a business that needs hosts to be out there - well - actually hosting. It's a losing proposition to keep pushing Superhost status protections out further and further for people who aren't actually hosting. 

 

Airbnb has been pretty good about allowing Superhost protections to remain in place - but that runway has to end at some point.

Helen @744. I agree with all of you  I wish each country simply had a representative office .I think adding more amenity categories and simplifying stars to out of ten would go a long way and make it clear to guests that we are not Luxe hotels generally .Airbnb is taking a cheap way to see the world out of the hands of the adventurers and putting into the hands of those who think it is supposed to be a hotel . Lets never forget that every guest leaves a mark .

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Helen744 

 

I agree. Here in England, the COVID restrictions/entry requirements are constantly changing, often with less than a week's notice. A recent tightening of one requirement (UK arrivals having to self isolate until they got a negative Day 2 result) resulted in several cancelled bookings for me because I have a shared listing and guests cannot quarantine here. Only a few short weeks later, not only was that requirement lifted, but the testing rules were loosened. So, most of those cancelled guests could actually have stayed!

 

I am not complaining about that. The regulations keep changing based on the numbers (whether you agree to the Government's approach or not). My point is, how on earth is Airbnb supposed to keep up with that on a global basis? I'm just talking about England. The restrictions in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales aren't even the same!

 

Superhost status does matter to me and I'd be very annoyed to lose it, but there are more important things going on. If Airbnb were to put extra resources in, I would prefer them to use those to properly check documentation when guests are applying for COVID refunds or to put it towards better customer support for hosts or guests facing urgent issues (COVID related or otherwise), not faffing around with the Superhost algorithms.