Request: help understanding Stats

[Steven-and-Ann0]

We just hosted our 4th guest and have 3 stellar reviews thus far. I'm trying to correlate the Stats with the text. We have 5-Stars from all 3 guests for all categories except one 4-Star for Value, which yields a 4.7 total and 66%, I assume equivalent?

Perhaps we just have too few reviews for the math to be representative? And I'm wondering if one 4-Star yields a 4.7 / 66%, how does one earn a 4.8 or 4.9 and does the one 4-Star forever hold us back?

We have worked so hard at providing the best experience, that a 66% just is confusing. Plus is their a way to find out what was the 4-Star cause so we can improve it?

We thought we provided a 5-Star experience and strive for that and would love to understand AB's math and how more reviews might improve a lowly 66% hopefully?

Thanks for any help understanding the math, the impact and how to, where to learn from lower than desired 5-Star ratings. Many Thanks! Steven

[Tim-and-Holly0]

The most important star as it relates to Super Host status in only the Overall category. The others remain important because they show on your page, but are not included in Airbnb's Super Host calculations. Each category is calculated on its own, so Overall is still 100%, Location is still 100%, etc. except Value which is now 66%.

As more guests come the math will work out and it will take fewer people to cause big drops, but it will also take more people to bring a bad score back up. Just the way averages go.

There is no way on the Airbnb platform to correlate scores with the person who gave them except to keep tabs so that you know when someone gave you a review and immediately check the stats to see how the numbers changed. I keep a spreadsheet myself.

If you feel that you connected with a guest you could politely and non accusatorily ask the reason for the lower rating in a tone of trying to improve. We try to ask every guest just before leaving if there is anything we can do to make the next guest's stay more enjoyable and have had several suggestions that we have implemented and have now had 59 five-stars in a row. Unfortunately some people will not give a five star for any reason, saving their five for the nebulous experience that will never happen.

When I was new to hosting a seasoned host told me not to sweat the stars, but to sweat the experience. In other words, make sure every guest receives five-star treatment and the stars will come on their own.

Hope that helps. Good luck with your new endeavor!

[Lisa333]

This explanation is also confusing as to the math, and I am MENSA in math. Could your explanation be more explicit? I am new also. The first 2 reviews were all 5s so I was at 100%. A third, who kept saying to me that everything was perfect!, gave all 5 star reviews in the areas, but the overall category received a 4 I believe, even after commenting on what a good value it was. Somehow, all 5s were not 100%, but listed as 66% which is incorrect. The only thing the 66% could reflect is that 2 out of 3 reviews were a 5 and 1 was a 4. But all 5s do not add up to a 4, so what is wrong with Airbnb's mathematical formulas? It would be pretty simple in Excel. Then there are other percentages which are not explained, or calculated for a host in writing, which seem to be even more incorrect. Based upon what you say here, the algorithm is incorrectly set and therefore does make any sense. Of course, all things being calculated can and will even out to a more closely calculation with time, but that is not acceptable.

Please correct.

[Lisa333]

This explanation is also confusing as to the math, and I am MENSA in math. Could your explanation be more explicit? I am new also. The first 2 reviews were all 5s so I was at 100%. A third, who kept saying to me that everything was perfect!, gave all 5 star reviews in the areas, but the overall category received a 4 I believe, even after commenting on what a good value it was. Somehow, all 5s were not 100%, but listed as 66% which is incorrect. The only thing the 66% could reflect is that 2 out of 3 reviews were a 5 and 1 was a 4. But all 5s do not add up to a 4, so what is wrong with Airbnb's mathematical formulas? It would be pretty simple in Excel. Then there are other percentages which are not explained, or calculated for a host in writing, which seem to be even more incorrect. Based upon what you say here, the algorithm is incorrectly set and therefore does make any sense. Of course, all things being calculated can and will even out to a more closely correct calculation with time, but that is not acceptable.

Please correct.

[Annette33]

@Lisa333 , if you study carefully waht I have explained below, then yes, it all does make sense: Out of 3 reviews you got two 5star reviews, one 4 star review. so your 3 reviews make up your current 100%, 2/3 of them were 5star reviews: 2/3 of 100 is 66% ..... (no need to argue that really it should be 66.66666%) . keep in mind that Airbnb only considers the "overall experience" choice a guest makes for this computation.

[Annette33]

Once you get the hang of how the rating numbers work, it is actually rather easy: though all bars are shown, for their rating purposes Airbnb ONLY considers the overall experience.

You see that twice: once written up briefly under the 5 stars shown on the left side, when you scroll down on your stats page where under the stars shown it might say something like 5 star trips=66% of your trips  - and then it comes up again, with a bit more detail on the right side, where the overall experience is highlighted in a green bar:  you can click individually through all the different components listed on the left side , but they don't really matter. So I bet you got two 5 stars there for overall experience, then one 4 star for overall experience underneath, which means 2 out of your 3 trips were 5 star = 66% ! So there you have it 🙂

So here is a screen shot of mine - out of 12 "trips" 11 were 5 star = 91 or 92%.

Overall, it all will work out, you will get some experience under your belt and relax about the whole thing.

There are quite a few hosts, me included, who think this rat race for 5 stars is ridicilous and Airbnb needs to lighten up on it. As it happened to me, this one person with the 4 overall stars gave us 5 stars for all the sub categories, then "only" 4 for overall, go figure!

I would never ask or gently "guide" a guest to give us a good or great rating - that is up to them. I just do the best I can, and that is good enough.

Happy Hosting!

Annette

[Lisa333]

Annette, It still does not explain how all 5 star ratings gives a 4 star 'overall' rating. This does not compute and cannot be seen by hosts as to the reasoning behind the rating.

Lisa

[Annette33]

@Lisa333 , guests don't give a reason for any of their star ratings. So yes, it doesn't make sense that a guest can give you 5 stars in all sub categories, but then gives you a 5 star overall rating - which is a separate one they decide on, not the accumulation of all the others. It is that "overall experience" choice they make that Airbnb considers in their ratings/rankings. there actually is a way to monitor which guests gave you which stars in their ranking  - I explained it somewhere else, basically you just have to go back to your detailed rankings synopsis every time after a guest  has given you a review and compare it to what it was before. Tedious, but it gives you the idea of who gave you the "bad" ranking you may suddenly see. And holy smokes, I found it without being a Mensa member! 

Quite a few of us hosts seems to have issues with Airbnb for the way they handle the star system and ratings. I personally don't give it too much energy, it is what it is, I just go about and do the best job I can hosting.

[Lisa333]

Hello,

Yes, it is strange to get 5 stars on all ratings and then a 4 on overall experience. It would make more sense to have the 'overall' category be an average of the subcategories, especially since the guest do not explain. . .and it could possibly be an error when they hit the 4 instead of the 5. Well, I know that they enjoyed themselves and I even adopted them ;-). Will probably see at least one of them this coming spring.

 I will not stress over things I cannot change and unless Airbnb changes this for the better, then we're stuck. And as to your other messages, I did go find the page you are speaking of. That is where I saw the 5 stars on subcategories and 4 stars on overall experience category. And yes, I also quite easily knew the 2/3 = 67%. But these are still incorrect as first mentioned. If this were done 'correctly' then the subcategories would average to overall experience and then, of course, the final overall experience rating (now automatically calculated) becomes part of the equation/algorithm in the Airbnb system. The correct percentage would then show as well.

Best to you,

Lisa

Thank you for the feedback,

Lisa

[Annette33]

@Steven-and-Ann0, not sure you have  seen my answer above. Hope you did - and hope it helped! 

[Gary-And-Rose0]

Curious where you see the star ratings. I have had two stays now with steller reviews but dont see any star ratings. 

Thanks all

[Annette33]

@Gary-And-Rose0 , star ratings and more details are all visible to you on your stats page, you gotta be logged in though. Perhaps the stars only come up after you had 5 reviews. good luck!