"New to aribnb" guests leaving poor star ratings and what to do about it...

[Michael144]

Hi All,

I have not tried posting here, so I am going to and see if I can get some feedback and figure out what to do and if my ideas are good.

For context:

We are relatively new to hosting, though we have now gotten a superhost status, and I have 14 reviews and 18 completed trips (probably will be 17 reviews by the time they time out, seems almost everyone leaves a review).  We do not list our place all the time, and when we do we have almost always had bookings come in.

We have almost all 5 star reviews for everything.  The only reviews we seem to get that are not 5 stars across the board are from people who are new to airbnb, and leave positive comments, and seemed to be completely happy with the place, but decide to leave 4 star or 3 star reviews appearing to believe that is a positive review.

I do not know how airbnb explains the rating system to guests, I was a guest before I was a host and the thought of giving the host less than 5 stars did not cross my mind as the place was as I expected it to be.  I have started with my last few "new to airbnb" guests, sending the below message.  I am posting here to see what other hosts and guests might think?  I am not sure about this, but I thought at least a guest should know if they are going to rate us poorly with 3 or 4 stars that it is a problem for us and negative since they cannot change it after.  What do you think?

Hi (guest name),

I wanted to thank you for staying with us and tell you I hoped everything was great in your stay. I wanted to ask if you could leave us 5 stars for a general review, and to leave us 5 stars on each of the sub sections. If you do decide to give us any negative reviews (less than 5 stars) I hope you can tell us what we can do better and I promise we will make adjustments based on your feedback. You can leave us 5 stars and still tell us what we can do better and we will certainly take your advice, but leaving us less than 5 stars is encouraging people to avoid staying with us

I am asking because I noticed you are new to Airbnb and I wanted to tell you that on Airbnb anything below 5 stars is a negative review. I have not left you a review yet, and when I do I will give you 5 stars on everything because you were a great guest (anything less than 5 stars would be telling other hosts not to have you stay with them). You can change your review until I leave you one, so I wanted to give you a chance to update your review if you wanted to. Any section with 4 stars tells people you would not recommend staying with us, and a 3 star review is equal to warning people to stay away. I hope you are able to give us all 5 stars, it would be greatly appreciated. In general on Airbnb giving no review is the way to say things were less than perfect, but giving 4 stars is very negative and lets people know they should not stay with us.

I hope that helps, I am only sending this because we have had a few people new to airbnb leave us a 4 star review and later not understand that was a very negative rating. We have reached Super Host status on Airbnb, and for reference we would lose that rating if 2 of 10 people gave us a rating of anything less than 5 stars. We hate to have to ask and explain in regard to reviews, but every negative review we have gotten has been from someone who told us they loved staying with us and would recommend us, but still gave us 4 stars because they thought that was a positive review and this has hurt our ability to rent our place.

I hope you had a great stay and a great trip home! Please let us know if you would like to stay in Santa Monica again!

Thanks,

Michael ***

I am interested if anyone has any ideas or thoughts about this.  I am thinking of just starting to refuse bookings from new members, but I actually want to allow new members a chance to stay at a nice place if they seem reasonable, though I am thinking it might just not be worth it.  We have never gotten anything but 5 stars across the board from people with any previous experience and ratings.

I think many people who are new to airbnb think my home is a hotel, and when it is not they think that is some kind of failing even though it was exactly as described and is well taken care of etc.

I had responded to some guests in the review response the past, but I think that is probably not as helpful as I wish it would be, because future hosts do not see that unless they do some research.  I have taken to clicking on the hosts who have reviewed people before I approve a booking so I can read any responses the previous host has left to the guest review.  I am not sure how many people do this, but I think we should since we cannot know what a guest has said until we leave a review, and anything that has to do with the review process will not be visible other than in the response from the host.   Of course, for new people who have no reviews, this is not helpful at all.

I recently had one guest, that though he left me a good review and a good star rating seemed offended by the fact I sent him the message asking for the 5 stars and explaining what I think the reviews actually describe to the community.  I would rather have positive reviews and a negative private message, but honestly I am thinking maybe just refusing bookings from new members might be the way to go.

Do experienced hosts with nice places eventually just start refusing bookings from new members to avoid this drama?

Thanks for any comments or experience!

[Alper1]

I faced the same problem 2 times recently. Guests left awesome reviews and gave 4 stars. Then I go back and explain the review system and they are like, so sorry we did not know. we rated the listing based on hotel stars. They go back to alter and obviously they cant and you are stuck with it. I sort of find the guidance messages cheesy but does not look like airbnb does not thing about it. I complained but didnt sound like I am the only one nor the first one(i can see that after seeing this string). This happens with especially new members. I think airbnb should explain or give guidelines about what those stars mean...

[Yazira-and-Amir0]

I just had the same, when asked the reason for leaving 4-star review so i can improve, she said "I always give 4-star"

[Tracy0]

I find this is partly cultural as well. I get guests from two particular European counries now and then and they ALWAYS leave a 4 star 'because nothing is perfect' - and I'm sure they do it everywhere they visit.  I learned to stop taking it personally however it does affect ratings!  (I just got warned for having 87% acceptance rate, when my target is 88% - despite having 4.9 stars - I was told my account could be blocked. Now - most of my declines are totally inappropriate guests (they want 5 people in a room max 3, they didn't read the house rules and were intending in their message to break them etc).  The whole system is broken. 

[Christian192]

The house rules section of our listing ends with: "This is important to us: if after your stay you intend to award fewer than five stars in any category, please tell us which category and why. Also we need to know if there's anything anything at all that you'd like us to have done differently. Feedback is always welcome." We recently received four stars from a guest who ignored that request. She left an enthusiastic review but said in her private feedback that we should (a) include photos of the bedroom and also (b) mention that our living room (which is separate from the 3-room guest suite) is shared by us and our guests. When I pointed out that photographs of the bedroom are indeed included in the listing, and that the text twice mentions the fact that the living room is shared, she replied that she hadn't read the listing! 

In fact---and I've heard this from other hosts also---it's quite often the case that guests don't fully read Airbnb listings. 

No system is perfect. Same with us human beans 🙂 

[Wendy-and-Frank0]

Print a small sign, frame it, leave it on the night stand.  Or create business cards, add it to your guest book, whatever.

Possible language:

"If I've met five-star expectations, please tell Air BNB so other guests will know to come.

If I haven't, please tell me so I can fix it."

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

I would never ask for review or 5 star rating, it sounds desperate to me. I would certainly not try to educate my guests about Airbnb ratings. I think some hosts could be more relaxed about hosting , it would be better for them and for guests and for their business. All social relations are better when you are easy going, witty and relaxed 🙂 If you try / push to hard or if you are to serious you will ruin it even if your intentions are good.

If you don't have enough 5 stars than something is not right. Maybe your listing is to expensive, or unconfortable or just to boring.... improve it and great reviews will follow 🙂

end no, you will never have all 5 stars, it is impossible to please everyone

[Lydia52]

YES! You are exactly right about people not understanding and how bad even one 4 star review can be. 

[Peter-and-Marilyn0]

Hi, I have been hosting for a number of years with Airbnb and usually have 5 star reviews. Then suddenly a few 4 star reviews.

Even when they say it was perfect, spottlessly clean, great location, loved the extra little touches.

Was the weather poor? Hey! we live next to a beach the weather changes. Wi Fi slow? maybe it,s their device.

We have improved on perfect, after staying in some Airbnb ourselves we think ours is 5 Star.

So Airbnb we need to be able to give more feedback on the guest and you could tell which item in the review only had a lower score.

Show each rating!

Marilyn

[Helen-And-Phil0]

I am really feeling this at the moment too. I've just had two guests leaving excellent reviews. One gave us 5* in every category, and then only 4* for the overall score - so am following people's ides with interest. I think part of the problem is new to Airbnb guests think 4/5 is a good score. Airbnb then send those emails that say 'you've recently received low ratings for xxxxx' even with 4 stars, they are telling us it's a low score :(. I wonder if there is a way Airbnb can educate new Airbnb guests about the system. I certainly wouldn't want to pressure guests myself. 

[Sally44]

I provided this feedback to Airbnb on their recent survey.  Hopefully they will come to understand that their rating system needs to further developed as people really aren't sure how it really works for hosts.  

[Helen-And-Phil0]

Thanks Sally, yes I did too. Hopefully something will change, because it's not at all fair right now 😞

[Peter-and-Marilyn0]

To airbnb hosts,

I think hosts should be able to see each individual set of stars. otherwise how can you fix the problem. It's confusing when guests leave a thankyou in my guest book, saying what a fabulous stay. Then maybe mark us down in their review in airbnb. 

One guest said the television was too loud and she couldn't turn it down. It turned out she was tying to use the DVD remote. 

 My point is we as hosts need to see the results, cleanliness 3 stars, why? Location 4 stars why?. 

I have been with airbnb 3 years, renting out 5. Worked in a 4 star hotel. Everyone has different standards but when you provide top notch accomodation you expect good results.

We have stayed in quite a few airbnb's around the country. All had short comings.

 Examples:- shoes and boxes under the bed. Clothes in the wardrobe. Cats walking over the worktops in the kitchen. Host asked for money for breakfast. Rusty kettle, one host had other guests staying and we were queuing for the one toilet. Parking 300 yards away, no TV, no heat on. 3/4 small bed for two people. Broken bed in one place. All these stays we gave stars fairly but commented about them to the host.

So we as hosts have made sure none of our guests experience any of the above. 

I expect to pay no more than £35  to 45 in a double room sharing a bathroom. 

£45  to 55 en-suite  for 2 people.

 £55 to 75 for a self contained en- suite studio. 

All with a continental breakfast. Cereal, juice, tea/ coffee. Otherwise you may as well stay in a Travel lodge.

I don't want guests to feel pressurised but if guests leave low rating when you know it deserves a 5, we need to be able to defend that review. I would scrap the stars system as its outdated in the hospitality business. Written reviews work best.

Thanks for reading. Marilyn and Peter

[Russell49]

Hosts do not need to give breakfast and if you are expecting breakfast, you should expect to pay. Simple as that.My property gives snacks (chips, chocolates, etc), coffee varieties, tea varieties, milk, etc...but when it comes to breakfast I have a breakfast menu that is high end to further/ upgrade their experience. We are at Air BnB, not a 5 star hotel (and I have worked in them as a chef) thus the prices reflect this. We also provide many entertainment options for free that a hotel would never offer. Air BnB needs to educate their new arrivals, simple as that.

[James400]

We're sick of the odd guest moaning, and giving us low ratings, because they can't be bothered to read the discription on our listing before booking. We had a guy moaning about our house being too far from the town, (Half an hour walk 1.5 miles) which we clearly mentioned in the listing, another woman moaning that we only had a sofa bed, again clearly mentioned in the listing. It's been worse since we've had superhost, even though we kept the prices the same, well below average, the snobs then came the ones want to pay a very cheap price but also want luxary. We're actually thinking of quiting after the summer as I can't abide these snobs anymore in our house. As for now, we're putting in the house rules 'READ THE WHOLE LISTING BEFORE BOOKING' But yes going back to your idea, it sounds great. Good luck 

[Christian192]

I sympathize. The first sentence in our listing's 'The Space' section says: "Please read all the information below. It will help you to decide if this is the right place for you." Nevertheless some guests evidently don't read it all, either before or after booking.

We have a no children, no pets policy, yet sometimes receive requests from people who want to bring children and dogs. Occasionally,  older American guests have expressed dismay about the steepness of the road to our house, even though the listing says: "The last half-mile stretch of road to our house . . . is steep, twisty, and quite narrow. Again: the last half mile to our house is steep, twisty, and quite narrow. If you want somewhere on a flat, straight, wide road, this is not the location for you." And often the questions asked in booking inquiries are answered in the listing. 

You can take a horse to water but . . .