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

Michael144
Level 2
Santa Monica, CA

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

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!

 

81 Replies 81
Marcus0
Level 10
Berlin, DE

Hi @Michael144 i did not read ALL of your post but can make one suggestion to you.  Summarise your follow up email to guests to say several lines, maybe a paragraph at the most.  The text should be done in a matter of thanking them, rathen than educating them on the star system.  With a shorter text you have a much higher chance of them reading it, understanding your request, and doing it.

 

A proper response from another host may take them some time and a coffee or two!

Good luck, from what i read i think for the most you are doing well.

 

 

I guess we live in a time where scanning 1000 words is unreasonable.  I imagine that is to be expected, thanks for taking the time to respond even without reading the whole post.  I am not sure your response has anything to do with the question I was asking, but thanks anyway.  I do not think I can say what needs to be said in a few lines or a paragraph without being rude, so in some way that is an answer.

Hi @Michael144,

 

If I know that I am going to give the guest a good review, I write their review and message the review to them.  I also tell them how important reviews are BUT I would not say, "please give me a five star review".  If someone said this to me, I might be tougher on the star ratings when reviewing them.

 

Here is an example of a message I sent to a recent guest whio checked out: 

 

"Hi Mark, Here is the review I left for you. Hopefully you can find the time to do the same as reviews are often the deciding factor when a guest books.

"Mark and his son were phenomenal guests during their stay in our suite. Mark was great to talk to and his communication throughout was quick and thorough. Mark left the suite in pristine condition and was an ideal guest. This was Mark's first stay using Airbnb and I would recommend him to any other host. Five star guest all the way! Cleanliness ★★★★★ Communication ★★★★★ Observance of House Rules ★★★★★"

 

I hope this helps.  I would not go into a long message.

 

David

Superhost Ambassador ~ Host Club Community Leader ~ Community Expert ~ Experienced Co-Host

@Dave-and-Deb0 I think maybe the point is missed when you say you might be harder and so I should worry about that.  I am not trying to get people who want to give us a negative review to give us a positive one.  I am trying to explain to people who are trying to give me a positive review that 4 stars is negative.  I do not believe any guest who has stayed with us was atempting to give us s negative or even neutral review, they told me they were very happy, the words in their review said they were very happy, they told me after when I asked that they thought they were giving me a positive review.  I believe even if they would have been harder, if they understood 4 stars was negative they would not have left us 4 star reviews.

 

I do think copying the review I have left them is a great idea, the only problem with that is that if I am not rating them first (they got to the raiting before me) then the rating is going to be permanent and they cannot change it once I put mine in.  I think maybe I will make sure I make the review first, immediately when it is possible, post a very glowing review and copy it for them so they can see it.  Of course I would not do this if I was going to give them a negative review, but so far that has not really been an issue.  I would not give a guest a lower than 5 star rating unless they were someone I would not host again.  Once more, I think grades of acceptable have no room in the Airbnb rating system, the stars are really just pass/fail and anything under 5 is fail.

 

I think that is a way to get it shorter, I am a believer in being direct and asking people truthfully for what I want.  I am not sure why you would punish someone for being clear and honest, but if you would prefer someone to hint at what they want instead of being honest I guess that is a personal choice.  I know our place deserves 5 stars with the way people rate places on Airbnb, we would probably deserve 5 stars if we did half the things we do, that is the problem with the rating system.  Since there is only 5 stars which is the highest rating, and 4 stars which is a negative review, there is no room for gradations of a good rating.  This is a failing in the rating systen in my opinion, but nonetheless it is true.  You need to read the text in the reviews to tell the difference between an exceptional 5 star and a normal 5 star, but a 4 star is a unit you should probably stay away from unless you have no choice.

While I do pride myself on having a five star rating, I find myself disappointed by the occasional guest who gives a 4 star rating for say location ( which is another discussion) but I am not sure that I agree with the premise that anything under five stars is a "negative". As an also traveler, diner at restaurants etc, I stay at places that get less than five stars. If you read afew reviews you can usually tell what the lower rating resulted from. So in that context I would question the message you want to send to guests to educate them. The rating system has five stars for a purpose, otherwise there should be a simple binary  thumbs up or thumbs down.

I would agree that 5 stars is a negative rating, because superhost status is based on the amount of 5 star ratings hosts have, I would also remind them how important our ratings are, since they do effect our income, and some guests simply do rate too harshly or base their poor rating on something the hosts cant do anything about, even if it was mentioned in the listing. Guests cant penalize a host for expecting something that wasnt listed, which has unjustifiably happened to me a few times.

HWith 4.8 being the new SH bar, this is important. Ask for it, let them know what their review will be. 

 

I got sloppy the last 2 times with newcomers and got 5 star across the board, except 4 star on the final. I'm down to the wire now at 4.8. 

That is a great idea thanks for sharing, I leave very good reviews, but of course the guest does not know until they are both published - I also think guests new to Airbnb may have unreasonable expectations

That is very true about the expectations.  I had one guest who was literally acting like my residence should have been run like a hotel. The overall rating was still 4 stars, but it was the lowest rating I have ever received.

I agree with the above feedback you've gotten. This is way too long of a message and I also don't think you need to educate someone on how 'star' ratings work. You could simply cut out everything you wrote past the first two sentences and be good.

@Michael144:  I agree with reducing this to a paragraph.  I, too, discuss this in one sentence in my Welcome card I leave for incoming Guests.  "We very much appreciate a five-star review, if you are able."  That's all it takes.  Guests HATE to read and are challenged to even read House Rules and House Manuals.  We are all constantly asked questions that are answered even multiple times in our listings.  I also can see an occasional Guest reading all those words on how they should rate you and interpreting your intent wrong, and even being offended.  Good Luck!  Lois

Teresa31
Level 9
Montana, United States

HI @Michael144...I agree with Marcus...shorter. Much shorter.

Sally44
Level 3
Brisbane, Australia

Hi @Michael144

 

This has happens to me too - I seem to get a lot of first time Airbnbers who treat my place like a hotel.  I feel the spirit of Airbnb is dead and now people see it as a way to get everything for less.  I LOVE your idea of an email and agree that Airbnb does mark us down for anything less than a 5 star review.  When agreeing to let people stay who have been reviewed I am more likely to read what other hosts have said rather than go by their star rating.  It seems we, as hosts , lose out, while guests are less impacted on a four star rating.

 

Have you sent it out to many people yet?  Got a good response?

 

Cheers Sally O 

@Sally44 Thank you so much for a positive response and understanding the point of my post.

 

I have sent out a few, so far all have come back all 5 stars but one of them came along with a criticism from the guest saying he did not like the message.  That is why I posted here to get more ideas.  I really like the idea of copying my review of them and telling them about it, I think I will do that, and make the message much shorter.  I just think need to somehow let people know 4 stars is a very negative review if I am going to keep renting to first time airbnb users.

 

I think short is important, the guest that was complaining mentioned the length also.  I am a person of many words, so that is a challenge but I will rise to it.  We live in a time where asking someone to spend 60 seconds reading something is somehow inherently offensive, so I just need to adapt.  At least I do know some people who do not mind actually considering and discussing something for more than 15 seconds, but I certainly need to not assume that is everyone, as it clearly is not.

 

I am glad I posted this I think I know better how I will proceed.  Just to make sure it is clear, I think rating systems that do not punish people for making inaccurate reviews (both positive and negative) and does not reward them for accurate reviews is deeply flawed and leads to this pass/fail type of system.  Since there is no punishment for giving people positive reviews they do not deserve, the only reason to give someone a negative review is if they were unacceptable for some reason.​