4 star reviews because of things mentioned in listing description

[Charlie227]

I find that most of the 4 star reviews are due to things clearly stated in my listing description, like the fact that there is no bathroom on the second floor where the rooms I rent out are located.  It already says this multiple times in my listing but people keep holding it against my place.  Has anyone found a solution to this?

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Charlie227 

eehh... people book a place they can afford and not the one they really want, so they are not perfectly happy about their choice and the result is less than 5* review.

The same problem have hosts at not so desirable locations

[Lisa1831]

@Charlie227 

Hi Charlie, I would suggest you add that bathroom information to the "You must also acknowledge" section. So they are definitely confirming they read it. 

[Chris232]

@Charlie227 

Hi Charlie, I have a down stairs bathroom which is described in the listing. As soon as a reservation is made a welcome message is sent, part of which is shown below;

Breakfast is available in the morning, with a choice of cereal, fruit juice and yoghurt, If you have a specific requirement ie. type of Cereal we are very happy to oblige.

As the bathroom is downstairs a freshly laundered  Bathrobe/Dressing Gown is supplied

* Just a quick reminder that it's a no shoes policy in the house,... one of the banes of having light coloured carpets**
** That this is a non smoking home and we can only accept non smokers **

We look forward to welcoming you and hope you will enjoy our home.

This helps the guests to understand the dynamics of the home and they are far more appreciative that a dressing gown is supplied

Chris

[Kath9]

@Charlie227, it's beyond frustrating and, frankly, it's totally unfair when guests do this. I recently had a guest who marked me down in all categories based on things clearly described in my listing (e.g. no TV, wasn't able to sit in lounge room) and also complained about a late check in when I specifically opened up an extra night for them at inconvenience to myself and told them there would be a later than normal check in if they wanted that night (which they agreed to). On their part, there were multiple issues, including attempting to make a third party booking, zero communication re arrival time (which I need to plan my day and sent multiple messages about), no profile photo and leaving the room a mess, including a permanent stain on the floor. When they arrived, it was clear to me they had not read the listing because of the questions they asked. They clearly thought that for $50 a night, they got the whole house. I called Airbnb and complained about the review but they won't take it down because 'the guest is entitled to their opinion'.

I always message guests when they book or request to book, asking them to confirm that they have read the listing and house rules thoroughly and that if it isn't suitable, they have 48 hours to cancel for free. It seems to help, but you will always get guests who don't read the listing and then complain. In my opinion, reviews based on guests' failure to read the listing should be removed.

[Anthony608]

I've had about 25% of my reviews being 4 stars and, of those, 90% were for ridiculous reasons.  The 10% that were not, I paid close attention to the issues which were raised and tried to correct them.  But for the others, I've come to the conclusion that some people just will not be happy no matter what they are provided and that there is little point arguing with them about why they gave only 4 stars. 

Some people will say things like "it wasn't a hotel" or book the room, knowing full well the location and proximity to the city, then mark the rating down that the location was not good.  I actually just had a pair of women from Germany, who I even offered to go and pick up their take-out for them at a local restaurant, and asked them several times (in German) if they needed anything else for their stay.  They acted very nice, said everything was wonderful and then- four stars in every category, one category a three star, and four overall. 

I have to remind myself these are strangers who I know for only two, maybe three days at a time, and there is no telling what they are really thinking.

[Rowena29]

@Charlie227 ,

I think @Kath9 's  solution is a good one and I do something almost identical - ie I re iterate the problem area in my welcome message saying " just confirming as descried in the listing..... and tell them to cancel if they're not happy.  If they don't reply, I either text them on their mobile alerting them to the fact that there's a message in their airbnb inbox, or guest CS to ring them

@Anthony608 I think  a large part of the problem with some guests and star ratings is that airbnb more or less tells guests that 3 stars is a perfectly good rating to leave. guests just don't' realise the effect less than 5 can have and most are stunned to learn.   Many hosts leave some information re this in their house manual.  I know I now do.  I just say, "we're penalised for anything less than 5 stars.   5 stars doesn't mean absolutely perfect, it just means you were pretty happy with everything and there were no real problems."

Up until encountering airbnb's ridiculous system I was the sort of person that never left 5 stars or 10 stars - because in my world and upbringing,  that meant perfection and nothing is ever perfect.   Most Guests aren't being deliberately  vindictive, they're very poorly informed by airbnb. They are told 5 stars means "exceeded my expectations"  Well if you'already have heaps of glowing reviews, the guests is going to come with very high expectations that aren't LIKELY to be exceeded

[Anthony608]

@Rowena29- Absolutely.  I have as a part of my house book a page which clearly spells out the rating system and informs the guest that below five stars is considered unsatisfactory by AirBNB.  I have it as the last page in the manual, so it doesn't look like I'm desperate to put it in the front, but then as the last page the guest is bound to see it as they flip through the book to the end (if they flip through the book - more on that in a second).

The problem I've found is that if they don't read the book, or if they don't do well reading English, sometimes they will not know.  Guests from France have mostly given all four star reviews, no matter what, and I can only think that they don't even bother opening up the book to see the notice about the ratings.  On the reverse, I've never received anything less than five stars from guests hailing from South America.

Nobody has stayed with me from Australia yet.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

The responsibility for all this is entirely Airbnb's.

Why are we as hosts needing to hen-peck guests with repeated house rules and descriptive detail when it has all been written before and agreed to by the guests before booking?

The details are already there in the booking agreement. If a review ensues which can clearly be shown was a lazy mistake on behalf of the guest then their review should just be removed.

Like many of the posts here we let the guests decide on booking by providing all the information needed, often in duplicate and also re-iterated by Airbnb messages. Still guests will complain about things they are informed about!