5 Star Rating System flawed

[Andrea522]

The rating system is out of 5 stars where I am (switzerland) but a lot of guests just give 4 stars and a really good review, perhaps thinking that "perfection is unatainable" which is a resonable position to hold.

But then Airbnb threatens to delist my listing because i'm at 4.4 and I'm seeing a message saying "you're at risk" on my page. 

How does this make sense ? How can you expect everyone to rate 5 stars ? People don't understand that 4 stars in bad in the eyes of the site. That's a relatively good rating in their view. 

I think the rating system should consider 3 stars the cut off level, not 4. That's extreme in my view. 

All this is doing is pushing people to try to game the system by asking for 5 star reviews. Please change this !! 

[Judy29]

I have challenged Airbnb several times on this subject.  Their ears dont hear me!  My superhost rating dropped overnight with a review that was false.  One guests answered all questions with a five star and then gave an overall of 4.  Another guests (first timer) didnt know how to communicate and blamed me for locking her out of the accommodations.  There was one key, six people...a lock box with a code number.  I texted her when I discoverd the guests all gone and the doors and windows all open (and we have A/C).  I secured the house and texted her to let her know that the key was in the lock box.  Also mentioned that I did not spin the tumbler just incase it was too dark or they were too drunk to figure the code.  I got a 1 star for communication, a 3 Star overall rating, a "lecture review" from the guest...and one kidiot who tried to put me in my place by suggesting I way trying to kick him off the property when I came over to meet the group.  He "reminded me that we as hosts are not to come on the property when guests are there".   I suspect he was paranoid and anxious from a drug overdose (really!)  He accused me of locking him out of the house and was not accepting of me mentioning "if it is in the house, it stays in the house).  That guests was so paranoid, he removed part of the bedding from the house to use in his car cause of the dog hair????  What dog????

And when mentioning all of this to Airbnb, the only commends I get..."sorry you are having difficulties".  I have since removed the two bedroom house accommodations and the flat will be coming down after the summer.  I refuse to be insulted by kidots and having my experience from 1975 (yes well of 30 years in this business) challenged by 25 year old children!

[Aaron286]

I think the system is flawed on many levels, the most obvious is using stars. An inexperienced guest will equate these with hotel stars and therefore rate a place that isn't five star as a three or four star experience, this is despite receiving a price that reflects this and beats hotels etc. If Airbnb is going to hold hosts to a 4.8-or-above standard then they need to educate guests that they essentially are practicing grade-inflation in this system and to respond accordingly.

Another garing error is they ask guests to rate across six dimensions, check-in, communication etc. 

however only the overall rating, i.e., the most subjective "how was it for you overall?" score counts.

This is the least accurate as it has no empirical basis, so you may get an averaged score of 4.5 but 

an overall 3. I teach college and this would not pass muster where I work, we'd have a student mutiny. 

Airbnb is now valued at $31 Billion, that's right Billion dollars. Is it really so hard to execute a few fixes that significantly affect this from their supplier (host) side?

[Penelope14]

I am blessed with many 5 star reviews, but I agree the system is flawed.   I had one guest mark me down because the location was too far out of town for them.   They could see on a map where I was and chose a space advertised as "in the woods" and a "secluded retreat."   There was also a glitch in one guest's GPS and they faulted me in the location rating.    A friend who is also a host has a little note in the greeting/house manual to explain that the ratings are about how accurate the listing is.    It's not about whether we offer a five star hotel experience.   It helps to educate guests a bit.

[Chloe114]

I absolutely agree. I have stayed in places which were very pleasant but I would be inclined not to give 5 stars because there were a few minor drawbacks (sometimes not the fault of the host at all- like the location).  end up giving an inflated 5 star review because I don't want them to be penalised. but I find the inflated reviews very unhelpful when I am trying to choose between hosts in a new location and I'd prefer an honest review. It should work like hotels- 3 stars is good, 4 stars really good and 5 stars reserved for mind-blowing experiences! I posted in a facebook group for travellers and everyone agreed that an honest, balanced review would be much better. it's also much fairer on hosts if everyone has accurate reviews.

[Ange2]

@Chloe114   I agree. But for Airbnb 5-stars is a pass and the rest are varying levels of fail. An idiotic system and very confusing - it's like Uber, drivers are fired for less than an average of 4.8 stars.

[Nelson59]

The Airbnb rating system is just plan and simple bizzare!!  I'm currently a superhost, but I see losing it in the near future.  In what other world is anything below 4.7 out of 5 invoke threats of delisting.  Why bother with the 1-4 stars.  In my opinion Airbnb needs to do a better job educating their customers, our guests, on how the rating system works.  I have volumes of wonderful verbal reviews singing my praises followed by 4 stars. Obviously they think I'm great just not walking on water.  My opinion this is abuse!!

[Leif-L0]

In my world, as a guest, I put stars after what I get in relation to the description. And of course how the host takes care during my stay.

Can anyone expect the same service and standard as Hilton etc. to a Airbnb-price? Probably there should be an explanation how the star system shall be used.

[Jean174]

The Airbnb review system should really change! I just had a girl who decided on Day 3 that she was unhappy and did not want to pay for her stay. And she got away with it. She only made a partial payment, left me without a booking for 3 days because she shortened her stay, gave me a lousy review for no sensible reason and when I reviewed her, Airbnb took it down because I mentioned personal information. Can't contact customer support -- keep calling and calling and calling.  After 7 years as an Airbnb SuperHost and 2 Plus listings, I may have to look elsewhere. 

[Anders25]

Hi, I have a different question; as of today we have a 4.9 overall rating, which is good, and we have superhost status. But running the numbers, something is not adding up: it shows we have 87 reviews in total - but when I flip through the different star ratings I only see:

1 two star review (2 stars)

2 three stars review (6 stars)

5 four star reviews (20 stars)

78 five star reviews (78*5=390 stars)

So a total of 1+2+5+78 = 86 reviews.

So total stars: 2+6+20+390 stars = 418 stars

418 / 87 = would give us 4.8046 - a 4,8 rating.

But 

418 / 86 = would give us 4.8605- a 4,9 rating.

So it looks like it is using the 86, and not the 87. Just not sure why it shows we have 87 reviews. 

One theory: in the very beginning when we listed the space I didn't know what I was doing and I cancelled a booking (2 months before the guests were meant to come, so it was hardly a problem for the guests...) - and then when I learned about the significance of cancelling I asked AIRBNB if we could have a "do-over", and get off to a proper start. They allowed us to eliminated the automated review, probably as a one-off. It might be this automated review somehow in the background upping the number of reviews to show as 87, although only the 86 visible ones seem to be included in the overall average. Not sure.

Are others seeing something similar?

[Anders25]

Also a comment on the general, overall system.

I would guess that AIRBNB go "the other way around"; my guess is that they don't look at what is a rational use of the scale, rather I suppose they want a certain % of hosts to have super-host status; maybe they have a rough target of having say 25% of hosts being super-hosts; how can they hit that target? Wouldn't it simply be a matter of observing how guests actually use the scoring system? If they can see that on average 40% of hosts have 4,8 stars or higher - and then factor in the other super-host requirements (no cencellations etc.), they just jiggle the various requirements until the way clients use the scoring system on a broader scale will roughly equate to the desired 25% of hosts becoming super-hosts.

By the same token, AIRBNB might want to cull the 10-15% poorest performing hosts. Same logic would apply.

If this is how it works (if this is how AIRBNB settle on the thresholds for super host status or delisting) it would also mean that arguing that "it's not rational to see 4 stars as a poor review" is fundamentally just not a relevant observation - it doesn't matter. The only thing that would matter (if indeed this is how it works, which I don't know) is how guests use the rating system - and the % of hosts that AIRBNB would like to see having super host status/culled; then the superhost/culling thresholds would be dictated by those driving forces.

Does that make sense?

[Jenny868]

I've not been hosting for very long but early on achieved superhost status following a series of 5star reviews.Then bafflingly there came some 4stars overall ratings despite full 5 star ratings for all individual areas. Unfortunately One guest gave 3 stars after a lot of complaining over ridiculous things..she insisted that the fossil pattern on our stone sink was toothpaste! Complained about the height of the chairs etc. Her husband took our house manager to one side and said ' don't worry, shes always like this' Its such a shame as I've just lost my super host status and I wouldn't want to embark on criticizing the guest over what might be some mental health issue! Anyway, what I dont quite understand is that if I have 13 x5star reviews, 6x 4 star reviews and 1 x 3 star reviews (92 stars out of a possible 100 over 20 reviews) then how come I have a 4.6 star rating? I'm probably not grasping the maths..can some clever experienced host talk me through this please? Thank you!

[Molly277]

We are judged in incremental values i.e. 4.8 stars for Superhost, however, a guest may only leave a 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5-star review.  At the very least, the points in the review system should align with the ones required to maintain a certain status here by letting guests leave incremental reviews.  If Airbnb isn't willing to change that, then they should consider aligning their requirements with the star levels.  Promoting perfection has created monsters in many cases.