A question for French hosts and guests

[Huma0]

If you're a Superhost, or aiming to be one, or probably just trying to do your best as a host, you will know how your heart can sink each time you receive a 4 star review, especially as it seems to take so many 5 star reviews to recover from one.

Luckily, I don't get too many 4 star reviews, but a disproportionate percentage of them come from French guests. It has come to the point where everytime I host someone French, I brace myself for that 4 stars, regardless of how much they seemed to enjoy their stay. When you check up on them during their stay, they always say everything is perfect and they don't need anything else, but then complain about stuff in their feedback that you could have sorted out for them.

It happened again with the French couple who stayed this week. They seemed to be very happy here, we had lots of nice chats and when I checked up on them, they said everything was great. They wrote a charming note with little pictures in my guest book saying they would love to stay again, a very nice message thanking me after they left and a positive review, but gave me 4 stars overall. The only feedback was that I could have turned the heating up a bit. If they had mentioned it, I would have!!

My question is, do the French just not give 5 stars? Is this a cultural thing? Also, why won't they tell you if they are not happy with something when you ask them if there's anything else they need? It's not like the French are particularly shy! Sorry to generalise about a particular nationality, but I seem to experience this with almost every French guest. I'm trying to remember one that left me 5 stars and can't.

I don't want to stop hosting French people, so what can I, and other hosts, do to get that all important 5 star rating from our French guests? Help!

[Helen427]

@Huma0@Neli5@Olivier291@Carl-and-Elodie0@Ange2

I recently hosted a very delightful French descent Guest who has lived primarily in Nouvelle Caledonia, where he was born to French parents and travels to france from time to time where he has relations.

He gave me a 5 star rating across the board, however I did notice he did copy & paste some pieces of info from an earlier guest's review, perhaps because his written English isn't quite so perfect, his spoken English was very good although he didn't think so, mmm I laughed as I'm not sure who was the greater chatterbox of us both when he stayed!

I'm looking fwd to hosting him again next time he visits Auckland.

All the best

[Michael956]

Interesting. I've never gotten less than a 5 star rating from any of my European guests, including my French guests.  I think the trick is to make sure you connect with them on a personal level.  I try to have at least one in-depth conversation with them during their stay, usually at breakfast where we talk about their trip, their impressions of my city, politics (Europeans love to trash talk Trump, and I love to, too!).  It's that personal "one-on-one" attention that, in my opinion anyway, brings in the 5 star review.  

[Huma0]

@Michael956

Yes, it's true that it's important to try to connect with guests when you can (not all of them want this though). However, I spent a lot of time chatting with the recent French couple about all sorts of things, even if it was mostly in my broken French. We got on very well. The areas they marked me down on were Accuracy and Location. I am not sure what the issue was with Accuracy as they told me everything was perfect when I asked. Perhaps that too had something to do with the location? 

I did not have any 'quality' time with the older French couple I mentioned and they gave me 3 stars for communication because they didn't see me after check in. However, I think this is unfair. I was at home and spent plenty of time chatting with the other who were staying. This couple were out all the time and that is why I didn't see them. Also, they didn't speak any English and brought their daughter to translate when they checked in. I tried to engage with them at the time, but they just directed all their questions to their daughter. They weren't particularly friendly.

Since I started this post, I had another French couple stay and they were absolutely lovely. We did spend a lot of time chatting, this time in English as they spoke it well. I am yet to read their review and will be disappointed if it's 4 star, but I'm preparing myself for it to be, even though they seemed very happy here. Unless there is negative feedback, I will just assume that the 4 stars means everything was good for them.

[Michael956]

@Huma0  Very frustrating, indeed.  Something I will never understand is how Airbnb presents a 4 Star as "good" to the guest when they do their review, but considers it a "fail" on the host's end.  Airbnb will never explain or justify that contradiction and it's a serious flaw in rating sytem and one that most frustrates and and in some cases burns out hosts.  

[Huma0]

@Michael956

Happy New Year!

I agree. That contradiction is the biggest problem and I am really not sure why Airbnb refuses to address it. They must certainly be aware that it causes a lot of stress for hosts. I can't think of a logicial reason why they do it. There must be a reason surely? But then, if there was a logicial explanation, I think they would have communicated it by now...

[Huma0]

Just read the review from the recent lovely couple I mentioned. Yay! It is 5 stars and all positive. I feel like I am finally getting somewhere with my French visitors.

"Parfait! Première visite officielle à Londres. La maison d’Huma est chaleureuse et décorée avec beaucoup de gouts. Authentique et so british! I love it! Elle est très bien située (ligne de bus et metro). Le quartier est tranquille même, s’il y a du passage. Huma est très accueillante et réactive. Elle a fait le nécessaire pour que notre séjour se déroule à merveille. J’y retournerai avec plaisir!"

[Natalia529]

This literally just happened to me today. Customer service for me has always been priority in everything I do. Therefore I make sure all things are in perfect order with our place specially cleaning and communication. This is he first time a received a French guest. I’m a super host and all my ratings have been 5 starts overall, how does it make sense that this guest gives me 3 stars?

Location 3 , what does this really mean? The map is accurate and the building is next to 4 hotels and in the description has listed all the places nearby.

Value 3, what’s does this mean really? You are staying next to 4 hotels and paid much less. 

Cleanliness 4, This is the most important for me, i make sure is spotless and the mayority of guest has point it our the cleaning been spotless. 

Checkin 4 , Seriously? Our checking is Lock box code which is a easy access. Not only that but we also provided early checking for her. 

Communication 5 , i was always available and responded quickly therefore if acknowledged communication was a 5 then why not explain what we can do better to make satisfied their accommodations.

So overall a rate of 3 stars and to make it better her feedback was : . (Yes, just a dot) 

i gave her a 5 stars rate because she did deserve it in all fairness she left the apartment in perfect condition would be fair to rate her less than that in my eyes. But really do I deserve 3 stars. If this is a cultural thing of the French then is very unfair and at the same sad because then we will consider it before hosting. 

Its there any any way her review and rating can be reported and unfair? Has someone been successful at it?

I did my best by writing her a message in order to educate. This is what a wrote: 

Good evening ,

I believe that your evaluation was unfair. We do everything to make sure all of our guest are confortable and keep the apartment spotless as you can see by other guests. Communication is important and we response to all quickly too insure our guest are having a perfect stay. It is very important to rate fairly because this truly affects reputation of hosts. Hoping you consider your next host and provided a fair review. Thank you!

[Huma0]

@Natalia529

I am very sorry to hear that. Of course, if you have only ever had 5 star ratings and then your first French guest gives you 3 stars, you have to wonder what is going on! 

To be honest, I don't think you will have much luck getting the review removed as Airbnb will only remove it if it violates the content policy and, even then, they might not remove the ratings. It depends really on what the guest said in their review rather than the ratings they gave.

However, there was mention a few months ago that Airbnb might consider removing one 'outlier' review for Superhosts if it was totally out of place with their other reviews. I am not sure if they are still planning on doing this as I have not heard it mentioned recently. I have over 200 reviews and only one of them is 3 stars. I would be very happy for it to be removed as I think it is unfair (this couple were impossible to please) but it is still there...

[Natalia529]

@Huma0 It’s funny that she (the guest) gave me 5 for communication but failed to communicated that the place was no up to her standards. 

I undersand they were thought there’s always room for improvement which I can agree, but in this business there’s not such thing. When people desire to rent someone else’s home they should already know to respect other people’s home.

- The decoration is up to the owners desired and when a guest selects a place they get to see where they are staying.

- The location is already posted and it even gives you a chance to see what there’s around. Even google can assist to see it clearly in 3D. 

- The rate, well that’s easier. You get to compare other places in the area with just a click. But also you can google the surranding and see if there’s hotels near by to compare rates. 

So really the standards should be only a house sparkling clean, amenities and communication. The rest is completely unnecessary because everyone has their on likes or dislikes and their surranding and decoration but still they saw your place, requested to book and paid for it knowing all the details before hand. For checking? You get a key or maybe a tour. What’s really the point of rating that?

There’s no surprises, what you see in the pictures and the description is what you get. So why exactly Guest still get to rate (Location, Value, Checking). Hopefully this 3 things get revised. Good luck for all of US. 

[Huma0]

@Natalia529 

Well, I think the check in experience can vary in quality. I personally greet 99% of my guests (and if I can't, I get someone I trust to do so) and give them a thorough tour. Not everyone does that, but I find that my guests really appreciate it.

However, I agree that location and value seem stupid things to rate the host on, because these are choices the guest makes when booking, having full knowledge of both the location and the price. The only thing they would justifiably be able to mark down in terms of this is if the listing location had been incorrectly described or what was on offer was not good value because it was not what was described on the listing. Both these issues can be ticked off by the Accuracy category, so there is really no need to mark the host on inaccuracy of locatation/amenities offered for the price.

[Natalia529]

@Huma0 

I will prefer to use the comment section to point out of the place wasn’t has describe better that selecting 1-5 rating. But should be a big difference not just a different color sheets 😬

I appreciate your input very much, reading your comments I fell much better and not taking the 3 stars too seriously. Thank you!

[Huma0]

@Natalia529 

A 3 star rating huts of course, especially when you work so hard to try to make everything wondeful for your guests and you know they are getting a good deal for the price they are paying. Unfortunately, some guests do not take into consideration several factiors, e.g.

- They chose the location and the listing at that price. If there had been a better located and better listing for the same price or less, they would have booked it, but this was by far the best on offer for their budget, so they should really not mark it down on location or value.

- Some guests are going to find something to complain about no matter what. Well, we as hosts could do the same, but I like to hope we have a bit more understanding. I recently hosted a very annoying girl who barely left the house and constantly interrupted me for no important reason while I was trying to get on with my work even though she knew I was very busy. A friend asked me if I was going to mark her down for this in my review and I said, "No, she didn't do anything wrong. I don't say on my lising 'Don't talk to me more than 3-4 times a day!'"

[Nicole360]

Bonjour Huma,
je rejoins tardivement cette discussion et ne peux que compatir avec vous sur une notation injustifiée, obtenue par vos voyageurs..... français  , ayant eu la même déception l'an passé avec des voyageurs anglais ...il ne faut pas généraliser car  comme vos voyageurs français ils étaient trés satisfaits , et ont pensé en me notant que 4 étoiles étaient une excellente notation ???...
Nul n'est à l'abri d'une notation injustifiée , qui déclasse  l'annonce et la rend moins accessible à la location. C'est extrêmement décevant lorque tous les efforts sont accomplis pour offrir le meilleur de l'accueil .
- un seul commentaire négatif peut à mon avis effacer tous les autres bons commentaires car les voyageurs prennent -ils le temps de tout lire  pour ce faire une idée précise du lieu , de regarder toutes les photos ?    
Extrémement exigeants et pas toujours soigneux , l'expérience d'hôte est souvent trés difficile et décevante parfois .

[Huma0]

@Nicole360

Sorry, my French is not good enough to respond to you properly and I don't trust Google Translate! It is interesting to hear that you had the same experience with English guests. Actually, I mentioned earlier in this post that I also found the British to be quite critical and likely to give 4 stars when they seemed perfectly happy during their stay. I guess the French and British are very similar in this respect!

I have heard many hosts say the same thing about Dutch guests, but I have not found them so hard to please. 

[Sudsrung0]

I heard of a guest said to my friend she never gives 5 stars because there is alway room for improvment good job it wasnt me she said it to I would have replied "Likewise"