Is the Review scoring system work correctly?

[Ryan66]

I call ALL HOSTS who have suffered fake reviews, and even what you perceive as “legitimate” rating.

READ THIS.

Not only do we as hosts have to deal with false guest reviews, Airbnb are ALSO cheating you out of your hard earned 5 star ratings and REFUSE to acknowledge it and fix it.

I am a superhost, and I actually feel panicked every time a gusts leaves me a review, because I am in such fear that they have the power to give me anything below 5 star which I require to keep my superhost status, even though I know everything was perfect, and delivered as promised.

Your status as a superhost is constantly on thin ice, not because you are a bad host, but because you are being cheated by the system.

Airbnb’s system, the thing you thought was there to help you, is in fact against you.

Here is the proof.

When a guest reviews you, they review you based on the SIX (6) sub-categories presented to them which are:

• Accuracy
• Check-in
• Cleanliness
• Communication
• Location
• Value

Each sub-category is rated out of 5 stars. With a total of 6 sub-categories, this amounts to a total of 30 stars, which is considered 100%. 

You’re FINAL rating is based off 5 stars, This means that each FINAL star has a value of 20%, which is the direct influence on your superhost rating. 

THUS:

Lets take a 4 star rating as an example.

In order to give a host a FINAL rating of 4 stars, the host would need to be rated at a minimum of 19/30 stars or a maximum of 24/30 stars.

(30stars minus 20% = 24stars or 80% out of 100%)

Anything above this, (25 to 30 stars) should be considered a 5 star FINAL rating.

To put the maths of the other FINAL star rating together for you, it SHOULD be as follows:

1 STAR final = 0 to 20% (0 to 6/30 sub-category stars)
2 STAR final = 21 to 40% (7 to 12/30 sub-category stars)
3 STAR final = 41 to 60% (13 to 18/30 sub-category stars)
4 STAR final = 61 to 80% (19 to 24/30 sub-category stars)
5 STAR final = 81 to 100% (25 to 30/30 sub-category stars)

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Lets look at some example cases.

In order to be between 19 to 24 total subcategory stars (which would be a 4 star FINAL rating, a guest would have to rate you something like this:

• Accuracy : 4/5
• Check-in : 5/5
• Cleanliness : 2/5
• Communication : 5/5
• Location : 3/5
• Value : 4/5

4+5+2+5+3+4 = 23/30 stars. The above example review shows that you communicate well, (check-in & communication), you location isn’t the best (not always in our control) and you charge a little bit too much(debatable depending on guest’ s budget and time/season of booking). Mainly you could do better on cleaning the apartment. Not a train smash, just clean up better next time, or make sure that towel doesn’t have a stain on it. You still managed to get a 4 star, which is fair as you worked hard otherwise.

In most cases (on my listing) I get something more like

• Accuracy : 5/5
• Check-in : 5/5
• Cleanliness : 5/5
• Communication : 5/5
• Location : 4/5
• Value : 5/5

5+5+5+5+4+5 = 29/30 stars. Great, so I clearly expect a 5 star review as I achieved 29/30 possible stars.

NOPE!!!!!!!!!!! I got a 4 star FINAL RATING! Which caused major damage to my very fragile Superhost status.

Why is this? Well because Airbnb’s system is cheating you out of all your hard work and allowing the guest to OVERRIDE all the sub-category reviews with yet ANOHER final review by the guest.

Taking my review of 29/30 as an example, I did well in all sub-category fields except location, where he gave me 4 stars. Now in the guests mind, all he remembers is the 4 star for location (human nature) and thus makes his final rating a 4 overall! While by apartment isn’t an ocean view with an infinity pool, its certainly not the BEST location in the world, its certainly not the worst, but rather a general town apartment with buildings around it. But I also never promised that it was an ocean view location.

So I can accept a 4/5 star for location. But knowing that its not on a best view location, I also don’t charge as much as I would if it were. Thus the guest giving me 5/5 for value.

I also am a very organized host and strive to deliver the best communication possible. Again I got 5/5 for that.

I always make sure the place is spotless, 5/5 well deserved.

My co-host was there on time for checking and everything went smoothly. 5/5 again.

My photos and listing details, represent exactly what the guest got, again 5/5

But now you allow the guest to give yet another “OVERALL” rating which then makes all my other strong 5/5 sub-category scores null and void.

Literally throwing them into the trash, even though I did brilliantly in them. It only remembers the bad and punishes you for it, HARD!

This is not fair, Airbnb are stealing your hard earned reviews and stabbing you in the back.

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PROOF:

Don’t believe me? Go to your https://www.airbnb.com/progress/ratings page and select the “Filter by overall rating” to 4 or below (anything except 5 stars)

Now, take any of your ratings, let’s say you filtered 4 stars and calculate up the total sub-category stars you earned. Then compare that to these scoring brackets:

1 STAR final = 0 to 20% (0 to 6/30 sub-category stars)
2 STAR final = 21 to 40% (7 to 12/30 sub-category stars)
3 STAR final = 41 to 60% (13 to 18/30 sub-category stars)
4 STAR final = 61 to 80% (19 to 24/30 sub-category stars)
5 STAR final = 81 to 100% (25 to 30/30 sub-category stars)

If you achieved from 25 to 30 sub-category stars, you should have gotten a 5 star rating and NOT a FALSE 4 star.

I did this with my TEN, 4 star ratings and was in absolute disbelief that out of ten 4 stars reviews, NINE (9), were in fact supposed to be 5 stars!

Yes you read that right, 90% of my so called 4 stars are incorrect. Some guests even gave me 30/30 sub-category stars, but then gave me a 4 star overall rating - This is insane!

WOW Airbnb, are you seriously not seeing the VERY BIG issue here?

I then even went to my two 3 star reviews, which actually added up and that came up to 23/30 and 28/30 sub-category stars. Meaning that the first  is supposed to be a 4 star and NOT a 3 star, and the second a 5 star and not a 3 star.

In fact the first was falsified and by doing by the sub-categories, we can see evidence to this, more of that further down this post.

I have put up examples of all these reviews to show you as proof here. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UI2ezQx9LqJ5MEJKxtXUobNAh3OSwWnd?usp=sharing

THE SOLUTION:

Its simple really: REMOVE THE OVERALL RATING

Ill repeat this as Airbnb have a knack of conveniently “ignoring” certain parts of what you write to them:

REMOVE THE OVERALL RATING - Your sub-category ratings should AUTOMACTICALLY be handling all of this, NOT THE GUEST.

He/she, already left this sub-category reviews based on the 6, INDIVIDUAL area of service delivered to them by the host. The rest is up to your system to calculate and give the Host the final rating, NOT THE GUEST.

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WHAT ELSE WILL THIS SOLVE:

Well Airbnb, I don’t know if you have noticed, but your Facebook page is an absolute DISASTER with guests complaining about fake and false reviews, left right and centre.

Now please enlighten us as to why you think this is and why you still don’t seem to see an massive problem here?

Is it because 90% of all hosts are bad? I think not

Is it because rating a host based on something that wasn’t promised in their listing (let’s say aircon as an example) is fair? I think not.

Is it because a guest should be allowed to review you, even if the never stayed at the apartment – I think not

Is it because your rating system is broken and stealing our hard earned – YES! AS PROVEN.

So actually LISTENING for once and removing the very BROKEN OVERALL RATING, will not only make the reviews fair, but also big a big help in filtering FAKE reviews.

How you ask?

Example 1:

This overall final rating option opens the flood gates to guest, being able to just angry, impulsive 1 star a host, because they weren’t happy with a small thing that ticked them off, let’s say a dusty desk, or a drop in internet for a few hours, even though they gave them a much higher sub-category ratings for the rest. This is an immediate indication of a false review. An overall rating is too much power for some (actually most) people and they abuse the power.

Example 2:

Now if a written review says something like: “The apartment had no aircon”, but they gave you a good a 5/5 for value, isn’t this a massive contradiction? I am offering them my place without aircon at a very affordable rate, (which they KNOWINGLY accepted, before booking). If they wanted aircon they should have chosen a place with aircon, most likely PAYING MORE for that listing, compared to mine. Which they don’t want to do. I am aware it doesn’t have aircon which is why my rate is lower. Aircon is a not only a massive upfront cost, but also a big running cost for electricity. I simply cannot provide aircon and the low price point together. I would be running my AIRBNB BUSINESS AT A LOSS. If the guest is happy with the value, then you CANNOT complain about a luxury item, that should be costing them, far more per night. Again a FALSE REVIEW.

CONCLUSION

So Airbnb what are you going to do about this? I have tried to communicate this with your support staff multiple, painstakingly times and just get throw the same copy, paste terms and condition link pages in my face, that have ABSOLUTLYE NOTHING to do with this issue.

Yet you feel you have ‘solved” this HUGE issue.

Before signing off, I strongly encourage ALL HOSTS to take this to airbnb’s front doorstep and make them know how unhappy we are about being ripped off of out hard earned reviews.

We spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions on our listings, taking out risky bond payments to buy properties or for massive renovation costs. We invest a huge about of our time to make sure its all up and running to perfection, only to be stabbed in the back by the system we put our trust into.

Enough is enough. If you are a superhost you deserve to stay that way. If you are a host wanting to become a superhost, then you deserve to be given your reviews FAIRLY, in order to achieve that. The sub-category rating system if FAIR. NOT the overall rating system.

We need to stand together. Facebook isn’t enough, the FB staff are just here to pawn you off with their copy paste reply of “we are sorry to hear that, PM us” with ZERO result in fixing this massive problem at hand.

Flood their  https://www.airbnb.com/help/feedback  with what I have written above. We DESERVE our hard earned ratings and FAIR REVIEWS and WILL NOT ACCEPT them being stolen from us any longer.

I want my 10 x 5 star reviews that you stole from me. I worked hard for them I deserve them.

End of story.

Aircon

I currently have NINE. Yes you read that correct, 9, false 4 star reviews out of my total of 10. These are all victim to these falsely calculated ratings by your broken system. That is 90% 4 stars that should be 5 stars! WOW! Even my only 3 star should in fact be a 4 star.

I recommend ALL guests look at your 4 star, even 3 star and below and see what the total sub-category ratings for those were and see just how much airbnb’s system is stabbing you in the back, for your hard deserved work

What i also see is that you think is a clever idea to put "accepted reservations" in as a requirement for superhost?

Do you actually know how many messages is get from people "booking" fake nights to ask me questions or to promote services? PLENTY

Now once again i get penalised for something THEY are doing incorrectly.

There should be NO “would you recommend this guest” option for hosts.

[73宿0]

BTW for many here who said superhost is not importnat,
NO! it is very important.

Because if you are in urban area where many listings aka 20000 homes are hosting in the city, Superhost is a VIP priority ticket to have higher chance to display on main page, higher search result percentage.

I have tested myself by using a guest account, It tooks 5 times for my listing to be shown on the search result, but superhost gets display in every search result. 

So, enugh said

Airbnb is encouraging small host to get superhost (10 host per year)
But discourage experience host (100+ host per year) and punish them so hard!!
As an experience host who host more than 100 trips per year, I just need a bad customer who is not happy with me, a tiny one star overall experience can kill my entire business.
 

[Huma0]

@73宿0

I know this is a really old comment, but I just came across it seeing as someone recently posted on this thread...

I don't know where you are getting your information from.

1. Superhost is not "a VIP priority ticket to have a higher chance to display on  main page, higher result percentage". Read the small print. All Superhost gets you in that respect is that guests might (and very few do) click on a box that is quite well hidden, to search for superhosts only. Search results might show some superhosts on the first page, but they will also show plenty of hosts with pretty low ratings and new listings get much more priority (an initial search boost for around a month). This has been proven countless times by other hosts posting here on the CC over the years.

2. I don't know how the review/Superhost system encourages small hosts over large scale hosts according to your argument. In fact, one could argue that it's quite the opposite. If you are small scale and only host ten stays during one year, one 4* or 3* review is going to hit you hard, so what do you think a 1* review will do? If you host 100+ a year, it will make no difference at all and you are much more likely to gain/keep Superhost status. What you are saying just makes no sense mathematically.

The criteria for Superhost includes maintaining a 4.8* or above rating for the previous year. So...

Small scale host: 9 x 5* reviews + 1 x 1* reviews = 4.6* rating = Superhost status not achieved, not even close. In fact that's below the 'basic requirement' of 4.7*

Large scale host: 99 x 5* reviews + 1 x 1* review = 4.96* rating = Superhost status easily achieved and no danger of being lost anytime soon

If you are talking about the percentage of 1* reviews, it will work out the same for either:

Small scale host: 9 x 5* reviews + 1 x 1* reviews = 4.6* rating

Large scale host: 90 x 4* reviews + 10 x 1* reviews = 4.6* rating

So, there is no bias in the review system against large scale hosts. It just means that a low score from one guest affects a small scale host way more than a large scale one and is far more likely to cost them the Superhost status, i.e. the opposite of what you are saying.

[Esther359]

I totally agree with you @Ryan66  Airbnb should not let guests to determine the Overall Rating. 

[Cormac0]

@Ryan66 

Thank you Ryan for a very fine piece of analysis work but @Ute42  has beaten you to it and like most logical and reasonable analysis it’s fallen of Airbnb's deaf ears.

The Airbnb review process is a tyranny imposed by a very exploitative company and Hosts need to wake up and demand better.

[Asanka8]

I too agree with Ryan and this has been a pain to me since day one. My place is near a hospital and people use it as a budget stay and expect a 5 star hotel experience for pennies they pay. 

[Cate490]

Yes, I just got a 4 star rating from another host who booked our place even though they gave me 5 stars on all the categories. Does anyone else have host who book with you and then give you an overall lower star rate to mess up your superhost status? Very unprofessional of them to do that and I am not sure who to talk to about it.

[Huma0]

@Cate490 

It's not necessarily that they are trying to "mess up your Superhost status" as there wouldn't be much point unless they were local competitors. It's more likely because hosts tend to be fussier and hard to please than other guests. They can also sometimes do it out of jealousy.

The first host that I hosted sent me a long list of complaints about his stay (stuff that others didn't complain about). Although I did take that as genuine feedback and try to improve the things he had criticised, being new, when I looked at his listing and his reviews, I realised they were terrible. I mean really bad. So, why was he lecturing me on my listing that, according to the guest reviews and ratings, were way better than his?

[Cate490]

@Huma0 Yes, I guess it could have been jealousy. I will have to look at his rating. I have gotten straight 5 star rating until he stayed. It may have been that he just didn't want me to look better than him

I agree that the star rating should either drop the overall star rate or make it as part of the categories. This guy messed up my rating by just one star. I hope not all hosts are like he is.

Thanks for the response!

[Cate490]

That is a great solution. Does Airbnb read these forums? Maybe they should!

[Huma0]

@Cate490 

I really do not know to what extent Airbnb reads these forums. They read some of it, I guess. The moderators, who are in charge of the CC, say they read everything and they do feed some stuff back to Airbnb, but it won't be everything, more common themes. They do not have the power themselves to deal with everything. Catherine Powell, who is Airbnb's Head of Hosting, does comment or respond here from time to time, but it's not really clear if she is writing all of those herself or someone else is dong it for her. We can't know for sure...

[Huma0]

@Cate490 

Also, it usually not easy to get Airbnb to remove a review/ratings. They tightened up their policy on that a few years ago and now normally only remove a review if it violates their review/content policies (do read up on those if you haven't already). That is a limited set of circumstances in which a review can be removed and it does not include the review being accurate or truthful or not. In fact, they specifically state that they do not mediate in the accuracy of reviews.

Also, a guest is completely allowed to rate 5* in all categories and 4* overall. Plenty of guests do that. A guest could rate you 5* in each category and 2* overall if they wanted to. It is their choice, unfair as it seems.

[Michelle1851]

I lost my super host status because I sold a property and had to cancel a few bookings, I don't know that it mattered that much with my booking rate, if I'm slow simply offer a discount and it usually helps, but I'm not for sure. I really am trying just to get a few guests a month, and hopefully they respect the property.   Low reviews definitely affect me as I take it personally, but I'm trying not to. 

[Huma0]

@Michelle1851 

Cancelling bookings will for sure lose you Superhost status. In order to maintain it, you can only cancel less than 1% of your bookings in the past year. So, when you say a few, that probably means that factor alone was enough to disqualify you, doesn't matter if you met the criteria for number of stays or your review rate.