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.
