Airbnb platform rating system explanation. What do you think?

[Sandra856]

Hi 🙂

I'm trying to make a new explanation pamphlet for my guests to read. 

How do you understand these explanations below - do they make sense?

I have written both myself and want to use pieces of that to the new "pamphlet". 

I hope it might help guests to understand internet rating platforms better and how they work - those with 5 star ratings are on the top when people search and that it is basically what a 5 star rating does - keeps the host on top of the search field. 

[John47]

A bit TOO long and has text  that isn't really needed - and- while I don't have the time to help, I would suggest you get someone who's local to you who has a bit better written English skills.. You're doing quite well but some things still sound a bit stilted or unusual and could be improved. 

[Sandra856]

Hi @John47 🙂

Thank you for replying. I'm not gonna use these two comments at all. I was wondering if people understood what I'm trying to explain. Guests and hosts often don't understand what a 5 star rating means and why they should rate 5 stars when they have just booked a budget place.

Best, Sandra 

[Chill-and-Relax0]

"TL;DR" that's the first thing that comes to mind after eyeballing this.

You should rather use a simple infographic; five stars equal thumb up, everything else equals thumb down. 

Expecting guests to read anything other than one-liners written in simple English is naive, furthermore burdening people who are paid guests to read a short essay about flawed Airbnb's rating system is slightly rude.

[Sandra856]

@Chill-and-Relax0 It is not my intention to be rude in any way. It is just my impression that many guests got a hard time understanding the rating system. Thank you for replying. 

[Chill-and-Relax0]

I didn't mean you are being intentionally rude; I meant that guest may perceive involving them in ABB drama as rude or unprofessional, and a thorough explanation of how star rating works may do more harm than good.

[Sarah977]

@Chill-and-Relax0  Not in my experience. My guests were quite interested and thanked me for the information. Good guests have no intention of tanking a host's ratings by leaving 4*s- Airbnb tells them 4*s is "good", therefore they are being misled, and they appreciate knowing that. The many guests I've educated about how Airbnb deals with hosts as far as the star ratings are concerned, I can guarantee you will never leave a host and listing they liked a 4* rating again. 

My intention is not simply that they give me a 5* rating (whch I never ask for, I just explain how it works), but they don't tank any other hosts' ratings in the future. This is one way I fight against Airbnb's ridiculous non-transparency and punitiveness towards hosts.

[Chill-and-Relax0]

I agree that everything about the rating system is a dumpster fire design to punish hosts, and I agree that host can give guests hint on how it actually works (simple infographic should do the job), but giving a guest a lengthy and somewhat whiny dissertation to read is bit unprofessional. 

Also; if someone is willing to read this, understand and then act accordingly, that means, most of the time, they would give 5-star review anyways.

[Sarah977]

@Chill-and-Relax0  I'm a home-share host- I don't give my guests anything to read regarding reviews, it's just something I mention in the course of conversation and what I talk about is the disconnect between what kind of rating they lead the guests to believe they are leaving as opposed to how those ratings are actually applied to hosts. I can tell you that my guests are shocked when they find out the nice 4* "Good" ratings they had been giving to hosts and listings they quite liked and would book again translate into warning messages and loss of Superhost on the hosts' end. Guests don't like to be played by Airbnb, either.

[Helen3]

I don't understand your explanation @Sandra856  and I am an experienced host who understands how the rating system works 🙂

Personally I would not include that in your guest book.

Why not do what other hosts do and put an explanation against each star rating in a sentence to explain what it is the equivalent to?

[Sandra856]

@Helen3 Thank you for replying 🙂

I would never include anything like this in my guest book. I'm just trying to explain why we need 5 star ratings - the system behind - but obviously I'm doing a bad job :-).

[Shaun270]

I totally agree. I would never include this in a guest book. 

[Robert523]

It would be nice for airbnb to include information about ratings on the rating page where guests rate hosts. This would help hosts remain on the more personable side of things, with airbnb handling the rules and regulations, etc. 

[Trevor243]

So far, I haven't actively encouraged guests to post reviews - partly because I've been extremely busy and partly because I haven't decided on wording, guidance on reviews etc. If I get it wrong, it could create more negative review scores (I see anything less than 5* as negative, although I accept that others may see things differently).

I'm thinking about a "Please Review Us" page in our guest information packs. I will definitely start it with "If you enjoyed your stay ..." - in theory, if people didn't enjoy their stay, they won't bother posting a review. Yes, I know it won't stop all negative reviews, but ....

I'm thinking about guidance on reviews being something like this:

5* = the property was as described, with the facilities and amenities listed and in the location marked in the listing

4* = you were disappointed

3* = you want us to burn in hell

Ok, so maybe that guidance needs a little bit of work!

Something I already do (in our guest information packs) is ask guests to report any problems, anything not working *immediately* so that we can fix it *immediately* - we say that it isn't helpful to them, to us or to the next guests if the first we know is when the next guest reports it or we find out about it 2 weeks later in a review. We know this works fairly well - most guests do report any problems immediately. Most of the time we can fix problems / replace things very quickly, often within the hour.

Of course, there are always going to be those guests that say nothing at the time but post it in a review 2 weeks later .... we can't win every time, but we do our best!

[Sandra856]

Hi @Trevor243 🙂

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I shouldn't have posted this - I have been much to unclear in what I'm trying to express. 

Best, Sandra