First 3 star rating across the board! WTH!?!?!

First 3 star rating across the board! WTH!?!?!

I recently received a review from a young Italian couple who were traveling to Yosemite and stayed with me for 1 night. Yes we had a slight language barrier, but I felt we made the best of it. They cooked dinner, did some laundry and were overall very pleasant until I read their review.... All they wrote was "Good" AND gave me a 3 star rating for every category. I know this sounds weird, but I feel like I failed LOL. I know you can't please everyone, but really? 3 stars across the board....I need a minute with this one. I wish our guests' understood the importance of their rating/review.

34 Replies 34
Michelle13
Level 8
New York, NY

Honestly, I think it's the 5 star system's fault. 3/5 is "good". 4 and 5 is reaching perfection but I think guests don't get that it's in relation to the listing they chose not their dream getaway fantasy. I know how you feel though, it's the worst!

David126
Level 10
Como, CO

Nothing you can do about it other than move on.

David

I know, I was venting. sorry

This is a very, very common complaint. Airbnb needs to revamp their rating system. It would be as simple a fix as changing the language in the ratings. Foras many complaints as I see about this, I can't imagine why they haven't changed it. The whole rating system  including the Superhost system is confusing and not clear. Such an easy thing to fix, I don't understand why they haven't done so.

Lilian20
Level 10
Argelès-sur-Mer, France

completely agree with @Leslie7 - changes needed.

 

as at right now the only way to become / keep a superhost status is to explain the rating system to each guest.

Roz4
Level 10
Auckland, New Zealand

I'd be keen to hear if anyone does that! I've wondered about it. I'm kind of hoping that if people are left with average thoughts about my place they just won't take the time to review it! 

@Frank-and-Jesse0.....You vent all you like guys! The whole star rating system sucks and the more people who make a noise about it, the more chance we have of getting it changed. One fellow contributor has an excellent idea.......that guests are only given the option of a 'thumbs up' or a 'thumbs down' and let the review do the talking....brilliantly simple and so much more accurate.

Nothing you can do I'm afraid, but some people will never give more than 3 stars, even if they loved it! To their mind there will always be something better!

Don't stress about it, the fact that you are upset about it and have told the forum tells us you are a fine host and go out of your way to treat your guests to a wonderful experience. Just get on with what you do so well and let time push that star rating into the background! Good luck to you...cheers.....Rob 

Ann72
Level 10
New York, NY

I hate hearing that!  I would write them and ask why, like "Is there anything I could have done to make your stay better?"  I've done that before and gotten semi-useful feedback.  But sometimes I've gotten feedback that tells me some people are impossible to please.  Cheers to you!

Angela237
Level 2
Wellington, New Zealand

Frank and Jess, I really feel for you. Totally breathtaking when you get less then you feel you deserve. The only saving grace is that Airbnb allows for people like this and if your other ratings are above this ( and I am certain they are ) and continue to be, then it will have little impact, if any, on your ratings overall. If you are fairly new to hosting or you don't have enough reviews to canel out this 3 rating, you can always take one nighters for a while to quickly get more reviews to canel out this crazy one.

 

This might make you feel a little better.......We are superhosts and have had 200 reviews, mostly 5s some 4's and two 3s. A host came and stayed with us and turned up early ( without warnng. ) Of course we were not ready for her. Not one word of communication that she wanted an early check in. She didn't read the itineary or house manual/rules. We felt bad becasue eventhough it is not our fault, she looked very put out and of course we are supposed to be giving her a good experience. We bent over backwards for her the rest of the stay.

 

She gave us a 1 for arrival and a 1 for communication  - the rest 2's!

 

We were totally speechless! Luckily for us it doesn't impact our overall rating as we have so many reviews now to cancel it out - but it was quite the shock! 

 

Anyway - luckliy the lower rec=voews only happy once in a blue moon - but it can feel like a kick in the guts!

 

Ang from NZ

 

 

My very first Air BNB guest did the same thing, no communication on arrival time and then arrived EARLY to our flexible 3pm-10pm check in window and rated us poorly on check in. PLEASE. Feeling tension over this early start bad review nonetheless 😞 

Was her name Bethany? I think she just stayed at my place!  LOL Seriously, same scenario. 

Agreed that system needs improvement. 

 

Such great perspective, Angela! Thanks for your response! Just got my first 3-star review with “Nice location for the price!” and no other feedback, after 8 months of 5-star reviews and one 4-star (for a reason I understood). It was really surprising and disappointing, but your perspective and story were really helpful! 

Karyo0
Level 4
Manchester, United Kingdom

Don't worry too much - It really is the ratings fault as it does not indicate to guests the importance of 5 stars to hosts. Before I joined airbnb when leaving htel reviews I would mostly leave 3 stars if I was happy, very ocasionally 4 stars if the stay was fantastic but never 5 stars as , to me , 5 stars is ( was ) some unreachable perfection that nothing could improve which none of us are!

 

Now, as hosts ourselves we have to understand that guests do not understand!

 

The ones that do stick in my throat are the obviously inaccurate  - we are lucky enough to live in a fantastic location for anyone visitingour City. Minutes walk from the main train station , no more than 15 minutes walk from most sights etc.... We have hundreds of location 5star s yet somewhere along the way we picked up a location 2 star!- you have to laugh!

 

Milada-and-Jiří0
Level 3
Prague, Czechia

1 night guests tend to give me worse rating than longer stay (in fact majority of my less than 5 star is from 1 night guests). Go figure...