Great Comments, 5 stars in the categories but 4 stars for overall...?

Claire107
Level 1
Queenstown, New Zealand

Great Comments, 5 stars in the categories but 4 stars for overall...?

Hi all!  I am pretty new to hosting but have had a few bookings now.

 

I have been getting really nice comments and 5 star ratings from my guests on the categories of cleanliness, accuracy, location, value, communication and arrival, however these same guest that are giving me 5 stars for all of these are leaving an overall rating of 4 stars - I'm at a real loss...any ideas out there or other hosts who have successfully remedied a similar situation.

 

All suggestions most appreciated

34 Replies 34

Hi I'd like to know the same. 

I have had that with the last two and it lowers your overall average when you take into account a few that actually don't review at all. Very disappointing.

Trine0
Level 4
Copenhagen, Denmark

it is the big mistake in airbnb setup with their stars. For what one guest  state as 5 stars are for another guest 'only' 4 stars. As long as airbnb keeps the current system, the 'error' will occur!

Deborah82
Level 10
Toodyay, Australia

Do either of you think that the five star reviews are being negated or down graded to four stars, due to the ones that aren't leaving a review perhaps?

I too am new to Airbnb - we had our first guests last night - so I'd be most interested to hear why you've got a four star rating with five stars in the categories. Most curious.

if it's the guests leaving four star reviews after categorising your accommodation as five stars, then perhaps they expected more of the accommodation that was provided. In other words, they were disappointed?

I don't know, I'm just hazarding guesses here.

Regardless, I do hope you can sort it out, and would be very interested to hear the reasoning behind it too.

good luck!

Loving the Airbnb community and it’s diversity❣️

I have had this occurrence a few times as well. I asked one of them. The answer was that she made a mistake when she clicked on the stars. But there is no way for her to revise after she submitted the review. She had great review in words and all five stars in each category. 

I would ask everybody here to provide feedback to AirBnb to use the average of each category for an overall review.

You are in a strange predicament. You have received some really good comments. If you were able to build repoire with any of the guests marking you down you might message them and ask why four stars in the overall category. Make sure you word it in such a way that they don't take offense-- like "We want to improve our house for the next guest, would you mind helping us improve by letting us know why you listed 4 stars for overall? We are new to hosting and would really like to get better. Your feedback is very appreciated!"

 

One thing I did when I started was to invite a friend to stay in our house. I knew he would be honest and provide me with feedback both on the property and how I welcomed them to the house. Because he was an outsider looking in, his opinions really helped us make some changes in how we approached guests and we also made some changes to the interior of the house to be more accomodating.

 

I also try to meet every guest right before they leave the property and ask them if there is anything we could improve to make our next guest's stay better. We've gotten several really good suggestions that way.

 

A fourth thing you can do is add a page to your house manual (you do have a notebook with instructions and maps?) that explains how the Airbnb rating system works and how important it is to you to provide 5-star service.  Add in there that if there is any reason they cannot give you 5 stars in any category then please let you know so that you can fix the issue.

 

It is not unusual to have a couple people give off the wall ratings. One of our guests gave us a one because our house did not look as good as the pictures of an Airbnb his friends had stayed in somewhere else in the world. Another one gave us a four after we went shopping for her and even picked up and delivered dinner to her because she was too tired to go herself.

 

However, if you are having several poor ratings then there is a definite problem. Don't hesitate to get to know your guests well so they will be more likely to talk to you.

 

Best of luck!

Sandra126
Level 10
Daylesford, Australia

@Claire107, @Tim-and-Holly0, Great suggestion of Tim&Holly's to say farewell and ask re improvements since you are new. I used to have a notepad on the hallway table with a heading requesting that guests write down what they were lacking as I am not there at check out, only check in. It is only when you reach out for something and it isn't there that you notice. I have had several good suggestions that way, eg a large platter, champagne flutes, etc. If it was achievable, I would buy it.

Re the four stars overall, some guests just like to reserve the five stars for something so extraordinary that there is nowhere esle to go I think. They feel they have to hold back! They don't realise just how much we strive for the 5 all round. Don't worry, the fives will come and soon.

Amaris0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

 

The star ratings you see are a combination received for each category averaged out; this is the only way you can give one result based on  number of responses. If you have 2 guests and one leaves you a low rating and the other a high rating then your rating will be average as opposed to 5 star or totally low. The more guests you have who leave 5*’s the more it will even out the odd 4/3*. Airbnb calculate each category based on the overall stars received for that category and round it up so sometime you might see still see an aggregated 5* even though the last guest has left you a 4*.

Some inform on stars below -

 

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/1257/how-do-star-ratings-work

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/1303/what-should-i-do-if-my-listing-is-suspended

 

BW, Ama

Jennifer844
Level 3
Maine, United States

I also just received an overal experience 4 star while all the sub categories were 5 stars and the written review was glowing! I am suggesting that the top category be linked to the subcategories and not allowed to be submitted as less than 5 if none of the subcategories are less than 5. The system could easily be programmed to prompt an error message when the top rating doesn't match the sub ratings that reads something like : "It looks like your overall rating doesn't match your experience." 

 

@Jennifer844 what you suggest has been suggested to AirBnB many times before.

 

I think AirBnB does not do this because they seem to feel that the "Overall" rating is a separate rating which may or may not have anything to do with the ratings in the subcategories.

 

You should add your voice to the many hosts who have expressed a desire for the Overall rating to be the average of the component ratings, but be aware that AirBnB has not ever mentioned changing how the Overall rating works.

 

@Jennifer844 @Matthew285 - I just got a glowing review and all categories had 5 Stars from a guest who was here when a power-line went down due to a coastal storm. I felt so bad that she lost amenities for a short time and had to deal with inconveniences on what was a very special romantic weekend that I offered on my own a 100 percent refund - even a cleaning fee. Today I noticed my 5 star rating percentage was down and couldn't figure out why. Turns out that even with the glowing review, 5 stars in every category, and a free stay at my Cottage (all power was restored within a few hours) she gave me my VERY FIRST overall 4 star review after 70 guests.

 

I have to say I really regret that refund now. At least I should have kept the cleaning fee! The overall star rating is ridiculous. I was dinged because of a downed power-line. Really???

@Matthew285 @Jennifer844 I decided to count all my stars, because I couldn't figure out how I could have so many 5 star reviews in so many categories, yet be told today that I have a 93% 5 star average after this one 'overall' 4 star review. Well, guess what? After I crunched all the numbers (twice, to be sure), I actually have a 99.4% average. What a surprise! I am on hold with Airbnb now to discuss this. Given how important these stats are under the new policies starting July 2018, this seems a most serious matter / mistake to me, and I wonder how many other hosts are having their overall average percentage miscalculated. Does this mean i will lose my Super Host status in July because of a computer error?

 

I hope they have a good answer for me, and that they have a way to fix this. I am told often by Airbnb support that "We cannot change things manually" and that will not be a good enough answer for me. Also, the one person who dragged my reviews down was someone who did not read my listing and thought my sunroom was a 'tiny house' in the photos - And was disappointed he had to stay in the "big cottage" and gave me a few threes. I was new then, so I didn't worry about this intelligence-challenged review, given I was already getting so many five star ones, but looking back I should have contacted him and Airbnb to tell him he needed to change his ratings, which were most ridiculously unfair. 


If I should be at 99.4% and Airbnb has me at 93% due to their mistake, and this mistake continues until I lose my Super Host status because of their software miscalculations, what then? This would be negatively impacting my business. 


Not good.

@Rebecca181@Jennifer844

I have never thought that the % of 5-star ratings was calculated the way you describe.

I always thought the % 5-star rating was the % of total guests that gave you all 5-star ratings.

At best it was the % of guests that gave you a 5-star rating for the Overall category.

 

For example: A host has 10 guests who have provided reviews.

9 guests give the host 5-stars in all 7 categories.

1 guest gives the host 5-stars in the 6 sub categories but a 4-star overall (as in Rebecca's story).

 

Even though that represents 69 5-star ratings and 1 4-star rating, I have never thought that was supposed to be a 5-star % of 98.5%.

I thought that would be a 5-star rating of 90%, because 9 guests gave 5-stars overall, and 1 guest did not give 5-stars overall.

I actually think to count in the 5-star %, a guest has to give ALL 5-star ratings.

 

Would that explain the percentages you are seeing?

 

 

@Matthew285 Well, blow me down, I learn something new every day. I called Airbnb last night and went over the math and the rep had no answers for me and went to his manager. What I now know is that all of those wonderful 5 star reviews I have in those 6 sub-categories are meaningless; all that counts is my 'overall' star rating. So, I can only feel fortunate that the intelligence challenged millenial who gave me 3 stars in various sub-categories because he did not read my listing and thought my sunroom was a "tiny house" gave me a four star overall. I have no three star overalls. Still, the math forumula they use is not a "weighted average", according to my PhD partner who knows about these things, leaving us both scratching our heads. So that 4 star overall review my last guest gave me because the weather caused her to have some issues during her stay due to a downed powerline (and had no connection to her experience of my hosting or my Cottage - she gave me a glowing review and 5 stars in every category) managed to drop me down an entire percentage point. I have 69 total reviews: 64 are 5 star. 4 are not 5 star. But when a weighted average method is not applied, one four star review can knock me down a percentage point. Go figure. 

 

What I don't know how to figure out is what math is to be used to take my overall star rating and turn it into a 4.9 average. Do you happen to know?

 

And, isn't it a bit of a rub that I can have over 2000 5 star reviews in all of the categories, and only 14 non-5 star reviews, and be at a 93% average? Why not just have 'Yes' or 'No' answers to those six sub-categories if they do not impact your hosting average, e.g., "Was the check-in process as described?" "Was the location as described?" "Did you feel you got a good value from the stay?" - versus making it adhere to the star system, when it really doesn't matter? Scratching my head...

I totally agree with you. Something similar is happening to me.