Guest logic - bwuhahahahaha!

Answered!
Ben551
Level 10
Wellington, New Zealand

Guest logic - bwuhahahahaha!

Well, we knew it would happen one day folks!

 

My wife and I received our first 4/5 star reviews from some overseas guests, but thankfully it wasn't for the 'overall' rating, it was for the lower level down.  It's fine really, but I wanted to share the most entertaining reason of all time for 'why' we (our listing) was rated less than 5 stars for location and value...

 

Apparently New Zealand is much larger than they realised, which was not made clear in our listing.

 

Yep.  Not kidding.  This meant they couldn't drive around and see all the sights they had on their checklist in the time they had.  They wanted to see things across 4 different locations, in 1 week, all of which are in different cities that are several hours drive apart!

 

Now, I can do many things... but moving bits of New Zealand closer together is rather outside my capability.

 

Unless.... *dusts off black-hole transporter plans*

1 Best Answer
Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Ben551 @Graham-And-Michelle0 

This thing about distance does come up often Ben!

 

Overseas guests, (and I do include New Zealanders in this) have absolutely no concept of how big Australia really is!

I had Tracy from Basingstoke here in 2011 and while she was planning her trip she said...."If we hire a car at Uluru (Ayers Rock)  and leave at 9 in the morning, what time will we get to Adelaide in the afternoon?"......

She just didn't think it looked very far on the map!

distance.png

 

The distance from Uluru to Adelaide is 1,700 Kms....

Try hopping in the car and setting off from London at 9 in the morning and see what time in the afternoon you would arrive in Rome!

 

Cheers......Rob

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60 Replies 60
Kirsten24
Level 2
Aongatete, New Zealand

he he, the location always gets them! we have had a few odd ones too!                                                           

Stephen587
Level 2
Millersburg, OH

Yep! Had a guest a while back give us 3 star for location because even though we were where we said, “ it wasn’t convenient “ uhm hello? 

 

We are still new to all this and with much much fewer guests at the start, these lower ratings really hurt the overall rating...sigh... only 4.6 for now.

@Stephen587 The overall rating is a category of its own- it isn't affected by the individual star ratings. (I.e. it's not an average of the other ratings). If you have a 4.6 it isn't because of low location ratings- your guests are giving less than 5 stars for "Overall".

Oomesh-Kumarsingh0
Level 10
Pamplemousses, Mauritius

@Ben551 This is a fact! Some guests will always try to find a stupid excuse in order not to give you 5 star.Allowing guests to leave a rating for the location is absolutely irrelevant.

I once got a 2 for accuracy, which is a pretty important category to my mind, because, in the guest's own words " I thought I was getting the whole house but I guess I was confused". Of course the review remained.

I've had several conversations with potential guests who planned to daytrip to Yosemite from our house or planned other jaunts that would keep them on the road for most of their vacation. I advised one family to book a place in Santa Cruz for part of their trip rather than stay with us & add 160+ miles of driving through awful bay area traffic -I'm glad they didn't blame me for Hwy 17! Sally

 

Ben551
Level 10
Wellington, New Zealand

The guest we had gave us 4 stars for accuracy, location and value... but 5 stars overall.

 

...and if you were thinking it wouldn’t have an affect, check out what happened to our search result rankings after her review:

A6FB708D-D680-4BF1-A61A-60E054E17D05.jpeg

 

We dropped from page 5 (which I had worked very hard to get to) to page 10. 

 

Sensitive system isnt it...

@Ben551. With only 12 reviews, you are at that "getting-started--can-be-knocked-back-easily" stage. I remember how anxious I was about reviews "back then." One bad review has the ability to ruin both your numeric score and your spirit.

 

In case you care, I started to relax at around review nº 50. And still, every once in a while, I have a guest that I can't read and worry all over again.

Ben551
Level 10
Wellington, New Zealand

You’re spot on @Susan151 it’s because we are so early into it. I hope we make it to 50! Being on page 10 now means we don’t have any chance of bookings over the approaching winter. Risk is that our bookings will end in April then begin again in September. To fight this, our strategy had been to push the “business booking market”, since work accommodation is in demand in our city.  But, these types of guests don’t go past page 5.

 

We are now looking at a marketing approach online to repair the situation if we can before winter... because the night is long and full of terrors? 🙂

@Ben551 All the ratings count! Many hosts think that it is only the all over rating that needs to be 5stars.Thank you for sharing your research work on the matter and on how this affects your ranking in the search list.Happy hosting!!!

Hi, how and where are you getting this information?  I can't find it anywhere on Airbnb.

And what does "level 10" mean next to your name?

Maree25
Level 4
Napier, New Zealand

My most recent guest marked us down for location..the reason she gave was because there is no felt on the bottom of my table legs..which she would advise us to remedy..so it doesn't disturb our neighbours when the table is dragged over the tiled floor..clearly our 'location' being the close proximity of our neighbours..our listing clearly states that we are a flat in a block of units

Huma0
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Maree25

 

What?!! That is one of the most stupid things I have heard from a review. Some people will always find something to complain about.

Ben551
Level 10
Wellington, New Zealand

Omg @Maree25 that is ridiculous... they can’t have been human beings, so the locigal conclusion is you were hosting Martians....

@Maree25 A real shame that guests do not read our description properly.I believe Airbnb must put emphasison this so as to make sure that guests read all the details that are provided on our listings page before any booking is made.

What??? You didn’t provide a Black hole or a transporter beam? All superhosts are required to provide Quantum Entanglement devices and instructions. Lol! 

 

Thanks for a or a great chuckle today. Some guest assumptions are just mystifying.