Guests who don't believe in giving 5 stars.

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Jillian115
Level 10
Jamestown, CA

Guests who don't believe in giving 5 stars.

I just had a guest who ranked me low on accuracy, cleanliness, location, and value. He and his wife were celebrating 46 years of marriage and had never stayed at an Airbnb. I shouldn't have approved them.

 

I asked for feedback and let him know, "you can't change your review, but could you share some feedback? For accuracy, I have twenty-two pictures on the listing and with a very detailed description. Location is a surprise because I have the exact location listed and also gave you a heads up on the distance to Yosemite as soon as you booked. But what I am most concerned about is cleanliness because we do not cut any corners there. Anyway, if you could share your thoughts, I would appreciate it. Thanks"

 

His response was:
'We enjoyed our stay at your place. Your place was very nice, and we would stay again if in the area. Sorry but I never give 5 Stars.'

 

Haha- stay again...I think not. Guest who don't believe in 5 stars even when it's deserved should not be using airbnb. 

1 Best Answer
Rodney11
Level 9
Toronto, Canada

That's a bummer, when you run into the "I don't believe in 5-star reviews" guest. Any long-term host on this platform has run in to at least one of those. You just need to forget about it and move on, easier said than done I know. Though it is OK to run through the secret pensées d'escalier you have of the clever replies you should have left this guest's review.

When anyone asks me about tips for being an AirBnB host, here are the 4 that I offer:

1. Offer quality space with personality. If you just want to offer clean, safe and warm you may as well be a motel. Put a bit of yourself into your space, guests will appreciate the personal touch. I love cycling so my home and guest rooms feature vintage framed cycling posters and jerseys. I have a skewed, Monty Python sense of humour, so there are things like Buddy Jesus and a rubber ducky display scattered throughout the spaces. I have a friendly German shepherd who likes to greet guests by barking loudly at them, I feature her prominently in my listing photos and brag about her enthusiastic welcome to guests. If you don't like dogs, stay somewhere else.

2. Charge for your quality. Do not strive to be the lowest price offering in your market. You know how much work you put into creating and maintaining your space, make sure you get rewarded for that work.

3. Only use a Strict cancellation policy. Don't let anyone tie up your calendar for months only to cancel at the last minute and get a full refund. Any cancellation policy other than Strict only serves AirBnB's interest, not the hosts.

4. Ask guests for what you need as a host. That includes sending a message at checkout requesting they specifically leave you a 5-star review. 

Based on your listing and reviews, it looks like you've already done a good job of figuring out how to be a great host. Keep up the good work, then good reviews, Superhost status and all that jazz will simply be the outcome of your process.

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44 Replies 44
Ann72
Level 10
New York, NY

@Jillian115  Ugh.  Sorry, but we never re-host guests who give 4 stars lol.

@Jillian115 @Ann72 agreed

Unless they give a good reason for four stars they are blocked.

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Jillian115  Grrr. But I'll tell you something- most guests have no idea how star ratings affect hosts. I had a great guest who stayed for a couple of weeks, and we got along like old friends (and have kept in touch). We got into talking about our Airbnb experiences one day, she had had several bookings before. We started talking about reviews and when I told her hosts lose Superhost status if they fall below 4.8 and will get pull-your-socks-up messages from Airbnb sometimes if they drop below 4.7, she was shocked.

 

She said she had given 4* ratings to the places she stayed before, that she liked, liked the host, and would totally book again, and thought she was giving a good rating the host would be pleased with. Once I explained to her that while Airbnb tells guests that 4*s indicates "Good", but doesn't consider it good enough on the host's end, she thanked me for telling her and said she'd never leave a 4* rating for a place she found to be perfectly acceptable again. She simply didn't know.

 

For this reason, I would never ask a guest to explain why they left less than 5*s. I prefer to educate guests a bit in that regard during the stay (easy for me with most guests, as I home share and have quite a lot of interaction with most, and I don't bring it up unless it can just be part of the flow of conversation).

 

That might not be the case with the guest you had, although I'm sure they have no idea how the ratings stress hosts out, she might just be the type who sticks to her "principles". In which case, grrr again.

@Sarah977 I actually have a very detailed explanation in my welcome book with a picture of the superhost rating chart and explain the importance of the reviews to hosts. So my guests are aware. I probably wouldn't have asked if they didn't rate me low on cleanliness but that was a huge concern for me.  

@Jillian115  I think it's much harder for an entire place host than a home share host to convey the rating info. Like I said, it just is something I'll mention in the course of conversation with guests over coffee or a bottle of wine, and I do it in a way that doesn't come across as shilling for a 5* review, because in fact, that's not a big concern of mine. 

 

My concern is actually the way Airbnb almost tries to mislead guests into giving less than 5*, while giving hosts the message that it's not good enough. It's the hypocrisy that irks me. There shouldn't anything wrong with a 4* review, and hosts shouldn't be made to feel bad about it, nor should guests be misled. So that's really the context of the review discussion, not that I want them to rate me 5*s.

 

I think that a written explanation of Airbnb ratings in a house manual or welcome guide, while I would probably find a way to do something similar if I hosted a self-contained unit, could backfire with some guests. Like they might feel they are being pressured to leave a 5* review, and not do so because of that.

 

 

@Sarah977 I do word it in a way so that they don't feel pressured but let them know this is how the rating system works for us as hosts. Because Airbnb works so hard to get us poor reviews. I have had three 4 star reviews. Two of them we all 5's but 4 overall. The were super happy but were thinking well its not the Ritz. 

@Jillian115  Yeah, I could see myself wondering, what, did they find a used condom under the bed that I missed when cleaning?

 

But for goodness sakes, you have 135 reviews and a 4.98 rating. Not sure why you're upset about a less than 5* review. Seems like a nothing burger to me. Although the "I never give 5*s to anything" is a bit of an irritating attitude.

 

Like Rob, I would never decline a future stay from a good guest just because they left a 4* review.

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Jillian115 

Jillian, I think you are being a bit hard, in many instances it's not the guests fault, it's Airbnb's. I had one recently who gave me a 3 star overall, the review read.........

 

3 star review.png

 

All this guest was trying to do is what Airbnb suggest they should in their review prompts. Here is the 3rd page of the guests review process......

Review Step 3.png

 

The guest relates those options to the possible star ratings....and the host ends up with a 3 courtesy of Airbnb's guidance!

Some guests say, they never give a 5 star, a 5 is that perfection that does not exist. You can't penalise them for thinking that! But we hosts can do nothing about what's in the guests brain and we should not be penalised for it! Rate us on things we can do something about

 

I agree with you that 2 of the category ratings are quite unfair to hosts and should be scrapped, and the cleanliness one required to be specific .

Location:  Just because it wasn't where they ideally wanted it, that is not our fault......they booked it, and we can't shift it!

Value: Some guests tell me I am cheap for what I offer, most are happy with it, but there are some who will never regard a listing as being 'value'....if we gave it to them for nothing there would still be something wrong with it.

Cleanliness: Cleanliness is a subjective thing in many instances! I had an authentic hand triple knotted Turkish silk rug on the floor of the listing cottage until one guest marked me down for cleanliness. Her reason was, "The rug looked old and shabby"!

I fixed that problem quick smart, I pulled that rug (that was worth more than the late model car they arrived in) out of the cottage and replaced with a bit of cheap nonsense from Ikea, and have not had a complaint since!

 

I would never say I would not have a guest back if they didn't give me a 5 star rating, most of my 4's were lovely guests, once again they were just using Airbnb's advice!

 

In most instances Jillian, Airbnb are the villains here, not the guest!

 

Cheers........Rob

 

@Robin4 I disagree. Why would I have someone back who dosn't believe in 5 star ratings when I can fill it with someone who does. Yes Airbnb has created this problem.  But my rating effects my booking and if I can avoid an unfair rating in the future I will.

 

He stated he didn't have any issues. He didn't think it was unclean, and my listing is over the top accurate.  The only reason for leaving the review was because he doesn't believe in giving 5 stars. Not that I deserved less, he just doesn't believe in giving 5's. So yeah he's not welcome. 

I agree and am starting to become a bit more militant about rejecting below average reviewers.  Our three places are booked all year with the exception of maybe 7-8 nights total.  So I'm going to reserve my airbnbs for guests who really enjoy my places.  If a guest doesn't believe my place meets their standards for a five star stay, they can take the opportunity to find another place that does meet their standard for five star.   If my only choice is between take a four star review or nobody, I might change my mind, but until then I'm going to continue to politely educate guests that if they want to be a repeat guest, they might want to consider giving a good review-- and in the airbnb reality, good review = 5 star.  

 

@Robin4   The screenshot is bizarre, thanks for sending.

Rating a stay based on what the guest "expected"??

Yelp, hotels.com, opentable, etc don't ask you to rate a place based on what was "expected". 

So.....if their stay was excellent and they expected an excellent stay due to your accurate pictures and description, this means its 'about the same as I expected' and 3 stars?? 

This is not a relevant review question. 

Airbnb needs to change it.  

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Dave52 

Exactly Dave, I am glad someone else is at last seeing that.  I have been going on about this for more than a year now, don't link expectations with star ratings, but Airbnb persist in doing just that. It confuses guests.

The first step in the review process is to give the stay an overall star rating.....

Review Step 1.png

 

The guest if they enjoyed their stay are likely to give a good star rating, then they are confronted with Step 3 which asks them to rate the stay based on what they expected as per that screenshot in the previous post. 

The reaction is..."Yeah well it had a lot of good reviews, it looked pretty good from the photos, the host was great, that's why I booked it, that's what I was expecting and that is what I got, it met my expectations" .......... bingo, a 3 star! I know, I just recently copped one, as I am sure you have and just about every other host here!

I have been saying for a year now, that is unfair, but I can't seem to drum up much support Dave!

 

Cheers.......Rob

@Robin4   Agreed.  It's one of the dumbest review questions I've ever seen,

but I'm a human so what do I know.  It probably makes perfect sense to an algorithm.   

Does anybody at airbnb read this forum?  I mean an actual human being.....

Maybe we should be choosing the right keywords in our comments so the algorithm picks up on the verbage and makes the necessary adjustments.  

 

M199
Level 10
South Bruce Peninsula, Canada

@Jillian115 

 

Just a thought.  46 years marriage puts your guests at around 68 years of age, approximately.   Each generation has different "star" rating perception  based on not only age, but  also demographics, culture , personal and life experience. Just a suggestion - it is only 1 review, keep it in perspective .