@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.........
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......
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