I wrote another post about "Unfair Acceptance Rate Rules" for Super Host status.
This one is about how 2 guests have managed to revoke my Super Host status with unfounded or unjustified negative ratings.
I joined Airbnb 3 years ago,
100% rate within the hour
0 Trip Cancellations
62 families over 3 years with an average of 4.8% (92% of all guest have reviewed my listing).
I have been Super Host since the begining and lost my Super Host status for a combination of factors:
1. Accetance rate at 78% (Airbnb says that it should be at 88%). An objective that I cannot agree to if I want to keep using common sense in selecting the guests that I believe are suitable for my listing... i.e. in my home / my neighbourhood) . (See other post on that subject)
-2. Review rate at 4.7 (Airbnb requests a 4.8). I have only 2 guest who have lowered my average (the 60 reamining are all very positive):
a. A Canadian couple 3 days - Did not leave written comments (therefore no justifiable evidence of the ratings), gave me 3 stars average, did not complain or request anything before/during/after his stay. After the rating, I kindly asked him to help me improve by expanding on his rating, he never answered my email. I even wondered if they had not mistaken my place with another one, given that they had travelled around Spain and stayed just a few days in each place.
2. A Canadian women, booked for one guest, and after the booking was confirmed she mentioned that she would have several guests visiting her during her stay. She was upset that I would adjust the rate (as per described in the listing rules), but ended up agreeing by saying that she had not read the rule and therefore would accept the new price. The exchange was nice during the stay, hence my surprise when I saw her unfounded comments and rating. I could address them point by point, and in some occassions there were dozens of other guests stating exactly the contrary in their own comments.
In spite of doing everything I can to be an outstanding host there will alrways be the "unhappy camper" or someone who is simply in a bad mood that day, while filling out the comments, who will bring an honest and will host's rating down.
I lost my Super Host status with the first guest mentioned above, and had recuperated the points to regain my Super Host status, when the second guest mentioned above rated me 3 days before Aibnb Super Host next evaluation. This combine with the fact that I like to be able to accept/reject bookings as I wish, has lead me to loosing my SuperHost status. (I live in a very quiet neighbourhood and allow guests that might not be suitable, could lead to other owners voting at the General Assembly for me to stop renting out to guest on Airbnb. I have an acceptance rate of 78%, which I consider reasonable)
I would suggest Airbnb to bring into the equation the total number of days rented in proportion of the number of days rented by the negative rater. Apply a coefficient rather than carrying the same weight for all guest reviews. Also, I would factor into the equation an element taking into consideration the lengths of history with ratings above 4.8.
PS: By the way, I am curious, is it a coincidence that the 2 guests who brought my average down are from Canada. Anyone else had similar problems (unjustified and unfounded criticism) with Canadian guests in Particular? Do they have a higher level of expectation or what?
