How come 600reviews all 5start rating??

[Lily30]

Hi there,

I just very wonder some host have lots of properys and all the reviews over 600 all five start rating. Did they have postive policy like refund credit to guest so they can always keep 5 start rating??

Thank you 

Lily 

[Danny0]

Many hosts give wishy washy reviews thinking their guest will retaliate in some way, but in reality reviews are for future hosts to decide if a guest should be booked into their space.

[Annette33]

I share your observations and doubts about it, about both host reviews and guest reviews: there are way too many 5 star reviews, thus  they are losing their credibility and are not a good measure to decide if you will like a place or not. Airbnb pushes 5 star reviews like crazy, it ends up being a disservice to all of us.

Same for accepting people as guests: it happenes quite often that guests get very nice reviews from hosts, but then the same host complains about that specific guest here in the community forum.
So when I travel as a guest, I look in detail at all the pictures and description, the tone and clarity of the listing and the house rules, etc.. that  tells me a lot more than a previous guest review! However, if a previous guest has critiqued something, I am somewhat more hesitant to book there, but I then pay attention to the hosts answer, which is most likely there, and try to keep an open mind.

It might be very effective to message back and forth a few times with your prospective host ot guest before booking - that will also tell you a lot.

Good luck!

[David126]

If a amanagement company has many properties no doubt somebody in the office gets the requests for reviews and is tasked with doing them. I would expect that if they know nothing negative they just use a standard phrase and tick all the boxes.

[Coleen2]

I wrote a factual but 'read between the lines' review of my second ever guest.

[Sandra126]

I think a few of the hosts answering are talking about hosts writing for guests, but you are talking about GETTING them as a host, right?

No, they will not have any special refund tricks or anything like that. If you are pretty good, you will get mostly 5 star. If you manage a lot of properties well, like the 600 you have seen, you will have a lot of mostly 5 star. Managed properties are also mostly of a certain standard, not a tin shack behind the garage, for instance. They would not take them on as it would lower their average. A management company near me took one of their budget listings off because it was consistently giving them 4 star and complaints. A weeding out of the low rankers and you are back to mostly 5s again.

[Nancy67]

I'm confused. Can't someone with multipal listings just be a good host and get consistent 5-star reviews?

[Annette33]

@Nancy67, I think the reviews are more about the place than the host. Everything is becoming more impersonal on Airbnb, with lock box, the host not being there, etc. quite a few of the multiple listings are actually for the same house, just different rooms, and the host might be present. But yeah, it always makes you wonder about all those stellar reviews all the time...... take it all with a grain of salt...