Incorrect star rating on review

[Robin505]

Hi everyone. I was wondering if anyone can help me figure out something about my latest review I received. They gave me 4 stars for location but the other 5 categories were scored as 5 stars. Despite this the review overall comes out as 4 out of 5 stars. I would have thought it would round up to 5 still as I only lost one star out of the total 30 you get from all the categories. They did leave a comment saying they wanted more towels so I wasn't sure if that affected to total review.

I swear typically this would still be a 5 star review so I wondered if there is a way to contact airbnb to change it, or has the way reviews worked changed now.

I know its only a small thing but when you're trying to stay a superhost you need as many 5 star reviews as you can get and a few 4 star ones knock you down.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks for reading 🙂

[Ann72]

@Robin505 Gah, that's so annoying.  Unfortunately, the overall rating is not an average of the individual star ratings - it's the guest's separate vote.  I find it incredible that it's not an average.  But if you want to confirm this, contact Airbnb via Twitter with a message to @airbnbhelp.  They usually answer pretty quickly.

[Sandra856]

Yes, as @Ann72  said. The guest ALSO rates you in the category "overall". 

I must say that in this current system I'm glad it is not an average of all the sub-categories as I most of the time get 5 in the overall and when downrated it is almost always in the "location" category. It would drag me down and when airbnb expects us all to have at least 4,7 to stay a host it would mean a lot.

[Ann72]

@Sandra856 Good point!  I've gotten a few of those 4-star location ratings, too.  Grrrrr!

[Helen699]

I am a Superhost and up until now I have had 5 stars.

Guests stayed last night and, in all six individual areas, they have scored me 5 stars; yet, they have given me an "overall" 4 star review. This has brought my rating down to 4.9 stars, annoyingly so.

What I cannot fathom is if a guest rates EVERY area as 5 stars, how can it be that they can mark you down overall? Surely one of the six individual sub-ratings should reflect their 4 star rating, so you know where you're going wrong?...

I find this highly unfair. Do Airbnb plan to address this flaw in the ratings system?

[Becky41]

Great question!  I hope Airbnb addresses this as well.

[Elizabeth1195]

I too had the same issue.  When so much depends on ratings surely we should be able to appeal

[Steve812]

Same thing has happened to me on serveral occasions and Airbnb is not concerened with the way it is handled.  I do not understand how you get all 5 stars and a 4 star overall...

[Huma0]

Hi everyone, there is a lot of misunderstanding about the star rating system.

As others have said, the guest gives and overall star rating separately from the individual category ratings. The overall rating is not an average of the subcategories. Also, the Location rating is not counted towards the Superhost assessment.

In fact, a guest can leave an overall rating and then choose to rate some or none of the individual categories, as that is completely optional. What is more surprising is that, should they not rate some or all of those subcategories, they will show up as 5 stars anyway, under the review that the host sees on their profile page, when in fact they are not 5 star ratings at all! I know that doesn't make sense, but that's how it is. It's a glitch in the system.

Please read my thread here to see a fuller explanation:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/The-General-Confusion-About-Star-Ratings/m-p/866168#M213...

So, the next time you see that 4 star overall rating with a bunch of 5 star ratings in the subcategories below, do not beat yourself up about it. It is much more likely that the guest didn't rate the subcategories at all (they then show up as 5s by default when they aren't at all in reality).

[David122]

I have this happen all of the time.  The first time I called Air b n b  and they said they would send it on and have it looked at.  They say that often  and I have never actually had that happen.

The problem that is worse is that  guests look at the listing  saying  house/apartment.

this actually means nothing.  the only other catagories are a room share which  seldom happens.  or a room.

If Air b n b  could be more prcise on what the actual accomidations are then guests would have a better stay and there would be less confusion  and better ratings over all.

Get over it.  The star system is completely illogical to adults and could be written by  children who could write a much better system  for this set up that makes sense.  2  +3 =5.

My stars always add up  one star short