Location Ratings... why ?

[Jeremy129]

We have been running an airbnb for a couple of years and one of the areas we sometimes don't get a 5 star rating for is "location"...     I can understand the rating for all the other areas such as "value", "communication" "accuracy" etc... but "location" ??   The person who booked can see our location and it's clearly described in the listing. So without physically moving the house. how can I be responsible for where the house is?  Guests have various tools online to see maps etc and if they are worried about how long it might take to walk to the station, beach or cafe then they can either look it up or ask.  

Just seems something that is fixed and can't be changed is an odd thing to review... 

[Sarah977]

@Jeremy129  There are already several recent threads on this issue. If you use the search function on the top right side of Help or Hosting pages, you will be able to find them and read what many, many other hosts have had to say about this.

[Laura-And-Mike0]

Aloha, best thing to do is in your listing, towards the very top, write:

LOCATION:

To Station:  (how many minutes or miles)

To Town:

To Shops:

To Pub:

To Airport:

To Attractions:

Be very clear.

[Fred13]

Welcome to the chorus, there have been many, many threads on this absurd category. Airbnb 'swears' it is not taken into consideration on the Overall Rating, but many here find that hard to believe.

[Jeremy129]

ok - yes I see many others feel the same way. Good to add to the chorus in an effort to encourage change.  I can understand it might be an idea to give feedback on the area and what the guest thought of the area in general... i.e. it's a great sea side town etc... but not the actual location of the property for the reasons as mentioned above.

[Rebecca181]

My theory: ABB wants us to feel 'on-edge' so we keep going after those 5-Star reviews with all of the gusto and vigor that we can. Location, weather, and other things that are obviously out of our control are at times used against us in a frivilous manner by select guests during their review, and so we have to work extra hard to be sure we get 5 stars in the categories that we DO have some control over (although some people can't be pleased and / or will not give a 5-Star review no matter what you do as a host, who knows why?) 

In my listing I let my guests know exactly how long it takes to drive into town from my vacation rental, and exactly how many minutes it takes to walk to the beach and the two local eateries. But I still get 4 stars sometimes on location. Nothing I can do about it, and at this point, having grown weary of trying to 'keep up', I simply accept that this is going to happen sometimes. Guests will rate me however they want to rate me, my listing continues to get booked, I continue to get paid, most guests rate me and my listing fairly, ABB continues to ignore our pleas to remove 'Location' as a rateable factor, the sun rises and sets and gives way to the moon, and life goes on...

[Sandra126]

Replace ''LOCATION'' with ''WEATHER''.

lol

[Rhiannon13]

I agree this is an utterly ridiculous rating. 'Location accuracy' (ie is the location accurately described in the listing) would make sense. But one person's ideal location could be dreadful for someone else.

[Sean297]

So happy to find like minded people on this topic, I find this rating to be the worst thing to include in a rating system because no one has control over it, yet it has equal weight on our overall score. We should probably start a petition to get it removed, I think too many great host lose there super host status over something they have no control over.