New to Airbnb! My first two guests both gave four star reviews. Should I be worried?

[Jake179]

Hello,

My first two guests both left positive reviews and seemed to love the place, but both left me only four stars.  How big of an issue is this?  

I made sure to have the place clean and well furnished and equipped.  I have almost every ammenity required for Airbnb plus.  It's also very cheap right now as I wanted to get some good reviews before starting to raise the price to market rates.  I leave them all a bottle of wine as a gift when they show up.

My guests so far have been newbies to Airbnb with few reviews.  Is it just that they don't know how serious a four star review is?  Should I be straight out asking people to leave a five star review?  How many fours can Airbnb tolerate before it affects my account?

Should I be freaking out about this and trying to determine what's wrong?  Or should I just keep on doing the best that I can to ensure my guests have a good stay and hope that the five stars start rolling in?  

Thanks,
Jake

[Susan151]

@. Out of curiosity, how many guests were in these two groups? As I look at your pictures while thinking that you allow up to four people, I don't see enough living room chairs to seat everyone. I only see three island/pennisula stools. I don't see how four people can exist in this space in any sort of comfort. Only two people can watch TV or read a book at a time. Only three people can eat dinner or breakfast at a time.

Now, if these were groups of two, then I am off-base for these reservations. But I can assure you that you will hear about this shortcoming in the future.

Beautiful space by the way. I would add a photo of the river taken from the second floor balcony. I bet that is stunning.

[Jake179]

They were both just individual people, so I don't think the fact that the unit is small had anything to do with it.  But that's good feedback.  Thanks!

I have the unit marked as four, because I wanted to show that a family could stay there.  But it would be very crowded with four adults.  I'll update the listing.

[Ann72]

Hi @Jake179, I agree with @Susan151 that it's a beautiful place!  Early in my hosting, I wrote to a couple of people who gave me less than top marks and asked them what I could have done better.  Their answers were really helpful and I made some changes in response to their remarks.

Don't worry too much about the reviews.  You'll get better ones and these will be absorbed by all the 5-stars you're about to get.

[Sarah977]

@Jake179  Airbnb tells guests that a 4* rating is good. The guests don't know that Airbnb threatens to delist hosts with a less than 4.7 star rating. It's a really flawed and non-transparent rating system.

You may be interested in reading through this thread:  https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/How-can-we-Hosts-quot-educate-quot-Guests-about-how-the-...

Lots of good ideas and various approaches to letting guests know how the rating system affects hosts. Just being aware of it will lead to more guests leaving 5* reviews if they were happy with their stay. I would never ask for a 5* review, but I do let guests know how ratings affect hosts. Most guests are shocked and  have no desire to tank a host's rating- like I say, Airbnb tells them 4 means good. 

And 4*s should be good enough, unfortunately it's not, according to Airbnb's punitive policies towards hosts.

[Jake179]

A follow up question.  I certainly wouldn't want to accept a reservation from either of these four star guests again.  Is it possible to block them from reserving again?  If they book another reservation, how do I stop them?  Can I just tell them that they should cancel as last time they gave me a four star review so they should go somewhere else where they will be more satisfied?

I have it set up to book automatically.  Maybe I need to re-think that if there's no blocking option.

[Ann72]

@Jake179 You can block people - it's just not as obvious as it used to be.  This is from the Help Center:

How do I report a message or block someone on Airbnb?

To report a message from someone or block any future communication from them:

1. Go to Messages on airbnb.com and click the conversation with the person you want to block
2. Click Report under their profile photo
3. Select the reason you’re reporting this person, then if you also want to block future messages from them, click Next > Yes, block now

If you block someone, they won’t be able to send you messages, send you a reservation request, or accept a reservation request from you.

[Emilia42]

Lisa wrote a post not long ago about how to block a guest:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/HOW-TO-BLOCK/m-p/976977?advanced=false&collapse_discussi...

[Emilia42]

@Jake179, from your listed photos your place looks incredible and I would book it in a heartbeat. The 4 star reviews make me think that there is something going on that we cannot see. I would message these guests and let them know that you are new and would really like to achieve 5 stars. What was it that lead to their 4 star review and what can be done to truly make it a 5 star experience. When I first started hosting there were some things that I didn't realize until I had guests bring them up in the private feedback. I am really thankful that they did.

Also, I agree with the other hosts. Why the air mattress? It looks like you are set up for two, three max. You might have better luck in the future accommodating 2 or 3 people instead of 4.

[Jake179]

We added the air mattress because someone was coming with two kids and asked for one.  They aren't coming until the summer so we'll see.  They know that one kid will have a bed and one will have the air mattress.

I updated the listing to have 3 people.  Does that make sense?  It's got two bedrooms.  One with a queen (two people) and one with a twin bed (one person).  Or should I drop the listing to two people, as there really is only room for two adults to live comfortably in the space and watch TV and eat?

[Emilia42]

@Jake179 , I would list for 3. Try to attract a couple and their older child or 3 friends traveling together who don't mind sharing a bed. You can always provide the air mattress by request. In the future, you may consider putting another chair in the corner or a fold up chair in the closet or something so there is extra seating if needed. I am creating a space now, which is a one bedroom, but it will have a day bed in the living room so it will technically sleep 3. The kitchen and living room are small so there will only be sitting around the bar for 2. We will see if I run into the same problem.

[Sarah977]

I honestly don't understand wanting to block a guest who gave a 4* review if they were otherwise good guests and told you that they enjoyed their stay, since Airbnb leads them to think a 4* review is good. 

One of my all-time favorite guests, who became a friend and we keep in touch, left me a 5* review. That was because I explained to her how Airbnb punishes hosts for anything less than 4.7 average and that hosts lose their Superhost status for lower than 4.8. When I told her this, she was shocked, asked why Airbnb would basically lie to guests about the ratings, and said she felt terrible because she had left 4* ratings for her previous 2 hosts, when the place was fine and the hosts were really nice, because she assumed a 4* review was fine.

If I got a 4* from great guests who had no complaints, either during their stay, or in their written review, I would just message them to let them know that the 4*s tanked my rating, that Airbnb punishes hosts for that, and if they messaged back saying they had no idea and were sorry, I'd accept a booking from them again and assume they would rate 5*s the next time, now that they were informed.

[Paul154]

@Jake179 

Tricks for getting 5 stars.

1. Do not accept newbies.  I love newbies. They often are very very excited with Airbnb. However, you risk getting guests who confuse airbnb with a hotel. Or worse, you get a YELPer so excited that they can leave a long painful review. If you have IB, you can change this setting.

2. Charge market rate. Don't under or overcharge. You want average normal people.

3. Politely ask for a 5 star review.

Best of luck.  You seem to have a well located well-priced listing. I don't think the SuperHost status will make or break your offering.

[Jake179]

Just wanted to update everyone on this.  My first two reviews were four stars  but all reviews since then have been five and I hope to be a superhost next month.  Paul154's advice above is excellent.  I was getting newbies that just didn't know how it worked.  I changed my settings to not allow them and things got much better.  I also more than doubled my price and am getting much better people now.  If you offer the place up to cheaply you get oddballs with silly complaints.

[Emilia42]

That's great, @Jake179, Congrats! I definitely agree with you on matching your price with the guest you want to attract.