One unreasonable review may affect Superhost Status

Darien1
Level 2
Suffern, NY

One unreasonable review may affect Superhost Status

I was reviewing my Superhost status and notice my Overall Rating for the past 12 months which counts towards Superhost status was 4.7 and it takes a 4.8 or higher to qualify for Superhost. I reviewed the Overall Ratings provided in the past 12 months and all but one of them have 5 stars. In fact, out of 20 stays from 1/1/2019 until August 2020, 19 of them have been 5 Overall Stars.

 

In December we had a woman who stayed with us who gave us 3 Stars as the Overall Rating, which is interesting because she gave 4 stars for accuracy, 4 stars for value, and 5 stars for everything else. She complained privately that the mattress was on it's "last legs" (the mattress was less than 6 months old), that she could have used an extra blanket (she never asked for one), and that the "the shower head is horrible and needs to be replaced" (I did not replace it and no one has complained prior to or after her stay). 

 

The point I am getting too is that her 3 start  rating brought my Overall Rating for Superhost status to 4.7 and may affect my Superhost status. I am actually fortunate that the requirements were waived for July 2020 or I would have lost my status without even realizing it. 

 

Has anyone else experienced this where one bad, unreasonable review has caused your Superhost status to be in jeopardy? Is Airbnb open to taking the overall track record into account and determining that the review is not a fair assessment of the persons stay?

 

Thanks,

Darien

27 Replies 27
Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Darien1 

Hi Darien, you have raised an interesting question but my feeling is there is a bit more to it than the information you have given.

With 78+ hosting reviews it would take considerable more than 1 three star overall to drop you to a 4.7 rating.....and you are currently in a general search showing an overall rating of 4.9!

If with 80 reviews, a 3 star and possible a couple of 4 stars I would expect your overall rating to currently sit on a 4.87. The more reviews you get the less effect one bad review will have but, the only thing that would drop you from a perfect 5 to a 4.7 with 1 three star review would be if you had a total of only 10 reviews.....which is not your situation. 

My only explanation, if the information you have given is correct you should refresh your app if you are using a phone, or delete your history and cookies if you are using PC.......make your computer search for current web information instead of being lazy and pulling it out of your cache.

 

Your guests adore you and your wife Darien, and you are in no fear of losing your superhost status, you are fine hosts!

 

Two years ago one of our fine contributors here  @Ute42,  posted the following thread on how the rating system works. I hope Ute will not mind if I include the link to her thread.....it is worth reading and will give you a better insight into how Airbnb arrives at their host ratings.

 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Host-Circle/Guantanamo/m-p/754779#M6666

 

All the best Darien , keep doing what you are doing mate, and don't worry about losing that Superhost badge, it's safely in your pocket!

 

Cheers.......Rob 

Hi Rob / @Robin4

 

Thanks for the reply. I get what you are saying about the Overall Rating on all reviews, however for the Superhost Status, they only look at the Overall Rating for the past 12 months. Even if you go out to the beginning of the current quarter - 7/1/2020, you are talking about 11 reviews. We get a lot of long-term stays so one bad review from a short term stay could significantly hurt us.

 

If you look at 2020 by itself, we have had 7 guests with 216 nights booked. In 2019 we had 282 nights booked and 17 guests (although we did get extra reviews because of one guest that had 3 separate stays). The longer we use Airbnb, the more we increased our minimum stay requirement to avoid constantly cleaning the place; now with COVID-19 we require a minimum 5 night stay.

 

My point is that if the Superhost criteria looks back over the past 12 months, then one 3 start Overall Rating could bring me down from 4.9 to 4.7 and affect only the Superhost standing because of the low amount of guests with longer stays.

 

Darien

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Darien1 

I understand what you are saying Darien but your ranking is tied to your overall performance not just the last 12 months. You will note assessments are conducted every quarter and your ranking continues from one quarter to the next.

Although I list on two platforms, I currently have 333 Airbnb reviews. The breakdown of those reviews is as follows....

309......5 star reviews

23........4 star reviews

1 ..........3 star review

At the start of the Jan/March quarter my ranking was 4.94.

In that quarter I received 3 x 4 star reviews and my one and only 3 star review .

My ranking is currently 4.92, so that quarter lowered me from a 4.94 to a 4.92.......by your reasoning Darien, I should have been 'waterboarding'......... but that poor quarter for me has seen a negligible drop in my overall ranking.

I am sure the only thing that re-sets is the number of nights and trips for each assessment period!

 

Cheers........Rob   

Darien1
Level 2
Suffern, NY

@Robin4,

 

I don't mean to drag this conversation on, but I think it's important that we all understand how the Superhost qualification is determined. The information posted on Airbnb's support page states that the Overall Ranking and the Superhost Ranking are calculated differently. My Overall Ranking based on all the reviews I ever received is 4.9. My Superhost Ranking based on the last 12 months is 4.7.

 

Here is a quote from the Airbnb Support Page: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1319/how-do-i-track-my-superhost-status

 

Superhost assessment

"Superhost assessment begins on the 1st day of the following months: January, April, July, and October. The assessment will take into account your performance over the preceding 12 months, but you don't need to have hosted for the full 12 months to qualify. While the assessment begins on the 1st, it can take up to 5 days for you to find out your Superhost status. We'll notify you about whether you gained, retained, or lost Superhost status by email.

It may take up to 1 week for your Superhost badge to appear on your listing page. This process is automated, which means we can't update your status in between assessment dates. Unfortunately, our customer service team can't make changes to your performance if you didn’t qualify for Superhost.

Keep in mind that you’ll need to continue to meet the program requirements to maintain your Superhost status on the next assessment date."

 

And Here: https://www.airbnb.com/resources/hosting-homes/a/answers-for-superhosts-about-the-july-superhost-ass...

"For current Superhosts, the July 2020 Superhost assessment will waive all four of the Superhost criteria that could potentially be affected by disruptions caused by COVID-19:

  • Maintaining a cancellation rate of 1% or less
  • Hosting at least 10 stays in the past year (or 100 nights over at least three stays for hosts with longer-term reservations)
  • Keeping an average rating of 4.8 or higher based on reviews from your guests in the past year
  • Responding to 90% of new booking-related messages within 24 hours"

 

As you can see it clearly states that you have to have a 4.8 or higher rating based on the last 12 months in order to qualify for Superhost status.

 

I was told by Airbnb that it is being reviewed after I threw their article back at them about how they were supposed to do something about outlier reviews (thanks for the link). I am not going to hold my breath waiting for them to respond. 

 

Darien

Tiggy1
Level 2
Woodchurch, United Kingdom

I am quite new to hosting and have had a consistent 5* review until this morning. My recent guests left me a glowing review in every respect but then gave me 4*. They also gave me some private feed back with regard to equipment in the house, which is useful. I don’t see how my hosting could be improved, based on their review and am really upset and disappointed as I am hoping to achieve Superhost status soon and this will have an impact. (A previous guest also sent me a glowing review but it was too late to post it).Maybe they just don’t award 5* to anyone. Can I write privately and thank them for their review, asking what more I could have done?

Tiggy

Mike-And-Jane0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

@Tiggy1 Some guests only give 4 no matter how good you are. Its near impossible to keep 5.00 so I suggest you don't stress about it and accept that 4.97 or whatever it goes to with the odd 4* review is fine. You need to be below 4.8 to one Superhost.

Tiggy1
Level 2
Woodchurch, United Kingdom

I understand what you are saying but still feel quite undervalued by this 4* rating. We work so hard for our guests, listen to their Requests and then to their fulsome praise and then what .......!

I will stop stressing eventually and calm down but feel quite sad.

Michelle53
Level 10
Chicago, IL

@Darien1    I've been hosting since 2016.    I have 184 reviews, and an overall rating of 4.76.  That's 95.2%. I feel pretty good about that. 

 

I've been in and out of superhost status more than once, in that time. First time was self-inflicted, since I, as a newbie, cancelled a booking. My one and only cancellation ever.  I have a 100% response rating. I host mainly short term stays, so don't have trouble meeting the minimum stays requirement.

 

I think I have one 2 and a couple of  3 's, but the vast majority are 4's and 5's.    One of the 3's was related to someone being particularly grumpy after 4 days out of a 5 day stay were rainy. Not much I could have done about that.  They also complained a lot about things I didn't have in the listing, which are not on my amenity list. 

 

I think, over time, it is not unexpected to have a few of those, in spite of how hard one works. One can't possibly please everyone. What seems ridiculous is that there is so much emphasis on superhost status as reflecting "excellence". 

 

Since superhost status is measured over 12 months with quarterly review, it's a lot easier to be a short-time superhost than a long-time host with overall great performance.    I've seen quite a few listings where they have superhost status, but the listings themselves had ratings of 4.4, 4.5, 4.6. 

 

Currently, I am sitting at the following, for the superhost assessment :

 

Overall Rating: 4.8

Cancellation Rate: 0.00%

Response Rate: 100%

Stays Hosted: 23 stays

 

If everything goes well in September, one might think that would lead to regaining superhost status at the October 1st assessment, right ?

 

Not so fast.

 

I've actually been right at the same place before, but didn't get the little badge back at the next assessment. I was told by customer service that, although the website displays 4.8, the actual "behind the scenes" rating used for the calculation was only 4.78.  Better luck next time.  Underperforming by 0.02 ???  If that's supposed to be motivating, it isn't working for me. 

 

I'm now waiting for the October 1st assessment, to see if anything actually changes. Meanwhile, I'm just doing what I do. Trying to provide the best guest experience I can with the assets at my disposal. 

 

I just got through a month of a possible tornado, 2 days of power outages, extensive tree damage in the neighborhood, and construction next door. Well, and, of course, Covid-19 cleaning and travel restrictions. 

 

Meanwhile, I try not to let superhost status drive my life. 

 

Bernard200
Level 2
Heraklion, Greece

I recently got a 1 star review !!!

yes, 1 star !! from young people because they complained that I told them that air condition is extra 5 EUR per day....

This is clearly written on the site in House rules / Additional rules
and we do not say in the basics that air condition is included.

 

It is really not honest to punish me for this.
These young people were not really the best guests, they used the A/C but did not pay for it, I don't care that they did not pay, but I do care for this inadmissible review.

Is there a way to delete it as it is clearly wrong and not honest ?

 

I would have lost my Superhost status anyway because we had not enough bookings due to the pandemic, but a 1 star review is lowering a lot our rate and is an extremely bad punishment, especially when it is a lie !

 

When they arrived, it seems they knew it and asked me the leave the A/C remote controls in case they need them. I know they used them.

 

It is very disappointing to have such guests, on the phone one day before to leave, they tell you that everything is fine, and probably because they made some small damages, or did not want to ask them the extra for the air condition, they make such a not honest review.

I guess that this review will stop me from having new bookings and I will have to look for another channel because of these young people...
We are doing very hard to offer the best possible as you can see from other guests.

 

Also they write that the house is difficult to find, I had sent them the GPS location and they told me at check in time that the GPS drove them without any difficulty...

 

Also the renter was not the owner of the account, not sure if this is allowed..

 

Thanks for your attention

Bernard

 

Steve864
Level 2
Sandstone Point, Australia

I find it interesting to see what other hosts do to get 5 star ratings.  We do them all!!! Last calendar year we were fully booked all year (99%) with 19 AirBnB stays amongst the 100 or so stays (all booking platforms) we had.  Of the 19 stays, we received 17 x 5 Stars, 1x 4 stars and 1 x 1 star from young guests that partied all night and disobeyed all house rules.  This has meant, for 3 of the last four quarters (assessment periods) we have lost our Superhost status and AirBnB FLATLY REFUSE to remove the malicious review and INSIST on counting it towards our assessment, so for 9 months of the last year we are 0.01 below the 4.8 point average and AirBnB couldn't care less!!!!  All other platforms give you chance to challenge obviously malicious reviews.  I will be working on trying to get ZERO new bookings through AirBnb from now on. What a bunch of idiots who have the audacity to call themselves OUR PARTNERS.  What a joke!!!!

Anthony1999
Level 1
Las Vegas, NV

Yes I have the same issue and I’ve had nothing but five stores for years now two people came and we’re very unruly if they sided with them and still won’t give us our five star back even though we’ve had 10 five star review since and the review date has already passed, and they still kept us at 4.73 million fair nobody in Air Bnb staff speaks good English very annoying an undesired Lu way to do business in USA ! This needs to change !

sorry 4.7 

@Anthony1999 You don't appear to be a host so its hard to understand the issue here.