Hello everyone!
Unless you own a 5 star location in one of the world's favorite tourist spots, you are likely to experience issues with the rating system. The attached article articulates very succinctly why the ratings system is not in line with the reality of the Airbnb experience, why is is unfair and how it produces an inordinate amount of stress for hosts. I would like as many people as possible to read it, and chime in on how the system can be changed to make the ratings more equitable for hosts. My thoughts are this, ask a series of yes/no questions, like "was the home adequately clean?" rather than give the stars. The number of "yes's" then determines the rating for the home. I think the current sytem gives guests, especially bad ones, way too much power. Please read the article and let me know what you think.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sethporges/2016/06/29/the-one-issue-with-airbnb-reviews-that-causes-hos...
JUN 29, 2016 @ 09:15 AM 29,795
The One Issue With Airbnb Reviews That Causes Hosts To Burnout
Seth Porges , CONTRIBUTOR
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
It almost goes without saying: The rating and review systems built into services such as Airbnb are absolutely key to their success. Ratings help build in a sense of trust, accountability, and a crazy cocktail of stress and eustress that encourages both hosts and guests to be on their best behavior. In other words: Without ratings and reviews, Airbnb would basically just be Craigslist.
But as a longtime Airbnb host, I can say that there's one very big difference between the way Airbnb hosts and many of the service's guests view reviews, and it's one that causes an almost unbelievable amount of tension and stress for hosts.
How many Airbnb guests see ratings: As an analogue to the hotel industry, where four stars is a very fine experience, and five-star ratings are only reserved for the most over-the-top luxurious experiences.
How Airbnb hosts see ratings: As a reflection of how well they meet reasonable expectations based on what their listing promises. So if I give you a great experience at a great price, it should be rated five stars—even if it's in a very modest apartment.
It's not hard to see how this discrepancy can cause problems for hosts. I've had guests leave me a four-star rating, yet say the stay was absolutely perfect. Their reason: It wasn't the Ritz-Carlton, with a pool, room service, and all the other frills that come with a five-star hotel stay. For an Airbnb host who delivers everything they promise at a rock-bottom price, it can be disheartening, exhausting, and flat-out depressing to get four-star reviews because they "aren't the Ritz".
Not to mention the one Airbnb rating category that causes untold amounts of angst for Airbnb hosts (and angry posts on host forums): The "Location" category. Their thought: A unit's location is clearly visible on a neighborhood map that is shown to guests before booking. This is both impossible to fudge, and something that a guest actively chooses. And unless a host is renting a mobile home or boat, it's also the one category that is impossible for a host to do anything about (we can't very well pick up and move our house).
What many guests don't understand is that anything less than a five-star review can cause serious issues for a host. The Airbnb platform actually delivers stress-inducing warnings if we get four-star ratings. And anything less than five stars can have a serious and detrimental impact on a host's placement in the all-important search rankings—causing damage to a host's financial well-being that a guest may not be aware of. And Airbnb's "Super Host" program—which offers perks such as higher search placement and better customer service to extraordinary hosts—requires us to get five-star reviews in at least 80 percent of bookings: A very high (and very stressful) bar to climb if even the occasional guest who had a great stay is leaving four stars.
To an Airbnb host, this creates an extraordinary level of anxiety, and a somewhat antagonistic relationship with guests. As hosts, we find ourselves sussing out and picking guests almost entirely based on how we predict their final review will stand. Everything from the potential guest's profile photo, to their initial message, to the reviews they've left for past stays is looked at to try to determine how many stars we think they'll give at the end of their stay. If a guest has left a trail of poor reviews for other hosts, we're likely to pass on their patronage. It's simply too risky. It also makes us less likely to turn on the "Instant Book" feature, since a particularly needy or demanding guest could book, only to leave us a poor review.
A lot of this antagonism could be sorted if sharing economy sites such as Airbnb did a better job of presenting reviews and ratings as reflections of what a guest expected and paid for. The current "star"-based rating system is simply too similar to what is commonly seen in hotels—a similarity that encourages guests to view it with the same grammar. Adding language that frames ratings and reviews as a reflection of what was expected and paid for will also make it easier for potential guests to better compare properties (a star rating is no longer useful if some guests are leaving reviews with a luxury hotel as an anchor, while others are doing it based on what they expected and paid for), while also encouraging hosts to offer a great experience at whatever price they happen to offer.
Being an Airbnb host is a lot of fun, but it can also be emotionally exhausting when you feel you've done everything you can to cater to an ungrateful guest. Including language that clears up this little issue with the way hosts and guests see reviews and ratings would go a long way towards fighting host burnout, and encouraging us to open our doors for years to come.
