I'm a huge fan of Airbnb; arguably the largest hotel business in the world with no real estate. They deserve props for that, and I'm enjoying the peripheral benefits of its reach and platform.
That said, my concern is the rating system. The proverbial carrot is hung in front of hosts to maintain a high standing. That's great until a guest accidentally, or unknowingly, uses the stick instead to whip a host's rating.
It's kin to giving a loaded gun to a child with the safety off and zero instruction.
I recently had a first time guest leave positive comments, and ratings in individual categories, but a poor over all rating (the only metric that counts). When I inquired to the guest, they said they intended to give 5 stars and reached out to Airbnb. I also reached out to Airbnb, but it has not changed.
I recently got another "accidental" sub rating, and the guest said they intended to give 5 stars.
Maybe I'm missing something? Perhaps guests are just inherently passive aggressive, and lie? I hope thats not the case. I just want the rating to accurately reflect guest sentiment. If that happens to be a poor rating then so be it. However, if I can't go back to guests of poor ratings to discover areas for improvement, then what use is the rating to me as a host, or potential guests?
It seems to me though, that the ratings are more pass/fail than a true measure of quality or customer service, which is actually what all parties want to exalt. Cream should rise to the top. And the process should refine what all of us do, and create a better service.
As a service provider there is a conflict of interest for me to rate a guest poorly. So I don't. I never give a bad guest review. I will privately correct issues and leave no review.
Admittedly, I don't know what the answer is, but then my job is serving my guests not developing systems and platforms. It's unfortunate that years of hard work can be too easily wiped out by a couple of careless key strokes with no way to fix honest mistakes by guests. That just doesn't seem like the best way serve people which is ultimately what this is about.