Review ratings

[Vesna10]

To keep it short and simple; I believe it is unacceptable that the overall vote can be lower than the lowest vote in any category. E.g. if a guest reviews all categories as 4/5 and 5/5 stars, they shouldn't be allowed to give the overall vote of 3/5. It doesn't make any sense.

It is a very simple solution to implement in the current Airbnb review system and there is no legitimate reason why Airbnb should do it imemdiately.

[Steve143]

Hello @Vesna10,

The overal rating is completely separate to the other ratings and is there to allow guests to rate other aspects of their experience not covered by the check in, cleanliness, accuracy etc. ratings.

If cleanliness, accuracy, check in of some lsting all merrited 5 stars but the host kept coming into the room unannounced or there was a smell from the nearby sewage treatment plant, the possibility of which wasn't mentioned in the listing, etc. the guest should be allowed to leave 5 stars for cleanliness etc. but 2 or 3, or whatever represented their experience, as the overall rating.

Steve.

[Vesna10]

Hi @Steve0,

I do not agree with your explanation that overall rating is an "everything else"/"other" category as the overall rating superseeds all other ratings. Especially since I've encountered situations where the written review was excellent (only positive remarks), all ratings were 4 stars or above and overall rating less than that. What can another guest learn from this kind of review? What can the host learn?

I would fully endorse the "other" category where a guest would have to state what else was wrong (or good) which would be in line with my initial post.

Concerning your examples, in my opionion they both fall under already existing categories.

"A smell from the nearby sewage treatment plant" is either "Location" or "Accuracy" (if not specified in the listing details), while "Host kept coming into the room unannounced" is "communication".

But as you say, a guest might want to put these things under different categories i.e. in the overall rating, but if they do, they should be obligated to explicitly and publicly say what's wrong. Otherwise, their review is useless.

Best regards,

Vesna

[Steve143]

Hello @Vesna10,

You can always message a guest who leaves an overall review of fewer than 5 stars to ask what the issue was. I've done this in the past. Some have answered so I was able to take action on what they mentioned. I made the decision to ignore one suggestion as it was not in my style of living or hosting and only one guest had mentioned it. In each case they had given a glowing written review and 5 stars on each category except "overall", yet they kept the reason secret until I messaged them to ask.

So, no, we can't trust guests to address an issue verbally to us. They will hide behind the rating system and deduct points even though they've smiled forever and told us when talking and messaging that everything was great.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1257

While people can disagree about what rating a particular issue should come under, Airbnb does offer the overall one as a completely separate rating as not all possible issues can be shoehorned into the limited list of other ratings. Yes, I agree it does seem to be the case that more importance is attached to it than to the sum of the other ratings, as mentioned in the article below. You're very forgiving when you say that the host entering your room unanounced is a communication issue. What about feelings of safety and security?

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1303

As you left a review when you travelled this year and you don't agree that it should be a separate rating, take it up with Airbnb as they're the only ones who can do anything about it. As the "Host voice" system seems to now be discontinued you can do it via the "feedback" process.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/feedback

Steve.

[Christina520]

 My listing has been put on Pause as despite my last six guests giving me full 5s in all categories and glowing reviews , two of them gave an overal rating of 3.5 . 

I am furious and after wonderful summer of guests I will not be using Arbnb again . It is totally unfair and people do not realise the implications there ratings have . 

It puts the host under ridiculous pressure ! 

[Mary-and-Ben0]

I see the whole "reviewing" process as part of a global, intentional process of developing tattletale culture and software that locks us all into a social credit score, a la the predictive programming of Black Mirror and the real life dystopia of China's now active social crediting system. I've made a firm committment to myself and to my community and world to stop using the "tattle" features in any app and to try and talk to people honestly, from the heart, from now on. Best of luck and love to you.