Reviews / Star Ratings

[Emily631]

I wondered if AirBnB had considered using a rating other than stars? I feel many guests seem to get confused with 5 star hotel ratings when they are reviewing. I have an older home that I rent out, and I clearly state that it is partly renovated and that the furniture is older, but guests who say they loved the place often still give really low ratings for cleanliness because the furniture has some marks or wear etc. I wondered about a heart rating or thumbs up etc, so as not to be confused with hotels.

Also when your reviewing a guest and the question about if they had discussed any problems with you. How do you answer that when you haven't seen their review and often don't find out about their problem till they put it in the review that you can't see until after you have answered the question.

[Dawn350]

      I am so annoyed at a guest who nit picked and did not leave me a 5 star review.  i want to become a superhost.  I have a small condo on a lake cove that is part of.a much larger lake.  The couple are from the area and wanted to stay one night  My policy is two nights.  She complained that the price for the condo and amenities were not a good value ($60 and I let them stay 1 night).   For one night I had to travel 50 miles, clean every surface in the condo.   Never again.                           She said my condo was outdated compared to others.  We have completely remodeled the kitchen, replaced carpeting, light fixtures, have good quality furniture.  I put a tv and dvd player with plenty of movies in the bedroom.  All brand new linens from the mattress cover to the blankets.  New bath linens, towels for the pool, bag to carry cold drinks to the pool.  Books, games, adult coloring books, wifi, new smart tv in living room.  I bought them a plant for their anniversary.  The grounds and pool are immaculate.  What do some people want?

[Gilly6]

I have never been a guest, only a host, but perhaps someone else can confirm if this is true: when a guest does their ratings, if they hover over the stars, they  are informed that 1 star = poor , 2 star = fair, 3 star = good, 4 star = great, 5 star - excellent. So if they think you are great, they give you four stars and that's fine. And if everyone thinks you are GREAT, sooner or later your listing gets canned because you are inadequate. On what planet is GREAT the same as inadequate? And sematically,  is the difference between "good" and "great" the same as the difference between "great" and "excellent" ? 

From now on I will be messaging guests on check-n, reiterating that I hope they have a pleasant stay and reminding of any house rules, etc. Plus I will add t let me know if anything is other than Excellent, and that when they do their review, anything less than 5 stars is regarded as a fail.

[Cheryl389]

I started including a message that says this. I’ve never received negative feebavk but based on rating alone I’m at a 4.6 and it seems to be due to confusion about the rating system. 

[Myriam202]

This weekend I had guest comie in for sons graduation, two adults and three children. After the guest booked he asked if we had a playpen for the 1 1/2 year old. I said no. He said no problem he will buy one, then sent me a picture of a place he stayed in the passed in the other side of the island with a playpen. A couple of days after booking he wanted to know if reservation was complete because he did not get check-in information. I assure him reservation was complete and the check-in info will be sent around 2pm the day of. The day of check-in guest calls to know what to do at time of check-in, I advise them info was sent and to follow instructions. The guest call me again to let me know they were at the gate, I gave them the code to enter for the gate to open. Still around 10 pm gate calls, I let the guest in, I called them afterwards to let them know the check-in and house manual had all the information need for their stay. After all of this I get a review of 3. Guest stated having problems with security not letting them, not having infant crib/playpen and not being able to cook breakfast for lack of a cooking pan. I don’t know what I could I have done to avoid this type of comment. Does Airbnb looks at the comments and contact the guest and advise them how this would had been a better experience for them. I feel I’m being graded by someone who did not take the time to do their part. 

[Catherine1682]

I recently received a review of 3 for communication and clear check-in  instructions.  Both are bogus! I went above and beyond in communications.   The guest replied with incomplete sentences mostly 3 words.  When I met with him in person he told me that he didn't read the intro page in the check-in book which I had told him would be helpful until I could arrive.   He was well ensconced in the house seemed to have found everything he needed.   It doesn't seem fair that one guest can bring your rating down.  In more than a year I have not received a review like this.  This was his first airbnb use and I believe he thought it was just like staying in a hotel  with bellhops,and room service, and maids.  This was a last minute reservation. 

[Cheryl389]

I think a simple yes/no for quality would easier. Like percentage of guests that say they would come back. I’ve hosted about ten times now and I’ve learned it’s better to keep it simple because guests aren’t really aware of the rating system. 

[Robin4]

@Emily631 

Guests are not confused by the Airbnb star rating system, they are using it just as Airbnnb have told them they should use it....

A 3 star means the listing met their expectations.

A 4 star means the listing exceeded their expectations.

A 5 Star means the listing was faultless and needs no improvement!

The problem is Airbnb have not told the guest how they will interpret their star rating of the host.....but they certainly tell the host!

Any review system should be open, honest and transparent.....Airbnb's review system fails on all those points

A/.....It is not open because it is subject to Airbnb's interpretation, not the users,  and the openess of it is lost because in many instances one party loosed the right to have their opinion substantiated or will have their opinion removed by the other party on request.

B/.....It is not honest because the fear of retaliatory action leads all users to offer what the system feels is acceptable rather than the actual experience.....we all pat ourselves on the back and say what great individuals we are so we don't get penalised.

C/.....Because of A and B we end up with a review system that is not transparent and is confusing to all users.

The main thing that ruins a really good platform is the review system!

Cheers.....Rob

[Jo460]

Exactly...  I just had a guest review their stay..  Was 5 star in every category, but the overall was 4 star!!   How can that be??  And Airbnb do not ask why the overall does not match the catergory ratings...so how can that be transparent?  Certainly does not help if it is a mistake, or if there is really something that could be improved. Bit frustrating even though it does not impact my score right now, but could if that scenario is repeated!!!

[Jeff602]

Reposting from another forum since it applies here as well:

With my 2 cents, the rating system aren't set up in a way where hosts like me can

be successful and probably won't know what it's like to be a superhost. More needs to be done with the rating system beyond the initial post above. Plenty of my guests say they had nice stays at my place, only to later get less than 5 stars (mainly 4 stars) in the overall category. Personally there seems to be multiple 1-offs with the ratings I'm getting including some recent ones where the guests communicate nothing after I ask them what can be done to make their stay better. Again way more needs to be done.

The posting above was originally put in the other forum on 3-23-2019. Reiterating since then my struggles with the star rating system continue with less than fair reviews (along with a regrettable personal decision of helping a Airbnb guest financially among other things going off the grid, which I won't go into), despite my listing is a room within my house, which to sum up in a nutshell has felt like a double edge sword when later getting reviewed and rated. Many things from these guests I'm being told long after their stay rather than being able to fix them during their stay when I ask them...yet again way more needs to be done in the host favor with the rating system, if hosts like me will ever get to find out what being a superhost is like or long term even stay in business with the current system in place. 

[Tanya110]

I have been a host for 3 years now and am a superhost.  I have only had 3 guests that I would not rent to again so I'm extremely lucky.  Having said that, I just had one of those people check out today.  They did not read their welcome and introduction letter with all entry instructions and house rules.  I handled 3 contacts just to get them into the front door!  They left my place a mess and followed no house rules AND had the nerve to complain that the screen from the sliding glass door fell on their foot suggesting  I needed mainenance help.  Newsflash, the door is brand new and in all likelihood, they pulled the door off the track. 

This is exactly the scenerio that we all dread because we fear retaliation from our guests.  This guest, if I give them a poor review, will likely come back and say that the door was dangerous.  I am at a point with everyone else that this rating system needs to be revamped.  I believe that we need a greivance system in place so that owners and guests can voice their issues to a third party without system wide viewing of the review score until the grievance is resolved.  AirBNB has access to all of our guest communications.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to follow a conversation stream and see where issues lie on either side, host or guest. 

I have never left a negative review aside from scoring at a 4 and saying that I would not host again.  Honestly, we all know that no one will take care of our place like we would.  We just hope that it won't get destroyed every time.  I guess I will continue to "roll over" and not give honest reviews so that my host status stays clean and I can continue getting bookings. 

[Mike1034]

@Tanya110 I wish that you would just leave honest reviews to guests. With more and more reviews and time of hosting, I start to realize that it is not that important to get a few retaliatory reviews from bad guests. Even though one day I lose the superhost status, it does not matter because I don't think that superhost helps much in getting more bookings as so many other superhosts have the same conclusions.

There is another forum thread about getting bad guests who had glowing reviews. I guess that those bad guests were getting those good reviews because some hosts have the same thought as you. Therefore, they roll over and not give honest reviews.

If more and more guests know that they will get good reviews no matter how they perform in their stay, more and more hosts will become victims of those bad guests with false reviews.

[Tanya110]

Point well made and taken. Have been trying to process how to handle this all say. Thanks for your input.

[Edie9]

By not giving honest reviews you are shooting yourself in the foot and endangering the safety and of future hosts. Your review whether poor or not does not affect your rating or host status in anyway. They are unseen until you both file and then it can not be changed. What guests usually do if they get a bad review is open up a new account with a different phone number and email. It is easy to do and Airbnb can't link and don't care to link an old account to a new one. So if I get a request without a review....everything else can be made up.....I am very cautious. 

[Sandra856]

@Tanya110 Why don't you leave honest reviews? The guests can't read it until after they have written one themselves so no reason not to? I always leave reviews if I have had guests I think upcoming hosts should be warned about. Usually if the guest didn't review me waits til the very last hour of the review period. It has always worked just perfect.

Best, Sandra