Weighting of value in overall rating

[Niall36]

Hi all

I see a lot of comments on this forum from aggrieved hosts about the review system and the problem of guests hitting the wrong key, not realising that a 4 star review can have a negative impact on the host etc. We've been lucky so far but my philosophy is to attempt to provide the best possible service for the guests and if they rate us less than perfectly to try not to take it personally (easier said than done of course if it threatens your superhost status, placement of your space etc.)

However, I still check my reviews religiously and am interested in how the airbnb algorithms work.

Of the ratings we've had this year 47 of them are 5 star; one is 4 star. The 4 star one had a great written review "the hosts providing everything we could have asked for", and 5 stars for everything except value (despite getting the room pretty cheaply). Another guest however marked us down to 4 stars on accuracy and communication (basically because he didn't read the description) - but his review comes up as 5 stars overall.

It seems that value is weighted much more heavily therefore than some of the other categories. Has anyone worked out the exact weighting of the different categories on the overall rating - or can airbnb shed some light on it? For transparency we ought to know.

Many thanks

Niall

[Kath9]

@Niall36, the guest's overall review is not based on an average at weighting of the individual categories like it is for the host's review. The guest rates you in each category and then gets to choose an overall rating based on whether the accommodation met their expectations. 5 stars = much better than expected,  4 = a bit better then expected,  3 = as expected, and so on. Many guests rate 3 or 4 overall based on this question. This is the reason hosts are disgruntled about the rating system. 

[Niall36]

Ah, thanks Kath - I hadn't worked that out (haven't been a guest for a while so had forgotten this). Ok I can see why hosts are unhappy with this. If you stay at a place that has rave reviews and it matches up to the reviews you could understand why people would rate it as "3 - as expected"...  I might have even done this myself in the past in an attempt to be honest without realising the implications for the host.