When Oh When Will Airbnb Fix Their Rating System?? 3 Star Rating....

[Linnea-Or-David0]

As soon as the lockdown restrictions loosened here in Manitoba our listing has been booked solid... which is great.  They've for the most part been excellent guests, with just a couple less than tidy folks but nothing to drastic.

Then we get this last group.  They booked six people (where the cut off is before charging for extra guests) yet EVERY dish, EVERY towel in the house was used.  Pretty sure there was more than 6 people.  Someone put bacon grease in a mug and actually put it back in the cupboard!! Yet, they followed the house rules and washed the dishes, put the towels in the tub like they were supposed to etc.  I was willing to overlook the discrepancies and give them an okay review.

During their stay the messaged saying the house was so clean and even left a review saying they recommend the place and in the private notes said they loved the place and had a great stay.  THEN GAVE THE LISTING A 3??!!  Not only did they give the listing a 3 but they also gave cleanliness and 3 and value a 4!!! What the actual heck!!!

I just don't understand how people do that without thinking to themselves, "Hey look at all the 5s they've got.  Maybe I should re-evaluate whether this place is truly a 3... "

Should do I public reply at all? Or just ignore it?  I was thinking of replying  "Hey Love (that's her name), thanks for staying.  I'm going to assume your 3 star review was an accident since you recommend our place and messaged that you loved how clean it was and had a great time.  Thanks for staying!!"

Thoughts?

[Sally221]

That is probably the best thing you can do on your own, a calm & neutral tone and restating facts. In a better world an outlier review such as that would be removed but here we are & from all accounts it is close to impossible to get a real response from Airbb these days (not that it was all that great pre-covid)

[Emilia42]

@Linnea-Or-David0 

DO NOT REPLY! When you write a response it is for future guests. Love will never see it. Future guests don't need to know that Love gave you a lower rating; only that she would recommend your place.

[Sally221]

Actually, Emilia is probably right, unless a curious guest does some digging about that outlier, which was my thought-as a host I had a last minute booking I was nervous about as they has one very bad review & it was the guest's temperate response that calmed my fears.

[Fred13]

Perhaps they had no clue what a 3 or 4 means, so the best you can do is grab the opportunity to 'sell' your place to future guests. IF you care to respond at all that is, I probably would not. If I did....

"Glad you had a great time and thank you for the kind words about our place & great service. Safe journeys." 

    Acting is part of hosting. 🙂

[Emilia42]

"Acting is part of hosting." A HUGE part!

[Kath9]

@Linnea-Or-David0frustrating indeed. I agree with the others that you should definitely not respond publicly because you are then only drawing attention to it. Her public review is good. However, the stupid overall star rating system  (from the guest's side) is based not on an average of other scores but on the final question: Did xxx's place meet your expectations? 3 stars means that it was 'as expected', while 5 stars means it was 'much better than expected'. So, she may have just been saying your place was 'as expected', not realising that 3 stars, in Airbnb's eyes, is a massive fail. So, yes, you are right to ask, 'when oh when will Airbnb fix their (stupid and unfair) rating system?'

[Emilia42]

@Kath9 If that is the case then why do so many mediocre budget listings get so many 5-star reviews?! Are they more times than not really "Much better than expected?"

[Kath9]

@Emilia42who knows? It's all so subjective anyway.

[Fred13]

Good analysis. With some mentalities, 3 may mean 'As Expected', 4 meaning 'Well Beyond Expectations" and 5 means 'Out of this World'.  Glad most of my guests do not appear to think along those lines.

[Helen868]

I have same feeling as yours, frustrating,,,,, guests can give your 1 or 2 stars review because they don't like the smell you spray for air fresh, or they saw your bathroom vent dirty, deck has leaves, dust on the corner or under bed, ,,,,,  or NO reason just because they think they paid too much,,,,from now on , guests review can be a tool that blackmail hosts, that's why i say Airbnb rating system is stupid and unfair for hosts, guests pay less but expecting 5 stars room and service, BUT we are not "5 star hotel"!!! 

I believe hosts will runaway if Airbnb won't fixing its rating system. And airbnb never listen hosts complaints because guests always right!.

[Anonymous]

@Linnea-Or-David0  Why on earth would you post a public rebuttal to a positive review? Nobody but you can see the individual star rating left by the guest.

Any time someone gives a rating under 5 stars for the individual categories, the system prompts them to select from a menu of suggestions of typical problem spots. If the guest failed to leave any constructive feedback, you might consider writing a private message to the guest asking what they felt needed improvement. Despite the guests' shortcomings, it may well turn out that you or your cleaners had missed a detail for this particular stay. 

[Marie-and-Owen0]

You need to educate the guests: in your parting message say something like "In AirBNB ratings 5 stars is OK, anything less is a fail". Uber has exactly the same rating system, with drivers under about 4.2 dropped from the service. 

[Anonymous]

@Linnea-Or-David0 Some hosts who I respect have felt compelled to do this, but honestly I think it's a terrible idea. From the guest perspective, the minute you perceive that the host is trying to maneuver you into giving them a perfect rating, all the actual hospitality they've provided seems hollow on reflection. I've given 5 star ratings to hosts who were mediocre at best, purely out of empathy, but if I had any indication that they felt entitled to a perfect score I certainly would have let it rip.

It genuinely is a problem that Airbnb presents the 4 star rating as "very good" to guests while marking it as abject failure to hosts. But it's really disgraceful to grovel to your guests under the guise of "educating" them about the unfairness inherent to the system. What a guest comes away with after seeing a message like the one you're advocating is "well, I guess all it really means to be a Superhost is that you've bullied people into inflating your ratings."

I wouldn't be bothered at all if Airbnb de-listed hosts who sought to pressure their guests into giving them 5-star ratings, rather than accepting critical feedback as an opportunity to get better at their jobs.

[Linnea-Or-David0]

I struggled with the idea of mentioning something about 5 star reviews and actually decided to use a letter. I've had no complaints and think it works well...but I forgot to send it to the last few groups, or their stay was so short I didn't want to over load them with messages.

It goes like this:

Hi

Thank you so much for choosing to stay at our place while in Dauphin. We hope you had a great time here and enjoyed your stay.

We would love it if you could take 2 minutes this afternoon to leave us a quick review. Of course we will leave you one in return.

A 5 star rating is very important to us and goes a long way to helping our family business. So if you had any issues during your stay please let us know before leaving your review as we value your feedback. It helps us grow as hosts.

If you enjoyed all that our house had to offer and would recommend others to stay here, it would mean so much to us if you would share our listing with some positive words on your social media.

Thanks again and safe travels.

Linnea