communication stars

[Trinity-And-Cristina0]

you know what I find funny? The rating for communication. I just had a guest rate me 3 stars for communication, when I have always answered all my guests within an hour, in which I also have a 100% response rate, so it makes absolutely no sense for a guest to even rate when there is a response rating anyway...im a firm believer in abolishing these stars all together, because people do not seem to know how to evaulate things, especially new guests, but this is absolutely ridiculous.. how much faster should I have responded to this person? within 2 minutes, no more? I approved her booking 40 minutes later, and always answered any of her inquries right away. We also spoke in the house every morning before they left, so I thought everything was fine. I just don't get what else I could have done. these stars have to go!

[Hrvoje1]

I would not worry about it. If your communication ratings are great overall, then one bad scoring does not really matter. You can hardly please everyone's appetite.

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

I think response time is covered by 'Commitment' rather than communication and is not something the guest rates you on. Therein lies the problem with some of the categories that guests are asked to rate. A lower score could simply mean you had a guest who struggled to find your place (even if due to their own error!).

[Sharon114]

The star ratings can be very frustrating, especially regarding location.  I really don't see the need for these at all.  Airbnb know our commitment rating and our response times and these can be conveyed to the potential guest.  Everything else should be covered by reviews given at the end of a booking.  Afterall, the reviews are what interest guests and hosts alike.  I agree that many guests do not understand the star system.  I am a super host with almost 80 good reviews and yet one guest rated all my stars as 1*.  Words fail me.

[Victoria57]

Aibnb has always got the star rating thing wrong. They insist that 5 stars is the normal score and anything less is crap - so why they bother with 1, 2 and 3 stars at all is beyond me if even 4 stars is supposed to be rubbish. Of course guests tend to look at the star ratings more in relation to how hotels are starred, not surprisingly in my opinion. So there will always be a mis-match between what Airbnb think and what guests think. We as hosts are just caught in the middle.