repeatedly guests rating 4* overall and 5* in every category

Anne355
Level 5
Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France

repeatedly guests rating 4* overall and 5* in every category

Hi all,

I have been a host for several years, I rent two rooms in my own place (usually one at a time). 

Out of >150 guests, I've received 102 comments. Out of these, 31 are 4 stars. Out of these 31 4-star comments, more than a third (12 out of 31) rate 5 stars to each and every sub-categories Airbnb proposes (precision, cleanliness etc) but 4* overall. I wonder about this discrepancy.

 

My question is: 1/ as a host (r guest), do you think that some subcategory could be missing in the rating? or, 2/ is it something you commoly see (>10% guests here leave 4* overall and 5* everywhere else), in which case we might propose to Airbnb to have guests first give subratings, then overall rating (instead of what is currently the case: overall then sub)

thanks,

Anne

4 Replies 4
Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Anne355 

Hi Anne, this is going to happen I am afraid and, like you, I found it was becoming more prevelant each time Airbnb changed the review format for guests. For us hosts the review process has not been changed since I have been using Airbnb (over 3 years), but I am afraid they just keep tinkering with the guest review process and now it is truly confusing for guests.

Anne, I have got around this problem by putting in my house rules a graph that shows guests exactly how the Airbnb review process operates....and since I have done this I have not had less than a 5 star overall review.

Anne as you are a Superhost I would advise you to right click this screenshot and from the option box click the "Save Image As" option and save it as a picture file. You can then open it in 'Paint' and put in your own details in place of mine using the 'Paint' tools.

airbnb ratings 2.png

 

 

Most guests are shocked to see this Anne and many feel annoyed that Airbnb would choose to penalise hosts the guest actually thought they were trying to help by being constructive.

 

Good luck with this Anne, I hope it can work as well for you as it has for me!

 

Cheers......Rob

Kit-14
Level 2
Prague, Czech Republic

Great work!!!

Emilia42
Level 10
Orono, ME

@Anne355, see this article written by Airbnb about how they are apparently trying to prevent this: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Making-reviews-more-fair-for-hosts/bc-p/972257#M9...

 

I would politely ask some of your recent guests what were the reasons they gave you a 4 star review. Tell them you want to create a perfect stay and you would value their honest feedback. Maybe 4 stars is 'perfect' in their eyes (I know, still unfair to hosts) or maybe their response would surprised you and it is unrelated to accuracy, location, value, cleanliness, and check-in.

 

Honestly, I am a little more surprised that you have 31 4-star reviews and you still qualify for Superhost. Good for you! It gives the rest of us a little more hope that a 4 star review or two won’t kill us.

Anne355
Level 5
Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France

thanks @Emilia0 and @Rob0 for the answers! Maybe I will try Rob's solution...

I have asked some guests what was wrong and they told me "nothing particular, it was OK" (4* appeared "very good" to them - as is labelled by Airbnb)

yes, Emilia, you can have superhost status and a bunch of 4* comments! this is because superhost evaluation only takes into account the evaluations in the past 9-12 months. And I earned most of the 4* ratings before that... so a few 4* comments is not a problem at all on the long run 🙂