4-star overall reviews but 5-star in every category - when will this be fixed?

[Alexandra316]

This summer, I've gotten two reviews that have given me 5 stars in every category, but 4 stars overall. The most recent really annoyed me: it was from a new Airbnb member, who also put NA in their public review but wrote me a nice private review. I spent time on the phone with this guest before she arrived, talking her through how to fix her account because she didn't have her correct address or credit card number on file, and she called me for help, and I did. I sent her extra tutorials on how to set up her account properly.  I let her check in early. She had the same experience as many other guests do who give me 5 stars, and she gave me 4 - even though everything was apparently perfect, according to her words and individual ratings. I did respond publically, just saying thanks for the nice private review and that I was glad they had a nice time. 

It REALLY annoys me that Airbnb said they were going to do something about these outlier reviews a year ago in one of their host updates.

Why do they even bother making promises to us if there is no intention to follow through?

Just letting off steam, but I am really annoyed, both at Airbnb and this guest. 

What do you do when you get these reviews? Do you ask the guest where you went wrong, or just let it lie?

[Thomas1033]

@Alexandra316  just today this happened to us as well.  I asked why and the guest said he gave us a 4 overall because he had to keep his kids quiet after 10pm for two nights.  The first night he let his two tiny children run across the entire apartment above us until 145 am and I got 2.5 hours of sleep and had to get up at 5 and didn’t get home from work until 9pm on those 2.5 hours of sleep so I gently asked it not be repeated.  He said that noise after 10 should only apply to loud music or parties.  Not the thunderous sounds our 120 year old house makes above us due to running jumping stomping.  Very close to not allowing children here anymore.  

[Emilia42]

@Thomas1033, 

Whether the guest wants to admit it or not there is always a reason in their mind why the stay was 4 star, and most times it is so stupid and completely out of the hosts control. But it doesn't fall within the communication, accuracy, cleanliness, location, or value categories, hence the 5 stars everywhere else but 4 overall.

Children are wild cards. Couples are my favorite groups to host. Do you think you would lose out of bookings if you said no kids?

[Thomas1033]

@Emilia42 Actually if we didn’t allow kids we could include more amenities,  a more decorated look and there would be more room without the crib and maybe also without the single bed.  We could leave more adult things up there period.  I’d never have to dodge a dirty diaper flying out of the sheets or step on a toy again.  There would never be goo and fingerprints 2 feet up along the walls.  Guests would stay out later and probably leave earlier without kids in tow.  Less laundry. Less cleaning.  Hmmm I may be on to something....

[Emilia42]

@Thomas1033 

The opportunities are endless.... haha. Try it out! I think you would have a cute place for couples with some small adult upgrades like you mentioned. 

[Thomas1033]

@Emilia42 we have decided to no longer accept children and our listing has already been changed.  I feel better already!

[Mike-And-Helen0]

No kids allowed here.

[Mike-And-Helen0]

Kids should have been in bed anyway!

Eta this was to the noisy kids in the flat.

[Laura-and-Jesse0]

One hopefully helpful (and easy!) suggestion for making reviews more fair and accurate. Hope Airbnb is listening! 

As others have pointed out, reviews are getting more and more confusing and are not exactly the same on different devices and browsers. It seems plausible that guests occasionally press the wrong star button inadvertently. We have certainly left and recieved reviews with surprisingly obvious typos.

Several guests have also left their private message as the review and the review as the private message which can be awkward for hosts and guests.

When travelling and using airbnb as a guest recently we noticed we no longer had the opportunity to review the entire review on one page at the end before submitting. Instead we had to page back through each section to check for typos or errors - pressing buttons on a little phone- on a train- without glasses - add your own examples of distractions here.

Perhaps if airbnb does not want to allow hosts or guest to edit reviews with honest errors, they could reduce errors altogether by adding a review summary so guests/host alike can pause and take note of their review, and possible observe the contrasting black print of 4 stars against the bright blue of the five. Its seems like this feature used to be standard, but went away at some point.

TLDR: AirBnB PLEASE ADD REVIEW SUMMARY CONFIRMATION INFO THAT WILL BE VISIBLE (STARS AND ACTUAL REVIEW) AS LAST STEP BEFORE REVIEW IS SUBMITTED.

[Norman-And-RuthAnn0]

We recently had this happen as well - the guest rated us as 5 stars in all categories and yet her overall rating for us was a 4.  This makes no sense - either mathematically speaking or logically speaking.  Airbnb needs to fix this.  

[Emilia42]

@Norman-And-RuthAnn0, I don't want to play devil's advocate and I agree that the review/rating system on Airbnb is junk. But there are other reasons that a guest can rate a stay as 4 stars overall because they fall outside of cleanliness, accuary, location, value, and communication. The downfall is that many guests don't let you know why they took away a star so it gives you absolutely no way or suggestions to improve. 

[Alexandra316]

And I just got another one... the guest was actually the friend of a friend, and she gave us 5 stars in every category then 4 overall. When I asked about it, she said it was because AC wasn't cold enough, even though they control their own AC and the situation is disclosed in the listing (we have room units rather than central AC, due to having a gas boiler rather than a ducted furnace). Never talked to us about it or asked for assistance, just rated us down.

I've had so many guest issues this week, I'm honestly at the point that I don't want to host anymore. I'm at 250 stays over 2 years, and I'm really feeling the burnout of ridiculous guest expectations and attitudes.

[Sean433]

Keep in mind, you can always ask the guest to ask airbnb to remove their review. If you approach them nicely and explain that a 4 star rating actually is horrible by airbnb standards, they may get it and feel bad enough to contact airbnb to remove it.

I have done this before where guests were very happy but gave me a 4 star for very stupid  things and they were happy to do it because I was nice about it even though I was secretly very upset at them.

Listen you can never please everyone. One of my listings is the purl of my existence, I renovated it to the gills and I can objectively say it is better then staying at the ritz for 1/3 of the price. Doesn't matter to 5-10% of guests who just don't get it.

[Amalia92]

I RECEIVED 4 STAR AND 5 STAR RATINGS FOR ALL THE CATEGORIES.

YET AIRBNB ASSIGNED AN OVERALL 3 STAR

DO THEY NEED A MATHS TUTORIAL OR ARE THEY PLAYING AROUND SO I DO NOT GET MY SUPERHOST BADGE?

[Susan151]

---

@Amalia92 wrote:

I RECEIVED 4 STAR AND 5 STAR RATINGS FOR ALL THE CATEGORIES.

YET AIRBNB ASSIGNED AN OVERALL 3 STAR

---

AirBNB doesn't calculate the Overall Star. The guest chooses how many stars to give. This isn't math at all.

[Dawn81]

Alexandria316, I can understand how you'd be annoyed with the guest that was so unappreciative. If we can make guest understand that a 5-star rating is not the

"Ritz-Carlton Hotel Exclusive stay"  it's simply "everything was as described and I would stay there again" great host great place, it would go a long way towards people saying wonderful things about us and then giving us a four star review!

I just had a similar experience with my last guest and the amount of time and energy I put into helping her as a newbie into our community and her job hunt and house hunt and all her other issues I'm really disappointed that she didn't bother to give me 5 stars. I gave her all kinds of extra permissions that I don't typically give. I'm just not sure if it's her or she just doesn't understand the rating system.