Bad star ratings, good text ratings

[Kelly67]

I have been hosting a lot this summer, and every guest leaves me kind notes at check out and positive review (in writing) but several keep giving me low star ratings without any feedback (or irrelevant feedback). For example, one guest ripped the handle off my faucet and then gave me 3-stars for cleanliness and commented that he did so because the faucet was broken. Another guest gave 3-stars for cleanliness and low star for accuracy with no private feedback and left a great visible review. I messaged both the guests privately very politely asking for more detailed feedback and to know what specifically didn't meet expectations so I can improve guest experience- but they never reply.

How can I improve my guests experience if they will make such conflicting reviews? Our house is incredibly clean, we spend hours every week keeping it spotless. My description is very detailed, I don't know what could possibly be inaccurate.

Since star ratings don't allow for comments, I don't know what I can do- I am worried that my rating will dip to 3.5 and I will be suspended, and I don't want to wait for that before solving this. If guests won't tell me what they think is unclean or give false ratings due to their own damage to my house, what can I do?

How can I defend myself when there is no way to contest these claims? Can anyone help?

[Matt-and-Amy1]

We have the same problems.

We just had a guest left us a great review with low stars. She said how great our house is in the review. She also left us a private review to thank us and said the house was beyond her expections and beautiful. However, she left us a 3 star for overall listing and 4 star for everything else.

The whole time her group stayed at our house, we responded to her questions immediately. I also checked with her to make sure everything is okey. 

She even mentioned they had 10 people, but she actually booked and paid for 8 people. We have extra charge after 8. We didn't borther to go after them. 

They moved our furniture during the stay and we found the carpet stained after they left. I asked her, she explained and denied the stains of carpet. I believed her and left her a full 5 stars reviews.

Then when I checked the review she left for us. It is a 3 star.

I am really confused.

[Rowena29]

@Kelly67 

I've not read all the answers to your question, but one thing that I haven't seen discussed, is educating guests. Do you make your guests aware how the airbnb ranking system works for hosts?

When a guest goes to rate you they are told 4 stars are "great". and 3 are acceptable or okay. so there are many guests who think giving you 3 or 4 stars in areas is perfectly acceptable and genuinley have no inkling of the impact it can have on a host. Also many guests are used to the hotel rating system where 5 stars means the Ritz or the Hilton or just "percfection". so you might want to gently give them a heads up. I meet most of my guests, but I don't always get around to discusing how the rankings work, and it makes me feel a bit uncomfortable soemtimes. So instead I talk about it in the house manual/ checkout proceedure.  I leave the manual very ostentatiously right next to the welcome gifts I provide.  All the info  is in a very large clear font with lots of white space so it's very very easy to scan through and read.  And I say something like;

"and finally...  Airbnb relies heavily on the trust and reivew system. We will always take the time to leave you carefully considered personalised review - almost always 5 stars. This is invaluable to you as a guest, because other hosts of future bookings check out what's been said about you and what your star ranking is.   ( Many new guests don't know this so it's good to get that part in first) YOu may not realise, but for hosts, anything less than 5 stars is regarded by airbnb as "substandard" Truly. 5 stars does NOT mean "everything was unbelievably perfect" it just means "we were happy and had a great time" So if you felt that you could leave us 5 stars, ESPECIALLY for the overall rating that would be wonderful. But no pressure. We can't see what you've rated us until we've rated you and vice versa, so it's fair for everyone"

I'm a bit more concise but you get the idea.

Not foolproof, but I think it really helps with those guests who  are  happy enough  and just don't know how the rankings affect hosts. Airbnb doens't educate them, so we have to!

Hope this is a bit helpful

Cheers