Dear Community,
A guest recently gave us a 3-star overall review, with 1 star on communication, 1 star on value, and 2 stars on location.
We recieved this 1 star review on communication despite the fact that we communicated clearly, and he did not communicate anything in Airbnb messages since the time of booking. We are also very surprised to have recieved 1 star on value, and 2 stars on location.
But despite the rating damage done, the review could not be removed just simply because of bad star ratings.
This bears the question: As with the written part of reviews, shouldn't the star ratings given be considered as a determinant in the evaluation of the relevency of reviews?
Rating categories are visible to potential guests as a collective average.
The star rating categories given in reviews are collectively taken into account to be averaged out and presented as a standard of reference for potential guests to have an idea of what to expect from their stay at any given property.
Therefore whenever there are low rating extremities such as in this case, and in which case Airbnb has adequate information to evaluate it as false or extremely biased, shouldn't there be the possiblity that these abnormally low star ratings be taken into account for determining the relevancy of a review in regards to helping guests looking to book to make informed decisions?
Despite that star ratings are not seen by other guests reading a review, they are still part of a given review, and still have an integral application over a listing's visible ratings which in turn influences the decision of potential guests to book.
P.S. The previous host also recieved a bad review from this guest, likely under no fault of her own.
It is quite demoralizing, that those leaving only damaging reviews and abnormally low ratings to hosts across Airbnb over and over hardly face consequences if any, while those who receive the low ratings just have to accept it.
