Guest leaves 4 star review

[Marilyn395]

We have been hosting for 2 years and are Superhosts.  Up till September every single guest review was 5 Star.  Until one in September rated us 4 star for no reason that we know of. His written review was ok - short & sweet. There were no complaints, yet his less that 5 star has now brought our listing down to 4.98 average.  Question is: does this ever go away or change or does that less than perfect review stay on out Airbnb page forever?  

[BenkaandKeith0]

CONGRATULATION ON THIS MATH, YOU NAILED IT! We pointed out to Airbnb numerous times that their algorithms are all off. For instance, look how the new hosts can never fail and can mess up terribly to lose 5 stars up to 50 ratings. From there, all goes down the hill, with the algorithm you can never improve your hosting. Period. This is sickening to every each of us and I am surprise that among so many smart pants at Airbnb no one is actually smart enough to figure how destroying and discouraging their actions are to their own hosting community. Shame on you, Airbnb 😞

[Ann72]

@Ute42  Loooooooooove you 😍😍😍  @Marilyn395 "Can't please everyone all the time" - yes!!!  You have gotten there and that's the way to move forward!  (Not that 4 stars aren't always massively annoying!!)

[Jillian115]

Wow. That's insane. Why is Airbnb punishing the experienced hosts? I don't understand it.  With Airbnb, the longer you host the worse off you are. I have noticed many hosts start over. They have 500+ reviews but only 2 listings one with 80 reviews and another with 90 reviews. It may be the only way to survive the rating system. Some of the people who said don't worry about the reviews had 5-4.98 stars. I was looking at my community this evening and it seems that ratings do matter a lot here. Those with good ratings are booking and those with lower ratings are totally open. It seems like eventually I'll be pushed out because one or two more guests will leave me a 4-star review and not realize how bad that actually is. 

[Suzanne302]

@Marilyn395It was bound to happen but 4.98 is still a better rating than most hosts so way to go!

Think of it as you don't have to worry anymore about someone messing up your perfect 5 star rating. Kind of like when you get a brand new car and it's perfect, but you're always worried about that first "ding" messing up such perfection? Then once you get that first ding, you're not so stressed about it anymore and can relax and think about other things.

[Cecilia836]

I have just had an extremely negative review that resulted in a automatic email from AirBnB, stating my listing will be snoozed if my ratings do not improve. My rating went from 4.98 to 3.5, and based on Ute42’s reply, it will be well over 600 reviews to improve my rating. Since I only do long term rentals, I will not live long enough to achieve this. This guest was so difficult that I had contacted Customer Service to rehome her, but didn’t get a reply for over a month. Then no help. Appealing this negative review was unsuccessful; I doubt that AirBnB even looked at the message thread between this guest and myself. It is strange to be a SuperHost and a threatened host at the same time. 

[BenkaandKeith0]

This is jet another fantastic example how Airbnb does not do anything to keep the ratings in line and of a real value to us all, hosts and guests alike. This would be super easy to fix, with eliminating 1% of most outstanding or not-average-matching ratings for each listing (- and +). This way the crazy voices would not hurt anyone, as the reviews still stay in place. Would be fair and would not ruining anyone's life, hurt anyone's feeling. But again, Airbnb is not on the mission to back up the hosting community at the moment, they are all about the guests. Sad to see them sliding down the hill and dragging us all along 😞

[Anonymous]

I like @Suzanne302 's approach here.

The whole business of collecting stars and badges just cheapens and infantilizes the real work you do: providing warm hospitality and a comfortable stay to your guests. The pursuit of perfection certainly has its place - you want your pilot or your surgeon to do her job perfectly 100% of the time - but it's an incredibly weird thing to map onto something as personal as your home. 

Whenever Airbnb makes you feel a way, remember that this is all just a behavior-modification tactic designed to prey on your emotional triggers. Hospitality as a profession got by just fine for thousands of years without it stars and badges, and it will just as surely outlive this nonsense.

[Candace9]

Sounds like you've hosted around about 70 - 80 times already with 5* reviews. Once you host another 20-30 this will get you to 4.99 - However, as other have mentioned you will need to hit 200 - 5-star reviews and 1 4-star review in order to be rounded back up to 5*.

To be honest, getting one 4-star review isn't the end of the world - if you really want to get to the bottom of the 4-star review. Message the guest and ask them what you could do better next time for your other future guests.  Good luck

[Rebecca181]

@Marilyn395   Many guests - especially those new to the Airbnb system - have no idea how the star rating system works, much less how a less-than 5-star review can negatively impact hosts for some time. They think of a 5-star review as being reserved for The Ritz hotel in Paris (etc) - Ironically, even these famed hotels do not hold a 5.0 review average (yet super-hosts are supposed to maintain such a lofty review status consistently here at Airbnb).

This is why I included a short blurb on how Airbnb's star ranking system worked on the one-page house rules 'cheat sheet' we required all guests to read. I emphasized that their honest review mattered, especially to prospective future guests. Also, if they felt they were not having a 5-star stay during their time with us, to let us know while they were still there so we could have the opportunity to remedy the situation and make their stay all they hoped it would be. 

Many guests thanked me for this brief educational paragraph. They also often expressed remorse, realizing they may have negatively impacted past hosts by their 4-star reviews. 

Why Airbnb asks for our input and then never changes these sorts of things is beyond me, as many of us hosts have complained about this review system for eons. Since Airbnb won't educate guests (which harms hard-working super-hosts), some hosts take it on themselves to do so. We never had an issue after I implemented this tactic with 'unfair' or confusing reviews.

[BenkaandKeith0]

4 years ago so many hosts had problems with LOCATION rating. It was sickening to see, as very few of them were able to change and fix their neighborhoods. Airbnb after much upraising finally RE-WORDED the question they ask the guests. Bingo! You guessed it, the ratings improved instantly. Well, you guessed that, too, some of us haven't got any 4* rating on location for 4 years and our rating is still 4.9...

[Susan5003]

I got a 4 star review for location from someone who was very familiar with the area, before they event arrived, and then praised the location in their written review.... sigh

[The-Black1]

Can you please share what your blurb is? 

[Marilyn395]

@BenkaandKeith0 @Rebecca181 @Candace9 

@Anonymous @Cecilia836 

Everyone one who has posted here has excellent replies. It seems clear that there are issues with Airbnb around this as well as support or lack of.  So how do we get them to listen and address these issues?

[Rebecca181]

I gave up in exhaustion two years ago, @Marilyn395, after posting frequently here in the CC, including on the old 'Host Voice'. As I wrote elsewhere (and to quote a Neil Young song, I apologize if it offends), it was all "just pissing in the wind."

[BenkaandKeith0]

That is EXACTLY how I feel about investing hours, days and hundreds of suggestions dumped into Feedback Section, here, on the phone, you name it. Wast of my time. Would be more productive to drink coffee on a sunny terrace with dear hubby. I started stopping them when the agents start apple polishing, interrupting them by show me your appreciation, quit uploading empty, insincere admiration 😫