Have had a perfect 5* rating until now, got a 4*, will I ever get back to being a 5* star?

[Mariana313]

I´ve hosted all perfect 5 stars (about 12), until now, a super good review (go figure) gave me a 4*. Now i´m 4.9*

Will it ever be possible to go back to 5*?

Is 99.9% 5*- 0.1% 4 stars still count as 4*?

Will I be inperfect forever? haha...

How does this work?

[Kim533]

Would be nice to  have a reboot for those shocking poor ratings. Maybe offer a wipe clean every 12 months or so, or a requalify option where you can prove that you’ve overcome that problem. Hotels have star ratings. 3, 4, 5 star options. How much do bad reviews effect hotel bookings compared to Airbnb hosts bookings?

[Welcome0]

Upon reviewing my reviews, I noticed that one of my guests gave  me all *5, but an overall *4. Math is not Airbnb strength! How can that be?

[Huma0]

@Welcome0

Because the guest probably didn't give you all 5 stars. If the stats are showing you 5 stars in all categories under someone's review, it means one of three things:

1. The guest gave you 5 stars in each category

2. The guest gave you 5 stars in some categories but didn't give any ratings for the others

3. The guest didn't rate the sub-categories at all

With a guest who leaves a 4 star overall, it is much more likely that they didn't rate the sub-categories than gave them all 5.

This is such a common misconception amongst hosts and it's not their fault as Airbnb shouldn't show no stars as 5 stars. It doesn't make sense and it's confusing, but that's how it is.

[Susan1028]

As usual, your way with words leaves me smiling amidst the reasonable indignation in the face of callous injustice without recourse in so many automated .com corporate settings that value algorhythms more than the people who make the business happen @Robin82 

This flawed value system (like many others) is not "sustainable" just as "lip service" is just a bunch of malodorous hot air that disintegrates with every change in the wind, hopefully to be rendered obsolete by something of greater integrity and benefit for all.

I can see how it looks, feel it coming, and am looking forward to it.

[Angela-and-Michael1]

Hi Robin, 

Your post was funny and true.  I think we could make bumper stickers for the unachievable three things!

We have an old  4 star rating that is still staining our ratings.  It a 4 star for  'value' and they accidentally left a 7 diamond earring in the unit that I mailed back to them at my cost.  Funny, huh?  I guess some things are just not recoverable.  I guess it's better than a sharp poke in the eye.

Angela Simmons

[Jane3180]

Hi Rob,

Your dead right. 

There is nothing you can do about it...except it...move on!!

Painful as it is. 

Regards , Jane

[Huma0]

@Robin4 

No, not actually true!

That's exactly what I thought. If you have just one 4 star rating, you will never get up to 5.0 EVER. You will forever stay at 4.9 no matter how many 5 stars you get after that.

But...

After a time, I went back up to 5.0 and stayed there for two years, until my recent, annoying guest, who left me 3 stars plummeted my rating lower than it had ever been.

I am confident that I can get back up to 5.0, it's just going to take forever. And, if I don't, well no worries, 4.8 or 4.9 is fine by me (I didn't feel that way at first, but now I'm over it).

[Amy3061]

Ha ha, I am so glad I hopped onto the Airbnb community because today I got my first four star after a whole year of nothing but five stars and rave reviews. he gave me a four star, but a nice review. Your reply to the initial question was really nice and funny and I feel so much better.

[Jenny2064]

Lol Mee too!! I just had a crazy guest give me 2 STARS after a year of perfect 5 stars bcz she broke the cancellation policy and Airbnb wouldn't refund her money. And she wasn't even the guest!! 😭 Airbnb are sympathetic but refuse to take it down, so now I'm stuck with only 4.5 stars!! 😭😭 And she's still harassing me so I've had to block her! I don't know if I'm cut out for this malarkey..

[Rebecca181]

@Mariana313 You are fortunate to lose your perfect '5' rating early on. It can make a person crazy, trying to ensure that all guests give their host a perfect 5 star 'Overall Experience' review, especially when Airbnb does not educate them that anything less than 5 stars is cause for warnings, suspensions, deactivation, delisting, etc. I had a whacko guest give me a four because he did not read my listing or photo descriptions and he thought my Sun Room was a 'tiny house'. He was upset he had to sleep in my large Beach Cottage (but never told me this while there). I lost my 5 star rating and it has never come back. I am okay with 4.9. And if it goes down to 4.8, I will be okay with that also. Because I always do my best for my guests, and until Airbnb changes this review system and educates it's guests better, none of us will remain at 5 stars for long. The Eastern practice of 'Non-Attachment' comes in real handy sometimes when one is an Airbnb host, that's for sure.

[Jennifer2682]

@Rebecca181 You nailed it.

[Diane338]

I have just had a review left by a couple that stayed overnight at my home.  Although I reached out to her on several occassions I received no reply.  My guest has left a slanderous review of my home because she couldn't work out the heating, which is a simple push button operation.  My guest complained that there was no electric blankets on the bed.   Nowhere in my listing states that there is electric blankets but she assumed that there should be! All the beds had doonas and blankets.  The guest complained that she had to take extra blankets off spare beds.  Not sure what I did wrong but her overall experience was a 2.  I am shattered because this outburst came without any contact with me what so ever.  This now appears on my review.  I am not comfortable with electric blankets because of the safety issues involved when they are left on.  What could I have done better other than put electric blankets on the bed?

[Bruna-and-Siana0]

@Diane338 Something similar happened to us. We had a guest that was also a host (actually a superhost with 300+reviews mostly 5*). They came late night (we offered late check-in) and left early morning. They said everything was good. They wrote an ok written review but gave 2* overall, 3* on check-in (we let them check-in at 3am!) and 1-3* ratings on the rest. Why? IDK. 

I'm not sure if ABB would delete these kind of reviews (we never tried). I think the best you can do is write a nice positive public response (show your future guests you care and you use the feedback as a way to improve) and keep collecting 5* reviews.

[Tseten1]

Hi Bruna I had two guest who were both hosts themselves. I have very flexible cancellation. The host booked my place for one week so no one else could book and in the last minute she cancelled it . My sister said she did it so I don’t get peo in those days .  Another host did same thing she said will book for 5 days and asked me lots of questions about my place but then she never booked or even bothered to answer me back . 
There r very mean peo in this world 

[Jennifer2682]

Wow.  It's so crappy that came from a fellow host.  A 2* overall?!?  Ugh.  You've got the right attitude about it though and the reply back can be a game-changer for future guests.