I agree with @Suzanne302 and @Till-and-Jutta0:
The no 1 thing to ensure, is that guests know what they are booking, and that you deliver that. Be clear in the listing description on what the list is/offers, and what it is/does not. Manage EXPECTATIONS.
My tiny guest house has a low ceiling sleeping loft, which you access via a steep stair/ladder, and you cannot stand up/walk up there. It is not right for everyone. I mention it in several places in the listing description, and have several photos where I am not trying to make the ceiling look higher or the ladder less steep, I make an effort to show it like it is.
No 2 I would say is CLEANLINESS. My guess is that many guests will worry that Airbnbs may not be as clean as hotel rooms. Which is sad, since I’m sure most of our listings are cleaned much more thoroughly than the average hotel room!
So I expect guests to inspect my listing much more thoroughly than they would a hotel room, and that my listing therefore needs to be absolutely spotless. Which I make sure it is; I clean it myself, even though I have a cleaner doing my own house. 😏
I’d say no 3 is AVAILABILIY - that we hosts are available/reachable. A small question that goes unanswered for hours, or a tiny issue that is not solved quickly, I think can create unneccessary frustration, and potentially a lower rating. My guests very rarely need me, but I keep my phone with me at all times when hosting, just in case they do.
To me, no 4 is make it PERSONAL. By this, I mean to make it difficult for the guest to disappoint you by giving you less than 5 stars, because you were such a nice person! 😇Now, different hosts have different styles, and different listings, so this will mean different things to different hosts.
I have self check in (key box), and make an effort not to run into my guests during their stay (and my listing is a tinyhouse on my property…), to give guests privacy. So I hardly ever meet them in person. But I write and print out a welcome letter specifically for each guest, with my photo on it 😄 and leave a welcome gift/treat. I try to make both the letter and the gift/treat feel personal/adapted.
This works well for me - so far - but I’m sure that at some point I will host one of those hard to please guests, or a guest that does not understand the Airbnb rating system. I’ll to be mature about it when (not if…) that happens. 😂