Inequity or glitch on ratings?

[Mandrake-And-Karen0]

We have 60 reviews from guests and of those 60 we've had 2-3 reviews that ranked us at 4.5-4.9.  Those reviews were during the first 2 years.  For the last 3 years we have gotten solid 5 star ratings.  We've earned every one of our 5 star reviews that we've gotten. We go above and beyond on cleanliness and the other areas of rankings that are within our control.  Did some research and found neighboring host properties that have lower rankings on cleanliness, location, communication, etc but their overall rating score is the same as or higher than our own.  Our rating score of 4.95 hasn't changed for 2 years despite our recent 3 year consecutive 5 star reviews.  Yeah, yeah, we know 4.95 is a good score.  That's not the point.  We just want to have a score that reflects guest reviews and our hard work and we want the criteria on ratings to be equitably applied to all hosts on the platform.  When I spoke with customer service we were given different answers ranging from they were sending a screen shot to their tech support area to their internal Superhost status award summary.  We were told to just wait until Airbnb updates the ratings every 3 months."  Well each 3 month Superhost review has come and gone for 3 years and our rating has not changed.  Interesting enough Airbnb shows our internal rating score as being 5.0 in the Superhost progress summary!

Wish I could get a simple explanation of how this rating system works.  To date we have not gotten a clear response.  Finally we were told by customer service that they couldn't explain how the ratings system works and they were closing our "ticket" on our concerns.  All active hosts are small business owners who get paid for renting out a room, apartment or house.  We should all have a clear understanding on how ratings work as they affect our businesses- for some in a more positive way than others.  Ratings can affect whether or not hosts get bookings and whether their listings are perceived as having higher or lower value.  It affects pricing and placement.  Why shouldn't we be informed on how the system works that has so much effect on our small businesses? Why don't customer service know how ratings work? Why can't they definitively explain this in a simple, clear way to Superhosts?

Airbnb's ratings-glitch or inequitable rating system? 

Anyone else have this same issue?

[Pat271]

There is a recent, extensive discussion about ratings calculations here:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Discriminative-Airbnb-policy-towards-hosts-in-case-of-un...

The discussion includes why it takes so long for the ratings to advance when there are hundreds of stays in the calculation.

If you really just want to know how the ratings are calculated, it’s really quite simple. Just add all your overall ratings together, and divide by the number of ratings. So for instance if you have 9 5’s and 1 4,

your rating would be (9*5) + (1*4) / 10, or 4.9.

I have a feeling you are not really asking about how the ratings are calculated, as much as wanting to complain about how the ratings are calculated. 🙂 No CS agent is going to be able to help you past explaining the algorithm, and as you have found out, most are learning in realtime along with us.

The individual ratings for Cleanliness, Check-in, etc. are not included in the calculation, only the overall rating is included. The idea is that no matter what the guest experience on each individual category is, guests still have an overall impression of their stay, and that overall impression is considered the most important for inclusion into the overall rating calculations.

[Mandrake-And-Karen0]

Thanks for the link, Pat.  That is helpful.  Your feeling is wrong about complaining.   I am stating facts and wanting to know why our rating hasn't changed- what's the formula.  Our overall ratings were all 5s for the past 2.3 to 3 years so that doesn't make a difference in this case.

[Pat271]

@Mandrake-And-Karen0  OK, then the above link should help you understand it. Do you get a different rating than what is displayed if you add up all your overall scores and divide by the number of reviews? That is the formula.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Mandrake-And-Karen0 In addition to what @Pat271 has explained the Superhost rating also only looks at a guest's overall score but it only looks back over the last 12 months for all properties you host whereas the property rating looks back to when you started the particular listing.

[Mandrake-And-Karen0]

Thanks, Mike! I will take a look based on the information you've also provided.

[Emilia42]

There is no secret to how the rating system works. I don't understand why customer service can not explain this and also why users try to complicate the simple math. Guests rate the host on "overall rating" and then again on 5 separate sub-categories. All categories are independent of one another and make up individual averages. More can be learned about arithmetic mean/averages here: https://www.scribbr.com/statistics/mean/ 

Superhost status is measured using data over the last 365 days. So once a review score is over a year old it is no longer included in the sample size.  The "overall rating" that is seen on the listing page is the average of all reviews over the course of the listing's history. This is why it is possible for a host to have a 4.45 overall rating displayed on the listing page and still achieve Superhost status over time.

[Mandrake-And-Karen0]

Emilia, thanks for sharing this link and other information.  I am going back to check on this data and compare this process and math against our rating to see which rating is correct-4.95 or 5 and go from there.  If I find that the math is not right on Airbnb's end I will open up a new ticket and present them with the link and math to get our rating corrected.  Yes, it's daunting to me that customer service was unable to provide this information and link on how ratings are calculated.  I am grateful for your sharing it with us.

[Mandrake-And-Karen0]

How do I go back to years ago to check on overall review ratings from each guest? It's not showing up on the reviews section for us.  Thanks for your help.

Karen & Mandrake

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Mandrake-And-Karen0 Go to insights, then quality then look at every review for the last 3 years!

[Mandrake-And-Karen0]

@Emilia42 , @Mike-And-Jane0 .  So, as I guessed our Overall Rating is 5 over the course of 60 reviews.  I checked under the Reviews section and this is what it shows.  That is aligned with Airbnb's Superhost progress rating of overall score of 5.  I've cut and pasted it below:

5

Overall rating

60

Total reviews

Again, wondering why the score is showing as 4.95 when my overall score is 5 and my guest reviews reflect a 5.0 for this year and the previous 3 years.  Glitch or inequitable rating process?

[Huma0]

@Mandrake-And-Karen0 

You said you have only had five star ratings for the past three years, but that you received 2-3 lower scores in your first couple of years of hosting. From what I understand, and what others have mentioned, all of your ratings will be taken into account, not just the past three years.

It's impossible to calculate it without knowing the scores you got previous to the past three years, but as an example:

Say a host got 60 x 5 stars

but also 3 x 4 stars

The average would come to 4.95.

Of course, I am not saying you only got 3 x 4 star reviews in your first couple of years of hosting. I am sure that you got lots of 5 star ones too, but your average will not round up to 5.0* until you exceed an average of 4.995 or above (or it could be 4.996, I'm not sure). It is doable and it sounds like you are on track. It just takes a really long time. 

I was at a 5.0 for the past 2.5 years, but a couple of recent low ratings mean that it will probably take me years to get back up to 5.0, if I ever get there at all.

Anyway, you can't know what your average should be unless you can factor in ALL your ratings from the beginning. 

[Mandrake-And-Karen0]

Thanks for explaining further and for sharing your experience.  So we have 57 reviews with 5 star overall ratings and 3 reviews with 4 star overall ratings.  I multiplied 57 x 5= 285 and then I multiplied 3x4=12.  Afterwards I added 285+12=297 and divided by 60=4.95. So the math checks out.  This was pretty easy to figure out afterall once I had the formula on how to calculate.  it would have been good if customer service knew about the formula and just sent me the link with the explanation o n how to calculate my ratings score. 

Thanks, All.  This has been very helpful.  Btw, it's been difficult to attain, (and retain), the score we have and I imagine it's even harder to gain a higher score.  I think that Aribnb could cut hosts some slack by creating a simpler, more reasonable system that is fair to hosts that get many first time guests who may expect hotel accommodations and flexibility while  in one's home.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Mandrake-And-Karen0 The important thing to recognise with the Airbnb system is that guests really don't care if your rating is 4.95, 5 or even 4.90. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Mandrake-And-Karen0 You have either had three 4 star reviews and 57 5 star or one  2star review and 59 5 stars. It is very unlikely that you are being singled out for miscalculation by Airbnb. Unless you look at the overall score to 2 decimal places it will show as 5 when reported to one decimal place.

From your 60 reviews were ALL of them 5 in the overall category?