Keeping up your ratings

[Kath9]

Hi fellow hosts!

Well, after seeing my overall star ratings start to slip recently due to the ridiculous changes to the review system, my ratings have just gone back up from near to the point of losing Superhost status (4.8* overall) to 4.9*! I think my strategy may be working and just want to share it with you (I have done so before on other posts but that was the 'trial' stage - I am now seeing results!). Thanks to those other hosts who have shared similar ideas to this.

Firstly, I have put the following blurb on the first page of my guest manual - it is just underneath the house guidelines and Wifi password and I ask all my guests to spend a moment reading this page when they arrive (I'm hoping that the Wifi password prompts them to actually do so!)

Secondly, I now send the following message to all my guests once I have reviewed them:

Dear xxx, thank you so much for booking with me - you were wonderful guests and I hope you enjoyed your stay as much as I enjoyed hosting you. I have left you a 5-star review and hope you can find the time to write a review for me so I can continue to offer my home as a budget-friendly, safe and comfortable place for other guests. Thanks again - it was really lovely meeting you both! Best wishes, Kath 🙂

This message hopefully prompts them to leave a review (in order to keep up the minimum 50% review rate) as well as letting them know I have given them 5 stars in the hope they reciprocate. (Of course, this is only for guests who I have actually left a 5-star review for - I won't be sending this message to guests who have received less than 5 stars). While it does feel a bit like emotional blackmail, I think we do need to educate our guests as most of them don't realise that the overall star rating is based on the 'expectations' question and many guests will just say 'as expected', which only gives you 3 stars overall (even if they have given you 5 stars for everything else). 

Please feel free to do something similar with your guests in order to keep up your ratings. Happy hosting 2019!

[Kath9]

Thanks @Cor0 for pointing me to this other post about reviews. Very interesting reading! You're right in that we don't know what Airbnb are doing with Step 3 but I would think it would somehow impact on the ratings.

[Sarah977]

@Cor3 It might be interesting to ask your daughter, if she had a number of questions or arrangements to discuss with a host, requiring the host to spend more than the average amount of time messaging with her, if she thinks it would be fair for the host to charge her for that extra time. Since she isn't willing to spend all of a few minutes leaving a review "for free".

And she doesn't seem to realize that the review she would leave for a host would be of benefit for other guests, just like her. Were there reviews of the place she stayed, and did she base her choosing of her accommodation on reviews that other guests took the time to write?

I think you might be a bit understandably biased in thinking that this is a reason why guests don't leave reviews, rather than it being your daughter's own personal, and not prevalent attitude 🙂

[Kath9]

@Cor3@Sarah977, I agree with Sarah here - I have left a review for every single one of my nearly 400 guests 'for free'. I have not been paid extra to review them but they are getting the benefit of a review to facilitate their ability to book in other places. I just think it is a basic premise of a platform like this. The review system is meant for hosts to help other hosts and guests to help other guests. I can only suppose your daughter did rely on other people's reviews to choose her preferred accommodation.

[Sarah977]

@Kath9  I'd imagine that she probably considers that hosts writing reviews isn't for free- that it's part of our job that she is paying for with her booking.

I agree that reviewing is an essential part of a platform like this for both hosts and guests. Otherwise hosts could just lie about everything in their listing and no one would know. And no one would know which guests are a nightmare to host.

[Cor3]

Hi @Kath9, @Sarah977,

Well, I’m not really biased ;-). It’s just, I didn’t expect that answer from her (and she didn’t have specific questions or arrangements with her host either. And the listing already had tons of reviews too).

There could very well be some truth in her statement too. As we all know, reviews are important to us (basically, it is also the reason for starting this post).

I will certainly ask her for her reason, to book the listing (I would not be surprised, when this would have been from the top-3 list by Airbnb: Price, Reviews and Photo’s).

And yes, Airbnb keeps telling everybody: Reviews are important to future guests and hosts.

But what is the value of your Superhost status (Other than some pride)?

More bookings, Higher rental prices?

Reviews do have value (I’m not saying, we should start paying our guests to leave a review!)

So, reviews are definitely worth something! And there is more value in a recent review, than there is in a 2-year old review.

How would you price, your listing today. Suppose you didn’t have any reviews yet?

For me, the most common reasons for guests not to leave a review (even though it is only a couple of minutes effort), are:

• The fun-part is over (the holiday is over, it’s ‘old’ news).
• They can’t be bothered anymore, not even for a couple of minutes.
• They just don’t do reviews.
• They forget about it, or it is very low on their priority list.
• Maybe the experience was not 100% satisfactorily, but they do not want to hurt the host (see all the posts here, where hosts are seeking advice on how to write a review for a non-ideal guest). The same must apply to guests too!
  They may even be afraid for the aftermath of not leaving a 5-star across the board review.
  A ‘nagging’ host, asking the guest why a less than a 5-star across the board review was left (with all good intentions).

[Sarah977]

@Cor3  The one and only reason my guests have told me they didn't leave a review for previous hosts when we discuss airbnb and the review process, is that they didn't really think it was important. Not everyone is an internet warrior who can't wait to broadcast their criticisms and recommendations to the world. They had no idea whatsoever that it affects host's ratings, and if it's a place that already had several reviews, they didn't think theirs would matter.

Those guests have all left a review for me once they are made aware of the ramifications. Most guests, I've found, are not opposed to taking the few minutes to write a review, once they're made aware, and certainly don't wish to harm the hosts they've enjoyed staying with.

So I'm doing my part to get them to leave reviews for not only me, but hopefully, their future hosts as well 🙂

[Cor3]

Hi @Sarah977,

I’ve got a section in my manual about the review system too.

It does explain the star-system and their real meaning, and why reviews are important to the host (50% minimum review-rate for Superhost; Why a 4-star is definitely not good).

And when guest don’t leave a review, I send them a kind reminder at day 5 and at day 11 (in these reminders, I will only inform the guest, reviews are important to us and future guests).

Commonly it does the job. But there are guests, that simply cannot not be bothered.

Please bear in mind, I never meet any of our guests. So, that’s a bit different to your situation.

With me, there is no social-bonding (we haven’t spent time under the same roof). And I suppose it definitely plays a role here.

And with a review-rate of about 91%, I guess there is no real need for me to complain.

[Sarah977]

@Cor3  Yes, I'm sure it makes a difference whether you meet the guests or are sharing your private home with them. Most people who you may share a bottle of wine, conversation and laughs with aren't likely to just be a jerk and ignore what was talked about. 

Actually your review rate is better than mine- I'm at 86%. But that reflects some of the time period before I started "educating" my guests about the review proces. Will see if the next assessment period it goes up at all.

[Kath9]

@Sarah977, this might be a dumb question, but how do you know what your review rate is? I have 189 reviews but I've had around 360 bookings (I think), meaning my review rate is only 52%. Where can I see the number of reservations and review rate?

[Sarah977]

@Kath9 It's that rating on your Superhost "Opportunities" page- "Reviews"- the one where the goal is 50%. As far as I know, those stats are based on the last 365 days of activity, so it wouldn't count anything further back than that. And the number of reservations would be "# of stays" on that same page. Is that what you're asking? Maybe I'm misunderstanding.

[Kath9]

@Sarah977, thanks for that! I never looked at that before! I am currently at a 75% review rate - good to know!

[Cor3]

Hi @Kath9, @Sarah977,

I just asked my daughter why she booked this listing (and I suppose, I must have known before 🙂 ). It was the only listing left with availability, and which was near the city-center (So last minute booking).

She said again: It was expensive. I told her, I think it was fine. As it did also include a hot-tub and a Sauna. At (according to me) a reasonable price.

You can’t blame the host, when these amenities are provided, and the guests doesn't use them (and therefore the listing is priced accordingly).

[Barry-and-Lera0]

@Kath9: I like the idea of showing the "stars" between guest answers and Airbnb. Thats smart. I may use that idea.

Our biggest issue is the LOCATION review. That is the one that bugs us the most. We had a guest over New Years that gave us a 4 star review for LOCATION because we were not walking distance (2 miles) to the hotel he had to go to a wedding at. Still not sure how that is our fault but it is what it is. My favorite is getting a 4 star review because we are not on the beach...yep. That is very true. We are not on the beach. We are in the downtown district of the city. Again...not on the beach. Our Airbnb page has a little map and all that fun stuff that shows....we are not on the beach.

[Emilia42]

@Barry & Lera, I try to combat this by asking the guest what brings them to the area. I let them how far my house is from the area/destination they are looking to visit. I always try to send them a message about where I am located and do not rely on the listing page to get this info across. In the summer I have a ton of people staying who are visiting the coast - but the coast is a little over an hour away! I make this very clear but try to spin the positives like it's an easy straight shot drive or they'll be far away from the tourists at night. While people comment on the distance from the coast in their written reviews they have all rated me 5 stars for location. Not sure if my conversation with them makes the difference but it seems to work well. 

[Phil2]

I've had questions about the validity of the LOCATION rating too. It makes no sense since the guest knows in advance where the property is located to within a few hundred yards. The is no subjectivity involved in the location of the property nor can a host specify distances to every possible attactraction. 

The AirBnB platform has become increasingly Host unfriendly since I first started hosting over 3 years ago and AirBnB continually changes their ratings sytems criteria. I'm planning on moving my listing to another Rental Platform this year and just leaving the AirBnB listing in place for informational purposes with no available dates. 

There are many more short-term and long-term rental  platforms out there now and when AirBnB starts losing their numbers and leadership position they may finally start listening to the hosts who are the basis of this concept and have put up millions of dollars in property and liaiblilty risk.