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!

[Danny152]

You are 100% right on your commentaries. Airbnb unfortunately has become a CORPORATION with not a single clue of what their business is based on! Without hosts offering their houses they have no business and tneir response to the hosts and the way they take sides with the scamy guests is unacceptable.

[Maeve9]

Hello Phil,

i had to wait ONE Year for super host even though I have 98% 5 star reviews. The reason was - a guest contacted me by phone to say he had to cancel. He asked me to cancel as he wasn't near wi-fi at the time.... I didn't know any better so I cancelled for him! 

Needless to say Airbnb didn't care and that cancellation kept me from my super host badge until yesterday. So there are many often random reasons Airbnb do what the do.

maeve

[Sarah977]

@Phil2  Either the person you spoke to at Airbnb gave you incorrect information or you misunderstood. The new criteria is actually better for hosts who have long-term guests.

10 stays OR 100 nights over at least 3 stays. So you would definitely qualify for that.

Reviews- 80% of your guests need to leave a review.

We've been harping on them about the review requirement, because, as you say, we have no control over whether a guest leaves a review or not, although I find that when I educate my guests as to the fact that we are rated on that, as I always do, almost all do leave a review. Most guests have no desire to tank your rating, they just don't know that not leaving a review is something WE are punished for.

[Deacon0]

I completely agree the super-host status is impossible to reach unless you do a ton of short-term rentals now. I believe they did this to keep hosts taking on shorter and more numerous travelers. Has anyone else noticed that if a guest reaches out to you and you deny them you are penalized for it ? I recently denied a guest who was rude and combative during their request. After I denied them I received a message saying that I would need to automatically take the next few guests. that is not okay with me. I speak to every guest before I take them I do not take automatic rentals. I live in the home 

I'm renting and I should be able to review every single guest.  Airbnb has sent me 2 mentally I'll guests that I did not feel safe with and this happened while another guest was staying both times.  I believe Airbnb just wants more turn around and rentals for their fees to go up.

[Susan1028]

I concur @Deacon0, @Kath9 and everyone here. There are many other choices that offer greater transparency and ease.

Sad that the “original” has lost sight of its reason for being, because this community has the potential to continue transforming the lodging industry and social climate for the better if it wakes up and smells the coffee in time.

Ultimately, this is a business for each of us, one that I find rewarding way beyond the income and truly love offering so I’m going to do what is necessary to keep it thriving.

Youre clearly doing well with so many long term bookings @Deacon and the ABB business model isn't serving you or many other smaller independent operators that made ABB a “go-to.” 

Our priority needs to be thriving.  We are not wholesalers and most if us aren’t flippers with multiple properties and far less investment in the personal experience that ABB seems to be more interested in rewarding right now.

Staying “loyal” to an entity that’s not supportive anymore isn’t “sustainable” and seems like a common theme in every landscape in these times.

We are  not bound by exclusivivity, and if ABB isn’t interested enough in keeping our business to listen and support us (aka walk thier own talk), it will ultimately be reflected in theirs. 

Congratulations on your success @Deacon, and keep doing what’s working...as we all must whether it’s here or not.

[CarolAndSteve0]

I so agree with your last paragragh;  'the increasingly unreachable AirBnB standards.' I have been hosting since 2007 and have used many different platforms through the years. AirBnB was such a joy to work with in the beginning....and yes they had growing pains and learning curves to tackle in those early years, but seem to work hard to continue to better themselves.

I am sure that they would say all the recent changes are in that vain as well, but to me and numerous other hosts in my area that have conversations concerning them, it feels like they have grown money hungry.  I have always had 5 star reviews on all my platforms, hosting is a matter of pride for us, we love making the stay in our cottage the best it can be, and because of that we have loyal returning guests every year. (In my area, you have so many choices, that guests don't need to return to you unless they like what you have offered.)

Besides hosting, I have a job in which I travel, and many times travel abroad or to the west coast, meaning there are times according to when a guest has given an inquiry, there are times I have gotten back to them with a question that I want to know, let's use, 'will you be bringing a pet?' and I am waiting to hear their response before I accept them.  The 24 hours ticks out and I get dinged because I haven't hit accept. It's my house and I have the right to ask certian questions that affect the cottage (some guests tend to 'forget' when they are filling our the inquiry form to add that they are bringing a dog because it adds a cost to do so, so sometimes you have to ask again. Many times you get a, oh yea, we have a dog that we will be bringing. My question...what type of dog and how many IBS? I ask this because we have a small place and only allow up to 30IBs...point being you need some time to get your answers  (about whatever your concerns might be- yours might not be about dogs) so that you feel that this inquiry will be a good fit. If you've ever had a guest that mistreated your place you know to ask more questions the next time to find a better fit.

Anyway, I feel that 24 hour countdown should not penalize you when you are in conversations with a guests and time runs out and you still don't have your answers because the guest is slow to answer you, you can't control that. I feel that AirBnB is trying to force your hand simply for the money's sake so that they don't lose that guests who might also be talking to/finding you through another platform.

The other thing that my superhost medal has been taken away for is sometimes, definitely not always, I have forgotten to mark the dates that my adult kids will be coming home and I get an inquiry for that time period, I look, kids are in town and be using the guest cottage, I have to decline their stay, I get penalized.  Yes, life is not perfect and yes I have another job that keeps me pretty busy but if AirBnB would listen to my guests and their reviews they would know that I do a gret job of hosting when I do host. Sometimes, the dates of inquiry are when I'm traveling and say my cleaner is sick and I'm away and I don't have anyone to go over and clean the cottage, I can't except a guests. Things happen in life and we as host, especially those of us that have proven time and time again that we run our properties to high standards should not be penalized for things that happen in life every now and again. If it happened all the time, I would undestnd their point of stripping the superhost medal.  Good standards for all of we hosts are something I truly understand, making up silly rules  for those of us that have proven ourselves seems misplaced.

[Kath9]

@Cathie19, you're welcome! Yes, it is like a thesis for guests now, so it's not surprising the review rate is dropping. I'm hoping the checkout message will help with this though.

[Cathie19]

Well it can’t hurt, so I will do similar. 

[Tif1]

Thank you. I have been reticent about mentioning reviews to guests but after having a run of 5 star reviews I suddenly got 3 4 star reviews for location. I did actually ask one couple from the UK why and they said they would have given it 5 if it had been in a forest location, yet their overall review was 5 stars and their review glowing!I am very clear and accurate  in the description about where we are and proximity to things, but am not Harry Potter, so cannot magic the place to the middle of an enchanted forest

Another couple stayed in for the entire stay and gave a glowing review, but dropped to 4 for location. 

So it means that in the star system i am now 4.7 for location, which is bad news for me as we are mainly geared towards couples who want to ski at the resort 15 minutes away , but non skiing couples rated location down, which could mean that people who do want to ski might think that we are not as near as we say we are.!  Thanks for the ideas and tips above, I may well do similar , if I can just get over my awkward feeling about doing it 😉

[Kath9]

@Tif0, the location rating is a whole different story - it is unfair and should be removed altogether.

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

@Kath9

Totally agree - we always get 5 * overall but rarely for location. Yet we are very specific about our location and that we are 30 mins from the main attractions. You can’t win on this on. Feedback is meant to help you improve- how do you shift your property 6 miles? 

Re your guest messaging - personally I would find it off-putting to have someone solicit a 5* review by telling me they gave me one. If a guest did that - he said ‘give me a glowing review’ I would be very suspicious of their motives. Also 5 = acceptable? 5 should, in my view = very good, 4 = good, 3 = acceptable. However if it’s irking for you, then great.

Goid luck!

[Kath9]

Hi @Gerry-And-Rashid0, thanks for your feedback. I do feel somewhat uncomfortable about it to be honest, but my review rate was only just scraping above the required 50% thanks to the new tedious review process. So, the idea is that it is a gentle reminder to guests to leave a review. I do understand that some people might find it offputting. Perhaps I will reword it.

Re the table: Yes, in all of our view, 5 should = very good. However, if you look at the table carefully, you'll see that this refers to how Airbnb sees it. In Airbnb's view, 5 is only just acceptable, because if our overall rating drops below 4.8, we lose our Superhost status and below 4.7, we start getting messages from Airbnb that things aren't good enough. So, this is the point of this table, for guests to see the difference between what WE think 5 should mean and what Airbnb thinks 5 means.

[Cor3]

Hi @Kath9,

Good post, and I will certainly think about your suggestions.

The thing is however: Do we actually know? whether Airbnb has replaced the overall experience star-rating question with the question: How did your stay compare to your expectations.

Since I have clear evidence (including screenshots), they haven’t (yet) done so for me (My guests are still being asked both questions).

All my reviews of 2018 (except for 1, earlier in the year) have been 5-stars overall experience. Even a review of a guest, that stated in the textual review: "It was exactly as described" (obviously this is not entirely the same as: exactly as expected).

A couple of weeks ago, I’ve asked Mrs. Laura Chambers (In the Superhost week thread) for Airbnb to elaborate on this.

Unfortunately, I haven’t seen anything yet.

[Kath9]

@Cor0, I have just completed a review as a guest and there were two 'overall' questions (apart from the individual items on cleanliness, communication, etc.): 'How was your stay at x's place?' and 'How did your stay at x's place compare to your expectations?'. I'm not 100% sure which one is used to calculate the overall rating score, but I do know for sure that sometimes hosts can get 5 stars on all the individual items, but then only 3 or 4 stars overall, so I'm pretty sure it has something to do with one or both of the above questions. Someone mentioned on another post a while ago that it was the 'expectations' question that determined the overall rating, which is what prompted me to write the blurb. Anyway, it seems to be working, so I'll stick with it for now!

[Cor3]

Hi @Kath9,

The other day, I noticed our daughter and her boyfriend had stayed at an Airbnb last summer.

I also noticed, she did not leave the host a review (obviously, she is absolutely and fully aware of the importance of reviews to a host)!

So, I asked her for her reason not to leave a review.

And her simple answer was: It was already expensive enough, and I'm therefore not going to help the host with a free-of-charge review too.

So, I thought about this, and in essence there is quite a bit of truth in there.

Growing your business on Airbnb, mainly means: Getting good reviews with high ratings, under your belt.

I’ve also noticed: The Airbnb search engine seems to particularly favor listings with a lot of reviews.

Obviously, there is nothing wrong in trying to persuade guests to give the host the maximum score on everything in the review (anything less, will hurt the host). Not leaving the host a review, does hurt the host too.

The problem: We are all basically held hostage by guest reviews.

Whether it is the fear of a less than optimal review, or even the consequence of getting into an argument over some damage/additional charges. While the reviews haven’t been published yet.

Example:

Some time ago, an incident took place, while we had guests over.

The guest reported the incident. And they immediately took a very defensive stand, towards this incident (from the nature of the incident, it was pretty clear who must have caused it. Unfortunately I could not prove it, and neither did I have a confession).

So I ended up: Apologizing to the guest, for this incident to take place, during their stay? WTF!

Some may say or think: I’m a coward (upfront accepted, of course).

But for me it is very simple: I simply weigh the costs of the incident versus the possible financial consequences (and future hassle of explaining the argument to prospective guests) of a very damaging and bad review (out of retaliation).

Furthermore, it is also known: For Airbnb tending to side with the guest, in case of a dispute over damage (especially, when the host does not have concrete evidence).

I.e.: There is a good chance, you may end up with no compensation at all. And still a very bad review, just because you accused the guest of causing damage.

So, I ended up chalking up the costs as part of our Airbnb hosting business.

Now with regards to this post:

Please see the screenshots, I’ve posted in thread: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/The-quot-new-quot-host-review-form-for-guests-to-rate-ho...

In summary:

Step 1: Star-Rating for Overall Experience (On a scale of 1 to 5 stars). It seems it is not even mandatory to fill this!

Step 2: Compliments (7 choices, which act like a checkbox; This step can be skipped).

Step 3: Under-/Over-Delivery (Comparison to expectations, 5-radiobutton choice. What will Airbnb be doing with this information?)

Step 4: Star-Rating for the other 6 sub-categories (On a scale of 1 to 5 stars). Again: It is not mandatory to fill all of these!

Step 5: Basic amenity checklist/confirmation (Maybe other amenity verification options are available below, but at least not visible in the screenshots, I have).

Step 6: Private message to the host (This step can be skipped).

Step 7: Public review

Please bear in mind: It is known for Airbnb to gradually introduce, new or changed functionality (usually geographically). Without informing anybody.

So, I’m not accusing anybody of spreading rumors (we simply just don’t know, as Airbnb does not provide answers on how it really works – or whether they are experimenting in this area).

The above mentioned screenshots have been given to me, by a Dutch guest in August 2018.

Even the (new) ‘guest review of a stay’-process, seems to have been introduced, without any communication by Airbnb!

So, for me: The overall star rating we get from a guest, is the answer from Step 1.

We simply do not know, what Airbnb is doing with the answers from Step 3.

As this is not made visible to the host.

The compliments issued, are only visible in the App (not on the Website).

When you tab, your overall star-performance in the App (under Progress). You get to see your Compliments-score for the past year.

Not all hosts are aware of this functionality too.

Interesting to know (maybe): It seems, guests do not get to see the ratings, we give them on: Cleanliness, Following House-rules and Communication. It also seems: They do not get to see the result of the Thumbs Up/Down, we give them.

Basically the results of these, are only visible to hosts on Instant Bookings.

A couple of weeks ago, a thread was started by Mrs. Laura Chambers. And I’ve asked her to elaborate on this particular issue.

See my conversation with Laura, here: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Airbnb-Updates/Introducing-Superhost-Week/td-p/884276/page/31

I only hope they will supply us with a proper answer in due time!

This far, I haven’t seen anything.