Good evening, i have a host that arrived tonight for tonigh...
Good evening, i have a host that arrived tonight for tonight and tonight of all nights, i have a major boiler problem which ...
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Irma, the Airbnb review system is problematic for hosts, it is not like a normal review system where you have a floating average rating, with both plus and minus increments either side......'Average 3.9 * from 247 reviews'!
Airbnb's review system is more of a punishment system than a reward system, there is only 1 default rating which every host is told they should strive to achieve and that is 5 star. Anything less than 5 star means the host has some work to do to be that Airbnb default host.
Obviously Irma, this is nonsensical! Every guest has a differing idea of perfection.....to some there is no such thing as 5 star! It is that perfection that doesn't exist. Most guests just don't understand the way it works and they give reviews like this......
The host can learn absolutely nothing from a review like that, but still gets penalised for it!
And because of the way the review system is structured it is almost useless as a guide to guest or host relevance because, we all pat each other on the back and say what great people we are regardless of the actual experience to avoid getting a poor review.
We see many complaints from hosts about a guest who had 8 five star previous reviews, but turned out to be a disaster of a guest and knew how to manipulate the review system.
In your situation Irma, even your rating doesn't add up, even using Airbnb's maths!!! Your 2 Bed listing has 8 reviews of which 6 have been 5 star, one a 4 and one a 3.
Out of a possible 40 stars you have 37. Thirty seven as a percentage of forty is......... 92. Your overall rating on that listing should be 4.9! But it is 4.6!
You have a listing which most of your guests love and have given you great reviews so, you are not doing anything wrong, and you won't influence Airbnb to change the review system so, you have to work with it.
This is my method of educating guests as to how it operates. This page is prominent in my House Rules folder, and most guests are shocked when they read it and realise that, by trying to be constructive and help the host, they were actually hurting them......
Don't get too disheartened Irma, we all have to deal with it, just concentrate on being the best host you can be, and let those great written reviews you have do the talking and don't worry about the star ratings.
Cheers........Rob.
