This is the second or possibly third time that this has occurred with a guest review and I can’t help to think that guests either maybe confused or mislead when making a review, and truly have no idea of just how important their overall careful consideration is, when answering and selecting the overall star rating they would provide for the property once they have checked out, and then asked to provide their feedback of their recent stay. This is a true flaw within the Airbnb system, and I’m sure many assume that their star ratings given across each of the subcategories they are asked to review would then be averaged to provide their overall rating of the property. However, this is not the case as someone can give you all 5 stars in each category and leave nice comments and if they select a 4 stars for their overall review that is what is posted, no popup is provided or further details or directions to check with guests to see if they realty meant to select the rating they did when they otherwise provided rave written feedback surrounding their recent stay, and also 5 star reviews in many times all, or a majority of each of the subcategories in which they were asked to evaluate individually, and give their feedback on before their selection of their overall rating for the listing which really is the only selection that matters in the rating, as that is the only one that Airbnb applies toward the current overall rating of the listing, and host rating, that is used for evaluating hosts for their initial super host status qualification, and then each quarter thereafter to see if the over all score is maintained, or taken away if the host has not meet the criteria for this host role. Therefore, this process is poorly designed, and scoring of the reviews is clearly inaccurate and should be more streamlined and presented in a more clear manner, with guidelines outlined and explained to guests, so they will understand exactly how the review process works, and how important it is to keep in mind that even if they leave all 5 star feedback across each of their review categories, but then either mistakenly, or intentionally provides an overall score for the listing as a 4. That will be the average rating given and this is by no means an average, or based on their previous responses and providing more credibility to the review, and competed electronically as some guests may not even know, or understand how to provide an average even if they so wished, but are unfamiliar as to how:
But this current review system needs evaluated and updated as this has happened on multiple occasions and has exposed the flaw that exists in the current review process. The process again, is inaccurate, and truly misleading in how overall reviews are scored and, tabulated. Guests should be able to provide such reviews and know they will not be tricked, or mislead with how how each one of their individual responses is displayed, and or averaged or NOT averaged as Airbnb does not do so. Such, practices can damage a hosts reputation, and or their overall listings score just because they didn’t choose to write a big letter to their guests begging for them to put a 5 for each of the categories listed in the review as this does not help provide unbiased or uninflected feedback either, as such reviews with to uncover. Anyone should be able to complete them without question, and know that it will be scored in an appropriate manner that is fair to all and provides accurate feedback based on all the questions asked and not just one. It’s my hope this will be charged soon, as this should not continue to occur.
