This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
So I just got a fresh rating and the dashboard said that both the value and location were less than 5 stars. As I am the cheapest person in the city and also with an unbeatable location I contacted the girl who rated me asking what I could improve moving forward. She replied saying she had given me full points! On everything! Now obviously there is a chance she’s lying but she gave me a great written review and also seemed very happy while staying with me so I doubt she’s not telling the truth.
I did, but I suspected she was a little embarrassed to have marked me down on these things too. She said she gave five stars across the board, but I could see that the location and value had both been marked at 4 stars, a new thing for me. I didn’t pursue it. Maybe I should have, but I just thought, maybe this woman had totally unrealistic expectations, seeing as everyone else marks me as 5 stars in everything. She seemed thrilled with her stay. I actually felt pretty crappy about those marks at the time. But, you get over it. Oh, and you know the weirdest thing? She raved about the location in the review!!
But that’s the thing, her review also mentions the convenient location so i am inclined to believe her… I just don’t think it would be a stretch to imagine that airbnb distorts the ratings?
Hey you know what? I believe it too! This woman was so adamant, she said she had even messaged airbnb to say that she gave me all five stars, but nothing changed, so silly me just thought it was embarrassment on her part because I asked her about it. But you’re absolutely right! Why rave about the location and your stay, then mark down, and when asked about it, be genuinely shocked because you had given five stars and indeed are prepared to contact air about it.
Here is what my guest said:
Oh I’m sorry something must have gone wrong with my review submission! I put 5/5 for all …
Yes I will. I defiantly indicated 5/5 for all categories so I will be sure that they got that feedback accurate.
Following up with their support now.
No worries at all! I’ve sent an email to support just to be sure my feedback was accurately captured. Thanks again for the lovely place to stay!
Of course when nothing happened and the 4 stars stayed (and I always get five stars for value and location), I just thought she had lied. But knowing airbnb as I do now, I believe you’re right. Mistakes do get made, and they can never be bothered to fix these things, because it requires extra work (they have to ask seniors or the trip team to help fix it). And the truth is, they just don’t really care that much. If you want it fixed, you have to make a big fuss, and be prepared to come with evidence in the form of your guests messages. I suggest a screen shot before they disappear into never never land, because they love to do that.
I had a similar experience with booking.com. Booking.com only gives the guest four categories:
Poor, Fair, Good, Excellent (something like that)
Then they ask the guest to rate several categories like value, cleanliness, etc. Well at the time I did not know the guest does not rate us on stars. Because my ratings always showed up as 7.5 or 10 stars in each category, I just assumed the guest was selecting these numerically.
So I receive this review and every single category has a rating of 7.5 stars. I was livid as this was the worst rating I had received and because this was a one night stay I did allow the guest to check in four hour early (something I likely would not do today).
I emailed the guest and let her know this was the worst star review I had received and also let her know I allowed her in four hours early. I told her I was very disappointed that she would leave a review like that. Well, she said she clicked on the highest rating possible.
So I called booking.com and the only thing they could come up with is that her screen view maybe was not showing a full view - so the “excellent” bubble off to the far right maybe was getting cut off. So the highest she would be able to click on would have been “good” which translates to 7.5 stars. I let the guest know they said that was a possibility and she did end up contacting booking.com to give them permission to change it to all excellent.
Did I just embarrass the guest and she lied about her original rating? I will never know, but I was very happy when she updated it.
This was my email I sent to the guest after I walked outside for 30 minutes to cool off:
Hi XXXXXX,
I am hoping you can provide some feedback as to your review. I was quite surprised to see that we received a 7.5 out of 10 in all six categories, which dropped us out of the “exceptional” status that we worked very hard to earn. Is this a mistake on Booking.com’s part? I see you said " “We were very impressed with just about everything about the cabin and would like to stay there again” - so we are very confused.
I thought you would have been very satisfied with the “value” - I went out of my way to ensure you could check in 4 hours early and also offered use of the theater room which was not complete, and thought it might be a nice bonus. Was the place not as advertised?
I hope you did not take the basement into consideration of the review…as it was not advertised and was not fully prepared for guests.
Please let me know what I could have done better to receive a 10 for communicating with guests. I thought I communicated very well with you. Also, please let me know what was not clean (excluding the basement), or how I could have improved the comfort of the place.
If this is an error on Booking.com’s part, then please let me know. But, I would appreciate your feedback because that is the worst review we have received, and another similar one will surely drop our ranking even more…especially from guests who say they want to return and loved the place.
“My rating was the best you could give. I had nothing negative to say.”
ME: "I very much appreciate you replying. Are you saying you marked the highest in all categories? I understand and respect if you felt the property deserved less…nothing wrong with that. I am just double checking because you left a nice “written review” and it did not reflect the poor score. So, am not sure if I need to follow up with Booking.com or if there was an error.
Thanks.
GUEST: No problem, I was surprised that the highest mark available was “good” instead of “excellent”. Maybe that is the problem… Like I said, I gave the highest mark available.
Sandy - now I just pulled this all up in my email. I do not see where there is any correspondence about the good vs. excellent. It almost looks like something is missed. But that was the chunk of our correspondence. I possibly sent the other emails to trash at the time, and that is why info is missing. I did end up thanking her for changing it and that does not show up in my email right now.
Hmm. It’s hard to judge whether it was mistaken or you caught a not particularly nice person being rather ungenerous where they thought they wouldn’t be pulled up for being so. I found the way she said ‘like I said, I gave the highest mark available’ a bit… hard in tone, I can picture and hear someone saying those words, and it doesn’t sound like something really friendly people say, it sounds defensive. But I do a lot of reading into people’s use of language and vocabulary to see what kind of people they are. It’s not an exact science. It is possible to make a mistake I guess, but repeatedly for each one? I mean, anything is possible, it’s true. We’ll never know! I hope she made a mistake, because it’s nicer to think that way.
By the way Cabin, I have been mesmerized imagining your amazing cabin up in the hills! It sounds glorious!! We are taking a break and going canoe camping in the Adirondacks this week if the weather will allow. I love the sound of your waterfall. It is a feature you built, or a natural feature? The idea of people climbing all over it (especially parents letting silly kids half kill themselves’ makes me cringe
This happened to me as well. Some guests have un realistic expectations and they just never give 5 stars because to them 5 stars means nightly feet massage from angels.
That said, your score is the rounded up average score. One or two 4 or 3 stars don’t really matter too much.
You could have it changes by airbnb but you need to raise hell. They make it very difficult for guests to change the review.
Guests have marked me down over things that are not advertised (such as a full kitchen) and did not appreciate that they had a free kitchen and thought it should have more such as a dishwasher! Never understood whey they act like this.
I am a 4.5-star host and I don’t see that ever changing. As long as they keep coming, bringing their money and writing good reviews and behaving nicely, I am happy.
Here’s how I look. And always have and probably always will, sigh.
The same has happened with me today. The guest marked me down for value and location. This particular guest wrote me a glowing review and also took time to send me a message when she left, saying she had an amazing time and would give me a really good review. So i do not understand this. Could airbnb be making mistakes? I am going to contact the guest to ask before I contact airbnb. But this has pissed me off, because as I understand if I get another star rating marking me down for value then it will show on my profile? Just recently as well I added a whole basket of snacks, water, drinks, chocolate in the guest room!!! And now i get marked down for value! I shouldnt have bothered, obviously not appreciated. I guess the more you give people the more they want!
lol no reply as yet. They were back packers, so prob expect things for nothing! I must calm down and not worry too much, Air keep saying the site is built on trust, but I find the whole review / star ratings so two faced.
What do you mean another star rating marking you down will show up on your profile?? Do you mean it won’t show 5 stars anymore? Many of us get marked down for value and location. I’m not going to drop my rates so that people start marking me 5 for value. The guest knows what price they are paying, and if the property is advertised accurately then guests shouldn’t be crying about the value.
Often times guests cannot really afford their vacation so it is their fault for choosing a place out of their price range. Maybe Airbnb should reduce their booking fee and then guests will feel they got a better value…ha! Yet, Air suggests we build taxes into our rates, which only results in higher booking fees for the guest. So maybe they should make a separate tax line.
Hi cabinhost, yea seemly the number of stars displayed at the top of a listing page is an aggregate of the primary scores guests have given for that listing. At the bottom of a listing page there’s an aggregate for each category rating. A host needs to receive star ratings from at least 3 guests before their aggregate score appears. So ive had two in a row, if I get a third, i’m assuming my raging will go down a half, or is it a full star?
Youre so right, they know what theyre getting so shouldnt yap about it. I dont understand what more they want. I offer so much, and even increase what I give guests at holiday times, such as offering bottles of wine/cava, snacks, I have fresh flowers in the room, tea/coffee, chocolate, and lately Ive added a basket of goodies to the room. It was when I added this basket of goodies that my value went down!!! Cant win!
Ahhhh Sunshine, you’ve just experienced the sting of ungrateful guests (“How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!” --Act 1, Scene 4 of William Shakespeare’s King Lear)…
And this, my dear Sunshine, is why so many of us hosts have long since discontinued all the little froo froo extras!
It’s even worse when you do extras and you get thanked with a good slap over something trivial in a review.
️
I must calm down and not worry too much, Air keep saying the site is built on trust, but I find the whole review / star ratings so two faced.