Dinged Again on Location

Last two sets of guests knocked me down 1 and 2 stars respectively for location. One couple booked at the last minute because they couldn’t find anything closer to town. They were visiting a child at one of the local colleges and the second couple were looking for cheap but didn’t really read the description. Both rated me 5 overall so that’s not the issue but if this is going to be a “thing” in the future, I want to address it in my property description.

My vineyard is 20 minutes by car from town and for some apparently, that seems to be too far. I did re-write my property description to reflect the fact that I lived here with dogs and that seems to have reduced some of the shock felt when I actually greet folks.

Any thoughts about this or, should I just accept that some folks aren’t going to be pleased no-matter-what?

My rating for both rooms has been 4.9 overall for the last year.

Include a photo with an arrow saying 20 minutes drive to XXXX :slight_smile:

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After reading hundreds of posts about this it seems to be a problem that can’t be solved.

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Do the sub ratings have any impact on anything?

It’s wild. We had someone who was visiting our area. She also decided to visit a friend in a different city a few cities away. Dinged our rating for it not being close by to her friends house. …hmmm ok

A reminder to search the forum…

Everyone seems to be dinged for location. Even a previous member here whose rental was a private island didn’t get 5 stars for location. Checkout a few of the many topics on the subject for plenty of stories and anecdotes.

That doesn’t help the person who just needs to vent. LOL.

I did read something about Airbnb knows it’s unfair and is working on doing something about it. Meanwhile at least I can make it clear that you can’t ski up to my front door.

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frustrating “Nick is kind and welcoming, everything perfect”
4stars, 4stars, 4stars, 4stars

So frustrating! We’ve had that happen too. Everything is great but 4 stars! I had one guest that had a million requests that I honored before her arrival. I even went one person over my max when she had a last minute add on. Then she gave me four stars for cleanliness stating, The laundry room had a slight chemical odor. Yes it does… of cleaning products that are on the shelf. 2000 square feet and the laundry room which is tucked away decreased me by a star.

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This is what I have in my listing (I copied it from another host):

“Our Airbnb is located in XXXXXX’s diverse XXXXXXX neighborhood. It’s close to the XXXXXXXX/downtown area and convenient to (major interstate). If you feel that driving a few minutes to the city center will be an inconvenience and your review will reflect this, you may be happier booking a different property.”

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Hahaha, yep, you can! :rofl:

And I read in a recent email (?) that they were going to tackle the location issue. Now whether they make it better for hosts remains to be seen … Being hopeful here!

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I like this part! I detail the distance to attractions but once in awhile I still get the random person that choses to drive to Asheville three times in a weekend and gets snarky about the drive, even though it’s explicitly stated as a “40 minute drive”

Nevermind that my house would be at least 3x more expensive closer to the city, as well as illegal with the new STR restrictions, but I digress … Lol

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I hate being dinged for location because no matter how descriptive you get someone will find fault. One guest said I was off the beaten path…we are in the older section of town (home built in 1920’s but renovated) right by the local pool and all local amenities. But since the numbering system is a bit odd it can be tricky to figure out. They homes are numbered in a weird way, such at 33 and 34 are side by side and 71 is across the street.

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I get dinged for being in Brooklyn even though it says in the listing that we are 30–40 mins by subway from midtown Manhattan.
I am definitely going to copy your description and add to listing as I’m quite fed up with location bringing down my stars average

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I’ve been dinged on location 3 times in 19 reviews (2 different listings). Last one was the kicker: “The house was beautiful, but Parkersburg itself was not that interesting.”

LOL, THEY picked Parkersburg to visit. It’s not like they were there in business or had to be in Parkersburg.

It’s a small city/large town of about 32,000. Within 30 minutes drive are 3 pages of things to do; tons of historic homes, museums (including a mortuary museum), loads of parks and outdoor activities, 2 different ghost tours, a true crime tour, civil war sites, scenic boat tours, etc. Go a little further and you can visit Amish country, our state capitol, a safari zoo, belonging to Columbus zoo, etc.

What was really eye roll inducing is that the guest told me they were there to spend family time together and they stayed in and played board games and cooked.

Final thing…the house is in town but backs up to a large green space. We have deer and black squirrels. This was a private note he left in the feedback:

Your place sounds wonderful!

Thank you! This guest liked it enough to say he might come back, but still only gave four stars for location! I just had to chuckle.

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@Keugenia - We had a family DRIVE from Alaska and then ding us on location stating on private comment “Quite a long drive from the city” We are 40 minutes from Asheville but 15 to Waynesville. Alaska is oh, maybe DAYS away? At first I was mad and then thought “Wow, what a goof!” And his comments said he would come back too! I hope he flies next time … We are an hour from the airport :wink:

Oh, that IS funny! SMH, and hoping they don’t ding you on location next time!

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I may have a solution. I was constantly getting dinged on location even though we have a 100% 5 stars overall rating because we are not near the beach. We are clear about this in the description but nobody reads that and many people expect Sicily to be all beach. So in the message that I send prior to check out I have added this phrase, “We have enjoyed hosting you and do hope you will also post a review on Airbnb - they will send us both a reminder to review each other and a link on how to do this. When you review location, please bear in mind that this is an evaluation of the accuracy of the location. Please don’t mark us down, as some guests did in the past because it it is not near to the beach - that is clear before booking!”
This seems to work well- we’ve only received five stars for location since adding this.

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