Got a 4-star on location. I’m nowhere near where that person wanted to stay AND I refunded her 2 of the 3 nights she booked, having only stayed one night.
Well I bet you do not do that again! I guess it could have been worse though. Does it really matter? Does a 4* in one section drag down your overall? What was her overall stars?
RR
Oh, I bet he will. @Josiah has been on the forum awhile but it doesn’t seem that he’s really following our advice here. And as for the location rating…well, see the other 1000 posts that say the same thing.
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Only 1000? It seems like more. Sigh. Wearily.
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Yup. Josiah never seems to re-read his posts to see what our advice is. Which is why he’ll keep refunding when he shouldn’t and losing money. Maybe if he loses enough money something will happen…
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I’m not really “losing” money. But yeah, I’m too nice.
Turns out location rating does not get get calculated in overall rating. Just sucks to get judged for something you have absolutely zero control over, and guest’s inability to read a listing.
The real problem is, those same-day bookings I keep refunding… They can still review me.
Uhm, then don’t do that?
RR
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Anecdotal evidence indicates there is a low correlation between refunds and reviews.
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@Josiah. What is your overall cancellaion policy?
Flexible-Airbnb would’ve refunded the cancelled nights regardless of your input.
Sadly I think some guests don’t recognize:
- They shouldn’t blame the host if the guest doesn’t read the description
- If they book & cancel under anything other than a flexible policy the host has given them a kindness and should be thanked.
- If host can accomodate a special request like early check in or late check out, the host is trying to facilitate a relationship.
It is up to you to conduct your business in a manner that makes sense to you.
However if there is a recurring theme in your guest relations challenges, it is a clue to consider making a change in how you do business.
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We employ the Flexible cancellation policy, but about 1/3 of our bookings are same-day. Many are the day before. Sometimes we get 2-3 booking in one day for our 2 guestrooms (not impossible, apparently).
It’s our home first, “business” second. Sometimes we just don’t want flighty people in our home.
Funny, though, I just saw on Airbnb that this:
Show the specific listing location before guests book?
Displaying a specific map location could make it easier for guests to find and book your listings.
Everyone will be shown the location if you choose the specific location setting. You can hide it again at any time.
Even Airbnb fails to realize there’s a huge map in every listing. Schmh!
Clearly part of my rant is being missed: People are booking our place miles away from where they want to be. It’s nice to be suggested by Airbnb, but they (Airbnb and guests) take zero account for proximity.
I don’t understand what you mean.
No, we get the rant, but we’ve also seen it countless times.
Yes, it’s annoying to be marked down when a guest picked your location and then proceed to mark you down because it wasn’t close to an attraction they wanted to visit. Airbnb said they’re reviewing this category because of the bad host feedback.
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Rants are all very well, but does anyone here remember a previous member, Fred? He had a private island for his guests and STILL got marked down on location sometimes.
Channel Basil Fawlty…
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I’m in the seedy but improving section of Ontario’s armpit. The key is to find the diamond in all the junk. Turns out sweaty street is 2 km from a UNESCO biosphere. And it’s also the waterfall capital of the world. Took me 2 years to discover it but guests love it!
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There’s a map under the location heading of any listing. You know that blue circle that appears to get bigger and smaller when you zoom in and out of your general location? It appears very tiny when you compare our distance to Boston.
So why did you say what you did about Airbnb? Still not getting it…
We have a similar reputation issue, but it’s the whole city. Guests are pleasantly surprised by where we live and our home. Generally, guests aren’t traveling to our location for the sake of the city. Most guests are visiting family or here on business. Or they’re just traveling through. We are not most people’s holiday destination. Although, we’ve had a couple lovely European families looking to stay some place quintessentially American for a few nights, so our tiny, blue collar city makes the list for them.
Airbnb now allows hosts to pin their exact location on their location map. That’s not a preferred option for us. We don’t want creepy locals trolling our house (we don’t rent to locals). We’re really the only Airbnb in town, except a couple shitty looking ones and an actual B&B, so there’s no need to have our location pinned on a map.
The circle is good enough.
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So when you said ‘Even Airbnb fails to realize there’s a huge map in every listing. Schmh!’ you were referring to ‘creepy locals’? 
Exactly. You have the choice.