Falling below 4.7 stars and deleted!?!

@Yana
If I showed you the messages you may change your mind. I don’t think they care about small listings. I think there is more in it. They don’t want to be the matress on the ground they once were. They want to be high end and my listing doesn’t fit with that.
The standards of my listings are high. The only very few negative reviews have been in regards to flight movements which is clearly stated in the listing. They suggested to send individual messages before and after bookings which states it’s under a flight path. I responded that once I had also don’t that and I continue to receive what they consider poor reviews what then??
They then closed the case promptly

I am also not high end or fancy acvimodation. One of my rooms isbin former garage with laundry machines there. And I also very rarely but have my share of one after another bad reviews for all kind of reasons.
There are few hosts here who never have bad reviews. My opinion is that either they are perfect or severely underpriced.
I know that 1* review can do lots of damage even if you have all 5*. In one of my listings I had about 20 5* and 2 1*. It brought me very much down. One 1* was from a couple of young girls who for some weird reason though they will be alone at the house where they clearly rented a room. They showed up with food for at least 10 people for one night stay. When I met them they immediately asked me if there are other guests here. I said: yes there are 3 other guests.
And I looked at all the food they brought and reminded them there are no parties allowed here . They immediately left and wanted to cancelled with refund. I would may be even gave them refund but then they stated reason that place was dirty . Well , Airbnb didn’t give them any refund and when I was trying to take review down I asked representative look at my other all 5* reviews and the obvious fact that those two wanted to have a party and that’s why they cancelled. He said he does have an impression that these two were just angry but still can’t take review down

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@Yana
That’s disgraceful. I got told that they have a policy of not removing because reviews help create an honest, portrayal of the experiences guests and hosts have with each other.
This is quite obviously not the case in each our instances. It’s just ridiculous that each case is not judged on merits and they take a one size fits all approach.
I shouldnt let it get to me and just play the game bit it does :frowning:

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Do you mention airport noise in your listing description?

@Helsi

It’s in the title and the listing description

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Then your guests are complete idiots :slight_smile:

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@Helsi
I guess I should build up my idiot tolerance level :slight_smile:

Rant over

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I’m one of them and as I’ve posted previously I think there are two factors. One, my airbnb room is almost new and I maintain and improve it constantly. If something doesn’t work or gets damaged I replace it. I check the grout, touch up the paint, etc. I go above and beyond. I’m affordable but not underpriced.

The other thing is that I don’t have tourists.

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I’m certainly not perfect and my rate is higher than average for comparable places, not underpriced.

And apart from my very first highly unpleasant guest, who had I been a more experienced host I would have thrown out for his weird behaviour and extremely unfriendly manner, hundreds of guests later, have never had a bad review and have kept my superhost status since achieving it within the first three months of listing.

This awful guest gave me 1 star across the board for my brand new (less than a month old), high spec gorgeous apartment.

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Delisted for a 4.6?! Yikes. I was recently at a 4.7 because of a retaliatory 3-star review that a guest left, and that dropped me so far down the search results that I could find my listing unless I zoomed in all the way to my neighborhood. Air would show listings that were 20 miles away from my city before showing mine! I just got back up to a 4.8, but I haven’t looked yet to see how much that may have bumped me up. Couldn’t have been much though since I haven’t had any bookings in weeks. :frowning:

Agreed. I have it explained in my welcome binder, but I feel like guests still really don’t get it. I mean, if you look at hotel booking sites like Expedia, they consider a rating of 4.3/5 as “Excellent!” and even 4.0/5 as “very good!” You only have to get a 4.7/5 to get their highest rating of “Exceptional!”

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My gripe is not with the guests or even the ratings I’m getting. It’s with how abb interprets the ratings. My place is nothing like Helsi which sounds like it deserves 5 stars but it’s priced right and spotlessly clean and should not be anywhere near the delisting or pause cut off

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@jkamm

Jey do you mind if I ask what country your listing is in?
Chris

I’m in the United States.

I am still about 4.8 with all 5 star reviews except for this a-hole who left me a 3-star review with the comment “nice place”.

I tried to get AirBnB to delete it. Why? Can I not accept my lumps? No, that’s not it at all!!

He propositioned me for a business opportunity on the property. I politely declined. All of this is through the platform. AirBnB can READ it for themselves! Yet they refuse to delete. If it affect my rating (due to a legitimate negative review), I am going to pitch a fit!

Oh…and this is the one with two alleged “therapy dogs”, one of which we found sniffing in the back of the house at the caretaker’s basement door all by himself.

-Lauren

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So I’m assuming this 4.7 minimum requirement is not global?

Brand new gorgeous appartment actually does sound perfect for me.
as Karma said she has a brand new separate unit. In my house where I live everything is pretty, marble and granite and my house cleaner does amazing job. In my pool house which i rent as separate whole house very everything is not pretty. It’s an older house that was built in begining of 60s. We replaced absolutely everything in that house even walls and ceilings and did major repairs like new roof and AC.
We did ran out of money very fast that we thought we needed for repairs. I still did my best to furnish it but… It’s not as pretty. Bathrooms though decent are old design.
That’s the house I have problems with. It doesn’t matter how we clean it it still has an older look.
From other sites I get people who want to come and see house first and they never rent afterwards. I personally love this house. I brought it back to life and all neighbors stopped by to tell me what a great job we did.
But it obviously not enough to get all 5*.
Guests actually downgrade me because it’s an older house. I know that ,dear guests.
After few not so good reviews I wrote this in my description: this is an older house . Please have realistic expectations. The house is well maintained on a regular basis. Has everything one might need but by no means it’s a luxury property .
I just had my first corporate booking for 2 months after I wrote this and they seem happy
With the house so we will see what review I will end up with

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Thanks for the input.

My new Airbnb is a Victorian house which I am still finishing off, so it will be interesting to see how that reflects in the ratings I get.

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It will look great and be really popular, especially if you invest in some replastering.

Thanks @Jess1

All replastered and painted throughout inside and out.

However there are still a few bits that need attention i.e. will need to wait till next year to redo the bathroom.

I’m taking photos today, so will PM you with details.

Sounds brilliant. It gave my hall such a lift when I had it reskimmed. It took me a month to strip off the horrible pub style wallpaper! I found a Victorian stencil of an acorn underneath which I have traced and saved.