I’m sorry if you misunderstood- that wasn’t directed at you, just talking about the rating system “education” in general. Many hosts say they would never ask a guest for a 5* review and think it’s really tacky, without understanding that many home-share hosts can discuss the rating system with guests in an objective, non-off-putting way and wouldn’t ever directly ask for 5*s.
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I know. If you meant to direct it to me, you’d tag me! 
I agree, it’s different for us because we can chat with our guests over coffee and ask them about their experiences.
I’d be writing a stern letter to Mr. MyCoachNeverGaveA10 about ratings IRL.
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I have been indoctrinated in to the club. Just got my first 4 star review!!!
From a work crew booking. First ever like this.
Here is there review
“I book travel for my crew for work. We stayed in the wintertime, so we weren’t able to enjoy the pool and outside amenities. However, it was a great stay, and Mary was so accomodating. My crew really enjoyed the view from the patio and relaxing with a game of pool or two after work. Mary was very accomodating to us and we would definitely return in the future.”
Gahhhh - I phoned her up to ask why only 4… she said she lets the crew give the star rating.
Thanks for letting me vent.
I am letting the 2K profit I made off this booking take the sting out of my first 4* LOL
Down to 4.88 but that isn’t going to affect my bookings.
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UGH, THIS! Our listing has been struggling with the star ratings (we’re right at 4.7), but most of our reviews look like the above. Almost all of our written reviews are positive but they still give us 4 stars 
It really sucks because there’s hardly ever any constructive suggestions. We provide more than we even advertise and continue to make improvements. What else can you do? 
It’s been said that the star rating isn’t anything to stress over too much since guests don’t typically understand the review system anyway. Still though, I hate that Air uses the rating to hold the Superhost status over our heads. I was always on the Honor Roll in school so there’s this part of me who HATES not being among “the best” (a term that I use lightly). But still. LOL. I know I need to let it go.
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Exactly. That is what I asked for, the reason for the 4*.
She couldn’t give one. I did ask if they ever give 5s and she said yes.
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If she didn’t stay there, how is she allowed to review? It has to be the person staying there!
That’s true. Might be worth notifying Air that the reviewer didn’t stay there.
She has one of those work accounts set up. I am new to that too.
But I will still look into that and call CS tomorrow. Thank you for bringing that up.
Thank you NordlingHouse and Rebecca so much for that gently reminder. She did not have it set up as a work account so I was able to get Air to remove the review this morning and they were very prompt.
Neexxxtttt !!!
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I had a convo with a friend recently about this. I’m a superhost and obviously this stuff matters…so I quizzed her after she said she routinely leaves 4 star reviews even when she’s been perfectly happy with her stay. But why, said I. She said her understanding of ‘5 stars’ is literally what you’d expect from a 5 star hotel…super luxury. So the surfing cabin she booked at the bottom of someone’s garden, perfect for her needs and exactly as described, wasn’t the flipping Ritz, hence 4 stars! She genuinely thought that was fair and correct (I explained otherwise) Tbh I wonder if this is a widespread misunderstanding.
Yes, it is. How widespread is unkown, but you can find lots of stories like yours.
Which is why I try to find a way to bring up the topic and point to my bulletin board where the explanation is posted. I don’t hesitate to tell guests that Air starts hassling us when rating drops to 4.7 stars, that 5 star reviews mean “as expected”, and ask what can I do to ensure their stay meets expectations.
Airbnb tells guests on the review form that 4 stars means “Good”. Guests have no way of knowing that it isn’t good for hosts unless they are also hosts, have friends or family who are, or have been educated about the rating system by one of their hosts. It really isn’t their fault when they give 4*s for a place they liked. They aren’t trying to tank your ratings or lose you your Superhost status, they just don’t know.
We got a 4* early on and it helped us tweek a few things.
We have also learned that we need to keep our price high enough to assure a certain quality of guest.
Thanks for your comment but personally I don’t agree. Some of our loveliest guests were when we started and when we had an even lower price to get us going. In many ways, my opinion is that the higher you charge, the greater expectation of hotel style accommodation which we don’t provide, we do friendly, clean, value for money Homeshare. I agree with the early comment that a guest who can pay more is not necessarily the best guest.
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The only guest I ever blocked from ever contacting me again wrote me and told me that she didn’t wish to pay my rates; that she was plenty insured so she didn’t need to pay for my damage protection that I require for every reservation (VRBO); and to give her a means of contacting me off platform so she could negotiate a reasonable rate with me.
I reported her for violating the TOS. Then I blocked her from ever contacting me again.
Then I looked her up online. Her husband is a Big League Oil Baron type out of an affluent West Texas city that wouldn’t exist without oil money. She is a socialite with many photos with Very Important People online.
She was the most obnoxious and insulting inquiry I ever received and could damn well afford my reasonable rates. I doubt she would have been any better as a guest.
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I find it quite offensive and discriminatory when hosts say that. There is nothing about the price point that assures one of guests who are “quality”. Nor are people with less money to spend on accommodation low quality people. I have a budget-priced home-share and in 3 years of hosting, all of my guests have been lovely, well-educated, intelligent and interesting people who were wonderful guests.
Nice! Good to hear that it worked out for you.
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Well, I agree with you, that didn’t come out right, and it’s not who I am.
I suspect that if I had an in-home Airbnb I might feel differently because people and relationship are what I do. But when the property is 10 miles away and I have no way of overseeing how it is being cared for…
I just checked and my studio apartment and compared it to the Airbnb properties in our area with like features/value, mine is priced lower. Compared to hotels/suites with similar features we are between $20 and $50 less.
The press to lower my price from Airbnb whenever I have a week of availability backfired on me on the day that I found that somebody had instantly booked my studio for 2/3 of what I usually ask. I looked to find that that the individual who had booked had poor ratings.
I did research the person because the hosts’ complaints were petty. I suspected that the reason he got the poor ratings was because quite frankly, he was Mexican and he was a tattoo artist. I decided to call him and introduce myself, I found out that he was an non-custodial daddy that used Airbnb to spend time with his little girl who lives in our community.
She was a beautiful child and I being Spanish speaking and having worked in a clinic in Oaxaca Mexico, had a delightful time with the little girl and her daddy who were not unaccustomed to discrimination.
It turned out being a wonderful experience truly one of my favorite experiences as an Airbnb host.
I
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Sometimes you do a CS person who is really helpful. The first two times with them were mediocre. But once I hit Superhost and got the Superhost line I got great CS help but OTOH all my issues have been relatively minor.
I’m happy that you got the review removed and your points revived!