I got a kick out of this today and thought my fellow hosts would appreciate a good eye roll. A guest who just left gave 5 stars all around, and 5 stars for everything else except accuracy, for which he gave 4 stars. The public review was glowing and he didn’t mention anything in the private comments about what was inaccurate. I was unfazed by the four stars on accuracy (lots of good advice on this site has toughened me up) and certainly don’t want to review changed or deleted, but reached out to him to see if I might learn something: “Hi (guest name), thanks for the 5 star overall review! I noticed that you gave us 4 stars for accuracy. No big deal, but I would be curious to know what you felt didn’t match the listing details. We want to make sure that our listing accurately reflects the property. Thanks for any input.” Here is what I heard back: “Hi sorry, the 4 stars for accuracy were only because we had 5 independent people and as such the sofa bed was used which was quite a lot worse than the other beds. It probably comes down to me not reading the ad properly but which I should do better on but either way we were very happy with the place!” We don’t offer a sofa bed in our listing; it is very clear that there are only 4 beds. He is basically saying he gave us 4 stars on accuracy because he didn’t read the listing details. Oh silly guest.
Gosh, you are very gracious that you can find it amusing! (A wry smile maybe.If it were me I would have been a bit gobsmacked by their response- & asked for them to change the 4 star rating?( Am new so not sure if changing is possible?)
At least you got 5 stars overall (congratulations!!). But how absurd that you were penalised -even one star on accutacy- because of YOUR guest’s mistake & inability to read properly your listing to see what facilities were available for their needs. Or indeed to say to you the important point when booking that there were 5 people, all requiring separate beds. What if you hadn’t had the sofa bed? Unbelievable.
Hello @elizawild welcome to the world of hosting. Believe me guests will mark you down for bad weather, narrow streets which make parking difficult, your neighbours or any multitude of issues outside of your control as a host.
I had one guest who marked me down to four stars for accuracy because ‘my place was in actuality much nice than it showed in the photos of my listing’. 
I’ve been marked 4 stars for location about three times because I’m not in Long Beach Island.
I clearly say I’m in Mystic Island. It’s about a 30 min drive to LBI and it’s about a thousand dollars a night to stay there for a whole house rental.
So they rent mine and drive there so they can save lots of money but then they knocked me down to 4 stars for location when they selected to stay in Mystic because it’s affordable.
Folks can be unreasonable. I wish Airbnb would get rid of the “value” and “location” categories.
Here’s one for ya: I had a “4 star” for accuracy - from another host, no less - because a neighbor has a sign on their fence that says “Ragged Ass Road” so this host dinged me because my address was incorrect!
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could rate our guests on reading ability, or ability to follow instructions (remember kindergarten?) .
Did you reply to that? I think I would have. Something like, “sir, it’s a couch, not a sofa-bed. No one is intended to sleep on it as we have no linens for it. How can you mark down for “accuracy” when you haven’t even “accurately” read the listing info?”
ABB doesn’t make it nearly clear enough to guests that the location bit is regarding accuracy of the location. Guests just interpret it as if they’ve been asked, “So, what did you think of the location?” It’s insane.
Lovely to read.
My favourite was the guest (a repeat guest for years) who gave me four stars for location because, as he said n his private feedback. “there was construction on the road to the beach”.
Yeah.
Mea culpa.
This is the reason I like repeat direct booking guests.
The first visit is usually left with a great review on whichever OTA they used as they want to return and who would want back a crappy guest that left a poor review?
Then there shouldn’t be a location rating at all, it would fall under the accuracy category. I think Airbnb intends for it to be a rating of the location- not whether it wasn’t as close to the beach or wherever, that the guest would have preferred it to be, but whether it was a nice area, or there were homeless people sleeping in the doorway, some noisy construction project going on next door, sort of thing.
But as it stands, that rating is entirely unclear, both to hosts as well as guests, as to what it is meant to reflect.
Here is a screen shot from the web site. Click Insights / Quality / Location. Then click the percentage (where mine says 71.4% – our 5-star location ratings comprise 71.4% of our location ratings, the only non-5-star ratings we ever get.) Then the panel on the right pops up explaining “what it means” and “why it’s important.” Important, my ass. 
I’d never noticed that before. So if it’s supposed to be accuracy of the location, why don’t they have separate categories for accuracy of everything- amenities, description, etc. It’s a stupid category, as evidenced by how many guests mark down on it because of nothing that has to do with the accuracy of the location info.
I have only ever gotten one less than 5 star rating in any category- it was for location, from a guest who specifically asked me when she booked how far my place was from a venue where she was taking a course, which I told her accurately. A 20 minute walk, more or less depending on how fast people walk. I guess she didn’t like walking that far, even though she booked after being told. 
That’s interesting. When you write a review as a guest it is described similarly to how the website describes it, “Was the guest made aware of safety, transportation, points of interest and special considerations like noise or other situations that might affect their stay?”
They did use to emphasize the accuracy of it in the review process but I haven’t seen it like that in a few years. There is a lot about how guests are cued during the review that changed a lot in the last few years.
I wish I could rate hosts on reading ability. I’ve messaged two hosts with whom I have confirmed bookings in the last week. It’s been several days and neither has answered my question.
I told one host my expected check in time when I sent my booking message. They “wrote back” and asked me to send my expected check in time. If I didn’t know it was one of those automatic messages, I’d really be annoyed.
How many stars should I deduct?
Several. I don’t understand hosts who don’t respond to guest messages in a timely manner. As far as I’m concerned, it’s no different in terms of being a responsible host than not cleaning the place well and not providing the promised amenities.
1 from the overall rating and 2 from the communication rating assuming the rest of the stay is excellent. Otherwise, keep deducting. There’s no shortage of hosts.
Sarcasm is very hard to do in print - and I love this sarcasm !
If guests used the guidance on location rating, we’d get killed. We don’t have an address and our road isn’t on all the map apps. So I guess we’re doomed to poor ratings.
I have an address, but guests would never be able to locate my place using it. I send them a hand-drawn map, which they have all said made it quite clear.
Even the propane delivery guy I’ve been using for 12 years went to the wrong house blocks away when the office girl insisted on giving him the address, ignoring me explaining to her that she had to tell him “Sarah’s house below Rancho El Arado”.
There are many houses in my area with the same house number, blocks apart. And none of the house numbers go in any discernible order.
I had a 45 minute total waste of time convo with a clueless Airbnb rep when I first signed up and was asking how I could attach my map to a guest message. He kept insisting all guests needed was my GPS coordinates and couldn’t get it through his thick head that many of my guests do not have their phones set up to use here, and wouldn’t even get a signal.