Is it bad to contact a guest about their review?

Is it weird to message a guest to ask about a rating? She was a first time user, rated 4 stars overall and 4 stars for cleanliness, accuracy, value and location. Location- ok sure, not much I can do about that. Value- well the whole area is expensive, I expect many people feel that the area is overpriced and I am not going to apologize for trying to make money/ they agreed to the price when they booked. Cleanliness she selected floors & dust (Which I mean I mopped like 40 minutes before she arrived but there might have been my footprints from when I walked out of the house)? And I am annoyed because now my average rating went down a lot but it should increase once I get more reviews than just 5, but it is what it is. I have accepted it and I feel confident that it will not be an issue going forward. But accuracy…that concerns me, and there is no explanation for it, and her written review is positive. So would it be considered inappropriate to message her and ask what she thought was inaccurate? I feel like that one hurts me on a personal level and I don’t want to come across as aggressive about it. They were fine guests, messier than my previous guests but I still left a good review for them. But it is KILLING ME to not know what they thought was inaccurate.

just went through this a few weeks ago, some people are just annoying. i had all 5 stars then got 3 4 stars in a row :frowning: so my rating went down but im over it now, after a few more 5s its gone back up. no one else can see what she rated 4 stars anyway.

Yes I am trying to let it go. The value and the location I think are fair but I don’t think I am going to go lower on price and I certainly can’t move the house or force my neighbors to clean their yards so I just need to get used to that. The cleanliness…I guess clean harder? Mop twice? How do ya’ll avoid leaving footprints if you store the mop inside the kitchen but you leave from the front door and you wear shoes?

But accuracy? I just wish she had said why, because then I could fix it!

Don’t beat yourself up. People suck and can be jerks. I got marked down on accuracy once because they didn’t like the location, which is clearly stated a million different ways. In other words, I got marked down because they didn’t read.

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It is just the hotel versus the Airbnb problem…5 stars in hotel speak is fabulous luxury…5 stars in Airbnb speak is that it was as described and they liked staying there. First timers have Hotel speak in their heads …so you get dinged!
Wait till you get the first timer who wants to be the hotel inspector! Writes heaps and critiques everything and whines as well. that one I want to bitch slap!

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ive heard some people rate cleanliness as in ifits modern, so if you have a character cottage with quite traditional bathroom etc people rate me down, is your house traditional or moder?

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A little of both I think. They called it Shabby Chic in their review, which I took as a sort of compliment I suppose. It is an older house and OH MY GOODNESS the grout was painted black by the previous owners so I would understand if they said the bathroom was dirty or something, but they clicked the options for dust and floor. Which to me means dusty floors. And they did arrive during a windy day in the very dry southwest, so that may have contributed too. Plus I know there were footprints because I had to put the mop back in the house, and although I wiped them up with a paper towel as I returned to the front door, it is very possibly I missed one or two as I was chasing 2 toddlers at the same time. Anyway here is my listing, not sure if it is more modern or cottagey lol. https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/21192085?location=Carlsbad%2C%20NM%2C%20United%20States

I am going to blame it on the fact that I made them boring cookies (which I burned) instead of the gourmet cupcakes I had been making for guests. It’s not mentioned in the listing but now I am going to have to make cupcakes for everyone out of superstition.

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looks nice, i read your review, it sounded good to me. i wouldnt read into it, some people just dont think anything is good enough for a 5, and maybe they are just not used to wooden floors, i have old wooden floors in mine too! the dust sits on top along the sides of the hallway

oh and the cupcake idea sounds amazing

Not bad just pointless, one of the reasons I very rarely bother reading reviews.

How many threads have there been on here about people who do and get upset having done so?

Where is the value?

I identify with this line! I had one guest do that too but it wasn’t clear what it was…frustrating! Like you I thought if I ask is it too aggressive and decided yeah it could be perceived that way so I let it go. One thing that I found helpful early in my experience (until I gained more confidence in the process, my communication, my listing) is that I noted in my checkout message that we welcome their feedback and there will be an option for both public and private feedback. Since we have mostly first-timers, they too are unsure about how this works. Those early private messages were great – nuggets of goodness such as put a bath mat in the shower. I don’t get much any more since we’ve addressed what we wanted to address and either discuss upfront, before booking or in the listing, anything else that might matter. P.S. if we did take the suggestion, I told them we did. The bath mat guest has now sent several of his friends to us :smile:

Ha I am glad the floors look like wood. They are ugly tile though!

Thanks that is a great suggestion. She left private feedback too but it just said " Thanks for the cookies, cute little place. We had a good trip!" So then I am like then why did you ruin my ratings!?! I think maybe its just the “Nothing is ever perfect” type of guest. Oh well. I think the consensus is to not bother messaging to ask, so I may never know about the accuracy rating. Maybe because the floors look wood in the pics but are tile?

Agree - don’t beat yourself up about it … and it’s a Rite of Passage as a host to read your review and scream "Dust!! … WHAT F***ING DUST?

I’d blame the non-appearance of the cupcakes …:wink:

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I wouldn’t. After the fact is too late. It’s best to try to educate guests about Airbnb’s rating system BEFORE they do a review.

I don’t think baked goods have any bearing on reviews and I think they are mostly a waste of time. I only do it when I have guests who spend xx staying with me.

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Don’t!! Don’t do this. You can’t obsess about this. You’ve already told us your place is a diamond in the rough. So guests are mostly not going to leave five stars. You will have to live with that I think.

Someone here said New is naturally affiliated with five stars. Those of us with older homes that aren’t perfect often have a hard time with this. No matter how clean we get it, it still isn’t brand spankin clean.

You don’t want to drive yourself nuts. She obviously liked your hosting but the place itself wasn’t five stars in her view.

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I wouldn’t spend one more second worrying about it. 4 stars is hard when you are just starting but over time you’ll get enough 5 stars it won’t matter. Anything that isn’t brand new is probably going to get marked down on cleanliness. That’s just how people are. Location is also going to get marked down due to the neighborhood. I get the same thing occasionally. I’m probably the closest Airbnb to the freeway for people driving through town but then someone will say “not close to my meeting” or “15 minutes from downtown,” even though they chose my location.

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Well sure, I think 4 stars for location and even cleanliness I can accept…BUT THAT ACCURACY ONE IS MAKING ME CRAZY. But I promise to move on with my life.

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