Because I often sit around chatting with my home share guests over coffee or a bottle of wine, we’ll sometimes start talking about Airbnb, past stays they’ve had, how they find the platform, sometimes they’ll ask me about hosting.
So then the conversation might include discussion about reviews, whether they like writing them or not, etc. I am honestly not obsessed with reviews, nor terrified of losing Superhost status, so it’s easy for me not to sound like I’m trying to get them to leave 5 stars, because I’m not. I talk about what does bother me about Airbnb- that they lead guests to think that 4*s is good, while turning around and treating hosts as if that means “needs improvement”.
It’s the hypocrisy of the review system that irks me. So when I tell guests that Airbnb definitely doesn’t consider 4 stars to be good when it comes to hosts, and that anything below 4.8 will lose Superhost, and that some hosts will even decline repeat bookings from a guest who left 4 stars, my guests are shocked. They just had no idea. Some do- one said his sister hosts, so he was aware of that and thought the review system really
unfair.
I always tell guests I have this conversation with that if a guest thinks it only deserves 4*s or less, that’s what they should feel free to give, of course.
But there are tons of guests who never realize what impact star ratings have on hosts. They have no intention to tank a host’s ratings for a place they were perfectly pleased with.
One of my guests said, “OMG, thank you for telling me. Why does Airbnb mislead guests like that? I’ve been rating 4s for places I really like- there was nothing wrong with them, I’d totally book there again, they just weren’t fancy or luxurious, which I thought would be when you would leave 5*s. I’ll never make that mistake again.”
So if a host talks to guests about reviews with the intention of getting the guest to leave you a 5* review, that can come across as tacky and could easily backfire. If it’s a discussion about what goes on below the surface of Airbnb, and how duplicitous they are, that’s quite different. Once a guest understands that hosts don’t want 5* reviews because they’re arrogant and think they are perfect hosts with perfect places, but because Airbnb tells them they need improvement, the majority of guests will be onboard.