I think we can all agree that the location rating sucks! It should be explained as “was the location as described”? and that should be it! If you are 5 miles from the beach but you said in your listing that it was a short walk, then you should get a lower rating, but if you say it’s 5 miles and about a 10-15 minute drive, then you should get 5 stars!! So ridiculous!
As a guest I even had trouble with it (before I was a host). I remember thinking the location of somewhere we stayed in Palm Springs was perfect for us because it was a little outside downtown and very quiet and peaceful. It was a pretty long walk into town; if we were in a hurry we took public transport or Uber. When I was reviewing I gave the location 5 stars, but I thought it was dumb because someone wanting to walk out the door and be right downtown wouldn’t like it. Or in our own air unit, if you wanted to walk out the door and be right downtown, but also have a view and free parking, you’d be paying a heck of a lot more, so if you were too cheap to book the location you really wanted, don’t ding mine!!!