Location Rating - What does it mean

What the hell to do?

Ok we are super hosts, well done us but it’s been bloody hard and we have worked our ass of to make it happen. We’ve worked hard to make our place a good home for people to come to, gone above and beyond the call of duty in picking people up and giving them food yet the only thing we get marked down on is Location.

Our house is on the edge of town. Our price reflects this and we describe it truly and perfectly yet each time we get 4 stars or less but 5 in everything else. Is this fair? Airbnb say we should be more accurate about our description but what do they want us to do under sell our house? Are they accurate when describing what location means to guests? Surly you can’t compare city centre to the edge of town?

Has anyone else come up with a way to get round this?

I think the only thing to do is to emotionally disengage and not care about the 4 star rating for location. Your guests are likely choosing your place for the lower price and understanding that they’re taking a hit on location. A 4 star rating on location isn’t going to deter prospective guests looking for a bargain and who are willing to walk, drive further, etc. You will continue to get bookings, make money, and have happy guests. The only one who isn’t happy is you.

There is no reason to agonize over this. In fact, you may want to do less labor – driving, feeding people, etc. as it’s hard to endure and do this over the long run when you’re working too hard at hosting. Strike a balance, feel more peace, and remember to file your taxes. : ) I’m also trying to angst less, worry less, and enjoy what I can out of the process.

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i’ve been ranting about this to airbnb and everyone else who would listen since i started on here. it’s a TOTALLY subjective rating that should be reflected in the general stars if guests aren’t happy with the description to reality from the hosts page. there is ZERO chance that someone who lives 2 miles from the beach is gonna get the same location rating as someone on the beach. it’s not helpful in any way. i have pictures of my neighborhood and an in depth description including exact distances to everything and i still get rated down sometimes on location. guests have zero idea what that rating is about. they think it’s asking for rating of actual location not location description.

I get 4* stars on location often too. I think for different people if might mean: how safe neighborhood is, how close to beach, night life around. , how close to center snd so on. I think my location is perfect, I am in one of the best residential areas in Suth Florida, snd I really can not understand what the problem is.
Also I give exact mileage from my house to the beach, airport, Hard Rock, Miami beach, and so on.
I also indicate different transportation options, how much it will cost and how long to walk from the stops to my house. Nothing helps. They rate Lower the location. Even the most pleasant guests are critical . These what I got recently: " location is not much but safe’. What exactly does it mean : not much? Then the guest describes how much fun he had in neighborhood pub with live music, how Awesome it was for him to have an option of 8 restaurants within 2 min.walk, how bus took him straight to the beach for 85c. How he went partying to Hard rock and took UBER for 5$, and how he enjoyed his work outs in a park across the street. So how does it make my location “not much”?
I as a guest only once rated a location low when the description was so misleading : near subway turned down to be 20 minutes walk. I was so pissed at this total waste of time on all these walking that I called Airbnb and they gave me the option to cancell without penalties.

Hi Marty Finney,

The location rating is our nemesis also. We have gotten more four star ratings (instead of five star) in location than any other category. As a matter of fact, we just got a four star rating for location. We live in Los Angeles. Most people want to go the the beach and to Hollywood. We are about half way between, so you’d think they would love the location. For us, I think the problem is that people who don’t live here have a hard time envisioning the distances and the traffic in Los Angeles, so they get frustrated by how long it takes to get to where they want to go. We state how far we are to popular attractions in miles and kilometers. I know that Airbnb says to describe the location better, but I don’t know what more we can do.

@chicagohost, totally agreed - and @Marty_Finney: believe it or not, some people aren’t necessarily looking for city centre only…sometimes edge of town is a better location for quiet guests or guests who plan on traveling around to the outskirts more than going into the city. I wouldn’t worry too much about it, it sounds like you’re doing everything right : )

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I think the best thing to do is just make sure you be descriptive as possible as the location of your house. I think what you are doing so far is great. I am not sure what more you can give then miles/kilometers from your place to attractions near by. Make state that there is traffic so it might take a little longer than expected to reach their destination.

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Hi Bright locks,

Unfortunately, being specific about the proximity of local attractions isn’t enough to avoid less than 5 star ratings for location. We just had guests who gave us 4 stars for both accuracy and location. I asked them to give us feedback so that we could provide a 5 star experience in all categories. Here is the response I received:

On both ways you could not do much about it.
You just live in a nice neighbourhood that is s bit far from the beach. But the tip to go with the bus is just right.

Here is how we describe the proximity to the beach:

5 miles to Pacific Ocean. Four blocks away is the 733 city bus: 30 minutes direct to the Pacific Ocean with no transfers (15 minutes by car).

There is nothing to do. The location rating is pointless. I get lots of 3 and 4 star ratings for location and I live in a stunning remote mountain location with amazing views from the windows. It’s the main reason people book here, but they deduct points because it takes time to get here. So my solution, …forget it and get philosophical. Its wonderful that you’re prepared to help people out, I’m all for compassion, it makes you a better person and its good for the soul. I’ve helped out guests who had a blow out on our road and took them to the nearest town to get replacement tyres and stuff, but I was happy to accept their offer extra money! I’ve also fed people who were super stuck and had no food, because they failed to read the listing about the remote location (no shops). I’m not a superhost, just a regular person with a family and a cool room people can stay in. Please don’t get despondent about stars and ratings and don’t allow yourself to become resentful about it. Focus on what you like about hospitality, it should be fun and if you don’t want to pick someone up, don’t. They can always use Uber! to get where they wanna go! I’ve had one enquiry recently where the people obviously want to book, but already they’re wingeing about how far we are from Inverness. I’ll probably decline the reservation when it comes in. They can go pay 3x as much to sit in Inverness and look at the buildings instead of being here in the mountains! Location location location. It’s in the eye of the beholder!

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Once again, amazing post imo. Ellen, wha? What do they mean they marked you down on accuracy, but there’s nothing you can do about it? That makes no sense! some people just have to get a little dig.

Hi Sandy,

I was surprised about the 4 stars in both categories as they really enjoyed their stay and emphatically said so in the review. We have made a change to our description; it now says, “Beach is not within walking distance.” and we’ve added that it takes 90 minutes to walk to the beach. Hopefully, this will mean that we won’t have more guests who think we are closer to the beach than we are despite the fact that we state the distance.

I even described how parking if you rent at the beach is never free, usually it’s 20$/ a day and it’s still problematic. I pointed out to bus across the road from us for 85c that goes straight to Hollywood beach. I was sure not to leave anything out. But still my location is not good enough:)

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I feel your pain. We received our second 4 tonight which brought our listing down to 4.9. I know the guest which gave us the 4 stars and their review was glowing - the longest we’ve ever had in fact. 4.9 is silly. Now I have the bit down the bottom where all your rating are in orange and flashing to alert me to review all my reviews to see where I went wrong. I think it should drop at even intervals.

I do not understand this location rating either, people said they love my house and it’s in a nice, quiet little neighborhood, but still give it a 4. I’m not sure how they interpret “location” , if it’s too far from where they were going (there is a map with a blue dot, and what the nearest attractions are), or what type of town/neighborhood it is?

We describe our neighbourhood as this:
Here you will experience the real Filipino neighborhood, maybe this is not for everyone. Unfortunately you will see garbage around in the area but our compound is clean and well maintained.
The side road going to us is terrible, rocky and can be muddy with flood if it has been hard rain.

We get 4.5 for location and mostly 5 for the rest.
As long as they think we are accurate in description, they will just describe it the way they feel about it. So i guess we do not get 5 even if its a correct description!
Jarle, Superhost

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I am sorry to hear that. Thats really bad then, you do everything in your power to do things for the customer and still they do not do not see that. I dont see anything else you can really do. You gave them all the information they knew this coming in and then when it hits them they want to give you a lower rating because you did your job.