Our worst experience as hosts in 5 years! how to review?

I want to see this chart on my laptop. You said to go to the Progress Tab. I don’t see one. I see a Performance tab, and I can choose Reviews from there, but I don’t understand what you mean by this:

Can you help?

Unfortunately it is not showing the same information - all it tells you under Performance -> Reviews the total number of reviews … pretty darn useless, especially as when you select by 5 Star or 4 Star it shows a big fat ZERO in the Total Number of Reviews …

However, they might be working and tweaking it … or they might not as some think they are heading to a solely APP based model.

The only indication is the number of pages when you select each star …
so in my case I get 134 pages selecting 5 Star Reviews only versus 2 pages of 1 Star Reviews.

Absolutely! We are in 100% agreement here!

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It’s not that the reviews are unfair just because it is a home share…the guest likely just doesn’t understand the whole concept and then Airbnb’s high minimum standard makes it even worse.

I am guessing maybe you aren’t on an IPhone. I am and the horizontal bar graph doesn’t come up on the app.

I also cannot see the percentages on my phone app - using an Android, maybe it is different on an iphone? Desktop shows me the number of reviews per star rating and I did the math myself. Comes out to the % they show.

I feel sorry for you if you feel you are slaving for nothing. I suggest you look for ways to monetise your property a different way. Perhaps sell it and invest in something different.

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I don’t know what kind of math you are talking about, but a 1* review absolutely can tank the ratings. It totally depends on the volume of reviews you get. A host who gets 100 reviews a year, 99 of which are 5* is not going to be much affected by one 1* review. A host who only gets 12 reviews in a year, 11 of which are 5* with one 1* is of course going to find their rating tanked.

OP was using the app, it’s different on a website on a computer. I can see my horizontal bar graphs on the website on the computer, but not in the app.

Yes, a single 1 star every 12 visits would drop a host down to 4.66. However after just 3 more 5 star ratings they would be up to the “acceptable” 4.7+. If they get another 12 ratings that are all 5 star they will be up to the magic SH 4.8. If someone is consistently getting at least one out of 12 1 star ratings a year and more than one sub 5 star a year keeping them at 4.5-4.6 range I would have to question what they are doing to earn those ratings. A host trying to raise their ratings isn’t going to do it by continuing to do exactly what they have been doing and just blaming the guest.

If I were trying to raise my rating I would definitely try to host more than 12 stays a year. Maybe if they have a two night minimum they could change to 1 night. Or quit having days off between bookings. A rating from a one night stay weighs the same as a rating from w 10 day stay.

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This is unfortunately true for probably a lot of hosts here. It certainly is for us. We have tried VRBO/Booking/etc but without much luck. Also I think direct bookings (Booking Direct with Repeat Guests) are vital for having a real business instead of slaving away on an unstable platform like bnb (or any other OTA)

And weighs the same as a review from a 30 day or 92 day stay! And that is why I am glad my most regular usually 1 night guest books through Airbnb of possible (even if she pays the majority of it to me directly as a split payment). I can’t remember who posted it before but it takes 19 5 star reviews to counter balance a single one star for SH numbers.

@KKC- Yes, I get that. But sometimes hosts just don’t have the option to get more bookings- Where I live, my hosting season is only from about late November to mid-May. I’ve rarely had a booking outside those times, even though my calendar is open. It just isn’t tourist season here and it’s not a place people travel to on business or to go to school. Nor is it a place where people are just passing though and looking for a 1 nighter booking. Most of my bookings are for an average of a week-10 days. And I need the 1 day prep time, as I also work, so can’t just drop everything to clean and prepare. So I get an average of 10-15 bookings a year.
Now I will say I’m lucky, as I’ve only had 5* ratings since I started hosting 3 years ago, so it’s not an issue for me personally. But I do feel for the hosts for whom this is an issue.
Yes, of course if a host is getting consistently low ratings in any category, they need to step up their game, but when Airbnb tells guests that 4*s is a Good rating, and guests are unaware of how harshly Airbnb applies those ratings to hosts, it could be easy for a perfectly good host to get an “unacceptable” rating average.

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When I first open the progress tab, it aldo does not show the chart. However when I scroll down the list of the reviews and then back up, it magically appears.
Go figure. Might have to switch browser to see the chart on the laptop.

Some very interesting responsed from CSR :slight_smile: it’s almost laughable at how ignorant these people are! Not too sure whether to share them here or in a new thread.

If the responses are specific to your OP then posting here probably makes sense. I know it confuses me when someone starts a second thread that is essentially just an update on the same topic. Or the new topic and this one can be linked together so the background story is easily accessed.

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Try to get their review removed

I’ve found that those receiving a massive discount seem to make the worst guests.

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In a home share, guests need to be compliant. You can’t have guests walking around buck naked, doing what they wilt in the bathroom, or frying eggs at 3 am. You lose that element of freedom. So the Rules Buckers can mark you down for being too strict.

However, more cities are insisting on owner occupied accommodation. We shall see.

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I found this host again and he is definitely insulting in his response to reviews. It’s much harder to go find his reviews so I didn’t look at many but the ones I saw were nice and short. Maybe he has figured out that guests read their reviews but not the response to reviews and so are unlikely to complain.

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