I know I should ignore it and move on. But our guest gave us an overall 4, yet every category except Value was 5. And I do realize (thanks to you all) that “Value” doesn’t just mean price. But at $48 a night we are the most affordable Airbnb in our area. So I’m frustrated. I know that some people never give 5s but he gave us a bunch of 5s. As an Airbnb guest I’d never give overall 4 if there was just a 4 in one category. Thanks for listening to my mini-rant.
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A guest giving a 4 Overall isn’t necessarily based on them giving a 4 on one of the categories. I think you are correct in that the reasons guests sometimes give 5s in all the categories, or all but one, and then a 4 Overall is usually fickle, not based on anything specific, but it could also be because of something that isn’t covered by the other categories- like maybe they found the mattress uncomfortable, or a neighbor’s dog barked a lot, etc.
Not suggesting that anything like that is why your guest left a 4 Overall, but I think that’s the general idea behind Airbnb having the Overall category.
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I recently got a 4 because the guest complained about my stairs (regulation but it’s an old New England house) but acknowledged that I clearly indicated that the stairs are difficult for those with difficulty walking up stairs. I even show a picture. It’s so frustrating when guests blame the host for problems that are beyond our control.
As for the 4, I have had this discussion with some friends that never give 5 stars no matter what. When I explain that it hurts the host and that Airbnb’s review system is different, they respond that they just don’t care because it has to be exceptional and above and beyond to give 5 stars.
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I had the opposite experience when one of my guests and I were chatting during her stay and the subject of Airbnb reviews came up. I told her that the reason hosts want 5 star reviews isn’t because they all think their place is so great, but because hosts lose their Superhost status if they fall below 4.8 and get threatening messages from Airbnb to pull up their socks if they fall below 4.7, and can even have their listings suspended if they have consistent 4 star or lower average.
My guest was shocked, had no idea, said she had given the previous places she’d stayed 4 overall, although she liked the place and the host and would book there again, because Airbnb tells guests that 4 stars means good. She thought hosts would be fine with a 4 star review, and that 5 was reserved for something that was over-the-top fantastic.
She thanked me for telling her and said she’d never leave 4 Overall again for a place she found nothing wrong with.
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Those were friends of mine who pushed back but in my welcome message I now say
"Please note that Airbnb’s review system is a bit different. Anything less than a 5 is considered unsatisfactory and can cause our listing to be given a warning. If you feel that we met your expectations, we would greatly appreciate a 5 star review. If something is not quite right when you check in, please let us know so that we can make it a 5 star stay. Thank you.
This has helped a lot.
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I’ve spoken to many, many guests over the years and I don’t think that anyone has mentioned that they chose our place because of our great star rating. (Or because of superhost status, by the way). Plenty of guests have never even noticed the star rating - it tends to be a thing that hosts get heated up about but many potential guests don’t even realise the star rating exists.
Many weird and wonderful reasons determine what star rating a guest gives you.
My favourite was the guest who gave me a 4 star location rating because there was (minimal) construction on the road to the beach. (My fault, of course!)
I read a great one. This is from the 1990s - an STR that had guestbooks in the rentals. A couple left a great written review, but then wrote ‘Our holiday was only marred by the sad death of Princess Diana, the people’s princess. So three stars’.
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And there is the 4 stars because your listing is not a 5 star hotel!
I wish they would use 
instead to get awa y from the hotel association.
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Thanks, everyone. I am considering adding an explanation of rating to our welcome visit. I’ve resisted doing it up till now, but I’m starting to think it’s a good idea. Also, I hadn’t even noticed that the super host filter is gone. I’m wondering if this new category about visitor favorites is going to help us or hurt us. Because super host status had to do with more than the numbers people rate us with.
I stayed at an Airbnb recently and gave my first overall 4 stars for several reasons, kitchen racket over my bedroom and telling me I had to leave a small heater plugged in with no way to turn it off and it made the bedroom hot. She sent me 25 emails with individual photos of different parts of the house and I couldn’t see one photo in the emails. That part really drove me crazy. I contacted the host about these things and some were corrected.
But why after years hosting and having similar complaints weren’t they savvy enough to change. I knew noise could be an issue here, but the host told me it was just her and the husband. Otherwise, there’s another unit and I wouldn’t have stayed if it was occupied.
I’ve stayed at least 25 Air in the last 8 years and this was not like anything I’d experienced. Obviously won’t stay again.
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Yes, that’s another reason a guest might leave a 4 star overall, even if they saw no reason not to leave 5 stars for the individual categories- they might just have found the host weird or annoying or difficult to deal with.
Why a host would insist that a space heater in the guest’s room be left on, when the guest finds it uncomfortably hot, is a real head scratcher. Did she give you any halfway logical reason why you had to leave the heater on, @zillacop?
I remember a host on another forum saying he used to give all the places he stayed 5*s, unless they were really unacceptable, and give the host private feedback if there wasn’t decent lighting, or the mattress was obviously old and uncomfortable, if the cookware was inadequate or old, scratched up non-stick - things the host could easily improve on. He assumed they would take it onboard, but after looking back at those listings, and seeing that guests were still complaining about those things in the public reviews a year later, he started rating a little less generously.
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I’ve written here before that the best way of gaining some perspective regarding reviews is to go to Amazon and look up reviews of your very favourite book.
It’s a fantastic book, a brilliant book, it wouldn’t be your favourite otherwise. But it will have poor reviews as well as good. I know that mine has.
You can do the same with star ratings. I just went to Amazon and looked up my top five books. These are their star ratings.
Book one. 4.5 stars
Book two. 4 stars
Book three. 4.5 stars
Book four. 4.5 stars
Book five. 4 stars
But these are all bestsellers. Consumers (and potential guests) are accustomed to 4 and 4.5 - they see that as good. And let’s face it, people shop at Amazon for more often than they book accommodation at Airbnb. They’re used to seeing star ratings that are less than perfect.
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However, as far as I’m aware, Amazon doesn’t punish or threaten the book sellers or authors because the books got a 4* rating. 
That’s the whole issue with Airbnb ratings- it’s the only place I know of where “Good” is considered “Not good enough”. Also, on other sites where consumers leave ratings and reviews, they show the number of 1-5 star reviews- they aren’t just averaged. You can click on “2 star reviews” and read all the written reviews that left that rating.
More often than not, if it’s a product that also got lots of 5* reviews, you’ll find that the 1 or 2 star reviews were usually due to the customer being stupid. Like they’ll complain that the new French press beaker shattered when they stirred the coffee grounds down with a metal spoon, when the instruction booklet clearly says not to use metal utensils in it.
@muddy She wrote something like the “milk heater” should not be disconnected for breaker reasons. Since there was no off/on switch and it was already on when I arrived I thought she meant it had to stay as is.
Once I brought it up then I could disconnect it.
Seriously, I think of all the places I’ve stayed I’ve had to contact a host maybe 3 times and multiple contacts here was tiresome.
I put this page in my guest book, seems to be working, I’m at a 4.94 overall.
I think it’s good to remind the guests of the things they enjoyed but maybe didn’t realize, like the comfortable beds, cleanliness, responsiveness so they don’t focus in on the one thing they didn’t like.
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We just got an overall four star. After 152 reviews one other was a four star and the rest five. I got that feeling. Shocked!
He gave 3 in a few categories as well as 4’s and 5’s. His verbiage was positive. He showed that he thought it was “bad value” and “smaller than expected”… also I think the wind brought some small leaves to the spa area…
Current guests flew here from Saudi Arabia directly after their wedding…
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I like this a lot and will steal. Out of interest, why your welcome message and not your check-out message…
Made me laugh out loud. I’m absolutely certain that we couldn’t do something like this in the US, or at least in California.
Why not? Lots of US hosts have review guidelines like that.
Because it makes sense here. It’s my way of getting the customer to respond to my welcome message and there’s a lot less text than in my check out message but I do mention in the check out message that I hope their stay was 5 stars.
