Repeating guest refuses 5 star review

I have a repeating guest that usually stays with me for about 4 days a month. She is great except for the fact that it seems like she refuses to give me 5 stars across the board. The first review she gave me 5 for everything except 4 for cleanliness and commented on the bathroom rug – Fair (it is white so it revealed everything). Easy fix, so I purchase a new one. Next review she gives 5 for everything except 4 for location – why? You gave 5 previously! Next review she gave 5 for everything except 4 for check-in. I am just not understanding her concept here. Next time she requests a booking do I ask what I can improve to obtain a 5 star rating or leave it? I am hesitant to keep accepting her as a guest when she refuses to leave 5 stars for no real reason.

Are you getting 5 stars overall and she just deducts in a category? If so don’t worry about it. If it were me though I’d tell her, I’m sorry but I need 5 star reviews and then block her from staying with me again. But if you need the money and she’s a overall good repeat guest, suck it up I suppose. With over 400 reviews I don’t need people like her.

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It is just the categories… is this weighted differently?

Personally I think that a lot of hosts get much too het up about reviews and star ratings. But that’s just me. Haven’t you asked the guest? That seems the obvious thing.

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Yes, it’s only the “Overall” score that matters for SuperHost and your overall standing on Airbnb. The individual categories only matter as they display stars in the review section of your listing - a few hits here and there won’t drop you to 4-4.5 stars.
If her lower marks are in the subcategories, and she’s switching up where she dings you, the money may be better than refusing her next stay.

If I found her regular income worth the hassle, the next time she requests to book I might say something like “In prior stays I’ve had a hard time earning 5-stars from you. Airbnb sees anything less than 5 as failure, so could you let me know what I would need to change in my offering to achieve full marks?” Depending on her answer I’d accept or block her.

Almost all my guests give 5-stars across the board, so there’s not much incentive to re-host someone who wasn’t totally happy with their prior stay.

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If you have enough reviews to keep your superhost stats I would ask her to skip the reviews.

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It’s a friendly discussion. You love having her, but was curious as to the lower marks, but as others have pointed out, it’s only the total score that matters.

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Perhaps you want to educate her on the new 4.8 average that Airbnb is vying for and ask her, what you can change to be at least average … .

Or leave her a copy of the interview from the big boss Brian Chesky about the star rating, where he mentions that: So a five star experience is you knock on the door, they open the door, they let you in. Great. That’s not a big deal. You’re not going tell every friend about it. You might say, “I used Airbnb. It worked.”

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I personally would block her.

And i would have her book direct!

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Don’t understand why you haven’t asked her the things you asked in your original post. We can’t help; but she can. Pick a “nice” moment; don’t be confrontational.

Just ask “I’m wondering why you never 5 stars for all categories, even when you’ve previously done so in a particular category. I love having you stay with me, but I’m just wondering what can I do to make everything right every time…”

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Probably just a simple message like, "thanks for staying with us and being a repeat customer. we are always looking for improvement to get 5 stars in all categories. 4 stars make us sad, but we know we aren’t perfect all the time. if we tripped up on any areas, welcome to let us know :slight_smile: "

Sometimes I clue my guest as to my expectations of a good rating, which seems to work, though not all the time.

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Get her to book with you directly and split the AirBnB fee. I have some regular guests like this and one is a clean freak who loves to tell me all the things she has cleaned. Guess what? I don’t care because she doesn’t get to review me!

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Excellent suggestion!

I agree with Deb. I had a regular guest staying 5 nights per week for work, and simply booked her directly, by agreement, after her first stay. This saved her Air’s service fees, and I had a couple of month’s stability in the off season.

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