After 5 monthes of hosting, I have 25+ reviews now, most of are 5 star reviews, but there are a few lower ones espeically in the subcategories.
Example 1, a guest gave 3 star to location, commented “the location worked great for her as she was going to mountians, but it’s far from downtown”. Ok, I never said my place is close to downtown (15 min driving, not that far to be honest), and if it worked great, why would she worried anyway, interesting.
Example 2, In one guest’s commment, she said my place is “Clean, quiet, cozy”, and give me a 4 star rating on cleanliness, the only lower than 5 start rating on cleanliness in all of my reviews! Kinda frustrating…
Yep. It’s super frustrating!
My last reviewer said “The location was perfect- still within walking distance of downtown TC but in a quiet area.” …aaaaand gave me 4 stars for my “perfect” location. 
You’ll drive yourself nuts trying to understand it, so just do the best job you can in hosting and move on. Most people will appreciate what you do; the irritating ones won’t make any more sense with overthinking or dwelling on it!
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I got the same the other day and it drove me crazy for a bit. Newbie-guest marked a 4 for location and a 4 for accuracy starting “size of house”. Hum … Location? Didn’t he see the map AND the listing and reviews that described the house as peaceful, rural, secluded? And Size of house? Dang it, did half the house fall off a cliff and no one told me?
I was so frustrated. But, as my husband put it, our goal is to rent the house to pay down the mortgage until we retire. Mr Picky-Panties put us $400 closer. So, thanks to him for his $, his opinions, not so much. 
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One of my very few 4 star reviews was one of my very best reviews. No public or private negative feedback. Very kind review. 5 stars across the board. Obviously a 4 star overall right?
4 star and lower reviews ARE frustrating. But, IMHO we all need to do more “guest education”. Not a sit-down lecture on Airbnb etiquette, but conversational:
"The good thing about AirBnb is the ‘checks and balances’ where we get to review you and you get to review us. There are only 5 stars available, which means even a 4 star rating can hurt our standing as hosts and your standing as guests. The reviews we write about you primarily tell other hosts how good you were as guests, and some hosts won’t accept guests with 4 stars or less. We try very hard to give you a 5-star experience, and hope you’ll give us a 5-star rating across the board.
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Yes I just had a facetious guest give 3 stars for my very expensive location saying “It depends what you want it for” in the feedback. Well yes, most people want it for its cafe culture, transport links, proximity to universities, the city centre, art and music, media, technology, alternative health etc. and neighbours like me lol. The truth of the matter is they’re miffed because they’re washed up in middle age and want more than they can afford, and want more affection than their entitled attitude warrants. Sad people take their spite out on others.
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As hosts, we really need to STOP worrying about reviews and star ratings. For example, our rental is in the most fabulous location ever. Well maybe not ever but I live here and I love it.
One of our earlier guests gave us only 4 stars for location because — this is true — there was construction going on on the road to the beach. Everything else is wonderful but whoa - road works.
Right. So I should have called the city and said ‘no construction please, I have Airbnb guests’.
We all get rubbish reviews and star ratings, no matter how fantastic we are. We just have to shrug our shoulders and move on.
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Guests??? What about hosts too? … I got a 4 star from another host… who loved his stay. grrrr…
Such pearls of wisdom, as ever, and much appreciated. Over the last Bank Holiday w/e (the one with the double handed saucepan episode…) I had one ding on accuracy that Air queried with me. 4* for accuracy because she thought they were getting an entire house, not the guest suite of two rooms an bathroom. She tried to change it when I pointed out that the listing title contains “B&B”, but couldn’t.
The best was last summer, on location; 2* because the roads were so narrow. Well, if you will drive down in one of you Thetford Military Airbase 4x4s, without reading the listing properly…
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I don’t like the star system at all. My place is not a 5 star accommodation. It’s more like a 3-3.5 star. It’s got an amazing location, my cleaners are far superior to the nicest hotels of the world. But the place is dated, this is why I charge $150/ night when hotels are almost $300.
I feel like guests don’t grasp that being the best in type deserves 5 stars. There is no deception furniture is IKEA totally stated in listing, I’m not competing with the Trump tower more like the Motel 6. Guests need to compare apples to apples.
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Is that your judgement or how many stars you actually get? You must get scolded by Airbnb for “low ratings” regularly. It seems they are trying to raise the average that is listed to 4.7stars. I’m not sure how that is going to impact hosts or be enforced.
I think he’s saying that he’s equivalent to a 3 star hotel, not a 5 star hotel. But if you’re paying 3 star hotel rates you should give 5 stars to a host if they are meeting the expectations of that price range.
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I provide 5 star service but I am not a 5* accommodation. Like Gordan Ramsay’s stake house vs Fast food both can be eaten one is more expensive
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Stake house? Gordon Ramsay the vampire slayer?
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This made my day!
I had a 6’6" man mark me down for accuracy because the house was not as big as he thought it would be. No where did I say how big it was.
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Did you leave him a review saying he was a taller guest than you thought he’d be? 3 stars for communication.
I love that response! But as you know the responses are released simultaneously. The suite is actually the average size of an American hotel room 325 square feet. I have since had a shorter guest who thought it was a large space!