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@RebeccaF
The Airbnb superhost program is indeed problematic.
We’ve hosted more than 1000 guests with an average score of 87% 5 star reviews (old system). Still we’re not superhosts because a guest lied and claimed there was a surveillance cam in one of our properties. Despite proving the guest (and the Airbnb case manager) wrong, Airbnb didn’t care to give back our superhost status.
So, our neighbors with 10-15 stays a year are considered “the best and most experienced hosts”, whereas we (with more than 1000 stays over several years and an 87% 5 star rate) are not considered superhosts due to one stubborn Airbnb case manager.
Very unfair.
That doesn’t make sense. SH is across all properties so if you have 100s of reviews it would take far more than one bad review to put you below 4.8 if you are otherwise doing well with reviews. I got a one star review and am still at 4.97 despite only hosting 700 or so guests.
I read a few months ago that Airbnb awards Superhost if you are at 4.75 or above (i.e. they round 4.75 and higher to 4.8). Assuming a host already had 1000 reviews and then got a 1-star review, the prior rating would’ve been below 4.754 to lose Superhost because of it.
But, if that’s wrong, and the rounding happens at 4.795, then the host’s rating would’ve still had to be below 4.800 to lose Superhost.
Either way, the host rating was already below 4.8.
Good point, although I’m pretty sure Oliver said he had a couple hundred guests just 2 months ago, so I was assuming they were all within a year. If not, the info was irrelevant. Yeah, the info is limited and assumptions abound.
@KKC we didn’t lose our superhost status due to a bad review.
When the lying guest claimed there was a surveillance cam in one of our properties, Airbnb suspended our account and cancelled several booking on our behalf. After proving the guest (and the Airbnb case manager) wrong, Airbnb re-openeded our account, but they didn’t compensate us for the cancellations and we lost our superhost status.
When it comes to SH, there are some remarkably stupid people making decisions at Air. I got the 1 star bullet from a man that was so disgusting that amongst other things he refused to flush. But his review was not considered against TOS. I lost it after 2 years consecutive. Drop that one review and I would have held at 4.9.
After whinging on FB, they suddenly jacked my number back to 4.9 but had no statistics to back it up. It’s been sitting like that for 3 weeks. Who knows what goes on there?
#1 Guests not reading. I assume they don’t and make sure I convey important info multiple ways.
#2 Guests showing up with more people than booked. We fix that right away by changing the number on the reservation.
#3 Guests staining or otherwise ruining linens.
#4 The town where my AirBnBs are located isn’t a tourist destination and has an increasing drug and homeless issue which guests notice.
#5 Guests using overusing/abusing utilities such as running air conditioning at 66 degrees F even when they are gone for 12 hours at a stretch. We are working on fixing that issue by installing smart thermostats we can control remotely.
Well, that sucks but it’s not that hard to regain. You only need 4.8 on one of your listings then you look like a SH across all listings. With your volume of bookings one would think you’d only lose SH for one quarter.
I’m one of those who thinks SH is helpful, especially in a crowded market. But it’s not the be all, end all. And where you can list on other platforms it matters even less. Airbnb is the only game in town for my kind of listing but for yours booking.com should be bringing you a lot of business.
All of that to say SH problems are probably not going to be a top issue for most hosts.
Would concur with every one of these as top issues as a host.
Bad guests breaking rules, causing damage, and/or making outrageous demands.
Dishonest reviews from bad guests-who break rules, cause damage, and/or make outrageous demands.
The stress, worry, anxiety and time devoted to dealing with bad guests and the dishonest reviews that inevitably follow. Entire threads exist on this forum just to support hosts in dealing with bad guests and their worry from impending negative reviews and the power they wield. Most are complete fabrications intended only to spitefully harm the host. Guests can just make new profiles if they get a bad review, but hosts can have their livelihoods permanently impacted by this callous action of an entitled jerk. Negative reviews can also make future guests walk in expecting issues.
The complete lack of stewardship in handling bad guests leaving dishonest reviews. (The fact that any guest with any pending claim can even leave a review at all is absurd. a guest who was given a refund, or paid a damage claim, or worse, who was asked to leave, should just be barred from posting angry reviews. That is absurd, especially since no oversight from Airbnb exists. It seems a stupid practice that Airbnb allows dishonest reviews without any oversight, since we all lose money as a result, but we’re fairly certain that they employ some soulless cost analysis staff to weigh being principled and just…against the fact that hosts are unquestionably replaceable, and found the latter was better for their company’s bottom line.
Airbnb’s allowing bad guests to perpetuate on their website with no real action to eliminate them. They don’t even require identification for people who stay in private homes. Even motels and youth hostels require ID!
Naturally, we expected some issues when doing business with the public, but with some guests, the lack of integrity when it comes to following rules, the lack of responsibility when causing damage the lack of hesitation in making outrageous demands, and the complete lack of shame in posting dishonest reviews has left us speechless at times. Sense of entitlement and lack of integrity appear to be pandemic in the modern world.
Forgive me for ranting…summer just ended and we are literally one bad guest away from throwing in the towel altogether and going back to being landlords. Ugh
I’ve also had this issue and could write write a comical account of all the places guests have parked (I’m in home host, only two spots that “Y” at the end of my non-paved driveway in the countryside). I had one man park his rental minivan on a freshly trimmed flower garden on the edge of my drive which is surrounded by a stone border (very curved, irregular shape, so no way looks like a parking spot, filled with greenery, etc.). He pulled on top of a trimmed down forsythia bush and I heard a loud bang from inside the house. Blew a tire. Another pulled right up on my stone block patio, right along with the chairs.
Anyway, I purchased an orange traffic cone and a sleeve to slide over that says “Welcome Guests” from Myparkingsign.com. Is it attractive? No! Does it do the job? Yes! My initial welcome/check in message now instructs guests to park at the orange traffic cone. No issues since, and I can move it around to mow, shovel/snow blow/etc.
Ah, okay. I knew the SH attached to all the listings but it didn’t occur to me that the metrics were calculated across all of them. Makes a lot more sense though.
In opening that website I saw the rubber wheel stops which sound like an awesome idea as well. They have reflective material but don’t stick up as high as a a cone. You could possibly put welcome guests in the top of it too if you wanted. They are more expensive than a cone though by approximately 25%.
Interesting, @PuppyLover had her account suspended and then she had to prove the Guest and Airbnb wrong (in court, no less) but it didn’t affect her Superhost status when the account was reopened.
Which may mean that @O_Apartments would need to take her issue to court in order to get full restitution to original SH status…sad. But hey, maybe it will encourage more wronged hosts to take Airbnb to court.
I had posted this here before, but it find it a useful reminder:
A single 4-star rating, you need 4 perfect 5-star ratings to average 4.8
A single 3-star rating, you need 9 perfect 5-star ratings to average 4.8
A single 2-star rating, you need 14 perfect 5-star ratings to average 4.8
A single 1-star rating, you need 19 perfect 5-star ratings to average 4.8
