If I have a really bad guest, I do write a review and wait until the 14th day to post it. . It’s the guests that were perfectly fine but couldn’t bother to write a review. I’m sorry if you feel that is not fair but I have over 600 reviews and anything less than 5 starts brings my count down. It takes 100s of reviews to bring up my rating.
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I do. I often see comments with 4 star reviews and occassional 3 star reviews which sound along the lines “stay was great” or “everything went well”. That would indicate that there was no major issue which still means that the guests had a pleasant stay.
No, not for hosts- Airbnb sends hosts threatening messages for 4 star reviews. Are you a host?
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It’s been a while since we got the last 4 star review but I cannot recall any messages from Airbnb nor any ‘listing issues’ where I’d assume any problems with the listing would be shown.
No clue if this depends on the particular reason for the 4 star review why we didn’t get chastised.
Yeah, all the people around the world would have the same thoughts that 4-star is still good. But in the Airbnb algorithm, if your score is lower than 4.3, there is a good chance your listing cannot be found on the map.
Apparently if a guest checks one of the reasons for a low category rating, Airbnb sends a “pull up your socks” message. And I know that hosts have gotten warnings of their listing being suspended if their average falls below somewhere in the mid 4s.
LOL, I’m getting way too emotional with these things. If ABB is really not able to make good use of a rating scale from 1 to 5 and loose their sh!t if someone’s average is about to drop below 4 (!) point something they should just go ahead and use a thumbs up and thumbs down system. Ridiculous.
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Yes, it’s ridiculous. In the real world, 4* should be fine, so a lot of guests naturally assume there is nothing wrong with leaving a 4* review for a place they liked and would stay at again.
And I’ve even heard guests say the review system seems bogus because there are too many places with 5*ratings.
FYI, companies like Uber do this, too. I’ve heard 4*s is considered a fail for Uber drivers.
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It is very clear that a 4 is a ‘must do better’ from Air’s perspective. I felt properly told-off.
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Agree if you give a 4 star for Uber you are asked to explain why via pre-coded answers (driver smoking, careless driving etc) & all of those precodes are negative.
As if 100% of all guests are always objectively rating their hosts…
Just because a host is doing everything right doesn’t mean that their place is “not good enough” just because my smoke detector is blinking the wrong way according to one of our guests. Give me a break.
@icenisf Sometimes, knowing that Airbnb employees tend to be millenials or younger (no offense if you are), I’ve felt the “tone” of their messages is something like the attitude portrayed in the snotty, dismissive phrase, “Okay, boomer”.
So, you got marked down on “location” and are supposed to “review our ground rules”- c’mon girl, were you not aware that moving your house to a location more amenable to the guest is a “ground rule”? 
I also find it offensive when you contact Airbnb about an issue and they send you links to Help pages that have nothing to do with your issue. I recently asked them if they had changed the process whereby an Inquiry expires in 24 hours (they definitely used to, but my most recent one didn’t). Instead of answering my question, they started out with the usual “Thank you for being a Superhost, we know how hard you work…” useless platitudes, then followed with “explaining” to me all about how Inquiries and Requests work, as if I am not aware of that, even though they can see I have been hosting since 2016.
Honestly, their messaging is so bipolar. On the one hand they keep praising us for being Superhosts, then turn around and send us admonishments and information as if we are clueless newbies.
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I find the option to review location unnecessary. Guests are aware of the location they’re booking, and beyond that, it’s out of our control.
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Fairly huge pet peeve for me. The rating system doesn’t allow for fractional scores, like between 4 and 5. So a guest decides the place was good but not perfect, throws some 4’s around and over time that brings my rating down. Because a 4 overall for the listing would be kind of catastrophic. I can get maybe 6 or 7 ratings of 5 stars out of ten stays, and the rest are 4’s – and it hurts me over time.
Then there’s the occasional 3 stars (maybe three times a year) and Airbnb sends me the “your listing is at risk” email.
My listing isn’t perfect. House is 100 years old. It’s a basement apartment with all that implies, including a little chilly in winter and not sound proof. But I clean it myself and make sure it’s how I would have it for a friend or family member.
I find the variability among guests challenging and have tried to figure out how to set expectations – because two guests in close proximity can come to opposite conclusions about cleanliness etc. I even had one guest select “not much to do” in the location, while another guest a couple weeks later clicked “lots to do” in the location (residential gentrified DC neighborhood with a few cafes, restaurants). How can both of those things be true? And it plays into the rating…
I have had 19 guests who clicked “beautiful surroundings” and one who checked “bland surroundings.” Of course the “bland surroundings” show up on the listing issues page as though I can pick up and move the house.
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I remember reading a post on the Airbnb forum years ago- the host had an old heritage house in the southern US, I think Savannah, which had been in her family for generations and was filled with beautiful antique furniture, carpets,etc.
She had a bunch of reviews, mostly from younger guests, that said the place was “old and shabby” and then a bunch that said it was amazing- like staying in a museum filled with incredible things. One guest said he was so excited to see an original 1940s Frigidaire that was still being used and worked just fine.
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I wonder what the folks who think it’s “shabby” use when clicking on the listing photos… certainly not their eyeballs.
Gets on my nerve when we list in one of our studios that we don’t have a full kitchen and show photos of the entire place, only to read the reviews about “a kitchen would be nice” 
I have introduced typeface over the listing picture of the kitchenette saying “No full kitchen!” Because people don’t reliably read what we write, in my experience, they just look at the pictures (& read the reviews).
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Don’t forget that the question that is asked at review time is - what could the host do better…… for me, that is inviting criticism and complaints
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