Post by High Priestess on Oct 27, 2015 1:07:31 GMT
Natalie shared Oct 26 2015
Irritating inaccurate star rating!
Two nice girls from Sweden stayed with me for one night to visit Yosemite National Park. They came from the back entrance to Yosemite (Tioga Pass), which is a long drive, even though my house is 18 miles from the gate to the park and that' what I say in my listing. They gave me a decent written review, but then gave me THREE stars for accuracy and location. Yosemite National Park covers 1200 square miles! It's huge! Do you think it would make any difference if I whined to Airbnb. (the girls even said in their written review that they decided not to go back to the park the next day due to their lack of research.) I think the whole problem is their wrong conception of the vastness of the park. (thanks, Obama?)
Clare
Perhaps you can make a short and sweet public response to their review saying something like "So sorry you had trouble finding the place (or something like that). Yosemite is so large and I'm only 18 miles from the gate to the park." It might alleviate any future concerns prospective guests have about the location. My listing is way off the beaten path and I've received 13 -(5 stars), 5- (4 stars) and 2 - (3 stars) for location. Since the 3 star reviews I have made clearer how far away I am from most (email hidden)ybe you can say "the most efficient way to get to my listing is....." in your description.
As for your Swedish guests, foreigners are totally clueless about the area they are visiting as I would be in Sweden. Give them some slack.
Andrew (andrew)
Star ratings are entirely subjective; if the guests felt that the accuracy and location merited three stars, then the ratings - while certainly irritating - were not inaccurate. Whining to Airbnb is not worth it; this happens to every host.
Location is one of the worst things to assess with star ratings; the guests choose the listing based on its location in the first place, and there's nothing the host can do to move it. The 3 stars may have been based solely on the proximity to Yosemite, but they could have also referred to the more immediate neighborhood, goods and services, etc. Regarding accuracy, the listing could be more specific about the distance and driving time to Yosemite, as people from compact European towns may have a different idea of what constitutes a "short drive."
Serafina (Serafina)
Natalie, you've got great reviews, so this three-star location rating is just a blip. Shake it off and move on. And I agree that the vastness of the American West is somewhat unfathomable to many first-time European visitors. Just as mountain roads need to be experienced before a flatlander like me can understand why travel times are so long.
Natalie
Thanks for your replies! Clare, 95% of my guests have been from Europe. The driving distances are definitely something we talk about; Andrew, I've decided not to whine to airbnb
; Serafina, great advice. I'm shaking it off. Thank you!
Rachel
No, there's no point whining to Airbnb as they cannot do anything about it. I had two Chinese girls a few weeks ago who wrote me a review, saying that everything was perfect, gave me 5 stars for just about everything and then gave me 1 star for Overall Experience! I think they just made a mistake when pressing the buttons on the phone but nonetheless I was unable to do anything about it and that one "mistake" caused my rating to drop from 93% to 88%. I was furious but have just had to put up with it. Also, as you say, most of your guests have been from Europe and whilst Americans and Canadians think nothing of driving 100 miles to do something, for us that is a long trip.
Natalie
Well, I wouldn't say we think nothing of driving a hundred miles to do something. That is a very long trip and I would only do it to visit someone far away or go on vacation. It is definitely not something I would think nothing of. Oh, that's too bad about your percentage going down due to a mistake. How frustrating!
Florencia
I'm not sure if I'm alone on this comment but on the last couple of months my guests expectations have climbed really high thus I'm not always able to meet those. On my opinion, it is very important that you describe with top precision where you are located, how is yur place and what guest should expect. Try to use neutral language when describing your listing (just the facts) and avoid words that set expectations higher that what you can offer such as"best, super sale, the top listing". Be careful with those as they are great to catch bookings but they are a heavy weight laterwhen your guests arrive to your home. Star ratings are highly dependable on the guest expectations which are based of what you say on your listing, what your past guests say about you, the number of reviews you have, the other listings on your area and probably just the way your guest is. As a personal wish, it will be nice that Aribnb redefines the way it handles the start rating. At first it should use clear language of what it means each item to rate and make a better transalation to the different languages. To give you an example the spanish translation Airbnb gives to "value" is "calidad" which means "quality". So wheras on value you rate based on two factors (quality and price), quality is just quality which sometimes drives into a bad rating for the cheaper listings. Second, in terms of location (which is my hardest item to get well rated) Airbnb should take a different approach and add a threeshold on there. I don´t see how someone can rate a location if he was staying one or two nights. You need more time to evaluate the location than the time you need to evaluate the room you are staying.
Irritating inaccurate star rating!
Two nice girls from Sweden stayed with me for one night to visit Yosemite National Park. They came from the back entrance to Yosemite (Tioga Pass), which is a long drive, even though my house is 18 miles from the gate to the park and that' what I say in my listing. They gave me a decent written review, but then gave me THREE stars for accuracy and location. Yosemite National Park covers 1200 square miles! It's huge! Do you think it would make any difference if I whined to Airbnb. (the girls even said in their written review that they decided not to go back to the park the next day due to their lack of research.) I think the whole problem is their wrong conception of the vastness of the park. (thanks, Obama?)
Clare
Perhaps you can make a short and sweet public response to their review saying something like "So sorry you had trouble finding the place (or something like that). Yosemite is so large and I'm only 18 miles from the gate to the park." It might alleviate any future concerns prospective guests have about the location. My listing is way off the beaten path and I've received 13 -(5 stars), 5- (4 stars) and 2 - (3 stars) for location. Since the 3 star reviews I have made clearer how far away I am from most (email hidden)ybe you can say "the most efficient way to get to my listing is....." in your description.
As for your Swedish guests, foreigners are totally clueless about the area they are visiting as I would be in Sweden. Give them some slack.
Andrew (andrew)
Star ratings are entirely subjective; if the guests felt that the accuracy and location merited three stars, then the ratings - while certainly irritating - were not inaccurate. Whining to Airbnb is not worth it; this happens to every host.
Location is one of the worst things to assess with star ratings; the guests choose the listing based on its location in the first place, and there's nothing the host can do to move it. The 3 stars may have been based solely on the proximity to Yosemite, but they could have also referred to the more immediate neighborhood, goods and services, etc. Regarding accuracy, the listing could be more specific about the distance and driving time to Yosemite, as people from compact European towns may have a different idea of what constitutes a "short drive."
Serafina (Serafina)
Natalie, you've got great reviews, so this three-star location rating is just a blip. Shake it off and move on. And I agree that the vastness of the American West is somewhat unfathomable to many first-time European visitors. Just as mountain roads need to be experienced before a flatlander like me can understand why travel times are so long.
Natalie
Thanks for your replies! Clare, 95% of my guests have been from Europe. The driving distances are definitely something we talk about; Andrew, I've decided not to whine to airbnb
; Serafina, great advice. I'm shaking it off. Thank you!Rachel
No, there's no point whining to Airbnb as they cannot do anything about it. I had two Chinese girls a few weeks ago who wrote me a review, saying that everything was perfect, gave me 5 stars for just about everything and then gave me 1 star for Overall Experience! I think they just made a mistake when pressing the buttons on the phone but nonetheless I was unable to do anything about it and that one "mistake" caused my rating to drop from 93% to 88%. I was furious but have just had to put up with it. Also, as you say, most of your guests have been from Europe and whilst Americans and Canadians think nothing of driving 100 miles to do something, for us that is a long trip.
Natalie
Well, I wouldn't say we think nothing of driving a hundred miles to do something. That is a very long trip and I would only do it to visit someone far away or go on vacation. It is definitely not something I would think nothing of. Oh, that's too bad about your percentage going down due to a mistake. How frustrating!
Florencia
I'm not sure if I'm alone on this comment but on the last couple of months my guests expectations have climbed really high thus I'm not always able to meet those. On my opinion, it is very important that you describe with top precision where you are located, how is yur place and what guest should expect. Try to use neutral language when describing your listing (just the facts) and avoid words that set expectations higher that what you can offer such as"best, super sale, the top listing". Be careful with those as they are great to catch bookings but they are a heavy weight laterwhen your guests arrive to your home. Star ratings are highly dependable on the guest expectations which are based of what you say on your listing, what your past guests say about you, the number of reviews you have, the other listings on your area and probably just the way your guest is. As a personal wish, it will be nice that Aribnb redefines the way it handles the start rating. At first it should use clear language of what it means each item to rate and make a better transalation to the different languages. To give you an example the spanish translation Airbnb gives to "value" is "calidad" which means "quality". So wheras on value you rate based on two factors (quality and price), quality is just quality which sometimes drives into a bad rating for the cheaper listings. Second, in terms of location (which is my hardest item to get well rated) Airbnb should take a different approach and add a threeshold on there. I don´t see how someone can rate a location if he was staying one or two nights. You need more time to evaluate the location than the time you need to evaluate the room you are staying.