@Mike1034
Mike I had a post to admin about this, in fact, I have had a few, and through the Global Development Team which I am involved with at present, this is coming up for discussion.
I go through the review (as a guest) procedure quite frequently Mike, I will be doing the same again in the next two weeks as we travel interstate again, and I have not seen the pop-up you are referring to regarding star ratings. But what I will do with my next review is go through all the star options as I come to them and (without proceeding to the next screen) see what pop-ups may appear, and I will screenshot all steps to post here.
Leaving a 5 in all categories but, a 4 overall is not a new phenomenon, I have been getting them since I started hosting in 2016. It is frustrating every time one appears though. In my 250 reviews only 17 have been 4 star, the rest have been 5 but, of those 17 fours 11 have been just like these......
My argument with Admin is, there is nothing I can learn from these reviews, the guest is not telling me what I can improve, do better, for future guests! And yet every time one of these comes along I get penalised. I go from a 4.93 to a 4.92 and it takes me another 10 5s to get me back up to a 4.93 when in actual fact I should be on a 4.97.
The current guest review layout and prompts are doing nothing to address this situation Mike and guests are being offered conflicting advice on how they should rate the host. If you look at my screenshot here, in the current review process, step one and step three are essentially the same question........
step 1/.....How was your stay at Rachel's place?
step 3/....How did your stay at Rachel's place compare to your expectations?
How many times do you want to labour the same point??
The guest may initially give a 5 because they thought it was good, met their requirements and they would return again. Then, they come to step 3 and now (to the same question) they are given prompts from Airbnb as to how they should see those stars (1 to 5) and Airbnb are telling them that if the stay met their expectation and was what they expected they should give it a middle of the road response......a 3 star. So as well as ticking the prompt they feel was correct the guest goes back to step 1 and does just what Airbnb suggest they should do, mark the stay a 3 or a 4 overall!!
I know some of you here say, 'look's it's ok guests understand it and seem to work with it ok'!
But the number of inconsistent reviews we are getting tells a different story.
This needs to be addressed because it is not helping the platform as a whole.
I keep on about this, I know I do, but I am really trying to get it addressed so that the whole review system can become a bit more honest and relaxed.
We all have better things to do than stress over what star rating each guest is going to give us simply to maintain our good records!
@Alexandra316 @Sarah977 @Alice595 @David4226
Cheers......Rob