@Ann72 @Anonymous
Frankly, I don't give a **bleep** about whether we have "superhost" status or not. I don't care much about our star ratings (exceptions below).
However, I'm running a business, in a highly competitive environment. I realise it's different everywhere, but I can assure you, that in our patch, that there are tangible, measurable benefits to maintaining high ratings. Not just star ratings, but the reviews themselves. They need to be glowing.
Clientele in our patch are well aware of various scams and over-promises. There are endless stories of disaster holidays where people booked a lovely villa and on arrival, it was a either a dump, or didn't even exist. It's far less of an occurrence nowadays, as new laws and standards have been imposed and enforced, and booking platforms have become more sophisticated, but the legends are still there.
So, I can assure you that the clientele look very closely at the description and the reviews. They're incredibly important for guest confidence. They're laying out significant money. They want to be assured it's not in vain.
I've always said that focusing on profit generally will ultimately result in profit decline. If you instead focus on guest satisfaction, then you ultimately won't have to worry about the money. It will come. And so far (notwithstanding the pandemic, which threw everything out of kilter), it's been a winning philosophy for us.
The only indication of a commitment to guest satisfaction is the reviews. And even during the pandemic, we had bookings. Less than usual, but we got bookings. Others we know weren't so lucky. It was a direct consequence of our ratings.
Add to that the search rankings. In our patch, we are at a distinct disadvantage. We aren't on the beach. We aren't next to a major attraction. We're in the middle of the island. You can't walk to the beach or the strip. We should be struggling to get even 2/3 of our price. But with our 4.8 - 5.0 average star rating, and plenty of great reviews, we consistently show up on page 1 or 2 of any search for "Mallorca". Yes, we make it clear that we aren't near the beach or any "strip", but we also outline the benefits of countryside seclusion, and there are many - particularly during the pandemic.
Yet the fact that we're exposed to a much broader audience due to our rankings, very often encourages people to reconsider whether being on the beach or next to the strip is the best solution, especially for families. Some of our reviews even reflect that.. "We were surprised to discover an entirely different and even better experience away from the resorts". Yeah, guests have said things like that in their reviews. It has an effect.
So yes, rankings and reviews are very important. We work very hard at making sure our guests experience something better than expected. Even though it often impacts our profits. And most of our guests see and respect that. And that keeps the good reviews coming in. And as side benefit, even profits.
The downside is when they are incapable of seeing or respecting the hard work that goes into keeping them comfortable and happy, choosing to break the rules, cause damage, trash the place, book for two, bring 4 or 6, and then pretend it's insignificant, or it never happened. That's personally insulting.
But it's just the nature of the beast. You get them sometimes, and there's little you can do about it. You can only try to avoid it by being as careful as possible. If you fail at that (easy to do), you just have to take the bad with the good. Nature of the beast.
