For vacation rental companies around the globe, Airbnb has become an integral part of how we do business. Airbnb is just one of numerous vacation rental platforms like Vrbo and Booking.com, yet somehow the name “Airbnb” has become synonymous with “vacation rental,” and its popularity is only growing.  

Rather than going through the hassle of finding a hotel in the right area, hoping they have availability, and then settling in to a small, impersonal room for the duration of your stay, a vacation rental platform such as Vrbo or Airbnb allows travelers to choose unique lodgings that include many of the comforts and amenities of their own home, all while staying in the most desirable areas of any destination. 

With vacation rentals on the Airbnb platform marketed as a popular alternative to hotels, you would expect that the 1-5 star rating system would work similarly to hotel chains: 5 is ultra-luxurious and rare, available only in the most cosmopolitan cities, 1 is the extreme budget option where you get a (hopefully) clean bed and not much else, and 3 falls somewhere in between utility and luxury. While that largely seems to be the case for rental platforms like Vrbo and Booking.com, it’s not the case at all on Airbnb, which leads to much confusion on the part of both guests and Airbnb hosts. In this month’s blog post we’ll be discussing how Airbnb’s 5-star rating system actually works, and how guests and hosts can utilize it for the best effect. 

What Makes a Five Star Rental Anyways?

Now that we’ve determined that Airbnb’s rating system isn’t anything like hotels, you’re probably left wondering what warrants a 5 star rating and what doesn’t. To put it simply, from Airbnb’s point of view, 5 star ratings are the standard. The expectation even! 5 stars means you had a nice time, the Airbnb you booked suited your needs, if anything went wrong the host made an effort to fix it in a timely manner, and everything was generally run-of-the-mill. 5 stars doesn’t mean that the place was the most incredible home you’ve ever stayed in, it simply means that nothing really happened that took away from your vacation experience. 

Following that, 4 stars means that there were several things that did not meet expectations, and the host was unable to fix the problems during your stay. Perhaps the Airbnb was dirty and the cleaner couldn’t make it out for a touchup. Maybe there was a spot of mold in the shower, or a major appliance broke and couldn’t be replaced. While it seems completely counterintuitive, a 4 star rating is not good. From a host’s perspective it means we were unable to deliver on the promised experience, and will be penalized accordingly by Airbnb. 

A 3 star review, then, is essentially saying that we’ve got some serious problems on our hands. A 3 star Airbnb is nothing more than a place where you slept each night, and not a totally pleasant one at that. What you saw on the listing and what you got were not at all the same place, and your vacation was less pleasant because of this. As opposed to a 3 star hotel, which is very much average, a 3 star Airbnb rating is telling guests to look elsewhere, or else gamble on whether or not your stay will be up to your standards.  In fact, if you rate anything 3 stars or lower, Airbnb automatically presents you with a list of solely negative feedback options to choose from, and will not allow you to proceed with the review until you pick at least one negative item.   

1 and 2 star ratings should be reserved for the worst experiences. These ratings are saying that this host should be banned, or at least the listing should be taken down. The Airbnb was probably dirty, smaller than expected, and looked nothing like the pictures. You encountered several major problems during your stay that were never fixed, and maybe you never even heard from your host at all. If a 3 star rating suggests that guests explore other options, 1 and 2 star ratings are basically a flashing DO NOT ENTER sign. 

 

What Do These Ratings Mean for Hosts? Why Make a Guidebook?

If you’re a guest in an Airbnb your first thought, understandably, is not about how your rating will impact the host, but rather what you think is a fair representation of your experience. It would make sense to give the star rating that you feel is appropriate, and that if you see an Airbnb rated 4.66 stars it’s probably pretty nice. In practice, however, the rating system doesn’t really encourage this kind of nuance. Although you can rate your experience from 1 to 5 stars across several metrics (cleanliness, responsiveness, listing accuracy, check-in experience, amenities provided), the reality is that 5 stars is a Pass, and anything else is a Fail. Airbnb expects 5 star ratings to be easy to obtain, and therefore penalizes hosts when their listing drops below 4.8, and even goes as far as to remove the listing if it receives too many sub-5 star reviews in a short period of time. This is frustrating for everyone involved: from the guest perspective it feels like you’re encouraged to inflate your rating and discouraged from docking stars for any issues that arise. Why would you want to rate your costly vacation experience the same way you would an Uber ride across town – nobody threw up everywhere or caused bodily harm; 5 stars? And if you’re working off of a rating system that penalizes hosts for anything below 5 stars, why wouldn’t you make that clear to guests? Not only does this system seem to discourage honest and constructive feedback, it also muddies the waters when you’re looking to find a truly exceptional Airbnb. 

From the hosting side of things, the current rating system is a penalty waiting to happen. Hosts know that most 1- or 2-star reviews are at least as much compensation related as they are experience related.  There are exceptions, of course, but often these epic fails detailed in 1-star reviews reflect guest aggrievement at not getting as much money back as they thought they should get.  Likewise many 5-star reviews don’t necessarily reflect a perfect property or a problem-free stay, they reflect a host’s willingness or ability to pay-to-play. 

And sometimes things just go wrong.  As the old adage goes, nobody’s perfect, and sometimes things get overlooked or fall through the cracks. A missing roll of paper towels here, not enough dish soap there, these little mistakes that happen accidentally can turn into a listing getting taken down or losing Super Host status. In some cases, hosts even reach out to guests to explain how the rating system works, and encourage them to leave 5 star reviews, which can feel a bit grubby on both ends. Any way you look at it, the current system isn’t really helpful for hosts trying to provide a nice place to stay on vacation, or for guests trying to figure out which place to stay is better than the others. Review inflation places everything on the same playing field, when there’s really no reason a luxury beachfront villa and a city-center studio apartment should be pitted against each other. 

It’s important to mention that reviews are handled in a much more intuitive manner on other major rental platforms, and the result is more honest and constructive feedback. Booking.com, for example, rates on a scale from 1-10, and considers anything with a rating of 8.0 or higher to be solid, high-performing, and meeting guest expectations. This is the equivalent of 4 stars on Airbnb. Clearly, Booking.com is able to capture a more nuanced guest experience. Perhaps the rental is exactly as advertised, clean, in perfect working order, but it’s near a noisy road. If guests don’t feel the pressure to leave a perfect rating all the time, they can reflect the proximity of the road, and the disruption from the noise pollution, with ratings of 8 or 8.5. That’s fair and accurate; it’s a 4-star property because it’s near a noisy road, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad property, it simply means it’s not entirely perfect.  

Will This Change Any Time Soon?

The answer to that question is that it’s highly unlikely. It seems like every platform is heading towards the evils of review inflation; from Google and Yelp to DoorDash and Postmates, the standard is the same, 5 stars or bust. We’re not fans of it either, if it’s any consolation. We recognize that Kaua’i especially can be a once in a lifetime trip. Getting to the island is expensive, and staying here isn’t cheap either. We want to give all of our guests a 5 star experience, so that they feel they’ve truly gone on a dream vacation. But, as we’ve just discussed, what makes a 5 star experience anyways, if that’s considered the industry bare minimum?  And if the Airbnb rating system has created a mindset where your experience is either perfection or failure, aren’t we all doomed to disappointment by unrealistic expectations?