I am just looking for any recent news on this topic of 4-star suspension.This is our off season so it has been awhile since I looked at out Airbnb dashboard. Today I saw a warning that we are at risk of being suspended because we have a 4.2 average over the past 365 days…very disturbing. Without reopening a discussion about the many short comings of the rating system I was wondering if anyone has heard of many people actually being suspended for a 4 star rating.
I got the alert too. It seems I may be suspended for location. Apparently too many guests are disappointed by my location 1 minute from some of the best snorkeling in Hawaii combined with some of the most out of this world sunsets. Oh not to mention…my last group of guests were able to see whales breaching and splashing from inside the apartment, but that is still not good enough to get five stars.
I must take steps immediately to improve my location.
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Can you post the exact content of this warning, please? Thanks.
Can you post the exact content of this alert, please? Thanks.
I am the person who started this thread. My suspension was lifted within a day or two when I complained. I don’t know how serious they are. I lost stars for being on the third floor and having no air. Now despite that being clear in the listing, I put those two points in my first email before people even book. I only do Air in the summer and only have one May booking and one in June so will have a better sense this summer if that works. All that said, I was solidly booked and everyone seemed quite happy with my 4 star place. Hope it repeats this summer!
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Here is the content of the alert on my dashboard:
Hosting summary
"You’re at risk
Your account could be suspended if you don’t focus on improving to meet Airbnb hosting standards."
then clicking on the “Learn more” link:
“Overall rating: 4.2 Goal 4.5
If your rating falls below 4.0, your listings might be suspended. This takes into account reviews from the past 365 days.”
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Thanks, @drl. That’s very helpful. So, what I have been telling my guests, that a rating below 4 stars is bad, is apparently true. Good to know. I can now truthfully add that Airbnb is threatening host accounts with suspension if they fall below 4 stars. So this with respect to the overall rating, correct? Has anyone received similar threats wrt ratings in specific categories? It sounded like @konacoconutz was threatened with suspension with respect to her location rating alone, but that was not clear to me.
Yes this referred to the Overall Rating. But then I don’t understand how that is even because we have 3 listings and the “Overall Rating” for them individually is 4.3 , 4.5 and 4.8…so I don’t know how Air came up with 4.2
We have ‘private room’ but we offer 2 bedrooms, and that’s annoying because air doesn’t give me the option to enter ‘2’ under number of bedrooms. I have to say it’s 1 bedroom but then in my description plaster the words ‘2 bedrooms’.
@dcmooney I am an onsite host and had this issue as well. For over a year I have had to list all the details about the second bedroom in various description areas but as of 2 weeks ago I was able to go in my listing and edit the number of bedrooms and bed descriptions. It finally comes up under searches for 2 bedrooms. I will no longer have to go through lengthy explanations to prospective guests that “yes, there are two bedrooms and yes, they each have a bed.” I do not list the second bedroom independent of the first one so I am still able to offer it as private.
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Ding, ding, ding. We have the MOST VALUABLE post of the day right here. Thank you so much for seeing this!!! Finally, I can list this space properly. Many thanks.
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No… I don’t think it was based on one rating. It is based on overall ratings…but clearly, consistently low stars on any category is going to drag you down.
I personally believe they need to define what they want to guest to measure on location. Otherwise it’s so unfair. Lady Gaga and Madonna can afford to rent beachfront bungalows at the 4 Seasons. My guests, not so much. So why should I be compared to that as a standard?
I would give 1,000 stars to any place where I saw whales playing. That sounds like heaven to me.
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Awe… Thanks Ellen…that put a smile on my face and made me feel better about my last markdown on location…it’s completely awesome but it doesn’t happen very often for the guests. The conditions have to be just right… Calm seas and clear horizons… And we can also hear them from here. They are humpbacks so they make a lot of loud raucous sounds…splashing, whacking tails and fins and blowing air and spouting. But they also make a sort of weird trumpeting sound… , which, if you have never heard, sounds a bit like sea monsters or aliens. You hear it and go, what on earth was that!!!
I find myself having to explain this to guests so I don’t get marked down for neighborhood noise. Sigh… I’m being truthful!!!
[total aside]
My dear cousin heard whales for the first time when she was in her 20’s. She spent the rest of her life applying for and receiving grants to travel the world recording their songs and communications. She archived these recordings. For her own work, she composed music veritée using these haunting recordings along with acoustic and electronic instruments. She was highly regarded, but never reached the the pinnacle of the music world. To make a living, she was Edgar Varèse’s musical assistant. She did receive a Guggenheim, along with some other awards.
If you ever have the chance to hear a recording of her music, you might be astonished as to how musical and complex the whale songs are.
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Wow, they’re not just whales, they are humpback whales. Your guests were fortunate indeed. It is deeply shocking that you have to explain to guests that you can’t silence whales nor would you want to. Do they complain that the waves make noise too?
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Oh wow what a story! I’ve not heard those sounds until just now when I played the excerpt, so crazy. Your cousin sounds like she had such an awesome life
Fantastic story, Sm! The sounds I’m describing are not the haunting humpback songs (heard underwater) that we are all familiar with. It’s so hard to describe!! It’s a sound they make above the surface so it’s much different. Sometime the sound we hear is that of the animal’s blowhole opening and closing… But more often it sounds like an elephant in a zoo making a trumpet sound!!!
No complaints on waves crashing yet, but if we do get waves crashing here that will typically mean it’s too rough to go out swimming, so guests may be disappointed by that. And they will mention, beach is too rough for swimming. Well… It’s not just my beach that got too rough, it’s the entire west side of the island, which has closed all beaches due to high surf…surf that is so high it’s breaking over the downtown sea walls and flowing into the streets. And they are running the big wave surf competitions on the North Shore of Oahu. Yet, my guests will make sure to crack me about how my beach was too rough for swimming. Sigh.
Have I mentioned lately how tired I am of reviews!!!
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I hasten to add… Most guests love my location and the apartment. But I’m just so disappointed by the last group, who were so nice and I talked to them a lot as they coming and going…they even gave me some fillets from their fishing charter!!! Smiling to your face and holding a knife behind their backs. Yup I continue to feel jaded and cynical and each incident like this just reinforces it.
Actually, if you play the third recording on her page, you will hear some of the trumpeting I’m referring to. That is the sound right there. So loud it wakes us up and the neighborhood dogs too!
I believe that Cousin Ann recorded any whales that she could find. I know that The Woods Hole Institute has many of her recordings on file for research purposes. Yes. She was a very interesting woman who found a life’s passion in whales.
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Twice (in 13 years) I have seen dolphins cavorting in the canal right in front of our apartment. I’d actually pay them to do it on a daily basis for guests 
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