We knew it was coming, because our top-level rating had dropped below 80% for the first time ever! We’ve been Superhosts for nearly two years and considering the run-down block we live on, it’s just a testament to the love and care my wife puts into keeping everything sparkling clean and wonderful for our guests.
We saw the rating dip just below 80% about a week before Airbnb would perform their next Superhost review, so we knew this was coming. But suddenly we had such a sense of relief! No more will we have to be so impeccably clean and buttoned up out of fear of losing the status. We’ve already lost it. And now that we’ve lost it, we’re not even sure of its value. We’ve already gotten two new reservations for January – the slowest month of the year – and a third serious inquiry for January as well.
Not only are we not sure of its value, we think it may have been a detriment. We went back and looked at the people who had given us less than perfect reviews, and we found that several of them shared one thing in common – in their previous bookings, they had always booked with Superhosts. And we found they hadn’t exactly left them glowing reviews either.
Our new working theory is that there are some people on Airbnb who will only book with Superhosts and those people are pickier and more critical than other guests. In fact it’s because they’re more critical that they will only stay with Superhosts. They have much higher expectations and when they’re not met to a T, they become very vocal about it in their reviews.
The irony is that now that we’ve lost it, we’ll probably get it back in the next review! (Although I’m not sure we even want it back). Everything inside our apartment is near-perfect. It’s really one of the best places people can stay in the New York area. It’s much larger than most New York City dwellings, much newer and has all the modern conveniences that most buildings in the New York area don’t have, like central air conditioning and heating, a dishwasher… things like that, that make it much more comfortable than your typical New York area apartment.
But outside our apartment, it’s pretty terrible! We’re in a good area, but on a bad block. The block we’re on is pretty hideous actually. A bunch of old, ugly buildings. It’s not pretty to walk through. And most of our low ratings have noted that with 3-4 stars for “Location”. And that of course lowers their “Overall” rating, which is the rating Airbnb goes by. It is a real testament to my wife’s amazing work inside our home that we kept Superhost status for as long as we did. Despite the bad block, so many people gave us great ratings because everything was so impeccably perfect and comfortable inside the home.
We have a hunch that by having less demanding guests in the future, our ratings will probably go back up – as people will just be happy to get such a nice place anywhere close to New York. We’ll let you know what happens, but in the meantime, it’s going to be nice to be able to relax a bit and not worry so much about Superhost status.