Guest Favourites: requirements and your weakest category

What a Guest Favourite is

Guest Favourites is Airbnb's badge for listings guests rate highly. According to Airbnb's hosting article, it shows as a badge in search, and a filter lets travellers search for Guest Favourites only (resource 642). Help article 3496 says there are about 2 million of them and that listings are evaluated automatically every day.

There is no form to fill in. If your listing meets the criteria, the badge follows. If it stops meeting them, the badge goes. So the useful question isn't "how do I apply?" but "which part am I short on?"

Reviews worry most hosts. In a PriceLabs survey of more than 1,400 hosts, 71% said they were anxious about negative reviews (ShortTermRentalz). The good news is that the ratings are broken into parts, and each part points to something you can change.

The requirements

Here is what Airbnb lists, with the page each point comes from.

The pages I used don't give one single rating number for the badge. They talk about high ratings across categories. For comparison, the Superhost programme does publish a number, covered next.

How it differs from Superhost

People mix the two up. Guest Favourites is about a listing. Superhost is about you as a host.

Sources: resource 642, help 3496 and help 829. Both programmes punish cancellations, so the habit that protects one protects the other.

Reading your quality data

Your ratings live in Insights, on the quality screen. Help article 2653 says it shows:

• your overall rating;
• your rating in each of six categories: accuracy, check-in, cleanliness, communication, location and value;
• your percentage of 5-star ratings;
• how you compare with similar listings.

Why the percentage of 5-star ratings matters

An average hides the spread. Two listings can both average 4.8: one where nearly every guest gives 5 and a few give 3, and one where lots of guests give 4. The first has a specific problem that bothers a few people. The second has something that stops most guests short of delighted. Your percentage of 5-star ratings tells you which one you are. That reading is my judgement, but the number itself is Airbnb's.

Recency matters too. Airbnb's page on its recommendation system lists the language, length and recency of a review among its parameters (help 4083). Your last few months of reviews say more about your listing today than a great year three years ago.

Why fix the weakest category first

Three reasons, in my judgement:

1. The badge asks for high ratings across categories. One weak category can hold you back even when the others are strong.
2. The weakest category is where guests are clearest. A low score in one area is guests telling you exactly where the stay fell short.
3. It is usually the cheapest gain. Lifting your lowest category often means fixing one or two specific things, not rebuilding the listing.

Use the comparison with similar listings to sense-check. A category that looks low might be normal for your area, and a category that looks fine might be below your neighbours.

What sits behind each category

The causes below are my judgement from what each category measures. They are a starting list, not a diagnosis. Your reviews will tell you which apply.

Some supporting evidence for the first and last rows:

• Accuracy. A PriceLabs study found 54% of listings had inconsistencies between photos and written descriptions (ShortTermRentalz). Airbnb's May 2026 review insights flag this kind of mismatch, with the example of updating photos if the kitchen doesn't match the listing (resource 768). If accuracy is your weakest category, the free photo shot list helps you reshoot every room so the photos match the stay.
• Value. Airbnb's 2022 hosting article says search looks at the total price of a listing before taxes (resource 460). Guests judge value on the total too, cleaning fee included.

Read the reviews behind the number

The score tells you where. The words tell you why. A simple way to read them:

1. Open your last 15 to 20 reviews, plus any private feedback.
2. For each one, note any complaint, however small, in a few words: "shower pressure", "hard to find keys", "street noise".
3. Count how often each one comes up.
4. Match the repeat complaints to your weakest category.

Anything mentioned three or more times is a pattern, not bad luck. That is where your effort goes.

A 30-day plan for your weakest category

1. Take a "before" screenshot of your quality screen, with category ratings and percentage of 5-star ratings visible.
2. Name your weakest category and check it against similar listings.
3. List the repeat complaints from recent reviews.
4. Fix the top one or two causes in the home, not just in the text.
5. Update the listing so photos and description match the stay as it is now.
6. Look again after the next few stays. Ratings only move as new reviews arrive, so give it time.

If you don't have enough reviews yet

A new listing can't be a Guest Favourite until it has at least 5 reviews from the past 4 years, one of them from the past 2 (resource 642). Until then, every early stay counts for more, because each rating is a large share of a small total.

Airbnb says its search is designed to make sure new listings show up well (help 39). Use that start to get the basics right before the first guest arrives: accurate photos of every room, clear check-in steps, a tested cleaning routine and fast replies. Those four cover most of the six categories.

Things that won't help

• Cancelling awkward bookings to protect your ratings. Cancellations count against Guest Favourites and Superhost alike, both under 1%.
• Fixing only the words when the problem is in the home. If guests keep mentioning the shower, a better description won't change the next review.
• Arguing in public replies. Future guests read your replies as well as the review. Calm and specific beats defensive.