Earning the Guest Favorite badge on Airbnb requires at least five guest reviews, consistently high ratings across all review categories, and a near-perfect reliability record as a host. The badge marks your listing as one of the most-loved homes on the platform, based on ratings, reviews, and reliability data drawn from over half a billion trips. Unlike Superhost status, which recognizes you as a host, Guest Favorite is tied to a specific listing, and it comes with a dedicated search filter that lets guests browse only Guest Favorite properties.
What Airbnb Measures for Guest Favorites
Airbnb evaluates several factors when deciding which listings qualify. Your listing needs at least five guest reviews, but five alone won’t get you the badge. You need excellent overall ratings plus high marks in each of the six individual review categories: check-in, cleanliness, accuracy, host communication, location, and value. A single weak category can hold you back even if your overall score looks strong.
Beyond reviews, Airbnb looks at your reliability record. Hosts whose listings earn Guest Favorite status average 1% or fewer host cancellations and quality-related customer service issues. That means if you cancel on guests, trigger refund requests, or generate repeated complaints that reach Airbnb’s support team, your listing is unlikely to qualify. Airbnb also factors in how you communicate with guests on the platform, so responsiveness and helpfulness in your messages matter.
How Guest Favorite Differs From Superhost
Superhost is a personal recognition tied to your hosting account. It’s evaluated quarterly based on your response rate, cancellation rate, number of stays, and overall rating across all your listings. Guest Favorite, by contrast, is a listing-level badge. A single property earns it based on how guests rate that specific home.
You can hold both designations at the same time. If you’re a Superhost and one of your listings qualifies as a Guest Favorite, both badges appear on your listing page, while the Guest Favorite badge shows in search results. If you’re a Superhost but your listing hasn’t yet reached Guest Favorite status, you’ll still display the Superhost badge. The two programs are complementary, not competing.
Why the Badge Matters for Bookings
Airbnb gives guests a search filter that shows only Guest Favorite listings. When a traveler toggles that filter on, every non-qualifying listing disappears from their results. For hosts, this means the badge opens up an entirely separate pool of high-intent bookings from guests who are specifically seeking top-rated stays. These guests tend to be willing to pay more and are often easier to host because they’ve self-selected for quality over bargain hunting.
The badge also builds trust in your listing before a guest ever reads your description. Seeing “Guest Favorite” in search results signals that hundreds or thousands of past guests had a great experience, which reduces the hesitation that comes with booking an unfamiliar home.
Raise Your Ratings Across All Six Categories
Most hosts focus on their overall star rating, but Guest Favorite qualification looks at each category individually. Here’s how to strengthen the ones that guests most commonly mark down.
- Accuracy: Your listing photos and description set expectations. If you describe a “spacious living room” and the guest walks into a tight space, your accuracy score drops. Photograph every room honestly, mention any quirks (street noise, steep stairs, small bathroom), and update your listing after any changes. Guests rarely penalize you for disclosing a minor drawback, but they will penalize you for hiding one.
- Cleanliness: This is the category most likely to earn you a less-than-perfect score. A professional cleaning between every stay is worth the cost. Create a detailed checklist that covers easy-to-miss spots: under couch cushions, inside the microwave, the top of the refrigerator, light switches, and remote controls. Provide fresh, unstained linens every time.
- Check-in: Make arrival effortless. A lockbox or smart lock with a keypad code eliminates the stress of coordinating timing. Send check-in instructions at least 24 hours before arrival with step-by-step directions, photos of the entrance, and the Wi-Fi password. If guests have to message you to figure out how to get inside, your check-in score will reflect it.
- Communication: Respond to messages quickly, ideally within an hour. Send a welcome message on check-in day and a brief check-in the morning after arrival asking if everything looks good. This gives guests a low-friction way to flag small issues before they become review complaints.
- Value: Value doesn’t mean cheap. It means the experience matches or exceeds what the guest expected for the price. Stock basics like coffee, tea, dish soap, sponges, trash bags, and toilet paper generously. Small touches like a local restaurant guide, phone chargers by the bed, or blackout curtains can shift a guest’s perception from “fine for the price” to “great deal.”
- Location: You can’t move your property, but you can set better expectations. Be upfront about noise, parking, walkability, and distance to landmarks. A guest who books knowing the home is a 15-minute drive from downtown won’t mark you down for it. A guest who assumed it was closer will.
Keep Your Cancellation Rate Near Zero
Host cancellations are one of the fastest ways to disqualify your listing. Airbnb’s threshold for Guest Favorites is roughly 1% or fewer cancellations and quality-related support issues. For most hosts, that means you essentially cannot cancel on a guest unless there’s a genuine emergency covered by Airbnb’s extenuating circumstances policy.
Block off dates you’re not available well in advance. If you also list on other platforms, use a channel manager or sync your calendars to prevent double bookings. A single cancellation when you only have 30 or 40 bookings in a year puts you well above the 1% threshold.
Build Your Review Count Strategically
Five reviews is the minimum, but listings with dozens of strong reviews are far more likely to qualify. In your early days of hosting, price your listing competitively to attract bookings and accumulate reviews quickly. You can raise your rate once you’ve built a review history that supports it.
After each stay, send a brief, friendly message thanking the guest and letting them know you’ve left them a review. Airbnb’s review system is reciprocal, so guests are more likely to leave a review when they know you’ve already written one. Don’t ask for a five-star rating directly. Instead, focus on delivering a stay that earns it, and let the follow-up message serve as a gentle reminder to complete the review.
Use Platform Messaging Consistently
Airbnb tracks communication between you and your guests on the platform as part of the Guest Favorite evaluation. If you move conversations to text or WhatsApp, Airbnb can’t see your responsiveness or helpfulness. Keep your primary communication in the Airbnb app, especially for booking-related questions, check-in details, and issue resolution. You can share your phone number for emergencies, but route the bulk of your hosting communication through the platform.
Monitor Your Progress
Check your listing’s performance dashboard regularly. Airbnb shows your overall rating and individual category scores, your response rate, and your cancellation history. If one category consistently lags behind the others, that’s where to focus your next improvement. A listing sitting at 4.9 overall but 4.5 on cleanliness, for example, has a clear action item that could make the difference between qualifying and falling short.
Guest Favorite status isn’t awarded on a fixed quarterly schedule the way Superhost is. Airbnb recalculates eligibility on an ongoing basis, so improvements you make today can move your listing closer to the badge with each new positive review.