How to Earn Airbnb Guest Favorite Status

Key takeaways

• Airbnb Guest Favorite is a listing-level badge evaluated every day against millions of listings globally. It can be earned and lost based on current performance

• Eligibility is relative: you can lose the badge even without a quality drop, simply because competitors have improved

• Listings rated 4.85–4.95 have a 69% chance of earning the badge; at 5.0 that rises to 92%

• The six category ratings aren't weighted equally: accuracy and check-in matter most, location least

• 55% of single-property hosts earn the badge; that rate drops as portfolio size grows, making systems the differentiator at scale

• 35% of Hostaway-managed Airbnb listings have earned Guest Favorite status

On Airbnb, most listings compete for the same pool of travelers. Guest Favorite status changes that equation. 

Guest Favorite is Airbnb's public badge for its most-loved homes, evaluated daily against millions of listings worldwide, and it comes with real visibility advantages: a badge in search results, eligibility for a dedicated Guest Favorite filter, and the kind of social proof that converts browsers into bookers. 

At Hostaway, we've seen this play out in our own data. Thirty-five percent of Hostaway-managed Airbnb listings have earned Guest Favorite status. That doesn't happen by accident. It reflects what consistent, systemized hosting looks like at scale. In this guide, we'll break down the exact criteria Airbnb uses, what the data shows about who earns it, and how to build the operational habits that get your listings there.

What is Airbnb Guest Favorite status?

An Airbnb Guest Favorite is a listing that has earned a badge recognizing it as one of the most-loved homes on the platform, based on guest ratings, written reviews, and host reliability data. There are approximately 2 million Guest Favorites globally. 

Guest Favorite is not a self-reported credential or a one-time certification. Airbnb evaluates eligible listings every single day, drawing on ratings and reliability data from over half a billion trips. That means the badge can be earned, and lost, based on how a host is actually performing right now.

For property managers overseeing multiple listings, that daily evaluation cycle is both an opportunity and a pressure. Every stay is a chance to strengthen a listing's standing. Every gap in the guest experience is a risk.

Listings that earn the badge get meaningful advantages:

• A Guest Favorite badge displayed in search results

• Inclusion in a dedicated Guest Favorite search filter that guests can apply

• Stronger conversion signals for guests comparing similar properties

• For top performers, additional percentile-ranking highlights (top 1%, 5%, or 10%) and a gold trophy icon

At Q1 2024 end, over 100 million nights had been booked through Guest Favorite listings since its launch in November 2023, a number that reflects not just guest preference, but real commercial weight behind the badge. 

How Airbnb determines Guest Favorite status

Airbnb evaluates listings across three broad dimensions: review quality, category ratings, and host reliability. Here's what each one entails.

Review quality and volume

To be eligible, a listing needs at least five reviews in the past four years with at least 1 of those in the past two years. Beyond the minimum, Airbnb weighs the overall sentiment, written feedback, and guest communication patterns observed in guest reviews. Listings with consistently positive language in review text and not just high stars  perform better.

Category ratings

Airbnb scores each listing across six specific categories that guests rate separately from the overall star score:

• Check-in

• Cleanliness

• Accuracy (how well the listing matches the description)

• Host communication

• Location

• Value

Not all categories carry equal weight in practice. AirDNA data shows that Guest Favorite listings score closest to perfect on accuracy and check-in: guests care most about a seamless, hassle-free experience from the moment they book to the moment they arrive. Cleanliness and value show slightly more variation, while location is the least differentiating factor: guests will overlook an imperfect location if the overall experience is exceptional.

For property managers, this is where granular attention pays off. A listing can have a strong overall rating but underperform on check-in or accuracy; that gap can cost you the badge. Tracking these scores per listing, not just in aggregate, is what lets you catch and fix problems before they do.

Host reliability

This is the factor many property managers underestimate. Airbnb requires a low rate of host cancellations and quality-related customer service incidents: around 1% on average. A single high-profile guest complaint escalated to Airbnb support can affect a listing's standing. So can a pattern of host-initiated cancellations, even if individually justified.

Reliability isn't just about showing up. It's about not giving Airbnb a reason to flag your listing.

Review removal rate

Airbnb also factors in review removal rate. Airbnb hosts can ask to have a review removed that they have written within 30 days of it being published. They can also dispute a review written by a guest if they believe it doesn’t follow Airbnb’s Review Policy.

A high removal rate signals a lack of professionalism and instability in the guest experience and can count against eligibility. 

The rating threshold that actually matters

There's a useful way to think about where your listings need to be. According to AirDNA, the relationship between overall rating and badge probability is non-linear:

• Listings rated 4.7–4.85: 16% chance of earning Guest Favorite status

• Listings rated 4.85–4.95: 69% chance, more than four times higher

• Listings rated 5.0: 92% chance

That jump from the 4.7s to the 4.9s isn't incremental. If you're managing listings hovering in the 4.7–4.8 range, even targeted improvements to check-in, guest communication, or listing accuracy can dramatically shift the odds.

Relative status

Guest Favorite eligibility is relative, not just absolute. Airbnb compares your listing to others globally and within your country. That means it's possible to lose the badge even if your quality hasn't declined simply because the competition has improved. Maintaining the badge requires staying ahead, not just staying consistent.

Guest Favorite vs. Superhost: What's the difference?

This is a common point of confusion, and it's worth clearing up because the two programs serve different purposes.

Superhost is a host-level status. It's earned based on your overall performance across all your listings: response rate, cancellation rate, star ratings, and review volume. And it's assessed quarterly. It follows you as a host, not an individual property.

Guest Favorite, on the other hand, is a listing-level status. Each short-term rental property is evaluated independently, every day. A host can have five listings, two of which are Guest Favorites and three that aren't. Superhost status doesn't automatically confer Guest Favorite status and vice versa.

If you hold both, both badges appear on your listing page. In fact, according to AutoRank, 72% of Guest Favorite listings are run by Superhosts. If you're a Superhost without Guest Favorite on a given listing however, you'll still show the Superhost badge. The programs reinforce each other without replacing each other.

Because Guest Favorite is listing-level, you need to manage each property toward the criteria individually. A platform that gives you per-listing visibility into ratings, reviews, and quality signals is essential when you're operating at any meaningful scale.

What's holding your Airbnb listings back from achieving Guest Favorite status?

In a market where nearly three out of four operators say competition is intensifying, earning Guest Favorite status is more than a nice-to-have; it's a meaningful differentiator. The barriers aren't usually a mystery. They fall into three categories:

Host cancellations

Airbnb’s threshold of a host cancellation rate above 1% is lower than most property managers realize. One cancellation across 100 reservations puts you at the limit. Two puts you over it.

The most common cause isn't deliberate: it's a double booking. Managing availability across Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and a direct booking site without a centralized calendar creates gaps where the same night gets booked twice. The fix is a cancellation that could have been avoided.

Hostaway's channel manager keeps calendars in sync across all connected platforms in real time, eliminating the double bookings that lead to host-initiated cancellations. It's a straightforward operational fix with a direct line to Guest Favorite eligibility.

Slow or inconsistent guest communication

Guests notice when responses are slow, generic, or missing at post-checkout follow-up. At one listing, a responsive host can compensate manually. Across 20 or 50 listings, it becomes an operational problem.

This is the most direct place where the right tools make a measurable difference not just in guest satisfaction scores, but in the review language guests use, which Airbnb also factors in.

Hostaway's AI Replies feature handles this at scale. Messages are drafted automatically based on the context of each conversation — check-in questions, mid-stay requests, checkout follow-ups — so every guest gets a fast, relevant response regardless of how many listings you're managing. 

Hostaway customers automate up to 90% of guest messaging and save 4–5 hours per day as a result. That time matters, but so does the consistency: every listing performs like it has a dedicated host behind it. 

Reviews not being collected or leveraged

The revenue case for reviews is concrete. Airbnb's own data shows that each 5-star review leads to a 3.2% increase in Gross Booking Value and a 4.6% increase in future bookings the following year. At scale, across a portfolio, that compounds quickly. 

With Hostaway you can receive, respond to, and send reviews without logging into individual OTA accounts. Use customizable templates or AI to reach out to guests automatically after every stay, so you never miss an opportunity to collect feedback, and every guest receives consistent, professional follow-up. 

No visibility into per-listing quality signals

A property manager operating across multiple listings has limited visibility into which listings are trending toward Guest Favorite status and which are at risk of suspension or review drops. Without that data in one place, you're flying blind. Issues compound quietly until they're hard to reverse.

Hostaway's Hosting Quality Dashboard gives you a unified view of listing quality signals across your entire portfolio, including across multiple Airbnb accounts. Key metrics include:

• Overall average review score and 5-star review rate per listing

• Category breakdown: cleanliness, check-in, accuracy, communication, location, value

• Most common review tags, so you can identify patterns in guest feedback

• Active listing quality alerts, including issues reported by Airbnb

• Listing-level status indicators to flag properties at risk before problems escalate

The dashboard surfaces the same signals Airbnb evaluates for Guest Favorite status,  so instead of waiting for a score to drop, you can address emerging issues proactively. For a property manager with 20 or 50+ listings, having all of this in one place isn't a convenience. It's what makes systematic quality management possible at all.

The scale problem

Here's a striking number from AirDNA: 55% of single-property hosts earn the Guest Favorite badge. For hosts managing two to five properties, that drops to 48%. 

Why? Smaller hosts can be more hands-on, more consistent, and more responsive to individual guests. Every detail that earns a five-star review — the welcome note, the prompt reply, the spotless bathroom, etc — is easier to control at one property than at twenty.

But the data also shows that scale doesn't have to be a ceiling. Some professional property managers in the US still achieve 50%+ Guest Favorite rates across large portfolios. What separates them isn't the number of properties but if they’ve built systems that replicate the attention of a single dedicated host across every listing. 

Hostaway is built for exactly that. AI-powered guest messaging, automated review collection, per-listing quality monitoring, property maintenance automations, and a channel manager that eliminates double bookings mean the operational details that drive Guest Favorite status don't get dropped as your portfolio grows. The result is in the data: 35% of Hostaway-managed Airbnb listings have earned Guest Favorite status. 

How to achieve Guest Favorite status

FAQs

What is Airbnb Guest Favorite status?

Airbnb Guest Favorite is a badge awarded to listings that rank among the most-loved homes on the platform, based on guest ratings, written reviews, and host reliability data. There are approximately 2 million Guest Favorites globally. Eligibility is re-evaluated every day. (Source:

How do you qualify for Guest Favorite on Airbnb?

To qualify, a listing needs at least five reviews in the past four years with at least one in the past two years, high marks across Airbnb's six category ratings, a low host cancellation and incident rate of around 1% on average, a low review removal rate, and strong overall review sentiment. Airbnb assesses all of these daily.

Can you lose Airbnb Guest Favorite status?

Yes, in two ways. If your own quality declines, or if the competition improves. Airbnb compares listings globally and within their country every day, so it's possible to lose the badge even without a drop in your own performance. Maintaining it requires staying ahead, not just staying consistent.

Is Guest Favorite the same as Superhost?

 No. Superhost is a host-level status assessed quarterly across all your listings. Guest Favorite is a listing-level badge assessed daily per property. A host can be a Superhost without any Guest Favorite listings, and a listing can earn Guest Favorite status without the host being a Superhost. If both apply, both badges appear on the listing page.

How long does it take to earn Guest Favorite status?

There's no fixed timeline. Airbnb evaluates listings daily, so the badge can appear as soon as a listing meets all the criteria, including the minimum five reviews. Quality and reliability are what determine whether it comes, and whether it sticks. 

How does Hostaway help listings earn Guest Favorite status?

Hostaway addresses the main operational barriers directly: AI Replies keeps guest communication fast and consistent across every listing; Automated Reviews ensure post-stay review prompts never get missed; the Hosting Quality Dashboard gives per-listing visibility into the category scores and quality alerts Airbnb evaluates daily; and the channel manager eliminates double bookings that lead to host cancellations. 35% of Hostaway-managed Airbnb listings have earned Guest Favorite status.

What percentage of Hostaway listings are Guest Favorites?

Thirty-five percent of Hostaway-managed Airbnb listings have earned Guest Favorite status — a figure that reflects what consistent, systemized hosting operations look like at scale.