Guest Favorite is Airbnb's listing-level badge for the homes guests rate highest, re-evaluated every day from ratings, reviews and reliability, with at least 5 reviews in 4 years required. This guide covers the published criteria, the top 1%, 5% and 10% labels, how it differs from Superhost, a 30-day plan and the mistakes that cost the badge.
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Start freeGuest Favorite is the badge Airbnb gives to the homes guests love most. Launched in November 2023, it is awarded to individual listings, not hosts, from ratings, reviews and reliability: at least 5 reviews in the past 4 years (one of them in the past 2 years), high marks in all six rating categories, and very few host cancellations or quality complaints. Airbnb evaluates eligible homes every day, and the top 1%, 5% and 10% also get a gold trophy and a percentile label.
There is no application and no published rating cut-off: each listing is compared with other homes worldwide and/or in its country.
Airbnb describes Guest Favorites as a collection of the most-loved homes on Airbnb, according to guests, based on ratings, reviews and reliability data from over half a billion trips. About 2 million listings carry the badge. A Guest Favorite shows the badge in search results and on the listing page, and travelers can use a filter to see only Guest Favorites.
When Airbnb introduced Guest Favorites on 8 November 2023, it said these homes were rated above 4.9 stars on average, with host cancellations and quality-related customer service issues of 1% on average. Those figures describe the group as a whole. They are not thresholds Airbnb asks each listing to reach.
Airbnb’s Help Center article Guest favorites and highlights lists these factors (checked October 2026):
Airbnb adds that other factors may apply and that the criteria can change. Its host article Guest Favorites: most-loved homes according to guests confirms that each listing is judged on its own record. In practice, no single score guarantees the badge: the listing has to rank among the best-rated homes, in every category, with a clean reliability record.
Airbnb does not publish the weights or exact thresholds. A precise cut-off you read elsewhere (such as “4.9 minimum”) is an estimate, not an Airbnb rule.
On top of the badge, Airbnb ranks eligible homes by percentile, using the same ratings, reviews and reliability signals.
The ranking compares places with at least 5 reviews in the past 4 years, and the Top 10% label only appears when the place has at least 1 review in the past 2 years. A listing that stops collecting reviews eventually drops out. And if Airbnb contacts you about quality, act at once: it is the condition for the bottom 10% label.
Both can appear on the same listing, but they measure different things.
A Superhost whose listing qualifies gets both highlighted on the listing page, plus the Guest Favorite badge in search results. A Superhost whose listing doesn’t qualify yet keeps the Superhost badge. Airbnb says the Superhost criteria did not change. Our complete Superhost guide covers its four requirements in detail.
Since every category counts, the weakest one usually decides. Open the ratings of the listing in your Airbnb host account, find the lowest category and start there.
Accuracy measures the gap between what the listing promised and what the guest found. Keep photos current, mention the drawbacks in the description (stairs, street noise, a sofa bed in the living room) and list only amenities that work. A guest who expected less and found more gives 5 stars; a guest who discovers a compromise on arrival rarely does. See how to set accurate guest expectations.
One hair in the shower costs more than any amenity earns. Use the same written checklist at every turnover, ask your cleaner for photos of the spots guests check first (bathroom, bed linen, kitchen surfaces, under the beds) and look at them before the guest arrives. Our guide to verifying cleaning quality remotely with photo checklists shows how to set that up.
Check-in ratings drop when guests wait, search or have to call. Send arrival instructions a few days before the stay and again on the day: address, access, parking, Wi-Fi. If you use a key box or a smart lock, test the code and keep a backup. Make sure someone can answer at arrival time.
Communication counts twice: in the communication rating, and through the communications between guests and hosts on the platform that Airbnb lists among its factors. Reply quickly, in the guest’s language, and keep the conversation in the Airbnb thread. Ask once, the day after arrival, whether everything is fine: a problem you hear about on day one is a fix, a problem you read about in a review is a lost point. More in how to catch guest issues before checkout.
Value is not about being cheap: guests compare what they paid with what they got. Surprise extras, a missing amenity or a cleaning fee out of proportion to a short stay pull it down. Small touches (good coffee, a spare charger, useful local tips) often lift it more than a discount.
You can’t move the property, but you can describe its location honestly (transport, noise, hills, parking) so guests know what to expect.
Because Airbnb re-evaluates listings every day, the badge can go as quickly as it came. Airbnb doesn’t publish a list of what removes it, but its reliability factors point to the usual causes:
Ratings only move as new reviews arrive, so the badge may take longer than 30 days. The plan makes sure every stay from now on deserves 5 stars.
Most of the work above is consistency, stay after stay. Nowistay is a PMS and channel manager with an autonomous AI co-host built in, and several of its features map directly onto the Guest Favorite criteria:
None of this replaces a well-kept home. It narrows the gap between your best and worst stays (the late reply, the missed clean, the double booking), which is exactly what a daily, comparative badge picks up.
It is a badge Airbnb gives to individual listings that guests love most, based on ratings, reviews and reliability data from over half a billion trips. About 2 million listings carry it. It appears in search results and on the listing page, and guests can filter for Guest Favorites.
Airbnb requires a minimum of 5 reviews in the past 4 years, with at least 1 of those in the past 2 years. Meeting the minimum makes the listing eligible; the badge then depends on ratings, category scores and reliability compared with other homes.
Airbnb publishes no fixed cut-off. Listings are compared with other homes globally and/or in their country. When the badge launched in November 2023, Airbnb said Guest Favorites were rated above 4.9 stars on average, which describes the group, not a minimum.
Airbnb evaluates eligible homes every day, so a listing can gain or lose the badge at any time. Superhost, by contrast, is assessed four times a year on the past 12 months.
No. Superhost rewards a host across all the listings they own, with fixed thresholds checked quarterly. Guest Favorite rewards one listing, is evaluated daily and compares it with other homes. A listing can show both, and a Superhost keeps that badge even if a listing doesn't qualify as a Guest Favorite.
Airbnb doesn't publish a removal list, but the factors it uses point to the usual causes: new lower ratings, a host cancellation, a quality incident reported to Airbnb customer service, removed reviews, or no review in the past 2 years. Because the badge is comparative, other homes improving can also push a listing out.
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Over 25 years of experience in real estate investing and a recognized expert in short-term rental automation. Bassel helps property managers increase revenue, cut operating costs, and deliver 5-star guest experiences using AI-powered tools he built from firsthand hosting experience.
