How to Earn Airbnb's Guest Favorite Badge (and Keep It)

You cannot apply for the Guest Favorite badge, and you cannot buy it. Airbnb hands it out based on what guests say and what actually happens during their stays, and it re-checks the math every single day.

I like that about it. It rewards the unglamorous part of hosting: doing what you said you would do, again and again. Here is what the badge measures, and how I think about earning it.

What the badge actually is

Airbnb introduced Guest Favorites in its 2023 Winter Release as a collection of the 2 million most-loved homes on the platform, drawn from ratings, reviews and reliability data from more than half a billion trips. At launch, Airbnb described these homes as rated above 4.9 stars on average, with host cancellations and quality-related customer service issues below 1% on average.

Travelers took to it. In its Global Quality Report of February 2025, Airbnb said more than 250 million nights had been booked at Guest Favorite listings, which carried an average rating of 4.92. Guests can also filter search results to see only Guest Favorites.

The published criteria

Airbnb's help article on Guest Favorites lists what goes into the decision:

• At least 5 reviews in the past 4 years, with at least 1 of them in the past 2 years
• Overall star ratings, the feedback inside written reviews, and communications between guests and hosts
• Category ratings for check-in, cleanliness, accuracy, host communication, location and value
• Your host cancellation rate
• Your review removal rate
• Quality-related incidents reported to Airbnb customer service

Two details deserve attention. First, Airbnb does not publish a magic number. "Above 4.9 on average" describes the collection; it is not a posted cutoff, and Airbnb notes that additional factors may apply and can change. Second, eligible homes are evaluated every day. The badge is a living status, which means it can arrive quickly and leave quietly.

The badge is not a trophy you win once. It is closer to a reputation you renew with each checkout.

How I think about it in Southborough

The home I manage in Southborough, Massachusetts is a Guest Favorite, rated 4.95 from 20 reviews as of September 2026. It is a big, generous house: a custom library with more than 1,000 books, a glass plant conservatory that doubles as a meditation room, a theater, a game room, and garden paths inspired by Japanese design.

Those features get the booking. They do not, by themselves, get the badge. Look again at the criteria: almost every one is about reliability and the match between promise and reality. So that is where I put my energy.

Six categories, six habits

I treat Airbnb's six category ratings as a checklist for every stay.

Accuracy. Photos and captions show the home as it is today. If a room is small, the photo says so. Surprises should be the pleasant kind, like finding the secret stairs to the rock seat in the forest.

Check-in. The house manual answers the arrival questions before anyone has to ask: where to park, which door, how the lock works, what to do first. A calm first ten minutes sets the tone for the whole trip.

Cleanliness. A trusted cleaning team and a consistent checklist. A large home with many rooms has many corners, and guests look in all of them.

Communication. I answer within the hour, and my response rate is 100%. Airbnb's criteria explicitly include guest and host communications, so this is part of the score, not a side courtesy. I wrote more about the system behind that in the one-hour rule.

Location. You cannot move the house, but you can frame it honestly. Southborough is about 30 minutes from downtown Boston, with a reservoir and trails across a quiet street. Saying exactly that attracts the guests who want exactly that.

Value. Value is a feeling, and details create it. The full spice rack in the chef's kitchen. A dining table that seats 12, so the whole group eats together. A fireplace in every living area. None of these are expensive compared with the nightly rate, and all of them say "someone thought about us."

The quiet criteria

Three items on Airbnb's list happen mostly out of the guest's sight.

Cancellations. A host cancellation lands on a family that has already booked flights. I guard the calendar carefully so that a confirmed stay stays confirmed.

Quality incidents. Think about what sends a guest to customer service: no heat, no hot water, a lock that sticks. Preventive maintenance is the cure. I keep a vendor network (cleaners, handymen, HVAC maintenance, landscapers) so small problems get fixed between stays, not during them.

Review removals. Airbnb counts how often reviews are removed from a listing. My reading: the platform prefers hosts who respond to hard feedback over hosts who try to erase it. There is a graceful way to do that, which I cover in why 4.9 is the real line.

If you are starting from zero

A new listing needs five reviews before it is even eligible, so those first five stays carry extra weight. Villa Foresta, the Scandinavian-style home I manage near Coaticook, Québec, is new in 2026 and sits in exactly that window. My approach there is simple: over-prepare, stay close to each guest, and fix anything they mention before the next arrival.

If you already host, you are likely doing most of this. The badge tends to come from closing the last few gaps, consistently. Finding and closing those gaps is the work I do for owners, and you can reach me here if you would like a second pair of eyes on your listing.

Sources

• Airbnb 2023 Winter Release: Introducing Guest Favorites (Airbnb Newsroom)
• Guest favorites and listing highlights (Airbnb Help Center)
• Airbnb Global Quality Report, February 2025 (Airbnb Newsroom)