Why a 5.0 rating usually means nobody has stayed

Airbnb ratings are compressed into almost nothing: seventy percent of the market sits in the top three tenths of a point, so 4.8 — which reads like a good score — is in fact below average here. Worse, a perfect score mostly signals absence of evidence rather than quality. This page shows the problem, then the correction every ranking on this site uses instead, and finishes on what a badge is actually worth.