How does BNBCalc's Listing Audit grade an Airbnb listing?

Which categories does the Listing Audit grade?

The audit scores seven parts of your listing, each from 0 to 100, and they don't all count equally. Photos carry the most weight, because they're the first thing guests see:

The weights add up to 95, and BNBCalc divides by the total weight of the categories it assessed. If there's no data for a category, such as a listing with no description text, the report marks it Not assessed and leaves it out of the grade instead of counting it as zero.

How does a category lose points?

Each category starts at 100, and two things bring it down: fixed rule checks that run on every listing, and the audit's AI review of your listing, its reviews and the nearby listings.

Rule checks take points off by severity. A critical problem costs 60 points, a high one 40, a medium one 25 and a low one 10, while info-level findings show up in the report but never cost points.

Caps keep a weak category from hiding behind a decent score. Any issue above info level holds the category at 85 or below, and a high-severity issue holds it at 55 or below. A recommendation from the AI review can cap a category too, at 55, 75 or 85 depending on how much the review expects the change to matter, although optional ideas never lower a score.

Photos have a few extra caps of their own:

• any photo without a caption holds Photos at 85, or at 75 if half or more of the gallery lacks one;
• any shot the audit says you're missing holds it at 75 (85 when it only asks you to check something);
• two or more photos marked to remove or replace hold it at 85, or at 75 when that's three or more photos and at least a tenth of the gallery.

In practice, then, a category with no issues scores 100, and a single low or medium issue makes it Needs improvement. A high or critical issue, or enough smaller ones to take the score under 60, makes it Poor. Uncaptioned photos alone keep Photos below Good, for example, which is why captioning every photo is often the quickest fix in the whole report.

What do Good, Needs improvement and Poor mean?

Each category's score turns into a rating:

Because any issue caps a category at 85, a category rated Good scores 100 in practice. The Overview page groups your categories by these ratings, worst first, and clicking one takes you to its full explanation on the Listing quality page.

How does BNBCalc turn the categories into a letter grade?

First, BNBCalc takes the weighted average of the assessed categories and rounds it. Then it caps that score by how many categories fall short:

The letters map to scores as A 90 and up, B 75 and up, C 60 and up, D 40 and up, and F below 40. The caps only ever lower a grade, so a low weighted score stays low. In the report's own words, "This assesses listing quality, not future revenue."

Keep in mind that two checks hold a category at Needs improvement until time fixes them: a host who isn't a Superhost yet (Host profile) and a listing with no reviews yet (Guest reviews). So a brand-new listing run by a host who isn't a Superhost has two categories below Good, and its grade can't go above C until those change, however strong the photos and copy are.

Why can a listing that scores 90 still get a C?

Say a listing's categories score like this (an illustrative example, not a real listing):

The weighted average is (20 × 85 + 15 × 75 + 15 × 100 + 15 × 100 + 10 × 75 + 10 × 100 + 10 × 100) ÷ 95 = 90.3, which rounds to 90 and would be an A on its own. However, three categories aren't Good, so the grade is capped at C.

If the host captioned the photos and fixed the title and description, those three categories would score 100 like the rest. Nothing would cap the grade, and the listing would get an A.

What do the rule checks look for?

The rule checks are the fixed part of the audit, and they run the same way on every listing:

Info-level findings are there for you to weigh, but they never cost points. That's why, for example, turning on Instant Book won't change your grade on its own.

The AI review then adds the advice a rule can't give, such as which photo should be your cover or how to rewrite your description. Every recommendation in the report has to cite evidence, such as your listing, its reviews, the nearby listings or a research source, and View evidence shows you that evidence.

Which nearby listings does the audit compare me with?

Several checks, including amenities, keywords and the nightly rate comparison, measure your listing against nearby ones. BNBCalc starts from the 80 closest listings of the same kind within about 3 miles (5 km), so private rooms are compared with private rooms, whole homes with whole homes, and hotels are left out. It then keeps only those that:

• are rated 4.7 or higher with at least 10 reviews;
• earned some revenue in the past 12 months, with data no older than 120 days;
• match your property type when both are known, so a condo is compared with a condo;
• have a bedroom count within one of yours.

It keeps up to 50, highest-earning first, and it won't relax the rules to fill the list. When fewer than 5 qualify, the report shows a "Thin comparable coverage" note, and if your listing's bedroom count is unknown, no nearby listings can be selected at all. Keep in mind that these aren't the comps in a BNBCalc property analysis, which follow their own rules.

On the Nearby listings page, "potential revenue" is each listing's average nightly rate over the past 12 months × its occupancy on the nights it was open × 365. It's what that listing could earn if it were open all year, so it isn't a forecast for yours, and it isn't the Calculator's revenue estimate either.

Why does the audit call an amenity "unconfirmed" instead of missing?

An amenity that isn't in your listing data might still be in your home, so the audit never calls it missing. Instead, each amenity lands in one of five states:

• On your list: listed as available on Airbnb.
• Mentioned: not on your list, but your description, a photo or a review shows you have it.
• Unconfirmed: not in your listing data at all, so the audit can't tell whether you have it.
• Not provided: Airbnb marks it as not provided.
• Unavailable: your description says guests can't use it.

An amenity only counts as a real gap when at least 5 nearby listings were compared and at least half of them have it. Make sure to check the unconfirmed ones against your home before you add anything to Airbnb, or before you buy something new for the listing.