The status
What an Airbnb Superhost actually is
An Airbnb Superhost is a host whose last twelve months clear four published thresholds on one of four fixed dates a year. Airbnb is plain about the entry route: “Anyone can become a Superhost, and you don’t need to apply.” If your numbers meet the bar on the assessment date, the status arrives on its own.
What you get is a badge that Airbnb says appears on your listing and on your profile, and, in Airbnb’s words, “more visibility, earning potential, and get access to exclusive rewards.” That is the whole of the published claim. Airbnb does not put a number on the visibility or the earnings, so any post quoting you a percentage uplift is quoting something other than Airbnb. The honest reading is that the badge is a trust signal a guest can see before booking, and that the four numbers behind it are worth hitting for their own sake, because each one is also something guests notice.
It is also a host-level status. It sits on you, not on one property, which is the first thing that separates it from Airbnb’s other badge further down this page.
The numbers
The four Airbnb Superhost requirements, from Airbnb’s own page
Airbnb’s requirements page lists four conditions and nothing else. Here they are with the part of each one that tends to trip a host who thought they had it.
| Requirement | Airbnb’s bar | What usually trips it |
|---|---|---|
| Stays | 10 reservations, or 3 totalling 100+ nights | A slow first year; long stays are the other route |
| Response rate | 90% within 24 hours | Booking requests left unanswered count too |
| Cancellations | Under 1% | One avoidable host cancellation |
| Overall rating | 4.8 or higher | A single four-star review early on |
Two wordings matter more than they look. The response requirement is to “Respond to 90% of new messages, and accept or decline new reservation requests, within 24 hours”, so a request you let expire is a miss, not a neutral event. And the cancellation bar carries its own exemption: under 1%, “with exceptions for cancellations due to Major Disruptive Events or other valid reasons.” A cancellation you chose is the one that counts.
The clock
How the quarterly Superhost assessment works
Airbnb states that “Every 3 months, we evaluate your performance as a host over the past 12 months,” on four dates: 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October. It adds that “Superhost status is only awarded 4 times a year.” Two practical consequences follow from those three sentences.
First, crossing a line mid-quarter changes nothing until the next date. A host whose tenth reservation checks out on 10 February is not a Superhost until 1 April, provided the other three numbers still hold then. Second, the window rolls. Every assessment looks back twelve months from that date, so a strong spring drops out of the calculation a year later, and a bad review from last summer eventually ages out too.
You do not have to guess where you stand. Airbnb’s tracking page says that “Under Performance, go to Superhost to track how you’re doing for each of the Superhost requirements”, and that you will be told by email whether you gained, kept or lost the status. Check that screen a few weeks before each date, not after it, because after it the quarter is already decided.
The plan
How to plan each of the four numbers
Stays. Ten reservations is the usual route. The alternative, three reservations totalling at least 100 nights, is the one mid-term and monthly hosts forget they have: three long bookings can qualify a listing that would take a year to reach ten short ones. Keep a running count of reservations and nights rather than trusting memory, because the window rolls and the count you had in March is not the count on 1 July.
Response rate. The requirement covers booking requests as well as messages. Turn on notifications on the phone you actually carry, and decide in advance what you do with a request you cannot take: decline it inside the 24 hours rather than letting it lapse. Many of the questions that eat response time repeat from guest to guest (WiFi, check-in, parking, rules, checkout), which is a case for answering them once in writing before the guest has to ask.
Cancellations. Treat any cancellation you would be choosing as the single event most likely to cost you a quarter. Keep the calendar synced if you list elsewhere, block dates the moment you know you need them, and read our guide to the Airbnb cancellation policy for the guest-side rules, which are a different thing from your host record. Airbnb’s wider host reliability standards sit behind the same number.
Rating. The bar is 4.8, and the arithmetic of a simple average shows why early reviews matter so much. Four five-star stays and one four-star stay average exactly 4.8; one three-star stay among nine five-stars does the same. Airbnb does not publish how its overall figure is rounded, so treat 4.8 as a floor with no margin rather than a target to sit on. The categories guests rate include check-in, cleanliness, accuracy and communication, and the first and last of those are mostly decided by what a guest can read before they arrive. Our review examples cover how to ask for the review without leaning on the guest.
The other badge
Airbnb Superhost vs Guest Favorite
Airbnb runs a second recognition, Guest Favorite, and hosts mix the two up constantly. They reward overlapping behaviour, but they are measured differently, and the differences decide which one moves first.
| Question | Superhost | Guest Favorite |
|---|---|---|
| Judged on | You, the host | Each listing |
| Checked | Four times a year | Every day |
| Window | Past 12 months | 5 reviews in 4 years, 1 in 2 |
| Rating bar | 4.8 overall | No published number |
Airbnb says Guest Favorite eligibility needs “A minimum of 5 reviews in the past 4 years, with at least 1 of those in the past 2 years”, that eligible homes are evaluated every day, and that the top 1%, 5% and 10% get a gold trophy, a gold badge and a highlight on the listing page. So a new second property can hold no Guest Favorite badge while its host is already a Superhost, and a single strong listing can win Guest Favorite months before its host reaches ten stays.
Superhost judges you as a host, quarterly. Guest Favorite judges each listing, daily.The other badge
The practical order is the same for both: answer fast, do not cancel, and make the stay match the listing. Our guide to Airbnb listing optimization covers the accuracy half, which is where a listing that promises too much loses its rating.
The paperwork
The written side of an Airbnb Superhost
Two of the four numbers are helped by things written down before a guest arrives. A clear welcome book answers the WiFi, check-in and house-rule questions that would otherwise arrive as messages at eleven at night, which protects the response rate and the check-in rating together. A running record of reservations and nights tells you on 1 June whether 1 July is realistic. Our notes on self check-in cover the arrival half in more detail.
Everything you hand a guest, matched and priced to move together.
Protect the response rate and the cancellation record every week, let stays and rating build, and check the Performance screen a few weeks before each quarter closes. If you have lost Superhost on a single review or a single cancellation, tell us in the comments which number it was and how long it took to come back, because the rolling window makes that answer different for every host and almost nobody writes it down.
FAQ
Common questions, answered briefly
What are the Airbnb Superhost requirements?
When does Airbnb check Superhost status?
Do you have to apply to become a Superhost?
Is Superhost the same as Guest Favorite?
People also ask
