You’ve probably heard of Airbnb. The vacation rental accommodation giant has rewritten the way guests travel by putting hosting into the hands of the people. While this has greatly expanded places for people to stay, there’s no guarantee that the property you book will be a good one — especially when there are few reviews.

The Airbnb Superhost program, along with several other designations, attempts to remedy this so that your stay will be as pleasant as possible. So what does the "Superhost" distinction mean on Airbnb? Let’s take a look at how it affects both owners and travelers as well as other ways to score good lodgings.

Superhost meaning

For travelers

Not everyone is a Superhost. As a traveler, booking an Airbnb with a Superhost label means the owner of your property has met a series of requirements set by Airbnb. These distinguish hosts who are responsive and have high ratings, frequent reservations and few cancellations. If this is something you’re looking for, you can easily include this in your search.

You can find the filter for Superhost using the "Filters" icon during your search.

Under More options, you’ll want to toggle on Superhost:

Then, listings that match your criteria will float to the top of your results page.

For owners

What does a Superhost do? Airbnb uses this distinction to give owners the option to stand out from the sea of other hosts. Every three months, Airbnb will measure your performance as a host against a set of specific criteria.

Meeting this criteria gets you more than just a ribbon. Superhosts can enjoy these premium perks over their peers:

Airbnb coupon. Each time you maintain status as a Superhost for an entire year you’ll receive a $100 Airbnb coupon.

Promoted to guests. Airbnb will feature your property in promotional emails.

Dedicated search filter. As mentioned above, guests can filter search results to include Superhosts only.

Superhost badge. This badge will appear on your listings and profile page.

Extra referral bonus. You’ll get 20% more over the standard bonus when referring others to become hosts.

Early access to new features. You’ll be able to pilot new programs before they’re launched to the public.

Priority support. You’ll receive priority Airbnb customer service support.

As you can see, it pays to become a Superhost. But how do you make it happen?

How do you become a Superhost?

Airbnb’s quarterly host reviews include four separate metrics that measure activity over the past year:

A 4.8 minimum star rating.

A 90% response rate.

At least 10 completed stays or 100+ nights over 3+ stays.

A cancellation rate of less than 1%.

If you don’t meet all these criteria at the same time, you won’t be able to gain or maintain Superhost status.

You can become a Superhost after just three months if you’re new. Airbnb will review your rental history to be sure that you have met all of the criteria within that three-month period. Then, you’ll continue to be assessed every three months, with Airbnb always looking back on your previous year’s history.

There are some situations in which canceling as a host may not count against your metrics; these are detailed in the extenuating circumstances portion of Airbnb’s cancellation policy.

How to find an Airbnb that is high quality

While being — or having — a Superhost is a pretty good indicator of a decent accomodation, there’s more than one way to tell a good property from a bad one.

Read the reviews

Reading the reviews on a property will include details about the condition of the property, how accurate it is to the listing and the owner’s behavior. Since becoming a Superhost requires strict goals, newer hosts may have an especially hard time if one undeserved review derails their rating.

You can find a summary of specific review ratings, like cleanliness and value, toward the bottom of every listing.

If you want to be sure about a property, stick with highly-rated properties even if they don’t belong to Superhosts. Those with more reviews will give you a more accurate picture of a property, though that doesn’t mean a new listing will necessarily be bad.