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I wanted to share something small that ended up having a surprisingly big impact on my rating. I realised that many guests were dropping a star from their review over minor inconveniences even when the stay itself went perfectly well.
I tested a simple idea:
a QR code in the apartment that opens a page with all the essential information and a checkout list for when guests are leaving. After completing the checkout, they get a quick “How was your stay?” rating, which sends an alert to me.
This gives me enough time to respond to any issues they might have had before anything turns into a public review. What surprised me was that when guests initially gave 3 or 4 stars, I could quickly address their concern, they felt heard, and the complaint never made it into their public review, if they left one at all.
After a few weeks, my rating went up, and I really haven’t had a “surprise” 3-star since.
Curious if anyone else has tried anything similar or found other underrated tricks to avoid unnecessary low ratings.
Haven’t needed to come up with any tricks to get better ratings, as I have had solid 5 star ratings, aside from one 4* (from a guest whose mobility and vision issues meant he should never have booked my listing, which clearly mentions and pictures the stairs and mentions the walk distance to town) since I started hosting in 2016.
But your trick is interesting. I can see where it might work well for the kind of guests who don’t mention any issues during the stay, but make complaints in the review.
Thanks for sharing your ideas. I am in a situation where it doesn’t help me (we live on site so I get real-time feedback), but I can see where it could help with an audience that loves to provide feedback. I do wonder if it would be even more helpful if you didn’t wait until so close to checkout to have the feedback loop…that’s what I took away from your post, so if it’s earlier than that, my apologies.
This is in house rules, pre booking message, description, and check in details. lol
Since manager lives next door we are 99% of the time able to address anything.
"We give all our guests 5 star reviews automatically (unless any issues arise) and we strive to earn a great 5-star review from you as well! Please let us know right away if there is anything we can do to improve your stay. As our rules and policies that you agreed to state: We do not give refunds for issues you bring up AFTER your stay since we can usually fix any problems very quickly. "
Thank you for that. I have had one guest suggest I write a shorter “information” note or bullet point the highlights. The QR code has also been suggested and I’m glad it worked for you but I wonder if it often would go unread. I like having information at their immediate disposal, especially if they arrive late at night.
How does the alert work? Guests don’t always let me know when they check out!
I usually send a departure message and include asking if they had any suggestions or feedback to improve guest experiences. I feel this gives them an opportunity to be heard and make them feel like I actually care that they had a good stay (which I do). It can also give me an idea that they had a good stay, and if they don’t reply and then give me a negative review, I can always respond that I asked them directly and they didn’t mention anything.
