Airbnb turned off the ability to hand write a review reminder to your guest

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Did anyone else notice that Airbnb was offering hosts the ability to remind your past guest to leave a review in your own writing (once you’ve written them a review)? It was only available for the past few weeks. Well, it went away and I asked airbnb today why, and here’s their response:

“We’re constantly evolving and I believe it was just a test to see how well it worked. I’m unable to see the results of the test but the option has been removed. It’s always possible we’ll bring it back in the future though.”

I found it a great opportunity to let them know you just left them a 5 star review. It seemed to have a positive impact on the reviews we were getting back.

Just passing this on in case any other hosts were wondering the same thing.

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I wish I would have known that, I am almost wanting to frame a “please review as it helps both hosts and guests for future bookings” seems like almost pulling teeth!

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Take it from me… asking guests to review can backfire on you!!!
Even the ones you LOVE and they LOVE you!!!

they write something that is not really what they meant to say!

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I can see your point @konacoconutz. Though, like any other travel aggregation site, your reviews and popularity have a significant impact on how much exposure they decide to give your property. That’s why I liked the ability to send a custom message and let them know I left them a 5-star review and to please review our business. We’ve only had about 3 guests not leave reviews prior to this, so they’re going to leave a review regardless for the most part. It was nice to give them some insight as to how you reviewed them and we had the longest streak of 5-star reviews ever when this was in place. Bummed to see it go.

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But asking them can sometimes prompt them into smacking you. Even if you told them you left a glowing review for them they can and will still do it.

(I speak from experience. I never ask anymore. I have 81 reviews and that is enough!)

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As a guest I wouldn’t like it if a host sent me a message along those lines.

Airbnb sends an automated message when either the host or the guest has submitted a review and in my opinion this enough. Going further and saying that you left a 5 stars review feels somewhat pushy.

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But don’t you get their phone number anyway so you can text them if you wanted?