I look at the Community Center forum but don’t post there.
This 5* question is posted there too.
Ed. Just read responses and not getting rave reviews.
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The great/horrible thing about the CC forum is that hosts can’t get away with the lies they can here. Shoot, we don’t even know if most people here are really hosts. Reading the responses, as well as the two versions of the story of how the texting of the guest as well as asking for a good review came down is very interesting.
I accidentally posted there recently, thinking I was on this site. Don’t remember joining it or logging in, but just looked and it has my current STR and I know I never put that info into the site.
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I have asked a guest for a review exactly one time, early in my hosting career, when I really needed them. Of course, I didn’t specify what kind of review I preferred (thought it was obvious). The guest was my friend’s sister, so I thought it was a home run. Result: four stars and nice words. I haven’t mentioned reviews to a guest since, and have never gotten other than five stars. Lesson learned.
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When we have excellent guests, which has been the case for all but 1 guest in over 300, we often remember to say something like this at departure time: “We’ll happily give you an excellent review through Airbnb. We hope your stay has been great!"
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This is my checkout message, always sent via direct text:
Thanks for being 5 star guests:) I will review you this afternoon when I get the email from AirBnb. If you can take a moment and do the same that would be great. I like to send out special offers from time to time, 4th night free that sort of thing. If I could get your email that would be great, the one from AirBnb is fake/temporary. Save my contact information and book direct next time and save the 3rd party fees. [www.mydirect bookwebsitedotcom]
Thanks again
My name here
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A few years ago I had a guest who must have been told at some point “when you use Airbnb it’s important to leave a review”.
They did. It was a great review and it was left on a piece of paper on the dining table. 
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.
Smart, smart, smart, SMART!
.
(me sneaking away with notes … idea stolen!)
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If interpreted ungenerously, this wording could potentially come across as incentivizing or extorting. If you must, you could instead point then to a page explaining what Airbnb star ratings mean, in particular that a 4 or lower indicates a problem and doesn’t mean “great but not the very best” as is often misinterpreted by new guests.
I TOTALLY AGREE! I try to be liberal, and understanding that not everyone has the same standards of cleanliness that I do… But when I get those guests that do NONE of the checkout requirements, leave dirty dishes in the sink and my grill cover in the middle of the driveway with tire marks on it, I do not rate them a 5. I have had those guests, and I am now blatantly honest in my reviews of these sort of guests, it will help to weed out the bad eggs in the AirBnb system, if they get the review they deserve they will not be able to rent from others and cause havoc in another hosts home. Now damage deposit, if I have to call in additional cleaners and it cost me more than double my cleaning fee $125 to get the home ready for the next guests, I will then charge that back to our guests, in 3 years this has happened 2x, and both cases they had a hell of a party, and just left, and in both cases there were several other damages, Lamps, dishware, a TV broken. if a guest broke a lamp or dishware under normal circumstances I would chalk that up to normal cost of doing business, but if it happens in conjunction with an obvious party in my home (which we don’t allow) I will charge the guests. BUT after a couple of BAD guests that had good reviews, I am now honest as I wish the other hosts that rented to my bad gue
sts had been. I actually had a guest tell me she didn’t care about my crappy review, as she
will just get it removed like she has in the past… I didn’t even know the that was
possible.
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So, was she successful?
Oh I see you posted this on the AirBnB hosting forum. And got quite the response…
For example, someone pointed out that you left this review for a guest:
Natasha and her friends and family were most respectful and left our home clean, they are welcome back anytime
Then replied to Natasha’s review when she called you out on pressuring for a 5 star review in exchange for giving a 5 star review:
Natasha and her sister did so much damage to our airbnb from partying , broken beer bottles and cigarettes butts tossed about , someone or their dog peed on the bed . They were the worst guest anyone could imagine as they constantly threatened us with a bad review when I mentioned the mess they were making . This was a disaster and it makes us want to quit the airbnb host business
So was Natasha tidy and respectful? Or caused so much damage that you wanted to quit hosting? And this is why the answer is YES- you’re doing something wrong.
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I had one send their review in through the Airbnb messaging system after 3 weeks. He put it in quotation marks and then said he couldn’t figure out how to post it.
I thanked him for the lovely review (which it was) and kindly explained for the next host. He was so upset that it didn’t get posted.
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My friend/neighbor/competition texts an after-checkout message of:
“Thank you for your rental. I hope you had a 5-star stay. Have safe travels home. Please keep my contact information for your next trip.”
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I have the note posted on here about how AirBnB star ratings are not like other star ratings on the kitchen bulletin board. I have had only one 4 star review since posting it — from a legislator I previously liked who was here for a special session. Turned out he’s one of those “nothing is 4 stars” people who never read bulletin boards.
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This is the part that gets the 5 stars, they do not want to miss out on a deal by giving less than 5 stars.
RR
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You must have logged in at some point- when you are in your hosting pages and click on your profile photo, the drop-down menu lists “community center”. That’s maybe how you got there and just don’t remember, because you definitely can’t post there without logging in.
So that profile links to your profile page and listing. Which is actually quite useful, as with this post we are discussing, because you can go to look at the reviews and responses in question- often quite enlightening, as this one was. A glowing false 5* review, followed by a response saying the guests were awful.
Or a host is upset because they keep getting partiers, and when you take a look at their listing, the whole thing screams “party house”. Sometimes people need others to look at their listings and point out things that they don’t even realize about how it reads to others.
Both hosts and guests alike often misrepresent themselves or the situation when posting. (Or they are delusional)
I remember one where the host’s profile write up said of himself that he was a kind person, yet he proceeded to write vile, profane comments to every host who responded to his post, because he didn’t like the answers he was given.
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Yet MORE great advice. That’s 2 … how about a 3rd?!
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I would never ask a guest to leave a review and find the idea of asking for a 5* abhorrent. It is lovely to get a 5* but some guests just don’t ‘do’ reviews and some are just awkward b…ds and hard to please.
I do ask guests if they could suggest anything that would be nice to have in the cottage and have acted immediately to provide.
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I just got the best and most detailed review of my fairly new venture here. Guess it helped that we spent time on the porch and walked to the farmers market.
And, guess what, I didn’t even ask for a review.
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