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I have been running my AirBnB for 10 months now. As a starter I used to review all guests as honestly as I wanted to see their comments. But in all honestly pretty much al my guests have been good (knock on wood). They observe the instructions, leave the place tidily while some actually run the dishwasher while others don’t. That’s hardly a big deal. So it’s hard to actually write something interesting like (good communications, followed house instructions, treated the place with respect, would be welcome back etc.)
Thsn it dawned on me something which should be obvious to all 1. you don’t have to review the guest to see their comments - you will see it in 14 days anyway 2. Nothing you say will change their review (the double blind system in AirBnB). 3. Not all guests review you anyway but I guess some will review you when they see they got a review from you.
Anyway as an experiment I have decided not to review guests for a month or two just to observe what happens. What do others think?
While guests like getting good reviews and it benefits them to have them, you are mainly writing reviews for other hosts. As a fellow host, I look at guest reviews before accepting them. I want to know whether they were prompt and clear in communcation, whether they cleaned up after themselves, etc. You don’t have to write a novella and no one is grading you on your creative writing skills. Just let other hosts know what the guest was like, please.
Also, if the guest was great, writing them a good review is just another way of being a good host. I know I’ve had guests with no reviews, but they told me they’d stayed at other Airbnbs and the hosts didn’t other to review them, which is a bit upsetting to many good guests.
If you want guest to leave reviews for you, you should be willing to do the same for them.
I always write an honest review for my guests. But I have noticed over a 5 year period that only a quarter of my guests review my STR. Snowbirds never leave a review and half of those are third party bookings. Oh and then all of the other third party bookings. LOL.
I think we do need to review guests. But timing can play into it. In other words, I will not submit a guest review very early or very late. Or, during normal working hours. Or, when they are driving 6 hours back home.
I will try to wait to review until I have some hope that they are hopefully more relaxed and have some time on their hands.
I think it’s really unfair not to review guests @lchiu7.
A growing number of hosts don’t accept guests without reviews. If they’ve been good guests why wouldn’t you want to help them be accepted for future stays.???
And as others have mentioned the reviews help other hosts decide whether to accept a guest.
It doesn’t really matter whether you don’t have something new to say for each guest just have a standard line you adapt @lchiu7
And not reviewing guests will lead to a fall in your review rate. So if you won’t do it for your guests. Do it for yourself
I review every guest the day of checkout as soon as I get the email otherwise I would forget who they are! I let guests know I will be reviewing them and please take a moment to do the same. Since I started messaging guests at checkout about the review I have had over 90% review me. In my experience the most likely not to review are the entitled ones, because it does not affect them you see. I can usually predict the non reviewers.
I think @lchiu7 you should review every guest every time, it will increase your review count and help your fellow hosts.
I appreciate my guests, most are fantastic and all have been pretty good. The review I leave them might help them book more easily in the future.
I like to think future hosts will read the review and have an idea what to expect from the guests.
Both of these fall under the “Golden Rule” to me - I both hope that my guests will leave me a good review, and hope that past hosts have left honest reviews of guests heading my way. It wouldn’t seem fair for me to expect those things and not do them myself.
I review as soon as I have checked over the house after they leave, which is usually right after I get the email prompt. I can’t think of any reason not to leave a review.
I review 98% of guests immediately. Some I have to think about for a day or two because they weren’t perfect guests so I want to be thoughtful about what I say. Maybe once a year I get a guest I don’t review. About 80% of my guests review me in return over the last 5 years.
All these comments may have persuaded you to abandon your experiment but I will be interested in your results. Here are my expectations:
You will get fewer reviews because many guests are promoted by the news that you have reviewed them and they are curious to see what you say.
Fewer reviews for you means you’ll drop in search rank. Airbnb used to use the metric of over 50% for Superhost. I think it’s still one of the “hundreds” of things that go into the search algorithm. Guests that review their hosts favorably are enthusiastic about their hosts. I also believe guests are motivated by a really good or really bad experience. If they feel about you they way you seem to feel about them (they were fine, nothing special, it’s okay, I guess I’d recommend it) that kind of listing isn’t going to move up. Airbnb wants each guest to have the best experience at the listing that best matches their preferences.
Why wouldn’t you want to keep raking in the reviews? Save a couple of review templates and just cut and paste them in. I review several times a week and don’t find it to be that much work.
Drop in search means fewer bookings and/or lower quality guests.
As a fellow host, I KNOW you’re doing an injustice to your fellow hosts. WE depend upon host reviews to make sure we know what we’re getting in a guest.
It sounds like you’re punishing the guests for not leaving you a review (more on that in a bit), and instead punishing fellow hosts because we don’t know why you didn’t review.
It’s your job to make sure guests leave a review. ASK for the review. Discuss issues, explain the ratings system. Ask for feedback after their first night’s stay.
Don’t mess with us because you are trying an experiment that will f— with the rest of the hosts.
But this is part of your job as a host. Why would you just decide to not finish the job? IMO, the customer service to the guest is not completed until you’ve written their review. Even if you don’t care about the individual guests or the customer service to them, it is part of your commitment in being part of the community. I don’t see it as even remotely being optional. Yes, guests don’t always leave a review but you can’t control that. You can, however, set an example for them. And the onus is really on hosts, even though I truly appreciate guests who take the responsibility seriously as well.
a million times. It’s part of our jobs as hosts. 