I review all of my guests and honestly. If I get a sense that I may get a bad review or if I know my review is going to be bad I will wait until the 13th day and the 23 hour and 50 minutes. I schedule it on my calendar with an alert so that I don’t forget.
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Would you be open to share (or PM) the boiler plate version of your check out/review message to guests? I stopped sending these for awhile and my % of guests reviewing me has plummeted. I’d love to see what you (and other hosts’) are are saying to guests that has proven successful.
I can’t recall what kind of rental you have. Whole house, just a room? Do you live there?
One private room/private bath in my home - yes I live here. Lot’s of common spaces, no private entry.
I’m surprised your review rate plummeted. I don’t ask for reviews and I only use boilerplate for the check in message. If I needed reviews I would definitely drop it into a convo though. As they check out (if you are there) maybe mention it would really help you if they would leave one.
Often after a guest leaves and I’ve peeked in the room to make sure all is well I’ll message with something like “I enjoyed hosting you, come back anytime. Have a safe drive.” I also do things like remind of time changes or tell them where to watch for speed traps. If they left anything I message right away so they can come back for it. I ask during the stay if they need anything if they are here more than one night.
I go into more detail about my “plummeting” reviews here:
I messaged my 6 night guest who checked out this morning. We’ll see how it goes…
Well 78 is down from 91 but it’s not horrible. I get around 85% but I’ve never asked for reviews. It sounds like you were doing everything right. I always think a “I need your help” approach works well to make it seem like it’s something you really want the person to do without seeming bossy. At least it worked well for me as a teacher with kids, parents, fellow teachers and admin.
I guess it’s not horrible, but the two 4-star reviews I received from recent (5-star veteran) guests gave me motivation to start leaving the “check-out” letter again.
If nothing else, it gives me the opportunity to educate them on how the star rating system works and importance of 5-stars to hosts. (I don’t want to post anything in my shared space, it would seem pushy, and I don’t have a house manual.)
I do try to talk to guests about reviews, when guests want to talk about Airbnb…But more and more this past year, I seem to be getting the “hotel crowd” meaning that they are private, keep to themselves, and there is very little conversation after check-in and the dreaded tour. (Not that I mind this at all, but there simply is little opportunity to talk about reviews in person.)
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I don’t explicitly ask for a review. What I do is send a boilerplate email, personalized a little, that says we hope you got checked in with ease and are having a great time. If anything doesn’t meet your expectations, please let me know. AirBnB/VRBO prompt the guest to leave a review and send reminders like it does to us. So I don’t want to also be asking for the review, too. I just want to know why it didn’t meet their expectations if that is the case.
Edit to add… to date any negative feedback has been in private. I think asking for it first before Air or VRBO does helps funnel it that way.
Me too, but through messaging or I just print it out. I have only emailed guests when I cannot get ahold of them through ABB messaging and text.
Off topic Do other hosts here have better luck with guests reading email in a timely fashion? I find most of my guests don’t have notifications turned on for messaging, even though I suggest it in my welcome message.
Me too, thankfully. My two 4-star reviewers left nice reviews, no private comments, but 4-stars across the board:roll_eyes:
I know…I believe if I can subtly educate them on the ABB review system, they will be more likely to review me or at least not give me 4 stars or below.
I don’t know if you and LoneStar mean email or Airbnb messaging. I never use the Airbnb email. I only use the message thread on Airbnb or their cell number. If I have a foreign guest I only use Airbnb. I don’t find that most guests are very plugged into Airbnb messages of any kind, especially not once they have checked out. I’ve messaged guests to tell them they left something and they don’t see it in time, for example.
Can’t speak for @LoneStar but I only use ABB messaging, and/or send a text to let them know they have a new message on ABB when I don’t get a reply.
Same here.
Again same here. I have to text them.
I was just wondering if any one has noticed quicker reply through the ABB email in general vs. ABB messenger. Maybe I’ll do some experimenting.
i didn’t mean a 3rd party email. it’s boilerplate templates in each platform.
I would like to chat to my guests if I can but my property is a self-contained apartment in the central city. Checkin is 10am and checkout is 3pm. I have a self checkin process. If I wanted to meet them at those times I would either have to take time off work or in the weekend, make a special trip to the city to meet them. So most of my interaction with guests is via AirBnB Messaging. Only once did I actually make a special point to meet a guest since he was from a city in Germany I had recently visited and I wanted to share experiences. That was worthwhile.
I’m confused. I don’t have guests’ personal email? I’m asking if hosts who communicate using the ABB relay email address find guest response times to be quicker than when using messenger? (Just generally speaking) Both methods stay on platform, but emailing has no “saved messages” or boilerplate templates.
eg. Jane-Doe-Jhfbm7btt7668890j@guest.airbnb.c om
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i don’t communicate off platform unless it’s unavoidable. i don’t use that email address. i wouldn’t know how without using my own email clien t
i just call electronic communication on a computer ‘email’ in general. sorry for confusion.
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A lot of hosts successfully host remotely without ever meeting their guests but I truly believe that if guests are met by the host they have a personal connection and therefore are somehow more respectful of the rental.
In all the years I’ve been doing this I’ve never had bad guests. Some not brilliant, of course, but never bad. I put it down to the personal connection, although there are probably many other factors.
Can’t you use a co-host to greet your guests? I really believe that it’s important for many reasons.
I don’t either, but when I get slow or no responses on messaging, which is a lot, I’m thinking of trying it rather than texting. Yes, you have to copy paste into your own email client (unless the app is different than the website in this regard) but at least it stays on platform. 
I use the email option with every guest because I need to send them my hand-drawn map, as my place would be impossible to find without it. I actually pick most of my guests up at the bus station, which is a 5 minute drive from my house, so the map is more for back-up in case we fail to connect for some reason, but occasionally guests have taken a cab instead, so they need the map.
Sometimes that coded email adress fails to attach the map, so then I ask guests for their personal email address, which none have objected to giving me, as I also give them mine. I let them know via Airbnb message that I am going to email the map, and then again to tell them I’ve done it and ask them to confirm that they received it.
I have no idea if guests would normally be on top of checking their email more often than their Airbnb messages, but so far almost all my guests have been good about responding either way. I think younger people are less into email, they tend to use social media and texting and whatsapp to communicate.
I think the mobile app allows images in the messaging? Honestly I don’t like using the app unless I absolutely have to so I wish they would add this functionality to the website.
Young and old, more times than not I struggle with getting responses, even to my welcome on ABB Messenger. I send guests a message within minutes of booking usually. I think I’ll start emailing them at the same time if only to let them know that they have a new message from me! Who knows, it might save me some time in the long run.