I'm sick of writing reviews

Hi all

I no longer write reviews unless a guest does. Will this affect my host status? I gave 100% response and acceptance.

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If you write fewer than you will probably receive fewer. I think a number of guests are prompted to write a review because they want to see what you said in yours. If you donā€™t want more reviews then donā€™t worry about it.

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I feel the sameā€¦I donā€™t think it affects your response ratings or anything. If the guest writes one and they were a so so guest, I will usually write a neutral one just to read what they wrote. I never ever write any kind of review first. If it is a bad one I wait until almost the end.

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I have a private space/house I rent and rarely meet the guests. Frequently I do not have that much to say about them. I have now started renting a room in my house occasionally - and it is much easier to review those guests because I usually have contact with them.

We stopped writing reviews last year, unless the guest did something terrible or something over the top awesome!

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I have no idea if it affects any host status. But I stopped writing guest reviews unless they leave me one first. But of course, if it was a terrible guest I would warn other hosts.

I feel much better now. I didnā€™t like taking the time to write a nice review for guestsā€¦especially a ā€œgroupā€ review, where my review may get posted on 4 different new guest profiles. And then I get left with nothing because the person who booked couldnā€™t be bothered.

What I realized is that my ā€œthumbs upā€ recommendation was only helping Air to move closer to their goal of instant book. This is the reason guest star ratings are private. Selfish me says ā€œno review for meā€¦no review for you.ā€ - lol.

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I think writing reviews is part of being a good member of the Airbnb community,as a guest or a host. Itā€™s also a way to say a last kind word to a guest (=valuable customer). I always write a review and a private comment.

I must confess that I tend to copy and paste the same review again and again though :slight_smile: (as 99% guests are polite, respectful and friendly) unless I had a really good connection with a guest.

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Mine is sounding like a broken record.

Xx were courteous, quiet, easygoing guests who left the place spotless. Recommend.

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My way of thanking great guests (since I always obtain their personal email) is to let them know the next time they want to returnā€¦they can save all those booking fees and just book directly with me. I advise them to save their hard earned money and treat themselves to nice a dinner next time. lol.

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I have a ā€˜libraryā€™ of about half a dozen canned reviews (saved in Notepad) that I use for good guests. I copy and paste them too, just changing the names of the guest and sometimes add a little information if they were super nice. On the rare occasions Iā€™ve had a less than ideal guest, Iā€™ve written their reviews individually to let other hosts know. It takes hardly any time at all.

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Stop being lazy and write those reviews! Reviews are the only thing ā€œregulatingā€ this whole ā€œAirbnb community based on trustā€ thing! You need to give hints to future hosts about what hosting these guests would be like. A simple ā€œI would welcome these guests back anytimeā€ or a complete omission of this phrase might help along with a description of how many people stayed or how clean they left the place would be or how much extra help they needed, or partied, or checked in late or early, bla bla bla.

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I wouldnā€™t have put it exactly like that :slight_smile: but yes, I believe that part of a hostā€™s job is to write reviews.

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Donā€™t be fooled. The review process helps Air implement their terms of any guest who is recommended can instant book. This is all for Airā€¦not for hosts.

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Iā€™m the same. I got sick of writing glowing reviews just to get nothing back. Or a couple of times Iā€™ve felt stabbed in the back when Iā€™ve left them a good review just for them to leave me 3 stars or whatever. Now I only leave a review when theyā€™ve left one, and only because I want to read it. Iā€™ve taken to just writing ā€˜great guests, thanksā€™, unless thereā€™s something really specific I feel needs mentioning

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I think guests are more likely to get your reviews first. Keep writing reviews.

It wonā€™t hurt your ability to host, or your ranking per itself, but then you would probably gather less reviews than your competition. Ultimately, you would earn less of the trust currency on Airbnb.

Now, if you want to never write reviews, but keep sending reviews, there are services around that can automatically publish reviews for you. Have you checked (cough) https://smartbnb.io?

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I donā€™t write a review first. I wait till they do and even then I write one at the last minute. There are of course exceptions - hosting a terrible guest for example. Until air release individual guest rating Iā€™m not going to change.

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I had a doubt recently when I saw on my 'superhost status sheet" or whatever its called
I get almost 100% on everything but 50% on writing reviews (I only write them if the guest does first).

So Iā€™m afraid in the future they are calculating that into super host eligibility.

Any thoughts?

They actually are already taking that into account, but it is hidden in the help pages.

Watch this ā€œas long as at least half of the guests who stayed with you left a reviewā€.

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This is not about being lazy. This is about strategy. While the community at large is important, at the end of the day, I am going to do what benefits me and my rental. I discovered very early on, that if I wrote a review for every guest, every time, chances are good i would get smacked back a good percentage of the time. So I never write reviews first.

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