Is My Idea 'Priming Guests for Better Reviews? Or Just Tacky?'

EDIT #2:
Who’s stupid idea was this? Jeez…
Ha ha!
Gotcha, suckers!
crickets chirping

Okay gonna be real honest here - this post was all me but I was only repeating what got stuck in my head after loitering in an interstate truck stop, likely from jingling a door handle!
Okay actually I fabricated that entire story (except the loitering and jingling part).
Okay I’m gonna be straight-up now, cuz like, you can’t ‘catch’ stupid ideas? Right? clears throat(Asking for a friend…)

Thank you Airhosts! I appreciate all of the great responses to my OP. The more I learn, the more I realize that I don’t know squat!

EDIT #1 : Bad idea. I have never actually included the contents of my guests’ reviews in this scheduled message, and I now realize that the scheduled message itself is cringe-y. Yikes I am discontinuing that scheduled message… Heard loud and clear! Thanks for the feedback.

Writing guest reviews, with any amount of temporal relevance, is best accomplished the day or day after guest checkout. Or at least for me it is. Recently I started writing reviews in the ‘Private Notes’ section of guests’ reservation details, and saving it there. It can be copied-and-pasted at a later time in the narrative of a guest review. So not only do I save time and frustration scratching my head for specifics about this guest (or was it that guest?) but also the review is saved as a historical document for future access.

Typically a guest of mine checks out, a few hours later I am prompted to leave a review and, lastly, I have a scheduled message that is sent the day after letting the guest know that I have ‘just posted’ my positive review of them and ending the message by requesting a review from them.

So I had an idea that perhaps may better ‘prime’ guests (or guilt guests?) into posting a longer, higher-rated review but am unclear on its appropriateness or ethics, or whether it would be off-putting to guests or violate Airbnb’s TOS.

My idea is to copy the ‘awesome’ review I already wrote and saved in the aforementioned guest ‘Private Notes’ and paste it in the scheduled message ‘request for review’ that is auto-sent to guests the day after checkout.

The guest reviews I write, while similarly structured, tend to be about three or four sentences long, which is more detail than guests typically write. Hopefully this would nudge a longer, higher rated review in return?

What do you folks think?

I don’t quite get what you are proposing. You want to send guests a copy of the review you already wrote for them but that hasn’t been submitted yet? And you think that would lead them to give you a wordy, high star review? If so, no, you definitely should not do that. That’s review extortion.

Or maybe I’m missing what you are trying to convey.

7 Likes

This is my current procedure:
I send guests a scheduled message the day after checkout letting them know I have just submitted a positive guest review of them, and request that they take a moment now to review us.

This proposed procedure incorporates my new idea:
Same as above, and for their convenience I copy/paste what I actually wrote and submitted in my review.

Here’s what my scheduled message would look like (with my ‘priming’ review included):

Dear [Name of Guest],
Thank you so much for choosing to stay at our studio in Galveston, Texas! We hope you had as delightful of a time as we did hosting you.

We are pleased to let you know that we just submitted our review of such a pleasure it was having you as a guest (see our review below). Taking care of awesome guests like you is the most rewarding part of hosting on Airbnb! Thank you - you make hosting easy!

Would you take just a moment to review us now? Earning positive reviews is the lifeblood of a successful listing on Airbnb. Our goal is making sure every guest enjoys genuine hospitality along with outstanding accommodations to create a five-star :star::star::star::star::star: experience! Thank you!

You will be prompted to leave a review when you log into your account (via mobile app, Mac or PC), or by using the link below:

https://www.airbnb.com/users/reviews

All the best,
Host Richard & Host Ken

GUEST REVIEW WE SUBMITTED:
“[Guest name] was a pleasure to host in our studio apartment. Responsive to messages, took excellent care of studio and its contents and were neat & tidy. 5/5 stars across the board and recommend to other hosts. Thank you!”

No. No. No. No. This is SO wrong. Reviews are intended to be blind, not only to encourage honesty and prevent retaliatory reviews, but so that other guests and hosts can trust them.

And it’s horrible pandering. No.

16 Likes

I think it’s best not to fish for reviews. I think it comes across as pushy or needy and it might turn off some of your guests.

7 Likes

I have been involved in many satisfaction surveys in various fields before retirement. I don’t think it is a good idea to share a review as you suggest. However, it has been shown that doing things like using the word excellent with customers frequently somehow makes them more likely to choose excellent over good - maybe 5 over 4? That is is easier for home share hosts like myself. I am curious as to what you say if the guest didn’t deserve a positive review.

2 Likes

I vote “tacky”. If I stayed at a place with this policy, I doubt I’d write a review.

6 Likes

I vote Tacky too!

5 Likes

Tacky and vomit inducing.

:face_vomiting:

JF

4 Likes

Thank you for the feedback. To clarify, I have never sent a copy of any review I have written along with the scheduled message. And when I have a less-than-ideal experience with a guest I skip that scheduled message.

Could you please clarify: Is it the scheduled message itself that is sickening, or are you commenting on the proposed addition of the quoted review at the end? I ask because I will forego the scheduled message (regardless of review at end) if that is what is found to be offensive.

Is it the scheduled message itself (that I have left a review and then request one from the guest) that is tacky? Or is the idea of me considering the addition of the contents of my review at the end that is tacky?

I’m beginning to believe that the consensus of respondents here find the scheduled message itself to be tacky (without any review quoted at end). Is that what you think about the scheduled message?

2 Likes

The scheduled message is borderline tacky. Including the quoted review is way over the edge for me.

10 Likes

All terribly tacky. For one thing, what do you do if they were bad or poor guests? Still send the ‘I have written a great review’ message?

Touting for reviews is frowned upon and leads to dishonest reviews. You say they were great when they possibly weren’t, and you’ve worked the review system so that they say good things about your hospitality which may not be true.

Others have said that they wouldn’t leave a review for a host if they got that begging message. I’d go further and leave an honest review pointing out that you sent a post-stay message asking for a good review.

Just provide friendly, helpful and generally exceptional hospitality and you’ll get great reviews.

5 Likes

I’ve gotten reviews from all but one of my guests go far without trying to lead them down a certain path. Most people will write a decent review if they felt welcomed, you answered questions and generally paid attention.
What you’re trying to do is influence guests to write a review that you think you should get. Let them decide based on their experience.

5 Likes

I skip the scheduled message in cases where there is ANY doubt regarding guest satisfaction. And I have never included my review at the end but until now I admit to considering it.

I have great reviews on both of my listings already (4.93 with forty-two reviews, and 4.88 with twenty-five reviews). But I constantly worry since I only have 67 reviews in combined total.

Thank you for clarifying.

I know that it’s easy for me to say this because I have hundreds of reviews, but to be a happy host it really is better to stop worrying about it.

Getting reviews isn’t the goal here - the goal is to provide great hospitality so that people want to leave good reviews , want to recommend you to their friends and become repeat customers coming to stay with you year after year.

I hate to think of you constantly worrying about it. People don’t necessarily stay with you because of reviews. It might be one factor, sure, but the number is largely irrelevant. (Although I’d have confidence in a host with 67 unsolicited reviews).

Worrying about reviews might even stop you providing your best hospitality. It certainly takes up a lot of your time and energy. Use that time and energy to make sure that you go the extra mile to make sure your guests have a great stay. Reviews will follow.

10 Likes