So it’s the whole - do I poke the bear thing.?
I was wondering what everyone does. Guest had great communication before check in. No communication during their visit , and no communication afterwards.
You should review every guest.
This one sounds near-perfect in my book, unless you’re leaving something out, like you asked the guest to respond but they didn’t.
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Just the standard messages -
I noticed you checked in - let us know if you need anything
And the checkout message
No responses
Nothing that required a response to facilitate anything
You mean do you wait to see if they review first? I don’t. I’ve never had what I would consider a bad guest, and I always submit a review within the first few days after they checked out. The vast majority of my guests have left reviews, but a few haven’t.
One really great guest actually messaged me a couple days after check-out to ask if I would submit a review sooner rather than later- she had had her account hacked once in the past and so was in the habit of pulling her credit card info off the site when she didn’t have an active reservation.
She said she couldn’t do that until the reviews were submitted, which was news to me and might not even be true, but maybe that’s what some Airbnb rep told her.
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I review the guest as soon as I can. I don’t wait for them to review me. Similar to @JustANewHost I send my messages & don’t expect a reply except to acknowledge the “tomorrow is checkout at 11:00…”. Responses are nice but all the same information is posted on the unit to make sure they see it…
I’m with @Annet3176 – Review EVERY Guest. the review isn’t for them, it’s for US; to let us know what kind of guests they have been.
Leave out emotions, loaded wording, and guesses – tell the plain, simple truth.
Here’s what I would say:
“Guests were great communicators before check-in, they had no issues during their visit, and left the place in great condition.”
Don’t wait to review – that just complicates your life, and I don’t know of anyone who has been “saved” from a bad Guest review by waiting.
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If I had a good guest, I used to review right away but since I re-opened nearly all my newbie guests (and that’s most of them) have not been reviewing even after I send a review.
Since I don’t have faith that guests will review properly, I have taken to waiting to review until they do. I feel that they should be working to get their reviews for their next booking but I don’t think they understand this.
If they were bad guests, I review on the 14th day.
I have over 400 reviews and now I’m only really looking for 1 review a month to keep my reviews looking current.
I do them right away. Communication before is the most important to me. It’s been mentioned here before that different guests have different communication styles and expectations. A no problem guest is a no problem guest! I believe that consumers have review fatigue. I get requests to review batteries that I’ve purchased online! Jeez. They are probably getting review requests for everything that they’ve done in regard to their trip online.
I don’t mind if there is no communication during their stay. No news is good news. After check in I send them my usual message and I leave my home number on the kitchen island just in case they need anything. Then the night before check out I also send them a message thanking them for their stay and give them check out instructions. 75% of guest will send a quick reply. I personally think it’s rude of guests not to acknowledge a message but I won’t ding them on communucation for that.
It’s a different story prior to booking since I need communication to vet guests before accepting their request to book.
I review the same day after check out if they were good guests. If bad guests, then I wait to the last minute.
I always review soon after the stay has ended. That means I’m usually reviewing first. I don’t see a review as something the guest has to earn. They paid, and part of my responsibility to the system is to honestly and unemotionally review every guest.
Hosts often wonder why guests have been members awhile and have no reviews but never think to blame that on fellow hosts.
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I’ve actually twice avoided a vindictive guest review by waiting for the last minute to review. Hence my taking a pulse of opinions.
I don’t particularly need the review from the guest but I’m half thinking maybe I just wait till the last few minutes and do it then.
I didn’t have any issues with the guest and the house was left great. When I was back trying to get initial reviews - getting the reviews had more impact. But I feel more confident when a guest has alluded towards the quality of their stay in their communications. If they haven’t said anything - I’m still debating whether it’s worth trying to get the review out of them.
So what? They were good guests they saw no need to chat
I review every guest when I get the prompt from AirBnb to review them
RR
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I was just wondering if hosts preferred to wait for someone to review first, waited until the last minute, or just reviewed first - specifically when they didn’t have an inkling of what the guests experience was.
I review as soon as I get the Airbnb notice to do so.
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Each host operates differently @JustANewHost
Like the majority of hosts here, I review shortly after their stay.
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The only possible reason to wait until the 11th hr. to review a guest is if the guest had a lot of complaints during the stay, or got called out by the host during the stay for bad behavior, charged for damages, tried to scam a refund, etc., so the host has good reason to believe the guest would leave a bad review.
In those cases, if the guest hasn’t already left a review, they might not be inclined to if the host hasn’t reviewed them yet. So you don’t give them time, by submitting areview a few minutes before the 14 days is up.
Otherwise, once you’ve had a chance to check the place out to see how they left it and make sure there are no damages, there’s zero reason not to leave a review asap.
I’ve read hosts saying they don’t review unless the guest reviews, like it’s some kind of necessary exchange, but failing to review isa disservice to other hosts. In the case of a not so good guest, you are warning other hosts, in the case of good guests, you are setting fellow hosts’ minds at ease about accepting the guest.
And regardless of whether a guest chooses to leave a review, why not reward good guests with a good review so they will be accepted easily in the future? They put money in your pocket and behaved respectfully. Just because they didn’t review (which guests may do for various reasons- they don’t like the whole review culture in general, they are too busy, they forgot), doesn’t mean a host should act miffed that they didn’t get a review from the guest- that seems like a really childish attitude to me.
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I always review each guest within an hour or so of them leaving. This might sound efficient but it’s simply because if I leave it any longer I’ll have forgotten about them so won’t know what to say.
I do this with every guest, every time.
It’s just another part of the turnover procedure.
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Oh this is so true! I was reading some reviews from January of this year and had not a clue as to who they were - and they were here for days!!
I only wait if a guest’s behavior is egregious and then I do a draft (and come here for help and venting) and set reminders to watch the timer.
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Likewise. It’s then out of the way and something less to think about.
JF
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That makes sense. For me - I only review after my cleaners have done their inspection - so immediately after wouldn’t be feasible . But they are normally there within a few hours although sometimes it can be the next morning
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