To write a review first or wait for guest to write theirs?

Do you wait for the guest to write their review first, or do you always try and get in before they write theirs?

I usually write the review as soon as i’ve seen the house and everything is all good.

But I was thinking today, if I wait for the guest to leave their review first, do you think there would be less chance of them giving 4 stars as they think I could retaliate with 4 stars back? How clear is it made to guests that I cant actually see their review until I write my own.

Not that it happens a lot, but you get that one guest that leaves a 4 star rating but thinks the house is awesome and everything was great. The ones that just can’t bare to give 5 stars.

Just a thought…

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I don’t think it would make any difference because a) reviews are blind b) most guests don’t understand the rating system let alone put too much thought into what awards they give unless they are deliberately trying to mark you down or give you a great review.

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Yes, these are the guests I was talking about. I just thought that if Airbnb dont advertise too heavily the fact that I cant see their review until I write theirs, it may make them take it a little more seriously.

There are two philosophies on this. It has been discussed here:

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I review every single group. It is beyond my capacity to imagine what a guest might or might not be thinking when they write a review. I can’t imagine why writing a review would trigger a negative response in a guest so that they downgrade your stars. So far, I have only needed to write one negative review, and even then, it wasn’t fully negative.

So far, only 6 guests have chosen not to write a review; three due to technical issues and who knows about the other three. Not important.

It is important to me to continue to have at least a 50% review rate.

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Like @anon67190644 I also review every group. The one only one that I gave a less than completely positive review I waited until the last possible moment so they would be unable to respond to the comment. Otherwise, I write it the day they leave so the information is fresh in my mind - after, of course, checking and resetting the room to make sure there aren’t any surprises. That is one of the big things I learned form this forum; :slight_smile:

Since I read reviews posted by hosts in determining whether or not to accept guests so I think it is part of my job to do the same.

I’m a bit puzzled by the low review rates I have been reading about - maybe I just haven’t been at this long enough to experience guest neglect in this area. So far only one of 64 hasn’t left a review - we will see if that continues with the three turnovers in the past three days. Haven’t see a review yet from the guests who left Friday or the ones who left Saturday. Today’s guests are still sleeping but will leave this am. Then I get a three day break - woo hoo!!

@terryathome. I think that because like you I review every guest, the notice Airbnb sends them saying “Anne has reviewed your stay” prompts them to leave a review. Plus most stays are 3 days or more. I’ve had a few not leave reviews but the majority do.

I review almost everyone, but have had a low review rate (60%ish). I assumed it was because I get a lot of first timers who don’t know how important reviews are to hosts.

This summer, my review rate has been better since I started messaging the guests right after I review them, thanking them for their stay and mentioning that I’ve given them a 5 star review and hope they enjoyed staying with us.

I’m not comfortably outright asking them to give me 5 stars back, but maybe I’ll get over that next summer. :wink:

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