What’s your view on automated check out emails

Hello fellow hosts

Thought I’d share this with you and see if anyone else finds it a little inappropriate. Checked out of a London Air today, in my experience quite a few London properties use these automated and completely impersonal guest messages. Here’s a classic from this checkout. We’ll give you 5 stars if you do the same for us. And alarmingly in caps.
On the plus side, it does prompt me to review. But completely automated messages like this turn me off. And I feel like asking for a 5 Star review on the basis that they’ll be giving one to me is so not in the spirit of the community. So there.

Message copied below:

YOU LEFT US TODAY . . . 10% discount on your next visit - find out how :slight_smile:

Thank you for choosing to stay with us.

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR TEAM
Please can you give us a 5 star rating for ‘overall experience’? If you do not feel we deserve 5 stars for ‘overall experience’ then please let us know how we can improve our service. We are always looking to ensure a high quality service for our guests, if you have advice on how we can improve our service then let us know by replying to this message or providing private feedback when you leave your review.

WE WILL BE GIVING YOU A 5 STAR REVIEW
As soon as we receive your review, we will give you yours.

10% DISCOUNT ON YOUR NEXT VISIT
We hope you stay with us again, if you do, remind us that you have stayed with us before and we will give you a 10% discount on your accommodation.

Thank you once again for choosing to stay with us and hopefully we will see you again sometime in the future :slight_smile:

Kind Regards
(name withheld)

I would be shocked if I got a message like this from my Airbnb “host” because of the kind of Airbnbs I choose. For myself I choose owner managed single holding properties.

I did stay at a place this year whose host doesn’t live on site and he manages several properties. This was mostly due to the kind of listing I was looking for as I was traveling with a friend who has, shall I say, different expectations of an accommodation than I do. At the end of my stay they sent me the text of the review he left for me but other than that it wasn’t an odd message. I’ve also been offered a discount for a repeat stay at another Airbnb but it was a personalized message.

I agree that this kind of message is a complete turn off for an airbnb stay but apparently we can expect more an more of this from Air.

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I think it’s really cheeky to ask for 5 stars.

I also don’t like the way that if there was a problem with your stay they ask you to let them know privately rather than mentioning it in your review.

I have nothing against hosts who check with guests to make sure everything is okay when a guest checks in. But I don’t think it’s appropriate to ask once a guest has checked out knowing there is nothing you can do to rectify the situation.

All the hosts I know in London manage their own properties. There is now an option on Airbnb, I believe where you can search for hosts who manage their own properties if you want the personal touch.

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I would give them a 3 star review and tell them its inappropriate, its a form of blackmail.

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That would be awesome!

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I can’t find this anywhere. Willing to give us some clues as to where you have found this?

I don’t like the tone of this at all.
It may have actually been written by the owner for automated send out.
But the feeling of it is iccky.
But pandering for five stars (in exchange, blah blah) is certainly against the TOS.

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I have been setting up the listing for my new house and it asked me to indicate whether I was a property manager or was the property owner or something similar.

I had presumed they were doing this, so it was something that would show in the listing?

Perhaps just something in the UK?

It also talks about ‘we’ in the message, making me think it’s a property management service.

In England only the Queen talks about herself in plural as ‘we’.

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LOL, I was going to say that… “The Royal We.”
King Trump uses that too. I mean President Trump… (shiver)

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I think it’s absolutely terrible and - whether or not it would do any good - I’d report them to Airbnb.

When they say that they will give the guest five stars, there’s no indication why - have they been into the rental and found that it’s immaculate? Have they checked all the bedding to ensure no bodily fluids or checked that the guests didn’t remove their mascara with the white towels? Have they checked that the toilet/tub/sink hasn’t been stopped up? Have they performed a full stocktake so they know that no wine glass has been broken? Have they canvassed opinion from the neighbours that there’s been no noise?

Of course they haven’t.

So they will be giving 5 star reviews not knowing whether the guest was a five star guest. This says everything we need to know about the host.

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I don’t like those automated messages, but I do use an automated message system and send one to my guests that reminds them to review me. It also explains the review system and how it works. It doesn’t ask for a 5 Star review, but it does clarify the difference between 5-1 stars on hotel ratings and 5-1 stars on Airbnb. It also asks nicely, with no coersion, for constructive criticism to be sent to me privately. I think it is well within the parameters of being acceptable and non-pushy. I didn’t write any of it myself. I cobbled my message together from reading about other similar messages sent by other hosts. I am not sure if it ever makes guests feel uncomfortable. I don’t THINK it should, but I could be wrong. I am also not sure how it impacts the reviews I get, but I have had Airbnb newbies tell me they appreciate the explanation.

It’s a tricky thing. If I’m on holiday especially… I don’t want to think about reviews and all that. So any mention of it seems a bit tacky.

I don’t consider any automated message to be a value-add for the guest. I don’t ask for a review. I don’t “educate” my guests about the review system. I simply try to offer a comfortable, and perhaps a bit special, space for my guests to land. I have set up my rooms with the guests firmly in mind; using my own traveling experiences as a guide.

As an aside, I don’t “educate” my guests about what goes into my review and stars either.

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Just wondering: how does this work? I wouldn’t mind giving repeat visitors a 10% discount, myself, but I guess it would be cash refunded on arrival? Is there a way for the Airbnb system to automatically offer this kind of discount?

As a guest, I have no problem with automated messages as long as they convey something of value to me. I appreciate automated check in info, updates, and anything else that makes my stay pleasant. If I want to leave a review, I don’t mind automated reminders to leave a review. That’s why I use them for my guests when I host.

Just ask them to contact you if they want to book and then send them a special offer.

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So what’s the incentive for guests to follow house rules, clean up, communicate, etc.? “You get 5 stars and you get 5 stars! Everyone gets 5 stars. It doesn’t matter what kind of guest you are.” I find that more disturbing than asking for 5 stars. The whole message is tacky and just wrong!

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Reminds me of the Sneetches. Stars are for sale for three dollars eaches.
:rofl:

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I actually don’t find the “asks” offensive at all. I think the corporate speak is what turns myself off the most. It wouldn’t hurt them to try and make the experience feel a little more warm. Like a human being wrote this, automated or not.

I don’t ask for reviews since I feel like Airbnb prompts them enough. I only prompt if the guest has on their own expressed extreme satisfaction with their stay.