The single most important element of marketing your short-term rental is having good Airbnb reviews. Guests will look at reviews first (for good Airbnb review examples see below!) Was the automated self-check-in experience smooth? Were there personal touches, like a welcome basket? Did they feel safe? When a guest has a positive experience and reviews your property, that good Airbnb review becomes an important marketing tool for your short-term rental.
Host Tools provides an automated, unified calendar for short-term rental hosts, allowing you to seamlessly list on all major channels.Start your free trial today!
Table of Contents
1
Why You Need (Lots) of Good Airbnb Reviews
2
How to Get More Airbnb Reviews
Step one: Make a great guest experience
Step two: Consistent and personal communication
Step three: Review your guests
Airbnb review examples
Step four: Ask for a review, and then ask again
Step five: Automate everything and watch your reviews come in
Why You Need (Lots) of Good Airbnb Reviews
Having a large number of good reviews on your property equals more bookings. It’s as simple as that. The Airbnb algorithm prioritizes properties by the number and quality of guest reviews. The better your review and the more you have will push your property toward the first page of a guest’s search.
In addition to the science of the algorithm, more reviews make guests confident about reserving your place. When you look at a listing that hundreds of people have stayed in, and positively reviewed–booking is a no brainer! Reviews the most important thing you own as an Airbnb host. The more reviews you have the better.
How to Get More Airbnb Reviews
Step one: Make a great guest experience
The first step toward getting more reviews is creating an incredible guest experience. From attentive communication, to welcome baskets, house manuals, to easy check-in your guests will be excited to share their experience when you go above and beyond.
Step two: Consistent and personal communication
Even if you are managing your property remotely, you can still be an attentive host. If you write personal messages to your guests at every step of their stay they will feel taken care of without feeling intruded upon. Checking in on a guest and making sure they have what they need for a great stay gives you the opportunity to fix any problems your guests have. And decreases the chase they will silently seethe and then leave a bad review.
Messaging throughout a guest’s stay also makes you more personable as a host. Guests are less likely to forget to review you, or to leave you a poor review if they feel any kind of personal connection.
I send at least eight messages for every reservation:
A booking confirmation message to thank the guest for booking and let them know I'll send more details as their trip gets closer.
A message to our cleaners alerting them of a new cleaning
A message two days before the guest arrives with details about check-in
A message checking in on them the day after they arrive
A check-out message with details the day before they leave
A reminder message to our cleaner the day of check out
A message thanking the guest and asking for a review the day after check-out
A reminder message asking the guest to leave a review if they haven't left one twelve days later.
If you’re managing more than one property or have back-to-back bookings the idea of keeping up with communications and reviews between guests can feel overwhelming. Luckily, Host Tools allows you to automate all of this communication and to personalize it with tags.
When using the Host Tool’s templates you are able to automatically send guests personalized information. From thanking them for their booking, providing check-in details, and letting them know you left a review.
The best part is, this is 100% automated, and still feels very personal. Start your free trial of Host Tools and start automating guest messages today.
Step three: Review your guests
First, be sure to consistently leave reviews for your guests. After you’ve reviewed your guest, the guest receives a notification reminding them to leave a review before they can read what you wrote. That spark of curiosity will encourage the guest to leave a review sooner than later.
Again, this is easier said than done if you are a host who is juggling a few listings while working a full-time job. Luckily, this can also be fully automated with Host Tools.
Choose an Airbnb review example below and have Host Tools start reviewing guests for you now!
Airbnb review examples
Good Airbnb review examples:
– [Guest name] was an absolute pleasure to host. We just knew our home was in good hands with them.
– My house was left tidy and all house rules were respected. Communication was very easy. [Guest name] is welcome at our place anytime.
–[Guest name] and [his/her] partner were great guests. Good communicators, respectful, and left our home in good condition. We look forward to them staying with us again!
–It was a pleasure hosting [Guest name] and [his/her] friends. They were respectful guests, and we look forward to hosting them again.
– My home was left in great condition by [Guest name]. They were a superb guest and I would recommend them to other Airbnb hosts.
–[Guest name] took care of our home as if it were their own. The guest lefts things clean and in place. We look forward to seeing them again soon!
Negative Airbnb review examples:
–[Guest name] is not a recommended guest. While we understand basic messes, our cleaning crew arrived to find our home in terrible shape.
–[Guest name] did not obey the house rules. We experienced complaints from neighbors when the guest violated quiet hours. They will not be welcome in our home again.
–Communication was good with [Guest name] but there were more guests on the property than booked. While we allowed them to stay, we wish this would have been made clear in the original booking.
–We created house rules to keep our home safe and enjoyable for everyone. Unfortunately, this guest did not provide mutual respect. We do not recommend this guest.
Step four: Ask for a review, and then ask again
It may feel awkward to ask for a review. You would hope that guests would just do it on their own. However, everyone has busy lives and in the whirlwind of returning from a trip reviews often get forgotten.
A gentle reminder to leave a review, and a few words about how important reviews are, does wonders for getting guests to log on and add a review.
Take a look at this example of how to gently ask a guest to leave you a review:
“Hi [Guest Name], Thanks for being such a great guest. We left you a 5-star review and if you enjoyed your stay it would be great if you left us a review as well. If there is anything that could have made your stay better please send us a message. Thanks again for booking our place. Hope to see you next time you’re in town!”
This simple, automated message feels personable and demonstrates excellent customer service.
Guests have 14 days to leave a review, if 12 days pass without a review, asking a second time will often make sure your guest leaves you one.
Here’s an example of how to kindly ask for a review a second time:
“Hi [Guest Name], Sorry to bother you but if you have a second, could you write us a review?
Reviews are very important to us and help us maintain our Superhost status on Airbnb, we’d really appreciate it.”
Step five: Automate everything and watch your reviews come in
It sounds easy enough, right? Create a great place to stay, communicate consistently with each guest before, during and after their stay, review each guest, ask them for a review, and then remind them to leave a review two days before the review period is up.
And maybe if managing one listing is your full-time job that does sound easy. But for the rest of us who are managing several listings while working full-time jobs and juggling kids and families, all of that can feel impossible to provide for each guest.
This is where Host Tools comes in. Host Tools automates communication, but personalizes it with tags. If you use our templates, guests are automatically thanked for booking, sent all their details 2 days before their stay, checked in one to make sure they have everything they need, reminded about check out times and are wished a happy journey and then are automatically reviewed and asked for a review in a way that encourages 5-stars.
The above templates are all in Host Tools and all of those messages and reviews will be sent while you are spending your time on your life.
Consistent communication before, during and after each guest’s stay has proved to be extremely successful. Once I built Host Tools and started sending these automated review reminder messages to my guests, 99% of my guests started leaving reviews. Before Host Tools, I was lucky if 60% of guests left me a review.
As you can see, having a lot of good Airbnb reviews on your listing is vital to success. A guest will always choose a property with 200 reviews over 5.
To get more good Airbnb reviews remember to automate your guest communication, reviews, and set up review reminders. By following these simple steps you will quickly receive more positive guest reviews and earn that Superhost status!
Host Tools provides an automated, unified calendar for short-term rental hosts, allowing you to seamlessly list on all major channels.Start your free trial today!
