Guest Not Submitting Reviews

[Tracy858]

We've gotten great feedback from our guests so far in person, in messages, and one left us a very sweet note. Only one guest so far has left a review on AirBnB. I send a follow up message after they leave and a reminder is included in the message, letting them know how important reviews are to us and how much we would appreciate it if they would take a few minutes to do this. So far, only one review:( What other ideas do hosts have for encouraging guests to submit reviews.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

@Tracy858   You might not realize this, but Airbnb blasts your guests with automated messages reminding them to leave a review up to 4 times before the review period expires. So I don't recommend piling onto that with yet another plea. It just makes people feel badgered.

If you feel that the stay went well, the best way to motivate the guest to write a review is to leave your reciprocal one very soon after they leave. They'll get a notification about that too, and they won't want to wait 2 weeks to see what you wrote, so that will motivate them to publish theirs quickly while the stay is still fresh on their minds.

But some guests just don't like the hassle of doing reviews; better no review than a grumpy one.

[Anthony1616]

Great idea not sending additional notifications. As a host I have trouble with the reviews. It seems a star system.may be sufficient and the written comments being optional for both guest and host will suffice. 

[Anonymous]

@Anthony1616  actually I have the opposite view on this one. I never find other people's star ratings useful to me when trying to make a decision, because they don't actually mean anything unless you know what each of those people's standards and expectations are. I'd rather eliminate the arbitrary ratings altogether and just focus reviews on providing useful information in writing. 

[M199]

@Tracy858 

We have a guest book at the cottage and ask guests to sign it with a note before they leave.  It is very effective at getting guests to think about their stay and anout 95% do sign the book and teview within 48 hours 😉

[Sudsrung0]

@Tracy858 

Airbnb bombard the guest about leaving a review, there is not a lot you can do if they dont leave one for you, as @Anonymous says it's a good idea for you to review them as soon as you can in the hope they will want to read it.

A friend of ours who travels a lot says he is sick of doing reviews for what seems like everything these days, so he doesn't do them anymore, 

We have a lot of guest not leave us one I dont worry about it, 

[Huma0]

@Sudsrung0 @Anonymous 

You are right about the bombardment of messages, but I think it probably depends on how guests have their notifications set up. A lot of guests have notifications turned off completely and don't even realise it. The App notifications are also kind of glitchy. Some guests completely forget about Airbnb once they have completed a stay and will just ignore any notifications.

I don't normally chase for reviews, other than an occasional casual mention when I am seeing off a guest in person, but even that is rare. However, I do know how frustrating it can be for a new host. In the beginning, I did gently remind guests (but only the really nice, friendly ones) and none of them seemed to mind. Almost every guest left a review. When I stopped doing this, the percentage of reviews left went down considerably. I feel like a lot of guests are happy to ignore Airbnb's reminders, but if it is the host who is asking, they are more motivated to do it.

It might not work as well if you are a remote host that never meets guests in person though. My guests are staying with me in my own home, so they view reviews as more of a personal thing than just another chore to do.

There are guests though who just aren't going to leave reviews. In my experience, male guests are less likely to do it. I don't know why, but every female guest I've hosted in the past few years has left a review, whereas several male guests have not, and females make up a far higher percentage of my guests. I would say around one in three male guests do not review. The only female guests I can remember who didn't leave reviews were the ones who were really problematic during their stays. Not sure if anyone else has noticed it? 

[Sudsrung0]

We always meet our guest, I agree with you, if you never meet your guest then less likely to get a review, 

I think it's about equal with us male/female reviews, 

[Tracy858]

Thanks for the insight. It is interesting that you've notice female guests are more likely to leave reviews. We live on the property in a separate house and have a lot of interaction with our guests. We try to comment about the review at some point in conversation when it comes up naturally.  "We are new to AirBnB and don't have many reviews yet. AirBnB will be sending you a link to review after your visit. We'd appreciate it so much if you'd take a minute to leave a review."

We've had guests leave lovely notes and comment when they say good bye about what a great time they had, how much they love the place, etc. but the only one to leave a review so far was a female.