Lately, guests aren’t reviewing

[Marie6762]

I’ve been a Superhost for 3 years and have enjoyed excellent guests and 134/137 5-star reviews.

iIn the past few months, I’ve increasingly had guests not leave a review.  My practice has become:

1. leave a friendly reminder in their checkout message

2.  Follow up as necessary with another light and friendly message on the platform

3.  Text “was everything okay, if so, please review”

Each reminder is after a 2-3 day interval.  All guests were great and got 5-star reviews.

Does anyone have a different, perhaps more successful approach?  “Stars and reviews aren’t important” assurances aren’t really helpful, as I wouldn’t be asking for advice if they weren’t!

[Sarah977]

@Marie6762  What you mean is that stars and reviews are important to you- they aren't objectively important. They are important to new hosts who want to build up reviews, but a host with 137 reviews doesn't really need them, as long as at least some guests are leaving reviews, as you don't want it to look like the last time you hosted was in 2019 🙂

As far as getting guests to review, they either will or they won't. Guests get review prompts from Airbnb, just like hosts do. I would say that one message sent by you saying you'd appreciate guests leaving a review is quite sufficient. 2 messages to that effect plus a text seems invasive and annoying, and would likely cause a guest who might otherwise leave a review, but just hasn't gotten around to it yet, to decide not to review at all.

[Marie6762]

@Sarah977 

Thanks for responding🙂

I agree, in principle: 3 reminders is a bit desperate & could backfire 😆However, I have had a couple guests do a “OMG, thanks - I just thought it was [a formality] [obvious that we had a wonderful stay], etc - only after the 3rd request.  This is a new, but increasing trend.  On the rarer occasions in the past, 1 reminder after they left had been sufficient.

[Marie6762]

@M199 

As I’m a home Host, it’s easy to ensure guests have everything they need and are happy.  These have all been great guests- my demographic is overwhelmingly young professionals-with personal responses ranging from happy to effusive.  Although I realize that civilized folks are prone to be gracious in person, I’m feeling like it’s more of a “I paid for service” attitude...?

[Marie6762]

@M199 

And, to your point that maybe they’re just aware that they have a couple weeks, so why stress,

I hadn’t  really thought of it that way, as I tend to think they’ll simply forget given that much time- maybe that’s just we older folks 😉 (Im referring to seniors like me)!

Thanks for your feedback!

[M199]

@Marie6762 

Just a thought....

Demographics and newbies...

I have had newbie guests who think they have 14 days to review the host.  Is this possibly a factor?

It has happened to me a couple of times this year.  When I explained to guests the importance and timeliness most have jumped quick to do their reviews.

Also, I do, subtly, in my automated messages suggest that we are available to make sure the stay is as expected.  Also, to the effect of "Please let us know of anything that you need to make your stay perfect."  and as well (not requiring, but suggesting), "We would appreciate that we can receive an excellent review".  We do make every effort to ensure our guests are well supported and happy.

So far this season, we have had 3 rebooks for 2021 and 2022.  And 80%  "yes, we are coming back again".  But

life happens, so I don't count on it.

Good luck.

[M199]

@Marie6762 

We don't get that attitude from the young professionals we get. Most of our guests are families.  I guess that  the guest demographic is the difference.

[Sarah977]

@Marie6762  Something else to consider is that our culture has become review crazy. People are now sent prompts to review everything from their hair cut to the place that rotated their tires, to the cafe where they stopped in to grab a coffee and a piece of pie. 

While some people love writing reviews, as if everyone's personal opinion is so important, leading to a plethora of amateur critics, some people are just sick of it, I'd guess, and choose not to participate.

As for you seeing this more with young professionals, my daughter and her husband, who aren't exactly what I'd call young, in their mid- forties, both work in high powered jobs and spend most of their workdays online. The last thing they  feel like doing is being online on their time off. If they had something to say about an Airbnb that was different from what the last 100 guests had to say, they might be inclined to review, but otherwise, they likely wouldn't see the point.  So that could be a factor.

[Anonymous]

@Marie6762  Don't forget, Airbnb also sends 3 automated reminders to guests about reviewing their stay - the last thing these people want is a pile up of unwanted "gentle reminders" from their host on top of that.

One underrated but crucial part of great hospitality is knowing when to leave people the hell alone.

[Emilia42]

On the flip side of this, for the first time ever, I recently had a mediocre guest send me a message reminding me to review him asap. I take my time with reviews so when this guest didn't receive a review within 24 hours of check out he felt the need to act. I found it really off-putting. 

[Sarah977]

@Emilia42  I had a guest do that too, but she was a great guest, and one I've kept in touch with. The reason she gave was that her account had been hacked at one point in time, and she said she pulls her credit card info off the site when she isn't actively booking, or staying. She said as soon as the reviews were published, she could delete that info.

So I assumed that it's not possible to delete payment info until reviews for a stay are completed, or maybe she was just under that impression.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Marie6762 

We usually say something along the lines of "hope you'll leave us a review" casually either right before or after check out, then not say anything until there are about 3~4 days left, saying hi, hope they got home okay and hope they won't forget to review us within the next couple days as time is running out, thank them in advance and leave it at that. 

[Kim866]

@Marie6762  In my goodbye message I use the phrase "Please consider staying with us again and please take a moment to write a review when prompted by Airbnb"  This is the only time I mention a review.  I know that Airbnb prompts them also and I feel that is enough.  Once you have several reviews it is no longer necessary to get a review from every guests.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

I am sick and tired of reviews.... thinking about them, reading about them, writing and reading them..  I would opt out of the review system if possible, tnx 🙂