Reviews since pandemic

[Mike657]

We have reopened our listing and have been welcoming air bnb guests for the last couple of months, since the opening up of hospitality because of the pandemic - a total of 7 stays so far.

Our problem is that although we have reviewed all the guests stays, we have only had two reviews from guests. 
Prior to the pandemic, I don’t think reviews became public until both parties had written one and 14 days were given, as now, to write a review. If only one review was given then it wasn’t made public if my memory serves me right.

This will cause problems with the star rating of our listing in the future if this trend continues. 
I have decided in the future to leave it to the 14th day until I write a review following a booking and not bother if our guests haven’t written one.

I have been in touch with Airbnb but all they tell me is that all is well!!

I’d be very interested to know if any other hosts have had this problem?

[Colleen253]

@Mike657 Nothing has changed with the way reviews work,

https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/13/reviews-for-stays

While it’s a frustrating situation, rest assured your listing is not negatively affected when guests don’t review. Are these non reviewing guests new to the platform? Many just don’t understand the importance of reviews. What some hosts elect to do is send a message to the guest briefly explaining how important reviews are and asking if they would be so kind as to take a moment to leave a review. You could also add to your check out message “we look forward to your review of us!” 

Others do as you’ve also considered, and forego reviewing a guest until receiving one from the guest first. That seems a bit petty to me, and I would opt for either or both of the former tactics.

[Mike657]

Yes, thank you, maybe I should mention to guests as I don’t atm. 
However, I’m sure guests understand the review system as they will depend on them in the same way as hosts for their future bookings

I wasn’t thinking of not reviewing as being petty but just showing that the review system doesn’t work very well in my opinion

I thought not having reviews could eventually have a negative impact on your listing as how can it be ranked otherwise?

Thank you for your helpful suggestions which I will definitely try

[Colleen253]

@Mike657 “I thought not having reviews could eventually have a negative impact on your listing as how can it be ranked otherwise?”

Your ratings won’t change without new reviews, but you certainly won’t go backward. And you have lots of reviews and a ranking already.

[Sarah977]

@Mike657  There is absolutely no reason to wait until the end of the review period to submit your review in most cases.

The only reason hosts do that is in cases where they are quite sure the guest will leave a terrible review, and if they haven't yet left a review, them getting a notification that the host has left a review may prompt them to do so. Waiting until the 11th hour to post your review hopefully means they won't have time left to submit one themselves.

As for "If only one review was given then it wasn’t made public if my memory serves me right.", that is totally incorrect. All reviews are published, regardless of whether both parties hhave submitted a review.

While it's a benefit to guests to have reviews on their profiles, assuming they are positive, you are mostly leaving reviews for the benefit of other hosts, so please let other hosts your guests may request to book with know what sort of guests they were.

Reviews aren't about You review me and I'll review you. Just remind your guests that you would appreciate them leaving a review and maybe more will take the time to do that.