@Amalia133 All reviews are published, regardless of whether both parties leave a review.
If only one party leaves a review, it will be published 14 days after receiving the notice to review. If both leave a review, they both get published as soon as both are submitted.
If you get a bad guest who you fear will leave a bad review, but you haven't gotten a notice that the guest has submitted a review, some hosts use the strategy of waiting until 15 minutes before the 14 day review period is over to submit a review. That way, by the time the guest gets the notice that you've left a review, it will be too late for them to submit one. This only works if the guest hasn't left a review yet- if they already have, waiting has no point, you should just go ahead and write yours.
Sometimes bad guests aren't inclined to leave a review, but if they realize you have, they anticipate that it will be bad, so then submit a bad one themselves, hence the above strategy.
A word of advice about review responses. If you need to respond to a bad review, do not address the guest. Just correct false information for the benefit of future guests. Keep responses as brief as possible. Your responses appear on your review pages, not the guests'. So they are for future guests, to correct misinformation, not to warn other hosts or speak to the bad guest.
Example for this bad guest "This is a false review. This guest never arrived, but 7 other people did, people who had no booking, were not admitted to the home, and were there for a commercial photo shoot, which this guest had never mentioned, let alone asked permission to do."
No need to go into much detail in a response- future guests aren't interested in whether a past guest left a pile of dirty dishes, they just need to know if a review is misleading or completely false.
If a guest (not a bad one telling lies) makes a legitimate comment in the review about something they felt could have been better, the best way to respond to that is something like
"I'm sorry you found the bed too firm for your liking. I've never had that comment before, it's a medium density, but mattress firmness is such a personal preference, it would be impossible to please everyone. If you ever want to book here in the future, I'll make sure to provide you a softer foam topper." This makes you look to future guests like a caring host who doesn't get defensive about things.
