How to get guests to leave a review?

[Kelly617]

My guest review percentage is dropping. I do not know why my guests are not leaving reviews. I have a guest book in my two rentals and they leave awesome messages but no reviews on Airbnb. Should I remove the book? I am thinking maybe because they wrote in the book they don’t review online. Also a lot of our guests travel far to get to us. Maybe they are just tired when they get home and forget. I don’t know. They even tell me they will write a review but then nothing. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thank you! 

[Yadira22]

Hi @Kelly617 

hope you are well.

we are seeing the same thing.

i think it’s down to Airbnb changing the review process to a 15 (or so) screen process which does not take that long but realistically is a bit of an overkill for a lot of guests who just want to say something simple like great place.

i wonder what other hosts think.

have a great day!

yadira 🙂

[Kelly617]

15 wow that’s a lot! Wish it was simple and quick like the host’s own. 

[Paul1255]

Hi @Kelly617  I hope you are well!

I find the best way of getting guests to review is:

-letting them know on check-out that you'll leave them a positive review, and you'd welcome their review (of course if you're not an in-home host you'll check the state of affairs of your listing before saying this!)

-adding your own review as soon as you get the email prompt after the guest has left and you're happy with the condition of your listing. Airbnb send an email prompt to the guest saying you've reviewed them, and in order to see your review they should leave one too. At this early stage everything is fresh in your guests mind and they will be more motivated.

You could consider taking out your guest books for the following month and seeing how this impacts your review rate, it could help.

Best wishes

Paul.

[Kelly617]

We tell them at check-out  and I have reviewed all my guests as soon as Airbnb sends the email. Thanks for the suggestion about the book :). I will give it a try. 

[Sarah977]

@Kelly617   I mention at some point during the guest's stay (easy for me as I host in my home, but you could have a note in the listing, or in the front of your guest book, to this effect if it's an entire place) that it's really important to leave reviews, and that I leave reviews for all my guests and appreciate them leaving one as well.  I point out that if no one had left reviews for my place, that the guest would not have had any reviews to judge by, whether they wanted to book or not. I also let them know that, as counterintuitive as it seems, Airbnb rates hosts on how many reviews are left by guests (to acheive or maintain Superhost, at least 50% of your guests have to leave reviews). I tell them how nonsensical I think this is, as I have no control over whether a guest chooses to review or not, but that there's nothing I can do about it. 

90% of my guests do leave reviews.

[Kelly617]

Thanks for the awesome suggestion Sarah. I think I will leave a note explaining everything in the units. I really like this idea. Hope it helps.