Hello all. I'm a new host, and I'd like your advice or experiences regarding reviews and guests.
We've hosted 6 reservations so far. Most were for a weekend or just a few days, but one was for a month. Of these reservations, only two have left reviews so far; the long-stay guest, and a person I gave a discounted rate to in order for their review and honest private feedback.
Our PM sends friendly check-out messages to each guest telling them reviews are important and to please leave us a review if they enjoyed their stay.
One of the guests who did not review left a message in the app saying everything was good and they enjoyed themselves.
One of the guests who did not review left a nice note in the guest book with a hand drawing. Technically, they have a few hours left to review.
What gives? Without seeming desperate, how do you encourage guests to leave reviews? We lost our 'New' designation during our long-stay guest, and we have an ok amount of future bookings, but what more can we do?
My second question surrounds a host who just checked out yesterday. We allowed an early check-in, and everything went seemingly well at first, but they had an unregistered guest on the final night of their stay, which exceeded the maximum capacity of the unit, and left the property unlocked at check out. They also left the door unlocked during most of their stay, even overnight. How would you handle that guest? I told the property manager and the unit was fine when he inspected it, but would you say anything either in your review or the private note section? We did change the settings on the lock so that it auto-locks after being unlocked for 5 minutes.
Thank you in advance.
