Guests not leaving reviews

[Leigh523]

I have had 5 guests so far and have only had 1 review. Is this normal? 
I have kept my prices low so I can get some reviews then raise them to match to surrounding properties but no one seems to want to leave a review?  It’s so frustrating. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

Most of my guests leave reviews.

I would be happier if they don't.

I am really tired of reviews.

I doubt guests read reviews at all, I know they are booking without reading essentials like check-in time or even the first line of a description so i seriously doubt they bother to read some previous guests' impressions. But yes, they love to be heard and to criticize and of course, to blame the host for their own mistakes. And this year they are worse than ever.

[Huma0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

I think that quite a few guests do read reviews. They don't necessarily read them all if you have a lot, but they will at least read the first few that appear on the landing page. I've had guests comment not only on the reviews, but even my responses to them. I suppose though that guests booking longer stays are more likely to look at the reviews than those staying only a couple of days.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Huma0  there is a huge difference between STR and LTR. I am renting rooms for Erasmus students (5 months stays) through Facebook rental groups and I just spent the last 30 days in correspondence with prospective tenants. The number of messages I have to exchange with each one of them before getting the deposit is impressive. I had to compose 2 Q&A docs to speed up the process but still, it was a full-time job.

And then, on the other side, we have Airbnb guests who  book without reading the check-in time (with them, reading and messaging start after booking when they are informed they can't check in at midnight )

[Huma0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

Very true, but I've hosted hundreds of short term guests too and I found that they often read the reviews. It's one of the reasons they chose to book my listings. Even those guests don't necessarily read other stuff, like paying attention to the check in times, or reading the house rules, but the reviews are of more interest to them.

Then there are plenty of LTR guests who read NOTHING! I am finding that these are getting more and more common. The last one to check in told me she would be arriving at 4pm and then didn't think to let me know she had changed her flight and would be arriving closer to 11pm... For some unknown reason, she seemed to think I had self-check in.

I think it depends more on the individual. Some pay a lot of attention (even asking specific questions about something mentioned in a previous guest's review) and others have the attention span of a gnat. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Huma0  😄 and maybe they feel more secure when booking on Airbnb than on Fb, there are a lot of scammers on Fb

[Huma0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

Quite probably. I've never tried it myself (either as a guest or host). 

I was interested though in your idea of renting to Erasmus students. However, when I looked on a site offering them accommodation here in London, the prices were crazy cheap. I mean, I have never seen other student accommodation as cheap as that here...

[Bob40]

So reading other hosts' experiences, it becomes clear that Airbnb aren't chasing reviews any more after the initial request on the day people are travelling home or onto the next place. Airbnb of course denies this but it's in line with them no longer sending text messages.

So I'd recommend all hosts who would like reviews to send polite reminders on the first Saturday after guests' departure dates. We can even say that we have to do it as Airbnb has stopped. I've done this the last two Saturdays and it works. Good luck to us all! 🙂

[Huma0]

@Bob40 

I don't think you can jump to that conclusion based on the responses here. No one has confirmed that Airbnb isn't sending reminders and some hosts say that most of their guests are leaving reviews. 

If you exclude the guest who is still within the two-week review period, I've had 17 Airbnb guests check out in the past year and, of those, 14 left reviews.