[POLL] How do you respond to reviews?

[Sybe]

Hi everyone,

There are always discussions going on here regarding reviews, quite understandably, as they are a vital component of and have a direct influence on your hosting business. They allow guests to read about others’ experiences, and are a great opportunity for Hosts to receive feedback. 

Whether positive or negative, it can be useful to respond to reviews. You can explain the reasons behind a disappointment or thank a guest for leaving feedback. It can also show guests that as a Host you’re invested in improvement and care a lot about the guest experience. That being said, it’s not always easy to know when or how to respond.

How do you respond to reviews? 

You can fill in the poll below and please do elaborate in the comments, I’d love to hear more about your strategy!

Sybe

[Bes175]

[quoting OP] 'Whether positive or negative, it can be useful to respond to reviews. '

This seems a v.good advice, entire point of feedback is to respond/ engage with ppl & their reviews.

[Sudsrung0]

@Sybe 

We always respond to reviews I think you have to even to just put things straight I got one bad review but we knew it was coming, Nasty guest I normally leave it to my husband he is English and he is a sarcastic son of a bitch hahahaha. 

Once a guest (not on airbnb) who arrived at midnight in their review accused my husband of being drunk, I have lived with him for 15 years yep he likes a drink but I've never seen him drunk, 

[Huma0]

@Sudsrung0 

I had a guest check in one evening around 9pm (not 3pm as we had previously agreed) and I am pretty sure she was drunk by the weird questions she was asking. She insisted the room was not the one she booked, but that she had booked 'the pink room'. I don't have a pink room. Anyway, after asking her to show me the photos, she eventually agreed that it was in fact the correct room. The next day, she was behaving totally normally, so I can only assume it's because she had spent the previous day at Wimbledon drinking Pimms in the sun!

[Lorna170]

@Sybe   Why does the Poll caption read:  Do you charge a cleaning fee?

I thought the poll was about reviews.

I respond to reviews that include an issue that could have been resolved by communication from the guest or was out of my control.  I have been very lucky though. The last poor review that I received about two years ago was about my furnishings, and I addressed that very quickly with a change of a living room decor.  Unfortunately, it now means that I get extra guests couch surfing....  

[Sybe]

@Lorna170 That was an error on my side, I always make a copy of my previous poll to have the styling and colours the same. I changed it now, good catch! 😉

[Terry642]

I would love to see a poll asking hosts what "chores" they ask guests to perform before checking out - there seems to be a lot of chatter - Reddit etc - about the absurd things hosts ask guest to do before they leave - the worst anecdote is "mowing the lawn" !! Has AirBnB considered a category - "Walk Away" - as in I'm a host who asks guests to do nothing before they leave?

Thanks,

Terry

Bristol TN US

[Gillian166]

@Terry642  mowing the lawn omg, that can't be real (maybe it is on a longer stay).  

Like you, I only ask guests to double check they didn't leave anything behind. We used to ask they leave doors and window open for covid reasons, but we stopped that a few months ago.  I actually put in my listing descriptions "no checkout chores!"  🙂  If some hosts are going to be annoying, then we can use that to our advantage. 

[Huma0]

@Terry642 @Gillian166 

I am with you both here, although I suspect it might be different for some more remote hosts, particularly in hot climates, if the cleaners do not go in straight away, i.e. they might need guest to take out trash asap to prevent pests and smells, but mowing the lawn???!!

Like you, I don't ask guests to do anything. Last guest who left asked me what was the check out procedure. I told her it was just to leave the key and, if I wasn't around, close the front door. Job done.

[Terry642]

I hear you HumaO funny thing is my cabin is so remote there's not even a key to be left!!

[Sybe]

@Terry642 That would be a very interesting poll, although a huge list of things to choose from!

[Lorna170]

@Terry642   It would be great if your comment was in a separate posting and not part of this poll about reviews.  Perhaps @Sybe could move it.

I do think that there are a lot of hosts who ask their guests to perform chores that should be the responsibility of the host or their cleaner.  I ask very little of my guests beyond putting the towels in the tub, washing up the pots and pans that THEY used and taking the trash to the bin.  I certainly would not be asking them to mow the lawn.  My properties would probably be catagorized as "walk away".

[Sybe]

@Lorna170 @Terry642 Seeing the replies it has received so far I'd recommend creating a new post instead. The Hosting board would be a great place to start a conversation about this!

[Lorna170]

I cannot move a post made by another host.  I thought that you could.

[Mary419]

@Sybe I would still like clarification on why I cannot respond to reviews at all. Is publicly responding what this post was about? 

[Huma0]

I respond to almost every review. Certainly, I try to respond to all the positive ones with a thank you and a nice comment. Usually, I write that the guest is welcome back, when it's true. There are a few reasons for this, including, as I said above, only responding to negative reviews draws people's attention to those and that is not what you want! Also, I have had guests tell me that one of the reasons they booked with me is my nice responses to reviews.

I don't always respond to negatives (luckily I don't get too many), because sometimes they look like such outliers, I don't think a sensible person will pay them much mind. Or, if the reviewer is complaining about stuff clearly stated in the listing, the review might actually be to my benefit and deter similarly unsuitable guests from booking. Other times, it's difficult to explain the situation without going into lots of detail. 

For example, one guest said that the WiFi in her room didn't work properly because it's the furthest from the router. Well, that's not quite true. I have extenders to make sure it works in every room. When she told me it wasn't working, I went to her room, tested it on two devices, had full bars and was able to stream TV/movies with no buffering. Her problem was only when she was using Teams, which requires higher upload speeds, but she only complained once and I could hear her on her video meetings for the rest of her stay (one month). She never once needed to go and work at an Internet cafe etc. The guests before and after had no issues and I'm pretty sure it's the only review I have where someone complains about the WiFi.

Now I could have found a less wordy way of saying that but, firstly, I don't want to imply that the WiFi works well at all times. Every service can go down from time to time and, although it's rare here, it can happen occasionally. Secondly, the first half of the guest's review was really positive. Many people aren't going to read the whole thing, but if I'd responded to it, they are more likely to, and I would have been highlighting the negative comments more. So, I just let it be.