Superhost Maintenance

[Meaghan67]

Hello, fellow Superhosts!

Does anyone use a special checkout message encouraging reviews and explaining the ratings within AirBnB?  My booking decline significantly during winter so each review matters significantly more this season to maintain my superhost status.  I’d love to hear what works!

[Dave-and-Deb0]

Greetings @Meaghan67 ,

This is what works for me.  First of all, I do not give away reviews for free so if a guest does not leave me a review, I do not give them one.  A long time ago I would leave a review right away and then I would not get one in return.  Now what I do for those that I am giving a 5 star review for, I send them this message and in most cases they leave a review.  When I get a notification that they left me a review, I just go back to the messages, copy the review section and then quickly do the review on the platform.

"Good afternoon Keri,

Thank you for being an amazing guest and choosing to make our house your home during your stay. I hope you had a fantastic trip to Toronto and the house met your needs.

I have written a review for you and I like to share it with guests before it goes public in case you would like me to add/remove anything. Hopefully, you will have some time to leave us a review as often reviews are a deciding factor when people are choosing a place to book. Here is the review I wrote:

"It was an absolute pleasure hosting Keri during her stay with us. She was super easy to communicate with, left the house in fantastic shape, and was overall an amazing guest. Without question, we would host Keri again and highly recommend her to other Airbnb hosts! I wish I could give Keri more than 5★s.

Cleanliness ★★★★★
Communication ★★★★★
Observance of House Rules ★★★★★"

Hopefully, we can host you again in the future Keri the next time you visit Toronto.

All the best!

David"

I have been very careful in my wording as not to ask for a 5 star review but generally it is a 5 star review.

I hope this helps.

[Quincy]

Hi @Meaghan67,

Have you had a chance to review @Dave-and-Deb0’s checkout message? If you found it helpful and think you might use it yourself, feel free to mark it as the Top Answer ☑️.

This not only helps others with similar questions find the best advice quickly but also gives a well-deserved shout-out to the hosts who shared their input😊. You can easily do this by clicking the button below the comment, as shown in the image.

[Zheng49]

I am actually experimenting with a check-out message right now as well. The basic idea is to let the guest know that I've given him/her a 5 star review, and ask for one back if they enjoyed their stay.

I would basically only send this message to guests that I enjoyed hosting, and is pretty confident they would give me a 5 star review as well. You can go through their review history, and see what kind of reviews they've written for other hosts. 

Indeed, you can see other hosts such as @Dave-and-Deb0 doing basically the same thing. I feel like his message is really quite good, and accomplishes the same thing. 

[Helen3]

Hi @Zheng49 

Personally I would never ask a guest for a five star review .

It puts the guest under pressure and may make them feel uncomfortable .

I don't send guest messages saying I've left guests a five star review either

I have had all five star reviews over the last three years .

[Zheng49]

I'm still in the experimenting stage, but I wouldn't send this message right away, it would be after a few days. The idea is to get guests who otherwise wouldn't review me, to leave me a review. 

I think I didn't word it very well in my initial message. By asking one back, I meant just asking them to leave me a review. 

I don't know your processes, but I guess you probably have a similar process in place as well.  Ie. instead of saying you gave them a 5-star review, you could say that you enjoyed hosting them which is almost equivalent / achieves a similar effect whilst being more subtle.  

@Helen3 

I know it's not good to directly ask for a 5 star review, but I've had guests saying that they enjoyed their stay, and left me a 5 star review, and then asking me to review as well. I always gave a review in such cases, and was rather happy to do so as well. This is just to imitate that, but with initiation from the host side instead. 

Never once did I feel "pressured" into giving them a 5 star review as well. 

[Helen3]

No I have never communicated with the guests asking for a review  @Zheng49 

airbnb asks guests three or four times - that's enough 😀

And your example is not the same . Hosts specifically asking for a five star review do put guests under pressure particularly where their stay hasn't been up to scratch 

[Zheng49]

"And your example is not the same . Hosts specifically asking for a five star review do put guests under pressure particularly where their stay hasn't been up to scratch"

Which part is not the same / similar? I already clarified and said that I don't ask for a five star review.

Anyways, I do agree with you that making sure the stay is 'up to scratch' is more important. The intent of this exercise is to get good guests that you know enjoyed the stay / 'stay was up to scratch', to actually leave a review. 

@Helen3 

[Helen3]

Do whatever works for you I was just explaining why I don't ask for reviews @Zheng49 

[Zheng49]

@Helen3 

Noted and thanks for your feedback. 

[Christine3348]

I have a simple checkout message that goes out 24 hours before guests leave. It has checkout reminders, hopes they enjoyed their stay and wishes them safe travels. 

In this day and age of extreme tipping and a heavy-handed review culture, I feel that clean and simple messaging is better. No pressure should be applied to guests.

[Frances3408]

@Meaghan67. Hi Meaghan, I always ask for a review at the morning check out message but I word it usually along the lines "if you have the time when you return from your trip we'd really appreciate a review and I always say safe travels and thank them again for their booking. If they've looked at my reviews they know I always review guests. I do a lot of message communications beforehand and first 24 hours so I am rarely disappointed by the reviews.

Its pretty dead here in Winter too so only my budget listing will do ok. Luckily weekend tripper couples like to visit local vineyards and antique shops so I make sure these are shown in My Guide as well.

The last thing I would say is just because they have left, dont discount the opportunity to communicate with past guests where appropriate. For example one of my September guests left in private messages that she really liked my floating wooden shelves as they are real wood. It took me a while but I finally yesterday tracked down the details of the supplier. So we had a nice conversation about that and gardening. Another guest last year asked about my door handles which matched the smart lock. Both were doing renovations.

Good luck.