How to Write Airbnb Guest Reviews

Many Airbnb hosts manage their rental properties tirelessly to grow Airbnb income. If you want to make your business a success, it is in your best interest to work towards becoming an Airbnb Superhost. What’s the biggest secret recipe for becoming an Airbnb Superhost? It’s all the hard work that eventually results in a successful business. One of the things you have to keep an eye on is Airbnb reviews.

The more good host reviews you have, the more appealing your Airbnb listing will become to potential guests. Though, why should you bother to create an Airbnb guest review if you can just focus on providing a brilliant guest experience in the first place? In reality, things work differently and you will have to take an extra step and write a review for your guest first.

However, it’s easier said than done, and hosts might find themselves struggling to come up with a brief, yet comprehensive, review for their guests. Read on to find out how to create the best Airbnb guest reviews that will improve your star rating and get you closer to becoming a Superhost.

Why Are Airbnb Guest Reviews So Important?

Airbnb is a perfect example of how powerful social proof is. Hosts confess that they always look through Airbnb guest reviews before they confirm a reservation. The same holds true for Airbnb guests who are certainly curious to know what experience they can expect if they decide to book with you.

Did you also know that your number of reviews influences your listing position on Airbnb? The more reviews you’ve received, the higher your listing’s SEO rankings and the more bookings you’ll get. Apparently, more bookings mean higher revenue.

Airbnb encourages both hosts and guests to leave reviews by sending prompts right after guests check out. Then, you will have 14 days to leave your feedback. To ensure impartial and honest comments, reviews are published only after you and your guests have completed them or after the 14-day period.

However, one challenge that you might face in your quest to grow the number of reviews is the fact that guests are reluctant to leave them. Only 20% of Airbnb guests actually bother to write reviews, no matter how good their Airbnb host was. Positive reviews are far more common, with even the least wonderful guests choosing not to leave a negative review most of the time.

The solution is plain to see – you need to make the first move and write an Airbnb review for your guests. As soon as you leave a review, Airbnb will encourage them to provide their feedback by sending a notification. If they were generally satisfied with their stay at your pad, they are more likely to return the favor. Leave reviews for guests that you would gladly host again, but they do not need to be the perfect guest in order for you to leave a review. A wonderful guest will leave a review without you needing to prompt them, but remember that good Airbnb guest reviews are hard to stimulate if your guests did not have a good experience.

By being proactive and allocating some time to share your feedback, you can increase the number of your reviews and win more reservations. Besides, you help your past guests to look more trustworthy in the eyes of other hosts, and this is something they will certainly appreciate.

Eight Rules of Writing Airbnb Guest Reviews

To increase your chances of obtaining Superhost status, make sure to review each and every guest that books with you. You’ll also never want to overlook any reviews that have already been left by your guests by not responding back.

Follow these rules to create informative and concise Airbnb guest reviews:

Don’t be too hasty to leave a review

Check your house first and make sure that everything is in good order before writing a positive Airbnb guest review. This tactic is even more useful if something went wrong. Wait for a few days to cool off and then begin to put your feedback into words. So take your time, and don’t hesitate to reach out to a writing service if you need some extra help.

Be positive and polite

Your Airbnb guests will appreciate your professionalism and they are more likely to do the same to you in return. Thank your guests for staying at your rental.

Always get straight to the point

Make sure your reviews are based on the facts and that they are accurate and honest. If you have some minor suggestions (like “you could have taken the rubbish out”), you can mention them in private feedback instead of making them public.

Try to make them helpful to future hosts

While providing feedback, answer the questions that can tell other hosts about your experience of hosting your guests. In a nutshell, future hosts might be curious to know whether:

• guests respected your house rules
• they left your property in a good condition
• you would host them again

Build templates to save time

By creating templates for your Airbnb guest reviews, you can put together guest reviews much faster. Templates will help a lot when you are on the go and need to leave a review or when you’re receiving a high volume of bookings.

Reply to all Airbnb reviews

Don’t leave your guests hanging once they’ve submitted a review for you. If a guest has taken the time to review you, always review them as soon as possible too. You might just secure yourself a word-of-mouth referral or a repeat guest.

Sometimes you may receive a negative review, but, regardless of what it says, you need to maintain a professional stance. Ignoring a negative review is definitely not the best decision to make. Surprisingly, you can turn negative reviews to your advantage by applying special techniques. Find out how to deal with negative Airbnb reviews in this article.

Finally, don’t be shy and ask your guests for reviews. The old saying goes that closed mouths don’t get fed. So, ask your guests upfront for reviews as soon as they’ve completed a stay at your property.

Protect personal information

One of the most important aspects of the Airbnb guest review process is protecting your guests’ personal information. Of course, when writing an Airbnb guest review, you need to include some details, like the guest’s name, but beyond that, you shouldn’t include anything else.

Your guest review will help future hosts decide whether or not to accept bookings from even the most fantastic guests. Be sure to explain if your guest adhered to all the house rules, left at the allotted check-out time, and followed the booking process.

Focus on the positive

While it can be tempting for an Airbnb host to leave a guest a negative review, it’s usually not a good idea in the long run. Depending on your aim for the review, being too honest and writing a bad review for a bad guest can affect your ability to win future bookings.

It’s a better idea to focus on facts, like whether your guests followed your house rules, check-in procedures, and if they were generally good guest or not.

Mini Checklist of Things to Include in Your Guest Reviews & Review Examples

In order to ensure that your reviews are well-written, honest, and factual, be sure to include the following basic details:

• Guest name – Just a first name is good, you do not need to include the full guest name.
• Dates of stay – Airbnb auto-fills these details for you automatically, but future guests will want to know how recent the reviews are.
• Positive descriptive words – Aim to include words and phrases like ‘lovely couple’, ‘ideal guest’, ‘perfect guests’, and so on.
• A recommendation – It’s nice to leave some sort of endorsement like ‘I would host them again’, or ‘they were a pleasure to host’. This tells other Airbnb hosts that these are trustworthy guests and it was unproblematic to have them as guests.

Review Examples & Templates for Airbnb Guest Reviews

One of the tips for growing your number of reviews is to create templates for Airbnb guest reviews. The first type of template you’ll want to create is for a 4 or 5-star review. In most cases, your Airbnb guests will be great people and you’ll want to leave them a nice review as quickly as possible. Make sure that you have a nice write-up prepared so that you don’t have to waste time trying to put something together at the last minute.

Here are some templates you can use:

Template 1: [GUEST NAME] was very neat and clean. I would host him again and I highly recommend him as a great guest!

Template 2: [GUEST NAME] was a great guest because took great care of my space, left it clean and tidy, and was a pleasure to speak with. I’d be glad to host [GUEST NAME] again anytime.

Template 3: I loved having [GUESTS’ NAMES] because they treated the place with respect. They were awesome and I hope I get to host them again.

Template 4: I have enjoyed hosting [GUEST NAME]. Our experience was smooth from the beginning to the end. I hope to have the opportunity to host [GUEST NAME] again!

Template 5: [GUEST NAME] was a pleasure to host. They followed my house rules, and they were perfect guests. I would happily host them again!

Template 6: Hosting [GUEST NAME] was very easy and stress-free. They were an ideal guest and followed my house rules so I would host this excellent guest again.

Template 7: It was a pleasure hosting [GUEST NAME]. They were great guests and had very positive guest reviews on their profiles. Overall, they were excellent guests.

Template 8: This is a very easy positive review to leave as [GUEST NAME] was a very nice guest. I enjoyed hosting this guest and the guest left a lovely message in my welcome book.

Or just try our review generator…

Automate Your Airbnb Guest Review Process

If you are looking to automate your work with reviews, vacation rental software offers a viable solution. iGMS, for instance, allows managing and publishing your reviews automatically right from the software. There’s no need to log in to your Airbnb account.

With iGMS’s guest reviewing feature you can build templates for guest reviews using predefined elements. You’ll also be notified about the number of days you have left to publish a review and the date on which a guest wrote one for you. This is a simple and easy way to reduce the hassle of your Airbnb guest review management.

With a tool like iGMS, you can run your business with very little stress. Every aspect of the Airbnb management process can be as hassle-free as looking after a timeshare vacation unit. On top of its easy-to-use, drag-and-drop website builder, it also offers several other features to automate many of your routine tasks such as:

• Managing multiple accounts and listings on the top OTAs from a single interface.
• Synchronizing reservations across multiple platforms to eliminate double bookings.
• Organizing messages into a single feed unified inbox.
• Improving communication with automated templates and triggered messaging.
• Creating and coordinating cleaning tasks with live tracking to completion.
• Creating your own direct booking website.
• Processing payments securely via integration with Stripe.
• Creating essential reports on your business results within minutes.

As the saying goes, “There’s no sweet without sweat”. So, don’t overestimate the power of a guest review, and review your Airbnb guests systematically. This definitely brings you one step closer to becoming an Airbnb Superhost.