Ah, the Airbnb review. It is what keeps the system ticking, its beating heart. But are the reviews reliable? Are people honest when leaving them? And how do I avoid getting a negative review? I will answer all your burning questions as we figure out how do Airbnb reviews work?
After a trip, the guest and host both have 14 days to leave a star based review. The guest reviews the property based on location, value, accuracy, communication, cleanliness and the check-in process. And then the host will leave a review based on cleanliness, observance of house rules and communication.
Awesome reviews are crucial to the success of your business, so you must get the process right. For a good start, it will serve you well to read my post 29 ways to get good Airbnb reviews.
So here are my experiences with Airbnb reviews over the years I have been a Superhost. All the ins and outs and warning signs of guest reviews and a couple of hacks to avoid the nitpicky guest. Let’s jump right in!
How do I write a review on Airbnb as a Host?
As a host, you will have the opportunity to leave a review for your guest on the same day they check out. Usually around 1pm.
Before leaving Airbnb reviews, make sure you check over your property. Look for any cleanliness issues, damage or heaven forbid, stained sheets. You will then have a good idea on what your review will be for your guest.
If there are any issues, you must report them to Airbnb as soon as you notice them. Check out our guide here for help with making successful claims.
Now you are ready to review your guest, here’s how to do it.
Airbnb Review Process
First, you will see a box with ‘Describe your experience‘. In this section, you will write about how the guest went during their stay. It is good to make up a template for this section, trust me it will save you so much time.
Here is what I use…
“Adam was the perfect guest. They left the house clean and tidy and communicated well throughout their stay. We would love to have them back anytime.“
Its short, it works with both male and female guests and hits all aspects of guests stay.
Secondly, you have the opportunity to leave private guest feedback. Generally, this is where you would thank your guest or explain to them why you have given them a low star ranking. Eg, Thanks for staying with us, however, we would have appreciated it if you had done the dishes and put out the bin.
Then we have the option to rate the 3 categories, cleanliness, observance of house rules and communication. Be honest here. If they were messy guests, rate them accordingly. If they damaged your TV give them a lower rating, you get the idea.
Lastly, Airbnb asks if you would recommend these guests via a thumbs up or a thumbs down option. This part the guest will never see, so you can be honest here without the guilt.
The best part about this is, if the guest was a nightmare and you answer thumbs down, they get blacklisted from booking with you again. And good riddance too.
How long do you have to leave a review?
The review time frame is exactly 14 days in total from the day the guest checks out. Airbnb will always let you know when that 14 day period is coming to a close, sending out reminders.
You will have 14 days to leave a review. This applies to both hosts & guests.
If you think your guest is going to leave you a bad review, this 14-day window can come in handy. As long as they don’t leave you a review first, you can bide your time until the 14th day. Then, on the final hour, leave the review.
Your guest will more than likely not get their review in and you dodge a bullet as their time to leave a review has passed.
This is not common practice and I have only ever used this tactic twice, but it does come in handy for those… ‘sensitive’ guests.
How to leave a review on Airbnb after 14 days?
Unfortunately there is no way to leave a review after the 14 day period has expired.
There may be a slight glimmer of hope if you contact Airbnb directly and have a pretty good reason for missing
If you are particularly stressed about it and simply MUST leave a guest a review. You can send
Can I change an Airbnb review?
Yes, you can change an Airbnb review up to 48 hours after posting it, or until your guest completes their review.
Once the other party has left the review Airbnb put a big full stop on any further edits. This is why it is so important to check over your property before leaving a review.
Airbnb can delete a review in some cases, if it doesn’t follow their content policies. This includes things like adding spam, discrimination, threats etc.
For example, I once had a guest threaten me with a bad review if I didn’t give them a full refund. They booked my house assuming it had air conditioning, but the listing stated it didn’t.
It sounds outlandish that a guest would do this, but it has happened to me on 2 separate occasions. Luckily after calling Airbnb, they took care of it. So when in doubt, give the Airbnb customer service a call asap.
Using extortion in the way of bad Airbnb reviews is something the company takes very serious. So don’t let a guest bully you.
Do you have to leave a review on Airbnb?
No, you don’t have to leave a review on Airbnb. However, it would not be in your best interests. Airbnb is a reviews based system, so if you choose not to leave reviews, your rankings will suffer.
The rankings algorithm is a tricky thing. One little slip can see you go from the top of page one to somewhere in the middle. So I wouldn’t risk not leaving a review as it may cost you bookings.
If your reason for not wanting to leave a review for a guest is that they were difficult or disrespectful, what is holding you back? The guest wouldn’t see it until they leave their review and you will be doing future hosts a favour by pointing them out.
Furthermore, if that difficult guest does leave you a negative review. Don’t think by not leaving them one it wont show up. It will show up after the 14 day deadline. So they will get their say, and you wont get to have yours.
Airbnb review guidelines?
Airbnb is very serious about their review policies. Without the review system, their whole platform wouldn’t work. So, for this reason, they use a small set of guidelines to protect the integrity of the system.
The Airbnb reviews guidelines is something you should familiarise yourself with. You can read more over at Airbnb at this link.
The guidelines
- Reviews that are incentivised by a promise of a refund, additional payment, services or discounted rates. So in other words, if your guest has an issue with their stay and you promise them a partial refund if they give you a good review.
- Reviews that don’t represent the reviewer’s personal experience. This just means to keep your reviews honest. Pretty simple. Don’t make stuff up!
- Reviews motivated by threats of extortion. I know what you are thinking, surely this would never happen. It has happened to me twice so far. Basically, a guest didn’t read my listing and was expecting air conditioning. They threatened to give me a very discouraging review if I didn’t refund them so they could stay somewhere else.
After one phone call to Airbnb, they assured me that if the guest left this review, they would take it down. Phew!
How to get Airbnb Reviews?
Ok, so we know all about reviews now and how to leave them. But how do Airbnb reviews work when your guests never leave any?
First, I coddle them during their stay. I will ask if they are finding everything ok with the house and if they need anything at all to give me a buzz. Nine times out of ten, everything is fine. This will greatly reduce the number of nitpick reviews you will get. And it will make your guests feel very well looked after.
Next, I will send them a checkout message that goes a little something like below. You can also get 13 great Airbnb message templates that will save you a ton of time.
Sample Airbnb Review
“Thank you so much for choosing to stay at our place. We hope you had a great time here and enjoyed your stay 🙂
We would love it if you could take 2 minutes this afternoon to leave us a quick review and we will leave one for you in return.
A five-star rating is very important to us and goes a long way to helping our business. So if you have had any issues during your stay please let us know before leaving your review as we value your feedback and it helps us to grow.
Thanks again and safe travels”
Finally, I will write their review the same day. But only after I have checked the property thoroughly and I’m satisfied with the condition.
This way they will get two prompts. One from Airbnb reminding them to leave a review. Then a second one indicating I’ve left them a review. It will say something like “Read the review your host has left you by leaving one of your own”.
Curiosity will hopefully win out here and you will receive a review while it’s still fresh on your traveller’s minds.
How to deal with Bad Airbnb guest reviews
At one time or another, you are bound to come across a bad guest. It’s just inevitable. It is how you deal with it that matters.
There are a couple of ways to tackle the bad review.
First, you can reply to the review underneath and point out all the positives. For example, A guest once left a review stating “Price does not reflect value”. This lady had already messaged me listing off a whole bunch of minor things. Dust on the windowsill, pillows were too soft, they wanted soap not body wash.
So underneath her review I simply put “Thank you so much, I am glad you found our place such great value!”
Obviously, she didn’t mean it that way. But now the review looked positive and excellent value for money for someone looking to book my place.
So underneath her review I simply put “Thank you so much, I am glad you found our place such great value!”
Obviously, she didn’t mean it that way. But now the review looked positive and excellent value for money for someone looking to book my place.
Second, just ignore it. Especially the star rankings. If there was one thing I have done on Airbnb that has saved my sanity, it is not checking the star rankings. Reading all the reviews is important, especially for growth, but do yourself a favour and never go into the review section of your listing.
It may seem a little extreme, but when a guest raves about your place and says how wonderful her stay was only to leave 4 stars. Or when you mention that the road can be noisy in the listing and then get 3 stars for location with ‘road noise’ being the reason. It is enough to pull your hair out!
Lastly, if a guest leaves a retaliatory review, it may be possible to have the bad review taken down. I discuss this more in my article about Airbnb Aircover for Hosts.
Always remember that you cannot change the review. For peace of mind, the review will disappear off screen after 5-10 reviews anyway. So it’s unlikely guests will see it when it’s buried down below with your other Airbnb reviews.
Read more about dealing with bad Airbnb reviews in this article.
Are Airbnb reviews reliable?
For the most part, Airbnb reviews are reliable. However, you very rarely come across a guest with a terrible review. Why is this?
In business, we have all grown up with the saying ‘The customer is always right”. So we find it hard
But how to Airbnb reviews work when the system is built on skewed reviews?
Earlier I showed you that you can not only leave a text review, but also a star ranking for 3 categories. These rankings are usually a tell tale about the guest you are inviting into your home. With most hosts awarding 5 stars, if your guest has anything less than this, it is a warning sign that they are lacking in the category.
Not to say you shouldn’t host them, but if a guest only has 2 stars for cleanliness, you will know what to expect if you do.
To Sum Up…
Reviews are what can make or break your Airbnb business. So it is very important to strive for the best review possible.
Here are the key take away’s for getting that coveted 5 star review.
- Make your guest feel looked after by checking in with them mid stay
- Send a check out message thanking you guest and mention the importance of a 5-star review (I know, sounds cringy to ask, but it works)
- Review them on the same day they checked out
- Wait the full 14 days to review a guest you suspect will leave you a negative rating
So when fronted with the question, how do Airbnb reviews work? You are now equipped with a full arsenal of tools at your disposal. You can dodge the bad reviews and know exactly how to get positive ones.
Now its time to get out there and start hosting!