Over the years, Airbnb has become one of the leading booking platforms to provide short term accommodation for travellers around the world. As Airbnb users are not able to visit the available listings in person, Airbnb guest reviews left by the travellers who have already stayed in the properties are a great help to the new visitors to make a wise decision when it comes to choosing a place of stay.
Based on Airbnb Guest Review policy:
“You have 14 days after checkout to write a review for a trip. To encourage impartial and honest comments, reviews are posted only after both parties have completed their review, or when the 14-day review period has ended.”
14 days is all you get! What if you are an absolutely wonderful host and your guests enjoy their stay in your property, but do not get a chance to write an Airbnb guest review within 14 days? You might be recommended to ask your guests to write a reference, which is an approval from other Airbnb users who have not necessarily stayed at your property and is not quite as good as a review. Even if you contact Airbnb, there is not much they can do for you. Since Airbnb guest review system is automated, they’re unable to make any exceptions. There is no way out! They have their own rules.
As a member of the travel and hospitality industry, you know the positive Airbnb guest reviews are key to your business visibility, you’d hate to miss out your satisfied guests’ feedback. Are there any chances you can claim your well-deserving reviews? The following are our solutions:
Table of Contents
1. Zeevou’s Seamless 5-step Online Check-In Process
Is it not true that guest experience is all about laying out expectations, and then putting all efforts into meeting them? With Zeevou’s unique 5-Step Online Check-In Process, you can build a 5-star guest experience and get positive guest reviews. Your guests will book your rental – be it a serviced apartment or a hotel – via a variety of channels. Keeping track of what information each guest receives and ensuring that they receive the right information at the right time can give you a headache; however, Zeevou can help you get it done automatically and correctly so that your guests will be satisfied, and you will win great ratings and reviews.
Zeevou’s Online Check-In Process enables you to provide an outline of your expectations to your guests right at the point of booking, let you fully vet your guests before their arrival, and prepare them for their stay by sharing check-in instructions, house manuals or other sorts of information you want your guests to receive for a hassle-free, seamless stay. With Zeevou’s highly customisable booking system, you can decide what sort of information you want your guests to provide you with and which fields you want to define as obligatory for them to complete in the online check-in process. Plus, you can keep track of your communications with your guests and check how far they have gone in completing each of the required steps.
2. Custom Check-out Emails from Zeevou
Within 14 days of your guest’s check-out, you will receive a reminder email by Airbnb, in which you are asked to leave a review of your guest. As a smart host, initiate the review process yourself and write a guest review as soon as you can because it triggers the automated notification to your guest telling them you’ve done your part and completed your review of them, and as a result, they will be encouraged to submit a review of their own to return your favour.
Zeevou’s signature 5-Step Online Check-In Process allows you to collect your guests’ real contact information, which OTAs fail to provide you with as they use anonymous email addresses. Therefore, you are able to communicate with your customers directly and easily. You can make your custom check-out email templates, in which you remind your guests not to miss out the 14-day period of Airbnb guest review and show them how much you care about reviews, or set another automated email after the 14-day period of Airbnb review to ask your guests write reviews on channels like Google My Business and TripAdvisor listings if they have missed the chance to write one on Airbnb.
Many guests might consider it time-consuming to leave reviews or simply do not bother doing so because they are not aware of reviews’ significance. As a clever host, you can send them a check-out email, in which you offer them incentives in the form of discounts only if they write you reviews. This way you can motivate your guests to leave you Airbnb reviews within the 14-day period.
In addition, with Zeevou’s Promotions and Vouchers you can make and activate promotions for specific properties or specific periods of time and set the conditions which must be met by direct bookers in order to gain the promotions. Zeevou also features a voucher code generating system, with the help of which you can specify a discount to specific bookings or arrival date ranges, which can be only used a certain number of times. These promotions will be displayed through Zeevou’s booking engine or on Zeevou’s direct booking website, and are key to drive more traffic to your website and promote your own brand.
3. Direct Reviews
Have your guests forgotten to rate or review you on Airbnb? Don’t panic and lose hope!
You can still count on direct positive reviews on your own website. If you already have a direct booking WordPress or HTML website with a review management platform like Trustpilot and BirdEye, you would be able to send their links to your guests to drive direct positive reviews to your own website.
Isn’t it highly frustrating to lose 5-star Airbnb guest reviews after all the hard work you have done to improve your ratings? Not only are there some steps you can take as a prudent property manager to prevent losing your reviews, but you are also able to win the lost reviews back! Zeevou’s features like 5-Step Online Check-in Process, custom emails and promotions will win you great guest reviews both on your Airbnb listing and your direct booking channels.
