8 Ways to Maximize Guest Experience & Boost Review Scores

 

Reviews are crucial for both travelers and vacation rental property managers. Our hosts share with us how they manage to offer unforgettable stays to their guests.

 

Getting good customer reviews for vacation rental businesses is crucial to capture consumer attention and increase sales. But also to improve your visibility on OTAs, build trust with guests and improve the conversion. They are also a great tool for both guests and hosts. However, most property managers don’t give reviews the attention they deserve. 

Airbnb’s internal data shows that Hosts who leave a review for their guests, tend to receive a higher review score than those who don’t.

 

 

How to offer unforgettable stays

AIR MGMT is one of our top rated clients on Airbnb. A Hospitality Management company that helps owners to handle their properties, from booking to check-out, including vendor management and more. It has an average review rating above 4.84 on Airbnb, the recommended rating for Superhosts. 

We talked to them to find out more about how they work and know their secret:

 

Air Mgmt focuses on the right touch-points of listing marketing and guest communications, as evidenced by its 4.92 rating. “We consider reviews to be one of the truest forms of feedback, whether that be a guest or a property owner. Our goal is to be at the top of the search results every time, and review management is one of many factors in making that happen” the team says. 

They tell us how they manage to offer unforgettable stays and share with us some tips on how to gracefully deal with a client’s negativity and turn it to your advantage! 

 

The Secret to Success

According to their team, the key is properly managing expectations from the initial guest inquiry, all of the way to checkout. “We provide clear and concise instructions to ensure that we are never over promising and under delivering a product to our guests and property owners”. 

Air Mgmt also emphasizes the importance of having fully optimized listings and expertly crafted property descriptions to impress travelers. Low review scores will negatively affect the Airbnb visibility of your listings. The recommendations in this aspect are to have more than 16 pictures, detailed descriptions with more than 175 words, and provide specific check-in instructions of each property. 

However, even if you work really hard to make your customers happy and give them excellent service, you might still get bad reviews. And no matter how frustrating it is, you have to answer. In the event that a guest comes forward with a bad review, you respond with a detailed description to ensure that future guests can understand your professional approach to resolving any issues brought to their attention.

“We consider all feedback to be beneficial in improving our operations, and all forms of feedback are welcome” said the AirMgmt team.

 

 

8 recommendations to help hosts boost review score

1. Set the right expectations

Be sure to give as much information for your property as possible to your guests before they book. This will set the right expectations in them and will minimize the chance of disappointment and negative reviews after the stay. 

 

2. Respond quickly and be “present”

Your guests are staying in your property for a short amount of time so be sure you respond quickly and support them if needed. 

Same is valid for an already received bad review – Respond quickly, don’t leave any negative feedback unanswered for more than a day. 

 

3. Acknowledge the customer’s complaint and show your willingness to see things his way

Thank the customer for bringing this to your attention. Even if they are not right, don’t be aggressive and try to see things from their perspective.

 

4. Apologize & empathize

Nothing disarms an angry person like a complete and profuse apology. If you’re completely over the top, admit all fault, and basically lay down for them to walk all over you, they’ll probably say, “Well, it’s not all your fault,” and defend you. It works perfectly. So, say you’re sorry a lot.

 

5. Take Responsibility & state that you’re solving the problem

Tell the guest you’re willing to take responsibility for the problem, even if it wasn’t your fault. Take control of the situation and explain what you plan to do to fix it. Ensure your future guests won’t have the same issue.

 

6. Provide an explanation if needed

A guest who has experienced a problem also wants to know why. Most of the time, people will feel respected if they understand why something happened the way it did. Try telling the guest the truth (within reason, of course). But sometimes being honest goes a long way because it shows you know about the problem and might be thinking about how to fix it.

 

7. Finish with a thank you, not an apology

You’ve probably heard it before, but say “thank you” more than “sorry.” It’s very effective to defuse tension by saying how much you appreciate the guest’s patience and coolness.

It also assists you in maintaining your dignity throughout the exchange.

 

8. Offer a refund or Free Service

No need to explain more here – people always appreciate when they get something for free. So if the problem that your guest experienced was really serious, offer him a refund, free service or discount code. 

 

 

How Hostify can help you 

Everyone wants more 5-star reviews and repeat bookings. Hostify is a smart system that helps property managers better manage their time and resources. Use its automatic triggers and time-based events to do it. Read, answer and submit your own Airbnb reviews. This saves you valuable time and allows you to keep track of your ratings.

 

 

Don’t risk your listings appearing at the bottom of the list, and make sure you get as much visibility as possible by improving your reviews score.

Airbnb has launched a campaign to show the importance of the feedbacks for hosts and travelers and has shared some recommendations for property managers to get 5-star reviews.