How to Deal with Bad Reviews
Reviews makes or breaks your AirBnB Rental.
If you are an AirBnB Host, a VRBO host, or whatever hospitality business you are involved in, you would understand the importance of customer reviews. Reviews are the backbone of running your business into longevity. However they can also be a pain to deal with when some customers/guests are not satisfied with the experience.
As an AirBnB host, guest reviews really showcases your hospitality style and personality, so take advantage of this by communicating clearly with guests and providing simple yet direct instructions to your guests. REMEMBER that you are in the hospitality industry so BE NICE. When a guest makes unreasonable requests or complaints, do not show your annoyance. Be patient with your guests and communicate with kindness. If you are doing all of this already then you should be on track to being an all-star Superhost already. That being said, even if you are truly an amazing host, there are occasional times where your rental does not meet the expectations of your guests. It could be that they did not read the listing descriptions or maybe they were just having a bad week, but regardless of the reason, you need to know How to deal with these reviews.
At the end of the day, a single one star review could make a heavy enough impact that sometimes it may take 4-6 months to rebuild the reputation. Here are the things you should do when a bad review hits you and potentially dropping your average review out of the Superhost Scope:
Read the review
Are the complaints valid or not? Maybe they’re inaccurate or maybe they reflect a true experience. Learn from this experience, and don’t bother fighting back with the guest. The review is already public and arguing with the guest will not change anything. Avoid speaking to the guest at all if the star rating is less than 3 stars.
If it’s less than 3 stars, Call/Contact AirBnB support
If you received a 4-star review, I got news for you: You will never get that review removed. AirBnB will not consider that a bad review and it is considered “fair” for guests to say they had a good but not excellent experience. However if a guest leaves a one-star or two-star review, gather as much evidence as you can to prove that the reviews are inaccurate. This can include pictures of the home prior to guest arrival, your listing description, house rules etc. But always remember to be nice to the AirBnB agent. They are the ones that can remove the review so please be nice. The last thing you want is to piss off your agent and have them deny the removal.
Reflect and Make Modifications
Regardless if the review has been removed or not, please reflect on the situation and determine if there’s other areas for improvement. I understand not every bad review is at the fault of the host and could be a totally unreasonable and inaccurate situation. However whether if it’s adding a disclaimer in the beginning of your listing description or giving a quick call to your guest before their check-out to ensure they had a good stay, you should always seek areas to improve your listing.
Have you have had any interesting guest experiences? We are currently collecting unique stories from AirBnB hosts and use that to create more strategies on how to become the best host in your area. You can contact us at Sophiasu96@gmail.com or reach me at 289-707-2982.
