How to get Airbnb guests to leave good review without asking
I have always gotten a really icky feeling when I read about hosts directing guests to “Leave a 5-star review if you enjoyed your stay.” Sellers have fridge magnets they hawk on Amazon and on Etsy, message-boards light up with hosts sharing different wording of how they ask for this rating, or how they sneak a graphic of 5 stars into their messages to guest.
All this feel manipulative to me, and as a guest, the one time a house manual directed me— it didn’t even ask (!) that I “leave a 5-star review if I enjoyed my stay,” I didn’t.
(Btw- that was also the worst Airbnb I’ve ever stayed in— clearly the owners didn’t care about it, and it was purely an investment. Everything was the Cheapest Possible Option, through they put a lot of effort into the graphics of their house manual, at the expense of content, or grace. )
As a host with a 4.93 overall rating, earned over 14+ years of hosting on Airbnb, I’ve received All The Ratings. And I have survived. But my earned rating persists in being high, and accurate. I’m a great host, but I’m not perfect. And long-time hosts like me have ratings going back to pre-star-inflation. (When Airbnb started, a 4 star rating was seen as just fine and nothing to freak out about. In fact, I used to be a little shocked that our listing— which was charming, but so not luxurious, got 5 stars.)
So, how do you get a 5-star review without asking for it? Oh my dears, it’s really not hard, but it will take some prep-work. But all the best things in life are worth working for.
And guess what? It’s not about amenities, or about everything being completely perfect. (Though for the love of all that is holy, please clean your space as well as possible.)
There is one way to get (mostly) 5-star reviews without asking for them. It is simply to
Be a Good Host.
This sounds glib, but I’m not trying to be. Plenty of people list properties and accept guests without being good hosts.
Let’s think for a minute first about what doesn’t make a good host. It’s not having all the amenities. It’s not perfection. It’s not a specific coffee machine, or brand of sheet, or an engineered welcome basket. The guest who leaves five stars is not usually responding to objects— they are responding to how being at the place, and their interactions with the owner, made them feel.
When the owner welcomes right after booking with a kind message, a thoughtful questions, and a link to more local information and a thoughtful document that helps them plan their trip, the guest feels seen and valued from the very first interaction.
Traveling to a new place, sight unseen, is nerve wracking. Your guests will anxious. Being sure they hear from you a few times before their trip. Friendly communication makes them feel more confident, and more excited. When they arrive, your directions must make it very clear that they are physically at the correct place— no one wants to knock on the door of the wrong house or the wrong apartment! Use every field in the “Arrival Instructions” — upload photos, mark up those photos, and make everything crystal clear.
When the guests walk in the space, make sure they feel like it has been prepared for them. A handwritten note, with your cell phone number, does an incredible amount of work here.
5-star stays are crafted, not grubbed.
Make the space feel intentional. There should be reading lights by beds and chairs, dishes for rings by the beds, thoughtful bathroom items, kitchen basics and quality cookware. Have filters for the coffee maker. Throw away the chipped mugs. Label confusing light switches. Have enough place settings for the number of folks your house sleeps. The sofa should feel great. The throw blankets should be cozy, and clean. The pillows should be chopped. The beds should be comfortable.
DON’T opt for the Cheapest Possible Option. Opt for the option that works the best, within the pricing narrative of your space. (A million-dollar home on 100 acres needs different stuff than an old shotgun house in the French Quarter). Decorate with objects that you collected (even if you collected them quickly)— not objects that came in a pack at a Big Box Store. Your guests intuitively notice the time it took to assemble the space. If you try harder, they notice that too.
When a space feels cared for, the guest feels cared for.
Some hosts message guests the day after arrival to check-in. I often don’t, because my handwritten note does that work, but it never hurts to check-in, especially for a newer property, or one hosting guests who are less likely to communicate. Most guests prefer hearing from the host to not hearing from them. But don’t require an answer— just let them know you are there if they need you.
Homes are tricky, and explanation
Key to cultivating guest satisfaction is that there is no downward trajectory from their initial expectation of the space to their experience of the space. The needle should only move up. The experience should be better than expected.
The guests who has been treated well, and feels valued, doesn’t need prompting to leave a robust and sncere review— They do it unprompted because they feel true gratitude. They feel valued, and they understand the value you provided for them. The review is the natural expression of having been treated well.
This does take preparation and communication. It takes systems, or at least, systematic thinking. A good host is thorough. A good host prevents problems from happening, as far as she is able.
This is the narrative that create memorable hospitality and truly 5-star experiences.
As a matter of course, you will not always get 5 stars. You cannot manage the guests who thinks 4-stars is a compliment, who is in a bad mood, or who wanted something you could never provide. You cannot manage a guest who expected a vacation to fix their marriage, their children, or their insomnia. Prepare yourself, breathe deeply, and move on.
A little secret to the Airbnb search algorithm is that having a perfect 5-star rating is far less important than having long, meaningful, enthusiastic reviews from guests. And the above, dear reader, is how you achieve those. And it will be an achievement— success in any buisness is earned, not given. So erase the sentence “The guest gave me xxx-star review from your vocabularly. Earn your rating. You deserve it.
Want to level up? Book an hour consult with me and let’s craft your narrative.
