Managing Online Property Reviews Across Booking Platforms

You likely understand the importance of guest reviews for your short-term rental business, but do you know how to use those reviews? By keeping up with online reviews, you can increase customer satisfaction and curate your company’s online reputation. An effective review management strategy will help you save time and promote a strong brand image. 

How Vacation Rental Guest Reviews Affect Your Business

Before you learn how to respond to guest reviews, it can help to understand why guest reviews are important. There are several ways that online reviews help people evaluate short-term rentals and related businesses. 

Impact Social Score

Especially in the travel industry, people will look at online reviews before choosing an airline, car rental company, or short-term vacation rental. Each review will positively or negatively impact your social score. A higher number of overall reviews gives your business a higher score, but negative reviews will bring your score down.

Boost Visibility

Although you want to keep your negative reviews low, all reviews will affect your online ranking. Most sites will rank businesses based on the total number of ratings and reviews, so more reviews mean a higher rank in search results. In this way, encouraging vacation rental guest reviews will help give your visibility a boost.

Highlight Rental Amenities

People will read online reviews to learn what they can expect when they stay in one of your vacation rentals. When a guest writes a review, they will describe any features, amenities, or services that stood out to them. Make sure your rental stands out for the right reasons.

Manage All of Your Rentals Effortlessly

Now that you know more about the importance of online reviews for your short-term rental business, you’ll want to develop a rental guest review tracking system. Use technology to help you track new reviews for your business. This will make it easier to respond promptly to guest reviews and boost your online reputation. 

Use a Channel Manager

A channel manager is an online service that helps you manage all of your listings in one place. This is especially helpful when you use multiple OTA (online travel agent) services since it keeps you from having to sign in to each site separately. 

Enable Push Notifications

Set up notifications on all of your devices to alert you to new messages or social media comments. Enabling notifications will keep you updated on any new vacation rental guest reviews as soon as they get published online. 

Install an AI Chatbot

On most third-party websites, you’ll have to respond to reviews manually. On your own website, you can install an AI chatbot and programme responses to comments and concerns that guests frequently share. This will reduce the amount of time you have to spend responding personally to guest reviews.

Learn About Third-Party Websites

Take the time to familiarise yourself with each third-party website you use. There may be management features that will help you keep up with guest reviews. For example, many sites feature dashboards that provide data relating to bookings, guest reviews, guest ratings, and other criteria. Use this to assess your company’s ranking at a glance.

The Steps Involved in Handling Bad Reviews

Dealing with bad reviews can quickly become a sticky situation. If you end up arguing with a guest in a public online forum, you’ll further harm your business’s online reputation. This will ultimately lead to fewer bookings.

Take a Beat

When you read negative vacation rental guest reviews, your first instinct might be to respond and defend your business. The better approach is to take a step back and process the facts provided in the review. Disregard any emotional statements made by the reviewer and avoid responding with emotion in return. Wait until you can offer a calm and rational reply.

Research the Matter

While it’s natural to feel defensive, you should take every negative review seriously. Investigate the complaints or concerns expressed in the review. Whether the complaint involved a rude employee, a poor-quality room, or a lack of promised amenities, you should learn everything you can about the situation. This will enable you to provide an informed response.

Limit Your Audience

Make the conversation private as soon as possible. Ask the reviewer to contact you via email or a direct messaging app. Alternatively, offer to talk to the individual on the phone. This will keep other site visitors from interfering with your conversation. If you decide to offer compensation (refunds, discounts, etc.), you’ll want to keep that offer confidential.

Organically Improve Online Guest Reviews

The best way to deal with negative vacation rental guest reviews is to avoid them altogether. You may only need to adopt a few small changes in dealing with guests to generate a more positive online reputation for your business. Here are a few tips to try.

Start With Social Media

Whenever possible, respond promptly to comments or replies on your social media posts. If a user shares your posts or tags you in a post, thank them in a comment. Regular interactions will demonstrate a genuine effort to forge relationships with your followers and future guests.

Respond to Guest Needs

Instruct your staff to put guest comfort first. If a guest makes a special request, try to accommodate them. While your staff shouldn’t go too far in pleasing one guest, addressing special requests and needs within reason will generate goodwill. 

Provide a Few Extras

Try to make every guest feel special in some way. Leave a handwritten ‘thank you’ note in each room. Leave chocolates or mints on the pillows. If you know guests are celebrating a wedding, birthday, or anniversary, send a gift basket to their room. Small extras will go a long way to helping your guests feel pampered and special.

Ask for a Review

You should ask every guest to leave an online review for your vacation rental business. A good time to ask is during the checkout process. If the guest doesn’t leave a review within a week, send them a reminder email. Consider offering a discount on their next stay in exchange for the review.

Focus on the Guest Experience

CoverCat offers insurance specifically intended for short-term rentals. Our damage protection requires no guest involvement to help ensure your guests have the best experience, earning you positive reviews and preserving your valuable 5-star rating.  Our services also give you more time to respond to guest reviews and needs. Contact us to learn more about our services or sign up for coverage today.