Download the Host’s Communication Checklist here.
Every host eventually faces a difficult guest. When they check out, the question hits: should we leave a bad review? More hosts get this wrong than you might expect.
In this episode, we break down Airbnb’s blind review system, make the case on both sides, and share a practical framework for writing a negative review the right way.
- How Airbnb’s blind review system works and why it changes everything about the risk of leaving a critical review
- The strongest argument for leaving an honest review and why the host community depends on it
- The underrated downside most hosts never consider before hitting submit
- The exact approach for writing a negative review that reads as professional and credible
- A simple framework for deciding when to write a review and when to let it go
Handling difficult guests is part of this business. What defines you as a host is how you respond, right down to the review you leave after they check out. If this episode helped you, please subscribe and share it with a fellow host who needs it. We will see you next week on Short Term Rental Riches.
Check out our videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ShortTermRentalRiches
Grab your free management eBook: https://strriches.com/#tools-resources
Looking to earn more with your property (without the headaches)? Chat with our expert management team: https://strriches.com/management-services/
DOWNLOAD OUR HOUSE RULES: https://strriches.com/airbnb-house-rules-template/Â
Download the Growth Handbook: https://strriches.com/growth-blueprint/Â
Check out our videos on YouTube:Â https://www.youtube.com/@ShortTermRentalRiches
Grab your free management eBook:Â https://strriches.com/#tools-resources
Looking to earn more with your property (without the headaches)? Chat with our expert management team: https://strriches.com/management-services/
Today we’re gonna tackle something that comes up quite a bit in our world. If a bad guest checks out of your property, should you leave that guest a bad review? The answer is a little more nuanced than you might think. I’ve got some information for you for both sides of the question.
Stay tuned as we jump on all that on today’s episode of the Short Term Rental Riches podcast.
Welcome back to the Short-Term Rental Riches podcast. I’m happy you’re here again
Before we get into the details of exactly how you should be responding, let’s just talk first about how Airbnb’s review system actually works
First off, neither the host or the guest is going to see the other side’s review until both of them have left a review or the 14-day window has passed
This is intentionally set up this way, of course, by Airbnb. It’s a blind review system so that when someone leaves a review, the other person can’t see it and retaliate
This blind review system isn’t perfect, but it is better than a lot of review systems out there. Essentially, neither side can leave a review that’s retaliating. Yes, some guests could do this in advance of what they think the host might write, but the reality is it’s actually a pretty fair system. It makes it so that each side is leaving a review independent to what the other person is writing
And so when it comes to leaving a review for a guest that was less than ideal, maybe they just really ticked you off, maybe they broke stuff, maybe they were incredibly difficult to deal with, all of those things are frustrating.
What do you actually do though when you have a bad guest stay at your property? There’s really two sides. Do you just be fully transparent and tell it like it is? Or do you kinda clean it up a little bit? Let’s talk about the first case, the case for the host community.
Of course, the most obvious one here is that if you’re fully transparent in that review of your guest, then it warns all future hosts, let them know, “Hey, you need to be really careful about letting this person stay at your property.”
Reviews travel with guests. Whatever you say in your guest review is going to live with that guest profile for the life of that profile. Of course, this really helps out the community
And this isn’t retaliation, this is just being transparent, just being honest so that you can warn future hosts
The reality is though, a lot of hosts don’t do this, or maybe they just don’t leave a review at all
We’re gonna talk about the best way to write your guest review in a second, and really a framework for whether you should even write it or not. But before we do that, let’s talk about the other side
If you leave a negative review for your guest, well, it shows up on your profile and future potential guests can read your profile. So you gotta be really careful about how you explain the situation, how you talked about that bad guest
We gotta put ourselves in the guest’s shoes and just read through the lines here. If we see a bunch of negative reviews about other guests, then we might be concerned that we’re gonna stay at your property, be perfectly clean, follow all the rules, but we might not just fit with your perfect guest profile, and that’s really not going to lead me to wanna book your property
So this isn’t a reason not to leave a bad review for a guest, but it is definitely a reason to make sure you know the best way to leave a review for a prior guest.
So what’s the best way to make sure that we can still leave a review but also have one that doesn’t jeopardize future bookings? Well, the first rule is just be factual
Don’t have generalizations in there like, “This guest was terrible,” or, “They were awful to deal with,” or, “They never stopped complaining,” or whatever it happens to be. Just be factual.
Maybe you got a noise complaint from the neighbor at 11:00 PM. Just tell the facts. Just be transparent
Of course, we wanna stay professional, so there is no excuse for writing a bad message these days. With ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini, pick your favorite AI tool. They can recreate any message you want in a really nice way that’s not going to jeopardize your profile
Focus on what future hosts need to know. Maybe they brought too many guests, maybe they brought pets when they weren’t supposed to, and don’t make it personal
And just another note on this, I know it’s not easy to not make it personal. If you are managing your property yourself and you put in a lot of love into getting your property ready and someone doesn’t treat it the way you want them to, which is bound to happen, believe me, then it becomes personal and you really need to just take a second.
Don’t respond when you are upset because if it doesn’t come out right, you’re not gonna have the chance to edit it.
If that’s something you just can’t do and you want a little help with it, well, our team at Corsi would love to be that support for you. We’re working in over 50 cities now with hundreds of properties. We’ve managed over 100,000 guests. We’ve learned a lot, and we can be that barrier between you and a potentially bad guest.
We’re also gonna be that person that helps prevent that bad guest in the first place. That’s the real way to go about it. So a couple tips on writing your review, and remember, this isn’t the review response.
This isn’t a response to a review your guest left. We actually have a full separate episode on that. I’ll give you the brief summary. We always recommend having the sandwich method. What is a sandwich method? Well, if a guest left not… a not so great review about your property, you again wanna address the facts, but you wanna start on a positive tone.
You wanna address the facts in the middle for future guests, so when they’re reading your review, they know that, hey, the AC was fixed or whatever the issue happened to be is not going to be an issue for them. And then you wanna end your review response with something positive again. “We’re glad you really enjoyed the pool,” or, “We’re glad you enjoyed our private lakefront.”
Whatever it happens to be, it leaves it on a positive tone, So future potential guests can envision themselves in a really great space with a really great host
So when should we be leaving a bad review for our guest, and when should we just forget about it? Well, if they broke the rules, if they damaged something, that’s clear grounds, and you wanna make sure that you’re warning future hosts. So if they broke a rule, make sure you leave a response
If they didn’t necessarily break a rule, but there was just maybe they sent a lot of messages or something sort of subtle, well, I’d really recommend that you think that through before you leave a response because again, future guests are going to be looking at your profile and it can affect your bookings
When in doubt, just ask yourself the question, “Would I want to know what I know now after hosting this guest if I was another host?” And if the answer is yes, then help out the community, be transparent, be professional, get a nice message down, but don’t jeopardize your future profile.
Hosting isn’t always easy. Sometimes we have to deal with difficult guests. That’s just part of the job. I hope this episode gave you a little bit of insight. If you’ve been finding value in the channel, I’d really appreciate just a quick thumbs up or subscribe if you haven’t already. Until next time, I hope you have a fabulous week.
