Follow up message asking for review after a stay
Realtor · Bedford, TX · Member since 2015 · 172 posts · 55 votes
Well, we did it! We had our first guests come and go in our little cabin on the lake! I worked my fingers to the bone getting it ready for them, restrained myself and only checked in with them once during their stay, and now its been 48 hours after checkout. I want to send them a quick email thanking them for their stay and asking them to leave a review since we have none on any platform for our cabin.
Do you have a form that you use for this type of message? Would you kindly share? Thanks!
Congratulations! I'm glad it sounds like everything went smoothly :) Checking on them once during their stay was definitely the right thing to do - you want them to feel like you're still available to them, and yet by doing it only once you give them space to enjoy their stay without feeling obligated to contact you.
I send this message to all my guests 48 hours after check-out:
Hi --first_name--,
I'm so glad you chose my cabin for your Smoky Mountain getaway! I hope you enjoyed your stay and had a safe journey. I've done my best to make your stay excellent, and if you can think of any ways I can improve, please reply to let me know.
If you've already submitted a review, thank you! If you haven't left one yet, I'd really appreciate it if you would - a five-star review is really important! If you feel like that reflects your experience, I hope you'll take a few minutes to tell others.
Thank you again!
Julie
A couple of exceptions to this: if I have any reason to doubt that I'll receive a good review, I won't send it. And if I know they've already left a review, I also won't send it. This is obviously a form message; you can be a bit more personal with your contact since they were your very first guests! I'd encourage you to say something along the lines of "You were my very first guests at my [cabin/cottage/whatever]! I've worked very hard to give you a 5-star experience, and it would be a huge help if you could write a positive review. And if there's anything I can do to improve, please message me and let me know so I can provide the best experience possible to future guests."
I make sure to use the term 5-star somewhere because unfortunately some well-meaning people think 4 stars is still a good review, so I try to head that off at the pass (it works pretty well!). And I also try to encourage constructive criticism *in the form of a message, not a public review* - again, I don't want to be heavy-handed about it but the language provides a hint (this works pretty well, too!).
When I *do* get criticism, I typically respond by thanking the guest and assuring them I'll consider/implement a solution (or something vaguer if it's something I have no intention of doing, such as adding on to my cabin so there would be a bigger closet, as one guests suggested, LOL!)
Anyway, congratulations, here's to many more happy guests!
We've been Airbnb Superhosts for over two years. We include this is our Check-Out details, but if the guest waits too long to review their stay, we send a follow-up note through the platform message system.
Here's our wording:
Last item of our check-out details list:
"Also, sometime soon, we'd appreciate it if you would complete a review about your stay, as it helps us to do our best and helps future guests plan for their trip. Thanks!"
Follow-up message:
"Thanks for staying at Sara's Guest House! We trust you are safely back at home. If you get a chance, would you please leave a review about your stay? Reviews tell future guests more about our place from a traveler’s perspective. Plus, they help us know what we're doing right and what we can improve. Our goal is to give every guest a 5-star experience. Thanks!"
Congratulations! I'm glad it sounds like everything went smoothly :) Checking on them once during their stay was definitely the right thing to do - you want them to feel like you're still available to them, and yet by doing it only once you give them space to enjoy their stay without feeling obligated to contact you.
I send this message to all my guests 48 hours after check-out:
Hi --first_name--,
I'm so glad you chose my cabin for your Smoky Mountain getaway! I hope you enjoyed your stay and had a safe journey. I've done my best to make your stay excellent, and if you can think of any ways I can improve, please reply to let me know.
If you've already submitted a review, thank you! If you haven't left one yet, I'd really appreciate it if you would - a five-star review is really important! If you feel like that reflects your experience, I hope you'll take a few minutes to tell others.
Thank you again!
Julie
A couple of exceptions to this: if I have any reason to doubt that I'll receive a good review, I won't send it. And if I know they've already left a review, I also won't send it. This is obviously a form message; you can be a bit more personal with your contact since they were your very first guests! I'd encourage you to say something along the lines of "You were my very first guests at my [cabin/cottage/whatever]! I've worked very hard to give you a 5-star experience, and it would be a huge help if you could write a positive review. And if there's anything I can do to improve, please message me and let me know so I can provide the best experience possible to future guests."
I make sure to use the term 5-star somewhere because unfortunately some well-meaning people think 4 stars is still a good review, so I try to head that off at the pass (it works pretty well!). And I also try to encourage constructive criticism *in the form of a message, not a public review* - again, I don't want to be heavy-handed about it but the language provides a hint (this works pretty well, too!).
When I *do* get criticism, I typically respond by thanking the guest and assuring them I'll consider/implement a solution (or something vaguer if it's something I have no intention of doing, such as adding on to my cabin so there would be a bigger closet, as one guests suggested, LOL!)
Anyway, congratulations, here's to many more happy guests!
I know Homeaway / VRBO has an automated message and you can edit this. I know it sends out a request repeatedly asking a guest to review their stay. Airbnb has a message but I don't think you can edit it. You can wait a day or so for they people to get settled back into being home and send them a message through either platform.
I took me a long time to get to Super host status on Airbnb because most of my booking come via HA / VRBO. I also have a lake house and it is more of a vacation spot not a bed and breakfast. You might want to research your area on both platforms and see if it makes sense for you to have another revenue stream. I checked this for my area and not many people are using Airbnb here. People are thinking vacation so naturally VRBO comes to mind.
I also get higher prices on VRBO. I usually have to discount my prices to pick up a few Airbnb stays. Also it seems people on Vrbo tend to book further out.
@Marcia Maynard, @Julie McCoy, @John Underwood
Thank you all for your feedback. Very good ideas and things I can implement! Julie - I was thinking of a way to tell them that if there's anything they think is less than five stars, to talk to me about it instead of reviewing me on it. Reminds me about how parents go straight to the principal at my school when they have a tiny problem with a teacher.
I know that they were really happy with it because they told me, during their stay, that they would come back again plus tell all their friends about it. So, hooray!
@Ashley Wolfe just be honest “hey! It would REALLY help us out if you’d leave us a glowing 5 star review” depends on the guest some people are just not cool. Had a guest last week PM a laundry list of things they thought were too dirty in a property I know for a fact was spotless. I wrote back “thank you for this information we promptly fired our cleaning crew travel safe” they never wrote back and didn’t leave a review. You just never know
@Luke Carl LOL!! So funny!
Some people just want to hear what they want to hear and then they're satisfied. About what percentage of guests leave a review you think?
Off topic, but I need to know, is 3 hours sufficient for one person to do a change-over on a 2/2, 1200 sf cabin that's already deep cleaned? We've hired our cleaning girls and I know the cabin is in perfect shape, just needs some laundry, wiping down, re-staging, and trash removal.
Hi @Ashley Wolfe, looks like you go a lot of great feedback already from some of the top forum contributors. Below is a screenshot of my automated email I send out 2 days after checkout. I use Mailchimp to automate all my emails which include the following:
> 1 Day prior: Winter road conditions (tells them to check for snow and road conditions during the winter season)
> Day of Check In: Welcome email with tips on their check in and stay
> Day of Check Out: Thanking them and going over check out instructions the morning of check out
> 2 Days after Check Out: Review request.
Your 3 hour question probably depends on the crew and how many they have cleaning your place. In my area they usually ask for more as it takes a while to run the wash and dry the laundry.
Hope that helps!
I use OwnerRez (https://www.ownerreservations.com?referredBy=oru5b...) to manage virtually all automated guest communications, including a thank you message that does out the day they check out. This has gotten me tons of 5-star reviews and only a couple 4-star. I actually think a couple 4-star reviews sprinkled in there is a good thing as it makes you more legitimate. Everyone with half a brain knows that you can't please everyone 100% of of the time. Even a bad review that you can counter well may be a good thing.
Here is what I send:
Dear Si and So,
We hope you all had a great time. Please let us know if you have any feedback or any suggestions on how we can improve the house.
Also, if you have time after you get settled back in at home, we would love to get a positive review.
You should be able to follow the link below in order to submit a review:
https://www.vrbo.com/770551/reviews/write
We would love to have you stay with us again. We always offer a discount for returning guests so please keep us in mind for your next trip to Florida. Also, by booking direct with us, you can avoid any service fees imposed by VRBO or HomeAway.
Thank you very much,
Sid & Carey Payne
Also, once we get the email from VRBO/HomeAway that we can review a guest, I do that and send them an email like the following (assuming they were a good guest, if not, I do not send them this and rate them poorly):
Dear So and So:
I hope you had a fantastic time.
VRBO/HomeAway allow us to rate our guests for other owners to see. I wanted to let you know that I gave you guys 5-stars across the board.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me directly the next time you would like to visit Florida, there is no reason to pay the VRBO/HomeAway service fee. 😉
Also, we have other houses very close the one you stayed in in case you ever want to come back:
http://www.magic-properties.com/
Or, maybe you would like to mountain vacation?
http://www.magic-properties.com/winter-park-townhouse
In terms of your cleaning question, it is hard to say but that seems like enough time. We have a 10am check out and 4pm check in to give our cleaning folks time but our places are a little bigger. However, laundry takes time to wash and dry no matter what. Also, we pay by the job, not the hour. Keeps things simple.
Good Luck!