Knowing that your renters are satisfied is a wonderful feeling. Seeing that your satisfied renters are posting rave reviews of your vacation rental is even better. In a previous blog post, we discussed the importance of reviews—here, we’ll delve into how to solicit vacation rental reviews. Good property management companies in Telluride and around the world know how important these reviews are: using the testimony of a satisfied customer is one of the best ways to market a property. Read on to find how to generate this testimony to use to your advantage.
Tips for Generating Solid Vacation Rental Reviews
1. Ask for Reviews
If you want reviews, you have to ask for reviews—and ask promptly. Contact guests shortly after their stay—about two to three days—and ask for their feedback. Don’t be pushy and don’t give incentives. Just be open and honest about the reason you’re asking, which is that you’re hoping to grow your market and that their feedback is essential to success of your rental. The sooner you ask, the more details they’ll still have in mind to share—so the sooner you ask, the better.
2. Respond to Reviews Quickly
Once you receive a review, be sure to respond to it quickly. Always validate guests with a response—and more than just a simple thank-you, as guests will often see that as an automatically generated response. Show guests that you thoroughly read their review by pointing out what exactly you’re thankful for. This is especially important for negative reviews—you don’t want to upset guests further by waiting too long to respond.
3. Use Social Media
If your guest follows you on social media, you could use that source for feedback instead. MarketWatch tells us that “American adults spend more than 11 hours per day watching, reading, listening to or simply interacting with media.” There’s a pretty big chance, therefore, that your customers will read about your property at some point—so make sure you’re utilizing your social media account to its full potential by using it as a resource for your guests to ask questions and leave feedback.
4. Utilize Third-Party Websites
Using third-party sites is a great way to boost your property’s rental market. Encourage people to add reviews to a page that already has reviews. For example, if your property in Mexico already has a few incredible reviews on another site, instruct other guests to leave reviews on the same page so that everyone can feed off of the positivity.
5. Follow Up with Guests
Most importantly, once you’ve gotten guests to leave reviews, continue to follow up with them. This involves more than just responding to reviews—go even further to create a deeper relationship with your customers. Offer lower rates for their next stay if they refer a friend, or check in a month before their birthday and ask if they’d like to return. Whatever you choose to do, it’s important to grow your network, and that’s best done through solid relationships.
Reviews aren’t the only way you can promote your vacation rental property. Learn additional ways to earn more from your rental here—you’ll be glad you took the step to improve your bookings!
