Luxury BnB Spoke to Ryan from BNB Facts about their report: 17 Reasons for Bad Reviews on Airbnb. The stats from this research report are for the US market and on the Airbnb platform. However we feel this is still relevant to the UK market and non-airbnb bookings. Using Airbnb in the US gave Ryan a larger pool of data to work with.
How BnB Facts produced their results
Ryan from BNB Facts is a data scientist who crunches millions of pieces of data from Airbnb to draw conclusions. He looked at millions of bad reviews, categorised them and produced a list of issues that are most likely to produce bad reviews. The idea being – avoid these, avoid bad reviews.
17 Reasons for Bad Reviews
- Broken items
- Unsafe neighbourhood
- Inaccurate amenities (amenities listed were missing or not as described)
- Dirty
- Bathroom (including missing or inadequate towels and/or toilet paper)
- Uncomfortable furniture
- Loud noises (from parties or neighbours)
- Front door (including issues with key/lock or gaining access)
- Check in (including issues or miscommunications at check in)
- Poor Interaction with the Host
- Bed (including mattress, pillows, or blanket)
- Smell (for example mould or garbage)
- Host late to respond to guest requests before, during and after the stay.
- Room temperature (too hot or too cold)
- Shower (water pressure, temperature or drain)
- Kitchen (inadequate kitchen e.g. not enough dishes, cooking essentials, etc.)
- Parking (parking is far or difficult)
Our Advice to preventing Bad Reviews
For more information on this, please read the LBNB ebook: Getting Started in Holiday Rentals
- Keep communication with your guests regular and consistent.
- Prior to arrival, email them reminders and recommendations.
- Day of arrival – check they have your contact info and welcome them to your property
- After checkout, ask for reviews and comments.
- Consider offering incentives to re-book directly or stay connected with you via eNewsletter or social media.
- Communicate with your guests in the way they prefer – it’s never ‘one tool fits all’. Be it, email, telephone, social or whatsapp
- Maintain a consistent guest experience. Repeat guests will be measuring their stay against the first time – it needs to be the same or better. Guests will also be reading and comparing their stay against reviews and social media posts.
- Be friendly and show your personality. People are less likely to complain publicly if they can put a face to the property. Also encourage direct feedback on the smaller issues. As property managers we all want to know about the dripping tap but does TripAdvisor?
- Buy a nice notebook and encourage comments
- Welcome instructions / Pack. Produce a folder with all the instructions and local information. The issue with manual / paper based welcome packs is that they go out of date. A link to the Bus timetable / tide tables is far more relevant than a paper-based version.
Tip:
Consider what information you can add to your website
OR welcome instructions.
OR go the extra mile and produce an app from companies such as vamoos.com
IMAGE: Creator: Chris Burke – Illustrator.
Read this and other great stories in the December 2021 issue of Luxury BnB Magazine.
